God Empowers the Weak

To all those who have struggled to please the Lord and do His Will, I want to share with you some good news. It will be a rest and refreshing, a casting down of the burden of salvation, in all its many facets, by self-works. It is not in ourselves to do these things but in Him. Personal strength and determination will not be enough. As a matter of fact, it will get in our way and His. He will wait until we give up so that He may give the free gift through faith that He also supplies. So, ask for faith.

Gideon was faced with an army that was “like locusts for multitude.” He gathered together all the manpower at his disposal. All of this human strength stood in the Lord’s way of doing a miracle for His glory. Man would certainly take the credit, and then others would not see the true source of our physical and spiritual salvation. (Jdg.7:2) And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me. At this point, the Lord proceeded to choose only 300 men and then gave them trumpets for weapons. In the natural, there was none weaker than this army. Now the Lord could show that His “power is made perfect in weakness.”

And what of David, who was naturally the youngest, smallest and weakest of Jesse’s sons? When Samuel anointed him with the power of the Spirit, he went on to slay Goliath with a sling in the very next chapter. How often is this scenario repeated through the Scriptures so that we might know that weakness is a true strength when it qualifies us for the Lord’s power. We should refuse to size up the opposition, knowing that when the “odds” are against us, they are in our favor. Our victory is assured by the fact that it was accomplished already at the cross.

Each of us needs to become as a child because we can walk with the Lord if we become as a child. The thing about grownups is they’re self-confident, self-sufficient, and self-dependent. The world thinks of those traits as being positive, but in the Kingdom, God does not consider it that way. The Lord says the only way you can enter into the Kingdom is to be a child. Jesus said, “suffer the little children to come unto me; forbid them not: for to such belongeth the kingdom of God (Mar.10:14). Forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God, is what it said in the original. Of such is the kingdom of God. (15) Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall in no wise enter therein. (16) And he took them in his arms, and blessed them, laying his hands upon them.” Now we tend to think of the Kingdom as someplace that we’re going to so that we can enter into it, but actually we’re entering into the Kingdom here on Earth. In reality, the Kingdom is to be every place in your life. The kingdom of God is within you (Luk.17:21), Jesus said. The Kingdom is every place in your life where God is able to rule, where He is King.

God is not able to rule until you’re in agreement with Him. To be a child is to be confident in your Father, not self-confident. It’s to be dependent upon your Father, not self-dependent. This is valuable to God. As He said, “my righteous one shall live by (“from” in the Numeric) faith: And if he shrink back, my soul hath no pleasure in him” (Heb.10:38). What pleases God is that we live from faith, that we do not live from our self-confidence, or our self-sufficiency, or our own ability, or the strength of the arm of the flesh, but that we put our trust in God and walk with Him like a little child walks with his father. In other words, there’s no other way to enter into the Kingdom. We must give up being grownups. We must become as children. In order for God to be able to rule everywhere in our lives, we have to become as children.

(Mat.18:1) In that hour came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? (2) And he called to him a little child, and set him in the midst of them, (3) and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye turn and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. And these were His disciples that He was speaking to. These were not the lost Pharisees; these were the disciples of Jesus, those who were learning and following Him. He said you will not enter in unless you turn and become as little children. The process of the Christian life is this process of turning and becoming as little children and becoming God-dependent, God-sufficient and God-confident. (Mat.18:4) Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (5) And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

You see, Jesus was a little child. That’s Who He was. He says, if you receive one of these little children, you receive Me. That’s somebody who’s in My likeness; you receive Me. He was a child. He really was. He wasn’t a grown-up in the ways of the world, in the ways of confidence in the world, the strength of the world. Grown-ups are known for making their own way, making their own living, being self-sufficient, being great providers, but the Lord wants to wash all that out of us. He wants us to put all of our confidence and our trust in Him and become as little children. If you receive one such little child, you receive Jesus. That’s the way He was. He was confident in His Lord. I’ll tell you, the best way we can help ourselves is by walking by faith in God’s Word. You’ve probably heard the old saying that “God helps those who help themselves,” but that’s not found in the Bible. That saying is credited to Benjamin Franklin in his Poor Richard’s Almanack. No, the best way to help yourself is walking in faith in God’s Word.

(Rom.14:22) The faith which thou hast, have thou to thyself before God. That’s what the Bible says. You can help yourself. You can help yourself to everything that God has for you through faith in His Word. (Luk.10:21) In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes: yea, Father; for so it was well-pleasing in thy sight. What was He talking about? Reveal what things to the babes? Well, the disciples had just come back from being sent out by the Lord to take authority over the works of the devil. They came back rejoicing that God had given them authority over the power of the devil and that they had done the works of Jesus, and they saw that the spirits were subject unto them. But why did Jesus call them babes? Well, it was babes who received this revelation of the authority of Jesus, and it was babes who received this revelation of how to use the authority of Jesus. Let’s back up a little in this chapter. (Luk.10:3) Go your ways; behold, I send you forth as lambs in the midst of wolves. (4) Carry no purse, no wallet, no shoes; and salute no man on the way. So we see they were babes because Jesus sent them out totally dependent upon the Lord.

(5) And into whatsoever house ye shall enter, first say, Peace [be] to this house. (6) And if a son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon him: but if not, it shall turn to you again. And so he said, “salute no man on the way,” because you really don’t know people, but you find out later who people are. We’re going to find out before the end of the tribulation who people really are and who His children are.

God sent these disciples out as children, as totally dependent upon the Lord, not self-sufficient, not able to take care of themselves. He deliberately took away their ability to take care of themselves when He sent them by not letting them take any kind of insurance with them. The only thing they took was His assurance because He said, “the laborer is worthy of his hire” (Luk.10:7), meaning that if you just go, God will always pay His workers. You don’t have to worry about it. God is that way. He wants us to go without our own sufficiency or our own insurance so that we can see His provision on the way.

I really, truthfully believe that Jesus never changed this way of sending out people. Many times, if God says, “Go,” you may go. It doesn’t matter if you have the wherewithal to do this. If God says, “Go,” you may go. He will never fail you. He will meet you on the way. He’s done it many, many times with me when He said, “Go,” and I’ve noticed, “But, God, I don’t have this” or “I don’t have gas” or “I don’t have money.” But God doesn’t take “no” for an answer. If He says, “Go,” you can go because He will be there. He’ll put gas in your car. He’s done it to me several times. Or He’ll make it run without gas. He’s done that, too. Or He’ll put money in your pocket somehow or another. He’ll do it. Or He’ll make your money stretch. He can surely multiply it. He can do all things. He’ll have you meet up with people whom He has put there specifically to supply your needs, if you go by faith and be obedient to Him. If you go as a child, just trusting in your Father.

In America, there are far too few children. Everybody in America seems grown-up. Everybody in America wants to insulate themselves against anything that could happen, as though they don’t believe in a sovereign God. The Bible says, “A man can receive nothing, except it have been given him from heaven” (Joh.3:27). God, Who is Sovereign, will make sure that He blesses you if you go by faith in Him. Believe me, the time is coming when everybody will have to go by faith in God because He’s going to take away all the things that people have insured and insulated themselves with from the things that might happen in the world. But God is God. He never goes to sleep. He’s never fallen off the throne. He’s there always. He is going to make sure that His Word comes true. And we can be just like little children. We can cast ourselves on His mercy.

Children never even think about where the next meal is going to come from. Little children don’t worry about those things; they just know that it’s Momma and Daddy’s responsibility; they’ll take care of that. And you know, that’s the way God is with us. He wants that kind of relationship with us. God’s not happy with anything less. (Heb.10:38) My righteous one shall live from faith: And if he shrink back, my soul hath no pleasure in him. God doesn’t have pleasure in self-sufficient people. He has pleasure in people who walk by faith, talk by faith, live by faith. And it is a pleasure to live by faith. I don’t yet know all of what living by faith is; God’s only shown me the little parts that He’s shown me, but I would love to live by faith in every direction.

Some directions I’ve never even thought about, and other people will come and say, “Oh, did you try this?” For example, a sister in the Lord once told me that she and some other people just picked up some instruments and started playing them by faith, and pretty soon they got better and better at it. They were surprised at how God blessed them. Well, that led us to pray over our children, Nathan and Jennifer, by faith, and God answered that prayer. I tell you, it was just the very next week after that when they started playing music, picking it up quite naturally, by ear. So there isn’t anything God won’t do for those who put their trust in Him.

There is nothing that God can’t do and won’t do for those who put their trust in Him. I believe this is the reason that He said He revealed these things unto babes. God reveals the authority of God and God reveals the power of His name to people who will become children, people who will cast care to the wind and put themselves in His Hands, just trusting in Him, believing in Him. (Eph.3:20) God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. God loves it when we are weak, but we don’t see it that way. We like to be strong, and we do our best to make sure that we’re strong in every situation that we can get in. As I said, we do our best to insulate ourselves from any possible mishap, but that doesn’t please God. It doesn’t please God that we put our trust in the gods of this world, the saviors of this world.

The apostle Paul learned that lesson. He was caught up to paradise and he said, “On behalf of such a one (the man who was caught up to paradise) will I glory: but on mine own behalf I will not glory, save in my weaknesses” (2Co.12:5). The King James Version translates that word “weaknesses” there as “infirmities” because they had the idea that the apostle Paul had some kind of sickness or infirmities, but a closer look at this reveals that’s not the case at all. Those translators believed the apostle Paul had an eye disease or something like that and that God said, “my grace is sufficient for thee” (2Co.12:9), meaning, “You just keep that because you need that; you need that to be an overcomer; you need that to humble you.” But obviously that would be contrary to a lot of the rest of the Word. The Bible says, “by whose stripes ye were healed” (1Pe.2:24). It doesn’t say that we’re healed only when we really need it, and it doesn’t say that we’re healed only sometimes. You were healed all the time.

Let’s read on. (2Co.12:6) For if I should desire to glory, I shall not be foolish; for I shall speak the truth: but I forebear, lest any man should account of me above that which he seeth me [to be,] or heareth from me. (7) And by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, that I should not be exalted overmuch, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, that I should not be exalted overmuch. So we see that he said what the “thorn in the flesh” was. He said it was a messenger of Satan, an angelos. The word there is angelos, which is translated 181 times in the New Testament as “angel” and the other few times as “messenger,” but it means the same thing. It’s the same Greek word, angelos. Here was an angel of Satan that was sent to buffet Paul so that he wouldn’t be proud. Paul didn’t say it was a sickness that was sent to buffet him. And, by the way, to “buffet” is not just one blow, like a sickness. It’s to beat over and over and over. It’s many blows. That’s what buffet means. But a thorn in the flesh, in this case, was an angel of Satan that was sent to buffet Paul.

In the Old Testament, for every verse that talks about a thorn in the flesh, never, not once, is it ever a sickness. It was always referring to the enemies of God’s people that came against them, and in this case it’s the same thing. An angel of Satan was sent to buffet Paul so he wouldn’t “be exalted overmuch.” (2Co.12:8) Concerning this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. (9) And he hath said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for [my] power is made perfect in weakness. The King James here has that this word is “weakness,” but this word and the word up in verse five are the same Greek word, so one of them can’t be “infirmity” and the other one “weakness.” Both of them have to be the same thing, and the truth is they are, because using the same Greek word in talking about Jesus, the Bible says, “for he was crucified through weakness” (2Co.13:4).

Now, nobody would have put “infirmity” there. Jesus wasn’t crucified through infirmity, so they had to put the truth there and the King James did use “weakness” in that case. (4) For he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth through the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him through the power of God toward you. See, when you are weak in Christ, you’re going to live through the power of God. It’s when you are not able. It’s being weak in ability to save yourself, being weak in ability to deliver yourself, being weak in ability to heal yourself. He says when you’re in that condition, then God’s power is going to be with you.

This is the same thing Paul said back in 2 Corinthians 12:9. I’m pointing out this verse because in the King James they used the word “weakness” here and it could not possibly be put in as “infirmity” because we can’t read anywhere in the Scriptures that Jesus was infirm, nor was He crucified because He was infirm. Now, that’s the same word that’s being used over here and over in 2 Corinthians 12:9. He said, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for [my] power is made perfect in weakness.” You know, if we will be weak as a little child, God’s power will be there. Most often, God’s power is not there because we refuse to be weak. We want to be strong in a circumstance. We see what we think needs to be done and we run to do it, and we are not ceasing from our works. We are not entering into the Sabbath (Hebrews 4:11). We’re not refusing to be strong. If we will refuse to be strong and we will put our trust in God, we will see His power there every time.

This reminds me of a vision I had years ago, in which Mary and I were sitting in some lawn chairs in front of our house in Louisiana. While we were sitting there, we saw this power line hanging from pole to pole. The strange thing about it, as we were looking at this and studying it, was that the power line was almost touching the ground in the middle because it was sagging so badly. And while we were watching that, a tornado came over that power line and sucked us up out of our chairs. Then the vision changed, and I feel like we were over in Florida, and the Lord was showing us something about our ministry over there. But what He showed me about that always stuck with me. As we were sitting there, ceasing from our works and resting in lawn chairs, watching the power of man come to an end (that’s the power lines), as we watched the power of man come to an end, then the power of God took over.

Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity. God’s not ready to move until we cease from our works because we have faith. Every time you have faith, you can stop; you can cease from your work, you can cease from your struggling; you can cease from trying to save yourself because the Bible says you are saved. It doesn’t say He will save you. If it said that, you’d wonder what method He wanted to use, but since His method is past tense and you believe it, you have to stop; you have to cease. And so God’s power is made perfect in our weakness.

Paul said, “most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses (not “infirmities” because it’s the exact same Greek word), that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2Co.12:9). Glory in our weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon us. That’s the way a child is. They have all the power of Daddy because he is the provider, he is the deliverer, he is the savior. He takes care of it all, and they don’t think it should be any other way, and we should be that way, too. We’ve been trained up to think otherwise, to be grownups, but you know, we shouldn’t be thinking in any other terms than what a child thinks. This is the way God wants it.

Well, I think that we can see by now that the ‘verse,’ “God helps those who help themselves,” is not Godly at all; it’s antichrist. It will never allow you to enter into the power of God. It will never allow the Spirit and the power of Christ to rest upon you. So Paul says he glories in his weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon him. (2Co.12:10) … I take pleasure in weaknesses…. King James says “infirmities.” Nobody takes pleasure in infirmities. That’s ridiculous. The word here is the same Greek word again; it’s “weakness.” Yes, we take pleasure in weaknesses. It’s great to be weak. It’s great to not have the ability to deliver yourself because then you get to see the miracle of God. And he went on to say, in “injuries,” or actually the word there is “insults,” according to the ancient manuscripts and the Received Text and several others; it’s “insults,” not necessarily “injuries.” You don’t take pleasure in injuries, but “in insults, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong” (2Co.12:10).

Now, what was this buffeting that this angel sent his way, this angel of Satan? Some people say there are no such things as angels of Satan. You know that the demons are angels. Some people say the demons are not angels, but no, that’s not what the Bible says. The demons are the angels of Satan, so just forget about that theology. Don’t believe that and don’t go down that road because it’s wrong. Michael and his angels fought with Satan and his angels (Revelation 12:7), the Bible says. Demons are all fallen angels. That’s where they came from. They are the fallen angels, the non-elect angels.

So what is this buffeting? What are these many different blows that the angel of Satan brought Paul’s way in order to make him weak, and bring him into a position of weakness? Well, Paul gives a list of them. (2Co.11:21) I speak by way of disparagement, as though we had been weak. Yet whereinsoever any is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am bold also. (22) Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I. (23) Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself) I more; in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths oft. He’s talking about the places where he was weak to save himself. You know, when we get into places where we don’t see any possibility of saving ourselves, that’s wonderful because we get to see the power of God. If we walk by faith in those places, then we get to see the miracles of God. That’s what God wants to teach us. He brings us into those places. Remember, God was the One Who sent this angel of Satan to humble Paul.

Why do we need humbling? We need humbling because we’re grown-ups and we need to become children. We need to not be self-sufficient; we need to be God-sufficient. We need to be trusting in our Lord because His promises are there to save us in all these situations. So God brings us into these places, and Satan’s angel brings us into these places where we’re weak, where we need the power of God. If we will be weak, we will see the power of God. Many times we want to look for man’s help, man’s way, man’s wisdom.

Let’s continue reading Paul’s list. (2Co.11:24) Of the Jews five times received I forty [stripes] save one. (25) Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day have I been in the deep; (26) [in] journeyings often, [in] perils of rivers, [in] perils of robbers, [in] perils from [my] countrymen, [in] perils from the Gentiles, [in] perils in the city, [in] perils in the wilderness, [in] perils in the sea, [in] perils among false brethren; (27) [in] labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. He was in all these places in order to be weak so he could see the power of God. God put him in those places, like He brought the Israelites into those places in the wilderness so that they could see the power of God. Being weak is not a time to be anxious or worried; it’s a time when you should expect to see the power of God.

It’s God’s purpose to bring us to weakness so we can see His power. This is His plan. Don’t ever be cast down because of what you see, because what you see is these places that make you weak. It’s God’s plan for you when you get into these places that you put your trust in Him and that you see His power. This is the place where God’s power rests upon you. This place of weakness, the place of your own inability to save yourself or deliver yourself, is the place you can look for the promise of God and trust in God.

Paul went on, “besides those things that are without, there is that which presseth upon me daily, anxiety for all the churches (2Co.11:28). (29) Who is weak (that’s the word “weak”), and I am not weak? who is caused to stumble, and I burn not? (30) If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things that concern my weakness.” That’s another place that the King James calls it “infirmity.” It’s the same word! In the same text, if a word is translated one way in one part of the text and another way in another part of the text, that is dishonest. That is deceiving; it’s wrong. It either has to be one or the other. If you look at this word in other parts of the Bible, the conclusion is that it’s talking about weakness, not infirmity.

Thank God for the places that He brings us to where we’re weak! That’s the only place we ever see miracles. Do you realize that? It’s the only place we ever see miracles, and yet that is the place we’re most tempted to throw up our hands and be anxious or worried or troubled. That is the place where all miracles are given, right there, in a place of weakness, the place where you’re unable. Now, if you have the mind of a child and you get in that place, you just expect Father to take over from then on. This is something that He normally does. God normally supplies your need, like in the teaching Jesus gave about the birds and the flowers. He said they don’t labor and they don’t toil to clothe and to feed themselves (Matthew 6:26,28). You mean, the Lord is saying you don’t have to work to bring about this clothing and feeding? You don’t have to toil? That’s exactly what He said. Go back and read it. It’s so clear. That’s exactly what He said.

He knew that you’d get yourself in a situation, and He even ordained these situations to come, where you wouldn’t be able to provide for yourself. And He said, “are not two sparrows sold for a penny? and not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father (Mat.10:29). (30) But the very hairs on your head are all numbered. (31) Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.” Look, not even a hair falls out of your head; can you imagine that God doesn’t know it?! He knows us so intimately that not one hair can fall out of your head without Him knowing it. I mean, your hairs are always falling out and growing back. How can He number the hairs of your head? That is an intimate God Who can number the hairs of your head. He knows a lot, so how could we possibly get into a situation that He doesn’t know about and hasn’t planned for? He is our Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord our Provider. (Php.4:19) And my God shall supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

You can’t get so far out that God can’t reach you. You can’t get in so impossible a situation that He can’t take care of it. He can pay your taxes out of a fish’s mouth (Matthew 17:27). He can do anything. Think about some of the things that God has done in the Scriptures, and He really did do them. He stopped the solar system for a day so Joshua could defeat his enemies. God can do anything. And, you know what? The great thing about it is He’s “the same yesterday, and to-day, [yea] and for ever” (Heb.13:8). He is the same. He will still do anything to meet your needs if you will be weak and have faith. Be weak and have faith. Now, the time when you ought to have faith is when you’re weak, because God doesn’t need to meet your needs when you don’t have any. You don’t need a miracle until you need a miracle.

Don’t think that you can avoid a trial of your faith by receiving the miracle before you need it. No. God tries your faith. The miracle doesn’t come till the miracle’s needed. Trust in Him between here and there because He will be there. He will do what you need. Be confident in Him. Be children in Him. This is what we need to learn, and it’s not an easy lesson. It demands the death of self, but religion has trained us up with the mind of the beast because religion has taught that God helps those who help themselves and it trains us to take care of these situations.

Religion trains us to trust in the arm of the flesh. They even changed God into a god which He has never been so that they can trust in the arm of the flesh. “Now God does it this way,” they say, as if Jesus doesn’t heal the same way He always healed, by laying hands on the sick or by speaking the word of faith. He’s always healed that way and He still does. But you see, they’ve changed God so that you can trust in the arm of the flesh, so that you can be strong. You can run out and get the strength of the world, make your alliances with the world, get your insurance from the world. They’ll change God and go to any extent to let the flesh live. But we have to become as a child; otherwise, Jesus says, you’re not entering into the Kingdom of Heaven (Luke 18:17). The Kingdom of Heaven is where God rules, God reigns, God saves, God delivers. He hasn’t changed. Man has attempted to change Him.

God put us here in this weak position. He planned for us always to be in a weak position, so that He could be our Savior. (2Co.4:7) But we have this treasure (the treasure Paul is talking about is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God) in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves. God put this treasure, this knowledge of God, in such a weak vessel so that when anything happened, it would have to bring glory to Him and not to us. He could have put us in a strong vessel. He could have put us in a very knowledgeable, very wise, very strong, very healthy vessel, and we wouldn’t have needed His help. He wouldn’t have needed to be God, would He? We would have been our own gods.

If we watch all the children’s superhero shows, we’ll notice the thing that’s super about them is they’re their own gods. They do what they want. They are able. That’s not what God ever wanted. God didn’t choose us because we are able. He chose us because we’re not able. He wanted to give us His ability freely through grace, and that’s unmerited. You can’t earn it; you can’t pay for it. He wanted to give it to us freely. When you get yourself in an impossible situation, think about it. God put you there and He put you there so that you could see how great He is. So God put this wonderful treasure in a very weak earthen vessel.

(2Co.4:8) We are pressed on every side, yet not straitened; perplexed, yet not unto despair; (9) pursued, yet not forsaken; smitten down, yet not destroyed; (10) always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus (which is the death of self), so that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body. God wants Jesus to live through us, but we have to be weak for Him to do that. The power of Christ will rest upon those who are weak. We’re powerful only because we have faith in God. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13) but He doesn’t strengthen until you’re weak, you see. We have to cease before He will start. We have to keep the Sabbath and cease from our works and enter into His works through faith.

God not only put us in a world that’s bigger than us and with an enemy that was a lot bigger than us; He put us in a vessel that was weak to begin with, so that when the salvation came, we would also know it was from Him and not from ourselves. We think we’re so great and we’ve been trained to be self-sufficient. Mommas and daddies train up their children to be self-sufficient. That’s not what God wants. He wants a child. He’s always chosen the weak (1 Corinthians 26-29). He’s never chosen the strong and this gives you hope. This gives you hope that when you get in impossible situations, God planned for you to be there so that He could show you His power, His deliverance, and His salvation. This is God’s plan. It’s been His plan from the beginning and He’s done it over and over. (Deu.7:6) For thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth.

And did you know that God still does that? God has still chosen you above all the peoples upon the face of the earth. Did you know that? If He chose you, He chose you above someone else, but He didn’t choose you because you’re wiser or smarter or more able or mighty, because “not many mighty, not many noble, [are called]” (1Co.1:26). God chose the weak. God called the weak “above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth.” (Deu.7:7) The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all peoples. And it’s still that way, isn’t it? God chose “the fewest of all peoples.” Why did He do that? Certainly, if He was fighting battles with all the Canaanites, He would want the greatest number, wouldn’t He? No, because when the battle was won, He didn’t want anybody to say, “Look what we did!” And when the battle is won in our lives, He doesn’t want anybody to be able to say, “Look what we did!” “Look how powerful we are!” “Look how wise we are!” Or “Oh, we were smart enough to follow God.” You know, all these things that people could say. No. God said He didn’t choose us because we were the mightiest but because we were the fewest. It’s still that way today. The true Christians are few.

Don’t think that the Christians in this country are the many. What do they call them? The “moral majority.” That is just totally ridiculous! For proof of that, look at the people we have in elected office. If there was a moral majority, believe me, you would always have a government that was moral and good because that’s the way democracy works. There’s no moral majority. Never was.

God chose us because we were the fewest of all peoples. (Deu.7:8) But because the Lord loveth you, and because he would keep the oath which he swear unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, and from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (17) If thou shalt say in thy heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them? (18) thou shalt not be afraid of them: thou shalt well remember what the Lord thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt; (19) the great trials which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, whereby the Lord thy God brought thee out: so shall the Lord thy God do unto all the peoples of whom thou art afraid. And so shall the Lord thy God do to all of the curse that you come against, and to all of the flesh that you have to conquer, and to all the principalities and powers that you have to conquer. They are made strong, and you are made weak for a purpose, so that you can see the power of God move against them.

We never need to count on our own strength. David did that and brought a curse on Israel (2 Samuel 24; 1 Chronicles 21). He counted the people of Israel and brought a curse on them because God sent a pestilence that killed 70,000 men, just so David couldn’t count on his own strength (2 Samuel 24:15; 1 Chronicles 21:14). When you count on your strength, look out because you have trouble coming. God’s going to humble you. God’s in the humbling process with us. He wants to deliver us from trusting in the arm of the flesh. You know, in almost every battle that Israel won, they were outnumbered. Isn’t it amazing that God demanded that they be outnumbered before He would give them the victory?

For example, in Judges we’re told that the Israelites had an army coming against them that the Bible says were as the sands of the sea for multitude (Judges 7:12). The Midianites, the Amalekites and the children of the east were coming against them, and all the men of Israel who could be gathered together weren’t enough to do the job and they knew it. At first they were counting on their own ability and the numbers they had, but they were ridiculously outnumbered. (Jdg.7:2) And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me. Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and trembling, let him return and depart from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand.

Well, that was just the beginning of God whittling down the people and those people who are fearful will not be the ones who have the victory over the enemy. Being weak is one thing, but being fearful is quite another. Being fearful is not trusting in the power that God has given us to come against our enemy. Being fearful is judging by your own ability. It’s looking at your own ability or your own inability, but that’s where God is putting us on purpose. This is God’s plan to put us in a position of weakness, to make our enemy look big. He sent the Israelites into a promised land where the enemies were giants, and they were vastly outnumbered. It was God’s plan for it to look like an unfair contest. In every trial that we go into, it’s going to look that way so that when we get the victory, we know it’s God’s power, not our own.

If you’re thinking, “Yeah, but God chose Gideon, a great man of valor, to bring this about.” Well, let’s go back and look at Gideon. (Jdg.6:12) The angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor. The Lord tells you the same thing. He’s with you. His authority is behind you whenever you walk for Him. Whatever we do, we do in the Name, representing Him. His power and His authority are behind us when we act on the Word. (Jdg.6:13) And Gideon said unto him, Oh, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where are all his wondrous works which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? but now the Lord hath cast us off, and delivered us into the hand of Midian.

Have you ever thought, “Where are the mighty works of God?” Well, I’ll tell you where they are. They’re waiting on people to be weak. If people won’t be weak, they won’t see them. As long as we’re strong to save ourselves, we don’t need God. There’s no faith involved in that. So now Israel had just gotten itself into a position of weakness, and do you know what? God chose just as weak a man to lead them. (Jdg.6:14) The Lord looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and save Israel from the hand of Midian: have not I sent thee? “This thy might”? What is the Lord talking about? What does He mean here? It’s because God sent Gideon.

This kind of reminds you of Peter. “Lord, you just bid me to come to You on the water.” And when the Lord said, “Come,” Peter stepped out of the boat. The Lord said he could do it, and just on the word of the Lord, Peter did it (Matthew 14:28,29). He stepped out of the boat by faith. Nobody else stepped out of the boat, but he did. You know, if the Lord told you in the Word, that’s all you need. “In this thy might.” God’s always going to be behind His Word. If you step out on His Word, exercising faith in His Word, then His might is going to be there. You’re always going to be weak, but His might will be there. “Have not I sent thee?” It’s the same thing the Lord did to Moses when he protested, “O Lord, I’m not an eloquent speaker” (Exodus 4:10) and God answered him with, “Who hath made man’s mouth?” (Exodus 4:11) God chose Moses not because he was great; God chose him because he was weak.

(Jdg.6:15) And he said unto him, Oh, Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house. Gideon wasn’t listening, was he? “My family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least of my father’s house.” There it is. God chose the weakest and the least. Don’t expect God to send Superman. That’s not what He’s looking for. This will not accomplish the purpose that He has. God is going to send someone who’s weak, someone who is like a child. That qualifies some of us. You know, we can be as a child; we are unable in so many things.

Sometimes we’re forced into a position of being unable. But I tell you that what Jesus wants for us is not that we be forced into a position of weakness, but that we walk in that position of our own free will, refusing to be strong. This is the great thing. If we will learn to refuse to be strong, we will see the miracles of God now. And when we get forced into that position later, it won’t be a big thing. It was no big thing for Moses to go through the wilderness with the children of Israel. They were being tried. He wasn’t being tried. He’d already gone out into that wilderness and lived in that wilderness by faith in God. And God sent him because he had been there. He sent him back to bring the rest of the Israelites through that wilderness. And if you’ve been there, it won’t be a big trial for you, but you’ll be able to show others.

This is very important for the times that are coming. People who are weak are going to be strong in the times that are coming, and others are going to be fearful. This wilderness experience that’s coming is going to weed out the strong from the weak. The ones who are strong, who’ve always trusted in their own strength and who refuse to do anything else, they’re going to fall by the wayside. It’s going to be the babes who are going to go through the wilderness and make it to the other side. And God’s always planned it that way. God will not permit salvation to come any other way but by grace.

Some people look around and they say, “Look what God did here,” and “Look what God did there,” but if you look carefully, it’s what a man did. They’re giving credit to a man. (Exo.7:3) And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. It’s funny, but you see God on both sides of this thing. It was God who hardened Pharaoh’s heart, as it says here, so that the miracles that came would be mighty miracles. God gave the Israelites a strong enemy who would not let them go. (Psa.105:25) He turned their heart to hate his people, To deal subtly with his servants. The Egyptians brought the people of God into bondage because they hated them. And in Psalm 106, God made them set His people free.

First God hardened the Egyptians, then He made them set the Israelites free. It was God’s plan to put them in an impossible situation so that they would know how great God’s salvation was. “I hardened Pharaoh’s heart and multiplied my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.” (Exo.7:4) But Pharaoh will not hearken unto you, and I will lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. (5) And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch forth my hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them. It is God’s plan to put us in an impossible situation. We think it’s the devil’s plan and the devil fighting against us. No, it’s God’s plan for us to be in impossible situations. A man can receive nothing, except it have been given him from heaven (Joh.3:27), the Bible says, so God puts us in these impossible situations full-well planning to do a miracle for us.

When we get in these situations, we shouldn’t look at the impossibility of the situation and then look at our strength and say, “Woe is me!” because we can see from history this has been God’s plan all along. When we get in that kind of situation, we should figure that the odds are in our favor, if you figure odds. See, when a situation is impossible, that’s when the odds are in your favor. It’s just the opposite for the world because they count on their strength and not God’s strength, but when you look with your eyes and you see the situation is impossible and you see the promise of God, that’s when you should be confident in God. He put us in this situation so we could see what a great Savior He is.

He hardened Pharaoh’s heart; He turned the Egyptians’ hearts to hate His people, to bring them into bondage so that He could do mighty miracles to deliver them. It was His plan all along to do mighty miracles to deliver them. Instead, people want to be strong. The Egyptians wanted to be strong. Pharaoh called for their wise men and sorcerers and magicians to see if they couldn’t do the same curses that Moses was bringing. (Exo.7:11) Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers: and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did in like manner with their enchantments. (12) For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.

So the curse is sent by God upon the earth. The whole chapter in Deuteronomy 28 is about the curse, and it came by the Hand of God. I know that we’ve been talking about the hand of the devil, but that’s not what the Scripture says. God said He sent the curse. But men, in whom we put our trust, they also propagate the curse. In this instance, Moses brought this curse, but also the magicians brought this curse. And the magicians, the sorcerers, never took away a curse, not one time. (Note that the word in the New Testament for “sorcery” or “witchcraft” is the word pharmakia.) According to this, they can’t take away a curse. They can bring a curse, but they can’t take one away. Moses was the one who always took the curse away, both the one that he brought (from the Lord) and the one that the magicians brought. Moses was always the one who took away both curses (Exodus 7:12; 8:13). And it wasn’t until the sorcerers came to the end of their ability that God made a division between Goshen and Egypt. The sorcerers couldn’t duplicate any of the curses from the plague of lice onward (Exodus 8:19). That’s when God made a division, right there. When they failed to duplicate the plague of lice, when they came to the end of themselves, their ability, then God made this differentiation.

By the way, we are called to walk in health. For instance, God said, “I will put none of the diseases upon thee, which I have put upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee” (Exo.15:26). When did He do that? God did it right here. When the sorcery came to an end, when the witchcraft came to an end, then God made a division. From then on, the curses always fell upon the Egyptians and not on the Israelites.

So what are we here for? We are here to be weak in the ways of the world. The carnal church is not weak in the ways of the world. They have absorbed and taken hold of the ways of the world; that’s why they’re called the “harlot.” And we’re called to step out by faith, to put our trust wholly in God, not just in the area of healing, but in deliverance in circumstances. The Lord came to deliver us from everything that involves the curse of sin and of death. In fact, in Ephesians, where he says, “by grace are you saved (sozo) through faith,” the word “saved” there is used in the Scriptures for salvation of the soul, for salvation regarding healing, for salvation in circumstances (when they were in the boat that was filling with water, for instance), and for deliverance from demons. The same word is used in all of those instances. Sometimes it’s translated “made whole.” (Eph.2:8) For by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God; (9) not of works, that no man should glory. God will not permit us to have His salvation where we can earn it or where we are strong enough for it. He doesn’t permit it. He puts us in situations where we’re not strong or wise enough.

But the world and the worldly Christian will try to convince you that you can be wise enough, you can gain enough strength to take care of this thing and they will give you all their worldly wisdom so that you’ll come against it but, ultimately, because God loves you, He will see to it that you fail. In all of your efforts to save yourself, because He loves you, He will see to it that you fail. Men can’t take one curse off, although they can sure shove it around. Only God can take a curse off because these curses come to try us, to get us in the position of being saved by God. Therefore, if you fail in this point, then you’re going to go around the mountain again and you’re going to come into the same trial again. This is why men can’t ever deliver you because, if you do it man’s way, well, you’re just going to bump into it again down the road. You’re going to go around that mountain, and the same trial again and again; and you’ll just keep going around until you get it right.

All man can do is put more curses upon you, you see. You’ll keep going around and come back to the same trial until you get it right, until you do it God’s way. How many times did God run the Israelites around out in that wilderness? And they cried, and they moaned, and they groaned, and they wanted to go back to Egypt (Exodus 14:11-12; 16:3). That’s what the worldly church leadership is teaching people. “Go back to Egypt. Go ahead. There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s the way God does it now. Go on back to Egypt. Go back to the ways of the flesh. Go back to the strength of man, the arm of the flesh,” and so on and so forth, you know. They want you to put your trust in the arm of the flesh, but no, don’t do it because there’s a curse in that. (Jer.17:5 Thus saith Jehovah: Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from Jehovah.) The curse is here, if nowhere else.

You see, we’ve been given a certain amount of time to run this race and to bear fruit, and if all you do is run in circles, you’re never going to finish the race. You never finish the race running in circles. We’re running a race against time and at the finish line, we have to have the fruit. And God puts these trials in our way so that we go through them His way and overcome them His way. He puts them in our way because they’re much bigger than we are. We can cry about going back to getting the strength of Egypt, or we can walk by faith in Jesus to overcome and have that strength for the next trial. Every time you overcome, you have that strength from Him. You can look back and remember what God did, and that’s His plan. It was God Who brought the Israelites out into that wilderness, into some impossible situations.

When they first came out of Egypt and were going south, they were free; they were delivered; it was nothing but open country in front of them. (Exo.14:1) And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, (2) Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn back and encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, before Baal-zephon: over against it shall ye encamp by the sea. (3) And Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in. (4) And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he shall follow after them; and I will get me honor upon Pharaoh….

Who do you think Pharaoh might be? He was the ruler over the Egyptians, but I’ll tell you another thing that can be seen here. If you remember, Paul likened the Israelites going through the Red Sea to them being baptized (1 Corinthians 10:1,2) and, of course, going through the Red Sea, the old man dies, but the new man is given life. So the old man was the Egyptian and the new man was the Israelite. When they went through the Red Sea, they were baptized in the Red Sea, in the water and in the cloud, and the old man, the Egyptian, died. Well, Pharaoh was the Lord, the god of the Egyptians. In fact, that was what his name meant – “The God.” Now, who is the god of the flesh? Satan. The devil is the god of the flesh and has been given power and authority to do what he does. Jesus said, “all authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth” (Mat.28:18). “All of it. All of it’s been given unto Me.” Therefore, what the devil has, God gives him. And what the devil has, we give him. You can make “Pharaoh” bigger or you can make him smaller. You can take away his authority and power by agreeing with the Word, or you can give him authority and power by believing in him, believing in his strength and believing in his might. You can do that. Well, God made Pharaoh strong. He hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and He made him strong. He made Pharaoh’s people strong so that the salvation would be from God.

God gave us an enemy to conquer that appears to be so much stronger than we are, and that’s the flesh. You look at your flesh. You look at the old man, the Egyptian, and you say, “Oh, Lord!” You get worried. The more you look at him, the more worried you get. “How am I ever going to beat this giant?” But God puts you in those positions on purpose. He has you there with enemies that appear much bigger than you are, but in actuality they’re just bread for you. I like what Joshua and Caleb said about the people of Canaan: “they are bread for us” (Num.14:9). They’re just something that is made for you to eat up and get bigger and stronger. God put them there so that His power would totally conquer them. He wasn’t counting on your power. The Israelites had no power against the Egyptians. The Egyptians were a mighty, well-armed army, and God put the Israelites in that position so their salvation had to come from God.

Back where we left off, Pharaoh wanted them to serve God in Egypt and God told Moses what to say to Pharaoh. (Exo.7:16) And thou shalt say unto him, the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness: and, behold, hitherto thou hast not hearkened. And then later, when Pharaoh was starting to give in a little bit, he called for Moses and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land (Exo.8:25); in other words, in Egypt. You know, that’s right where a lot of Christians are. They’re sacrificing to God in Egypt. That is, they think they’re doing it God’s way, but they’re doing it in Egypt. (Exo.8:26) And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God. See, we can’t serve God in Egypt. We can’t do it the Egyptians’ way.

If you’re copying the world in any way in your salvation, then you’re missing God because that’s not the way God does it. Pharaoh’s going to tell you, “It’s okay. You can serve your god but just do it in Egypt, don’t do it in the wilderness.” In Egypt they trusted in the strength that they received from Egypt and lived off the flesh-pots (Exodus 16:3); in other words, they lived off the flesh. But God wanted them in the wilderness where they couldn’t have any help from anything else but Him. The power came from God, His ability. And the devil’s going to tempt you the same way. He does it all the time. “It’s okay, serve God, but do it this way. Just do it the way the Egyptians do it.” But God is doing it in such a way that we’ll never be able to put our trust in the arm of the flesh again. It’ll be a total victory over the flesh.

So God brought the Israelites out there into that wilderness, and He put them in this neat little trap between Migdol and the Red Sea to see what they would do. They didn’t handle it well. They cried out, “Whoa! We wish you would have left us in Egypt to serve the Egyptians!” (Exodus 14:10-12) But God brought them there to part the Red Sea and do the greatest miracle of deliverance for them. He brought them to that situation, and we ought to see our situations that way too. We are in a wilderness experience going through this world. God is bringing us to all these impossible situations so that He can prove how big a God He is. His whole purpose is to prove how big a God He is. And the more impossible the situation, the bigger He becomes, in our mind anyway. That’s what He wants. He wants us to glorify Him for what a great salvation He brings us to.

And so God brought the Israelites from this trap to other traps. He brought them to the bitter waters (Exodus 15:23) and He had Moses throw in a tree that made the bitter waters sweet (Exodus 15:25). And I personally believe that the “bitter waters” symbolize our tongue because James talks about the sweet and the bitter waters that come from the same well, and he says it shouldn’t be this way (James 3:10,11). (For a deeper understanding of this, read our book titled “The Tongue Conquers the Curse.”) God delivered us at the cross. That was the tree that was cast in that made the bitter waters sweet. God delivered us from the bitter waters of our own tongue because “death and life are in the power of the tongue; And they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof” (Pro.18:21). “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” We have the ability to change things in this wilderness that we’re in with our tongue. God gave us that ability at the cross. He made the bitter waters sweet at the cross.

The very next thing God did was make an ordinance. (Exo.15:26) If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his eyes, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases upon thee, which I have put upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee (Hebrew: Jehovah-Rophe). And God brought them to the place in the wilderness where there was no food (Exodus 16:3) and He gave them the food. He met their need for food. And He brought them to the place where there was no water (Exodus 17:1) and He brought water out of the rock (Exodus 17:6). God brought the Israelites to impossible situations, one after another, and He brought them against enemies who were much bigger than them. It was one impossible situation after another and, in every case, God planned a great deliverance for them, if they would just put their trust in Him. We see over and over in the Scriptures that God did this.

Look at what God did with Gideon’s army. The Lord whittled them down from 32,000 men to 10,000 and then from 10,000 down to 300 (Judges 7:7) to come against an army that was as many as the sands of the sea (Judges 7:12), so that Gideon’s army couldn’t say, “mine own hand hath saved me” (Jdg.7:2). There were too many Israelites for God to give the Midianites and Amalekites and children of the east into their hand, and He would have to whittle them down so that they would know that this was a mighty miracle from God. And how did He do it? He sent those 300 men out there with pitchers and torches, and when they broke the pitchers, the torches shone forth (Judges 7:20) and put the enemy in a fright (Judges 7:21).

I believe those torches are likened to our spirit and that those pitchers are likened to our carnal vessel, our earthly vessel. The torch is like the spirit-man, so that when we’re broken, the spirit-man is able to shine forth and the enemy is put to flight. What a simple thing! No swords, no cannons, no nothing! God made it ridiculous. He put a fright in those Midianites and Amalekites so that they feared and they ran, and they killed each other because of 300 torches. God’s plan will work when reason just never will. You wouldn’t think that would reasonably work. Nobody would make a plan like that except God, Who has the ability to put fear- total, devastating fear- in your enemy. I’ve seen Him do that. It’s so wondrous how He can do that, make them turn and run. Praise God!

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God Empowers the Weak (2)

(audio)

David Eells, 9/9/26

God wants us to trust Him alone. (Jer.17:5) Thus saith the Lord: Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. God calls this “departing from the Lord” when you trust in the arm of the flesh. That’s departing from the Lord. When you do it the way the world does it, when you don’t have any difference, any separation, any sanctification between you and the world, that’s departing from the Lord. (Jer.17:6) For he shall be like the heath (or like a tumbleweed) in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land and not inhabited. (7) Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose trust the Lord is. (8) For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, that spreadeth out its roots by the river, and shall not fear when heat cometh, but its leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

Now that sounds like the wilderness that’s coming, doesn’t it? And he’s telling you who will make it through and prosper and be blessed going through it. It’s the person who puts his trust in the Lord. But the person who trusts in the “arm of the flesh” is going to be blown away like a tumbleweed. That’s why we’re preparing to get in the Ark now. There’s a flood coming that’s going to take a lot of people away and it’s not only the fault of the teachers, but the people who listen to them because it’s the easy way. There’s no death-to-self in it; there’s no becoming like a child in it.

God is preparing to show you there’s a difference between His method and the method of the world. (2Ch.16:11) And, behold, the acts of Asa, first and last, lo, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. (12) And in the thirty and ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet; his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians. (13) And Asa slept with his fathers, and died in the one and fortieth year of his reign. (14) And they buried him in his own sepulchres, which he had hewn out for himself in the city of David … What offended God here is that Asa sought his help from the physicians and not from the Lord, meaning that there is a difference.

But Asa’s problem was not in just that area. He began to trust in the arm of the flesh in so many things. When Asa ruled over Judah, Judah was at war with the northern 10 tribes. (2Ch.16:1) In the six and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah, and built Ramah, that he might not suffer any one to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. (2) Then Asa brought out silver and gold out of the treasures of the house of the Lord and of the king’s house, and sent to Ben-Hadad king of Syria, that dwelt at Damascus, saying, (3) [There is] a league between me and thee, as [there was] between my father and thy father: behold, I have sent thee silver and gold; go, break thy league with Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me. Judah was bribing the Syrians to break their league with the northern 10 tribes of Israel, so that they could whip them.

Well, Asa made a big mistake because he robbed God in order to bribe these people. He looted out of the Lord’s treasuries and hired himself some insurance. He took God’s money to do this. And you know, we do the same thing a lot of times. If the enemy seems too big, many times we’ll take God’s money to try to whittle him down a little bit. That’s not permitted, and God rebuked Asa for it. In the first place, Asa was bowing down to the god of fear because the enemy was bigger than he was. But throughout history, the enemy was always bigger than God’s people when they won, so he shouldn’t have bowed down to fear in the first place. In the second place, Asa should not have used God’s money. Did you know that all of your money is God’s money? It’s not our money, so Asa shouldn’t have used God’s money to buy insurance against his enemy or to strengthen himself against his enemy. But he didn’t know God’s plan.

God had a great plan. (2Ch.16:4) And Ben-Hadad hearkened unto king Asa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel (the northern 10 tribes); and they smote Ijon, and Dan, and Abel-maim, and all the store-cities of Naphtali. (5) And it came to pass, that when Baasha heard thereof, that he left off building Ramah, and let his work cease. (6) Then Asa the king took all Judah; and they carried away the stones of Ramah, and the timber thereof, wherewith Baasha had builded; and he built there with Geba and Mizpah. Look! He had success! He bribed the Syrians to break their league with his enemy and it worked. You’d say, “Well, he accomplished what he wanted to do. In a way, he won the war.”

Asa used God’s money to do something that worked; he hired insurance and it worked, but God didn’t see it that way. (2Ch.16:7) And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and hast not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thy hand. You see what God was planning? He had planned to give to Judah both Israel and Syria. He was going to let Judah conquer both of them. Instead, Judah got worried, and they bribed Syria to break their pact with Israel, so that they would only have one to conquer. However, God said, “You’ve made a mistake. I was going to give them both to you. It would have cost you nothing and I was going to give them both to you.” That’s the way it is when we run for our insurances and our assurances of the world in our strengthening ourselves. See, God wants to give it all to us.

Look. (2Ch.16:7) ... Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and hast not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thy hand. (8) Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim a huge host, with chariots and horsemen exceeding many? yet, because thou didst rely on the Lord, he delivered them into thy hand. (9) For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him. Herein thou hast done foolishly; for from henceforth thou shalt have wars. Do you understand what God was saying here? He was saying, “Look, if you’d have done it My way, you wouldn’t have had to conquer this problem again. This would have been the end of it. But, okay, since you did it your way, you’re going to have wars from here on.” So we won’t necessarily have to fight if we just do it God’s way the first time. God would have given the whole enemy, vastly outnumbered as Judah was, He would have given all of them to Israel, but Judah used money to make themselves strong.

God gives you His help for free, but the alliance that you make with the world using your money is costing you something. When you make yourself strong with the strength of the world with your money, which is really God’s money, it is taking from God. Think about that now. It’s not your money; it’s God’s money. You’re taking God’s money and you’re giving it to the devil’s kingdom to make yourself strong against an enemy that God would give you anyway and give you for free. An alliance with the world is not God’s method, and it wasn’t His plan for Asa. That was Asa’s problem. Asa had fallen into this trap of putting his trust in the arm of the flesh and it made Asa angry when God rebuked him. (2Ch.16:10) Then Asa was wroth with the seer, and put him in the prison-house; for he was in a rage with him because of this thing….

Many of God’s people are doing the same thing with their money when they bow down to the gods of insurance. What are you doing when you buy insurance? Isn’t it because you don’t believe the Word of God? “Oh, we need insurance,” you say. Oh, really? Think about why we need insurance. Is it not because you trust the security insurance companies provide with their large financial reserves? You’re trusting in them in case something happens, as if God isn’t on His throne. God knows things are going to happen. He also knows He’s going to provide. So what you’re doing is robbing God’s money and giving it to another god. I’ve hardly ever seen a greater miracle than when God told me to get rid of my insurance. And, let me tell you, when I called my insurance man and got rid of my house and car insurance, it really shocked him.

But I don’t think it was maybe a week or two later that I saw one of the biggest miracles I’ve ever seen, and God proved to me that dropping my worldly insurance was His way for me because He blessed me so abundantly. I had pulled my car into this little old quickie supermarket and gone inside when I heard this big crash. The whole front of the store, all the glass in front of the store, just shook. A car had run up in that parking lot and slammed right into my car, and I had just gotten rid of all of my insurance. It slammed right into my little Datsun station wagon that wasn’t but a little tin box anyway. I knew something had happened when I looked out of that store, but when I went outside, I tell you what, I was just totally awed by the power of God. This big old Buick had just wrapped itself around the corner of my Datsun station wagon. I mean hit it right on the plastic tail lens of my Datsun, and it just notched the front of that Buick from top to bottom. The hood, the grille, the bumper- they were all caved in about a foot. The plastic tail lens of my Datsun had caved in that car from top to bottom. It was an old Buick, too – an old heavy car built like a tank; hit my car and it literally wrapped around my car.

When I went outside, the driver had backed up about a foot and was out there looking at it with his eyes just as big as saucers. I said, “Oh, man!” If I hadn’t seen that, I’d have never believed it because it just totaled out the whole front of his car. And there wasn’t a scratch on my car. While he was standing there looking at it, I took my thumbnail and I scraped the paint off of the plastic tail lens where his hood hit my wrap-around tail lens on the corner of that Datsun station wagon. That was the only mark on my car! No, he couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe it, either. But you see, I didn’t have any insurance. I’d put myself in the hands of the Lord. You know, I’d become like a child, in a way, because I put myself in the hands of the Lord.

Now we have to obey the law, but at this time in Louisiana, we didn’t have to have any insurance, and I didn’t have any insurance. Nobody ever collected off of me, but boy, I collected off some other folks. I don’t say that to be bragging; I’m just saying God did miracles for me because of that. In every way that I didn’t have insurance, He was my assurance.

Well, I wasn’t even thinking right when I saw this; I was just awed. I mean, the guy got in his car and took off, and after he left, I thought, “Boy, I missed the best chance in the world of witnessing to somebody,” so I jumped in my car and caught him at the next red light. I got out and I witnessed to him. I told him that was God! I said, “God did that because I didn’t have any insurance.” When I said, “It’s a miracle,” he said, “It must be.” I remember the first thing he said when I went outside and looked at the car. He said something like, “Boy, they sure must build them better than they used to.” You know that was totally stupid. His car would have cut a path right through the middle of my car, and he wouldn’t have been scratched. It would have been the other way around. Those old Buicks were tough, and mine you could dent with your elbow. A Datsun station wagon? You could knock the car tail lens out with your elbow. I’m telling you there’s just nothing there.

This was one of those positions I was put in where I was made so weak and the situation I was facing was so strong that it was totally ridiculous. But I’d just gotten rid of all my insurance. When you put yourself in the hands of God, He takes that very seriously. Whatever you do and however it turns out, when you put yourself in the hands of God, you’re going to be the blessed one.

Another time when I got in a wreck, God didn’t protect my vehicle, but I was so glad He didn’t. I had a little Toyota truck that I loved. I was going down the interstate on my way to work, and I saw the car in front of me slowing down. The whole line of traffic was slowing down because somebody was stopped in the middle of a bridge, and I was slowing down, but the fourth guy back was looking off down the river instead of looking at the bridge, and he just scooped us all up. Bang! Bang! Bang! It was just one right after another. Well, the guy in front of me was hurt really badly. He had slammed into the steering wheel, and it jammed up in his chest, and he had lung blood just gushing out of his face. I’ve shot enough deer to know that it was lung blood. It was bright red because it has a lot of oxygen in it.

So I got up in his cab, and I pulled him out, and I laid him down on the concrete there beside his truck, with his head on the curb like it was a pillow. And the lung blood literally piled up from the road up to his face. That’s how it was coming out of him. It came out jelly-like. I’m just telling you what a miracle God did. I knelt down there right beside him, and I prayed for him, and I commanded him to be healed in the name of Jesus. There were people all around me just looking at me doing that. Then the medics came and put him in the ambulance. I immediately left there and went home to call the hospital, and they told me there was nothing wrong with that man. The nurse said, “We turned him loose. He went home.” I said, “Lady, if you’d seen the pile of blood out there on the concrete, you’d know there was something wrong with him.” She said, “Well, I don’t know, maybe he had a scratch in his nose or something, but there was nothing wrong with him we could see. We turned him loose and he went home.” Praise the Lord!

Now, even though my truck was totaled out and at that time I didn’t have any insurance, I got my truck fixed, and I still had $1500 in my pocket. It was a real blessing. I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. Not only that, what really tickled me the most was this: While I was standing there beside the highway with that man’s blood on my arms from picking him out of the cab, somebody from work also came by. It was a Christian guy and he knew I’d preached walking and speaking faith. He saw me standing there with that blood on my arms and said to me, “You’d better go to the hospital.” I kept saying, “There’s nothing wrong with me,” but he thought I was speaking faith. He insisted, “You better go to the hospital!” I told him again, “There’s really nothing wrong with me,” so he drove off, and he went and told my boss. When I got to work, he and my boss and a bunch of people were standing around waiting for me. They were giving me the once-over with their eyes. They were looking me up one side and down the other, and I told them, “Look, I told him there was nothing wrong with me. It wasn’t me. It’s the other guy who got hurt. There’s nothing wrong with me.” It was really hard to convince them. They thought I was just speaking faith.

Well, anyway, that time God fixed my truck. The next time, of course, we didn’t have any insurance either and God bought my house with their insurance money. He plundered Egypt right on down and bought my house and car with their insurance money.

You know, even in our ignorance, sometimes God blesses us, right? Sure, there is a worldly method that can bring success. Didn’t Asa get success by bribing Assyrians to break their pact? But God didn’t agree with his method. Asa’s method worked. He conquered his enemy and, in fact, it broke the war off totally. But even though it was successful, Asa used God’s money to do it. He used God’s money to buy insurance. God didn’t agree with it. This is not to condemn anybody. This is just so that we know for the future what God can do. God doesn’t appreciate insurance because it’s a false god. It’s something that we’re counting on for our salvation in the future.

And here’s something we really ought to think about: Suppose things come on us because we have insurance. I’ll give you a good example that just stuck with me so well, which the Lord showed me. When I worked at Exxon, I was working with this guy on pumps in the field; his name was Melvin. One day we were working on this old slurry pump. It’s an old crude pump. Crude is real bad about staining. It’s almost like paint. If it gets on you, it will stain you almost permanently. And so I was working with him on this old pump, and the gauge on the top of the pump showed that it was empty, no pressure. The bleeders were open to make sure that there wasn’t pressure, that when we broke into it, we wouldn’t come into pressure. The bleeder was plugged and the gauge was broken, so when we were breaking into this thing, we were breaking into a pump that had pressure on it, and it was pressurized crude oil.

So, he and I were working on the head of this pump and we’d taken all the bolts out, but the gasket was holding the head stuck onto the thing. I tapped on it a little bit, but it wouldn’t break loose, and Melvin was standing right there beside it. I walked away from the pump to get a bigger hammer so I could rear back and hit that plate and it would break the gasket surface. The minute I walked away, the thing popped off and blew crude all over him. Just all over him. Now I’d been talking to Melvin about the Lord a lot. In fact, he’d been converted to the Lord by my testimony to him. But he said, “You planned that, didn’t you?” It was like I just walked away and all of a sudden BOOM! and it was crude oil all over him. He was black from top to bottom, clothes and everything. And he said, “Well, don’t worry about it; I have a change of clothes in my locker.” I said, “Oh, that’s the reason you got it and I didn’t get it. I don’t have a change of clothes.” So God knew I couldn’t afford to get that way because I didn’t have a change of clothes.

You get the point? Melvin prepared for a disaster and he got one. He had full faith that he was going to have one, and he got what he believed for. See, we don’t realize that God is sovereign. If we prepare or we insure for disaster, He can bring one. Sometimes we think, “Oh, thank God I prepared!” But actually, we could have brought on the disaster in the first place.

Melvin and I left this pump, and after he had changed his clothes and everything, we went to another pump. This is a very rare thing. Well, believe it or not, this other one was the same kind of pump, and almost the same thing happened. And I was standing right beside him this time, right beside him when the flange broke open. It was amazing to me how two things in a row could happen like this. The flange broke open and it squirted out of one place from that thing and drowned him from top to bottom with crude oil. But just before this happened, Melvin said, “You’re never gonna get me like that again.” I said, “Melvin, you better watch those positive statements. God is listening.” We left right there and went over to work on this other pump.

Sure enough, we had checked that one even with a rod, but evidently it was plugged up somewhere else- the bleeder with a rod and everything- and the plate just backed up just a little bit. It squirted a stream and hit Melvin and squirted him from top to bottom with crude oil. I said, “I told you about those positive statements, Melvin.” This was the second time. It was a good thing he was a good-natured guy, and he really was, but he got it twice in a row. Well, I’m sure he learned something from that because it was impossible for something like that to happen twice. It was just impossible for us to be working on the same kind of equipment because we worked on everything from turbines to motors to pumps to drivers, and here we were working on a reciprocating pump. There weren’t even that many of them out there, and we worked on one right after another, and he got it on both.

God takes offense when you insure yourself, and when you do, He causes you to lose the battle. In the last case we looked at, it seemed like they made the right decision because what Asa did worked. The only thing is, he robbed God by trusting in a false god. God even gave Asa temporary victory in it, but then the prophet came and prophesied to him that he wasn’t going to get out of wars because of that. In other words, he didn’t do it right that time, so another war was coming. We have to understand that if we don’t do it God’s way, we haven’t gotten out of anything. Another trial just like it is right around the corner because these trials are put there for us to be overcomers and to overcome something in us that’s wrong. And trusting in the world is wrong. It’s offensive to God.

(2Ch.20:35) And after this did Jehoshaphat the king of Judah join himself with Ahaziah the king of Israel; the same did very wickedly: (36) and he joined himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish; and they made the ships in Ezion-geber. (37) Then Eliezer the son of Dodavahu of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, the Lord hath destroyed thy works. And the ships were broken so that they were not able to go to Tarshish. (21:1) And Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David…. So we see that Jehoshaphat lost his life because of his insurance, and Asa lost his life because of his insurance. They trusted in something other than the Lord.

You know, our help does not come from anything that we can do or anything that we can eat. (Exo.15:26) … I will put none of the diseases upon thee, which I have put upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee. Help comes from God. Divine help comes from God. It doesn’t come from anything we can eat. In fact, whatever you eat, God says it’s good and to be received with thanksgiving, if it is sanctified through the Word of God and prayer (1 Timothy 4:4,5). See, God sanctifies your food. He makes it what you need. Whatever you eat, God will make it what you need, if you sanctify it through the Word of God in faith. As a matter of fact, I want to show you something. See, there are all kinds of insurance. We think, “Well, we’re not getting enough vitamins.” That’s not what the Bible says.

Now we’re not putting anybody under laws about vitamins; this is just an example. (1Ti.4:1) But the Spirit saith expressly, that in later times some shall fall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, (2) through the hypocrisy of men that speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron; (3) forbidding to marry, [and commanding] to abstain from meats…. Why do they command to abstain from meats? Because they say they’re unclean. They say they’re not healthy. Why does the world say that pork, for instance, is not healthy? Because they have statistics to prove that pork is not healthy. But who is that talking about? It’s talking about the world. We are not the world. The statistics that work for them don’t work for us. Paul says this is a doctrine of demons to us. Now, they have the statistics to prove that for the lost world, pork is not a healthy meat, but that’s not us.

Read what it says to Christians. We are the ones who are delivered from the curse. They are not delivered from the curse. We are delivered, so he calls it a doctrine of demons “to abstain from meats, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by them that believe and know the truth” (1Ti.4:3). See, if you know the truth, you can eat those meats because you’re free from the curse, if you know the truth. If you really believe what he’s saying, you can do this; it will have no bad effect upon you. He said they are “created to be received with thanksgiving.” God created them for that purpose for those who love the truth and know the truth. Only those people won’t be hurt.

These doctrines of demon teachers are going to tell you they’re not all good; some of them you better stay away from, and they take that from Old Testament doctrine about unclean meats. But what did those unclean meats signify? Remember that Peter saw the unclean animals coming down out of Heaven on a sheet (Acts 10:11,12) and God said, “rise, Peter; kill and eat (Act.10:13). (14) But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common and unclean. (15) And a voice [came] unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, make not thou common.” And God did this to Peter three times (Acts 10:16) to make sure he got the point. The sheet came down out of Heaven. God said, “What I make clean, don’t you make unclean.” Then three men showed up at his door, inviting him to come and preach the Gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 10:19). And when Peter went before the Gentiles, he said he perceived that they were acceptable to God (Acts 10:28) because of the revelation he had just received about the unclean animals. You see, men are beasts. Gentiles represent unclean animals in the Scriptures.

We’re not to partake of unclean animals. If you listen to unclean people, to Gentiles, pagans, their thinking gets into you and, in a way, you’re eating what they’re saying. Jesus said you’re supposed to eat of His Body (John 6:51). His Body is clean. His Body represents the Word, right? He was the Word made flesh. If you eat His body, it goes into you and becomes you. It becomes a part of you. If you do that with an unclean person, you partake of their thinking, their word; it goes into you, and it still becomes a part of you. So God said not to partake of these unclean people, whom the unclean animals represented. That’s the revelation that God gave to Peter.

(1Ti.4:4) For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected…. Nothing. Because He said it’s good. If God said it’s good, it’s good: “What I make clean don’t you make unclean.” Remember what God said to Peter. “If I say it’s clean, it’s clean.” In fact, when the disciples were talking about eating only certain things, Jesus said, “not that which entereth into the mouth defileth the man; but that which proceedeth out of the mouth, this defileth the man (Mat.15:11). (18) But the things which proceed out of the mouth come forth out of the heart; and they defile the man. (19) For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, railings: (20) these are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not the man.” Out of his thinking are unclean thoughts. These defile man. It’s not what he eats or his unwashed hands. It’s what comes out of your mouth, what comes out of your thinking, that defiles you. Worry about that. Don’t worry about eating pork is what He’s saying here.

(1Ti.4:4) For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it be received with thanksgiving: (5) for it is sanctified through the word of God and prayer. It is to be received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified through the Word of God and prayer. “Sanctified” means “set apart unto God.” Can the world do that? No, they’re under the curse. They can’t do that. Jesus told the disciples, And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you (Luk.10:8). (Eat what is put before you.) (3) Go your ways; behold, I send you forth as lambs in the midst of wolves. (7) And in that same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house. (8) And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you.

(1Ti.4:6) If thou put the brethren in mind of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished in the words of the faith, and of the good doctrine which thou hast followed [until now:] (7) but refuse profane and old wives’ fables…. And that’s what these rules of men are. “Don’t do this, don’t do that; take this and take this,” and all that other garbage. That’s not God’s plan. That’s just like the insurance. That is going after other gods. That’s putting your trust in other things. You don’t need that. Where does our health come from? It comes from the fact that Jesus became cursed for us so that we could be blessed (Galatians 3:13,14). He bore the whole curse. If I’m blessed and He took all of my curse, then I have to be healthy. I have to be delivered. That’s where my faith should be. I am healthy. I don’t have to go looking for health by listening to a bunch of quacks who think this drug or this herb or this vitamin is going to heal or keep me. No, that’s just crazy, and it’s just not Biblical. Our health comes from what Jesus did on the cross. It’s something that you accept because of what happened; it’s past tense. But people don’t believe that’s enough, so they think, “I have to do something else to get health. The cross is not enough. Jesus is not a good enough provider, so I’d better get insurance.” Stop and think about these things we’re doing. We are trusting in false gods. It is offensive to God.

Insurance is common sense to the world, but look at how many times the insurance is the very thing that caused God to bring the curse. And everybody says, “Oh, praise God! Thank God I had that insurance!” No. The curse came because you have insurance. Read here carefully and see if you get the point Jesus is making. (Mat.16:5) And the disciples came to the other side and forgot to take bread. (They didn’t provide for themselves.) (6) And Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. (7) And they reasoned among themselves, saying, We took no bread. (8) And Jesus perceiving it said, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have no bread? (9) Do ye not yet perceive, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? (10) Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? Do a little arithmetic in your mind here to figure this thing out.

(11) How is it that ye do not perceive that I spake not to you concerning bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees? (12) Then understood they that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. See, before we look at this carefully, what was the teaching of the Pharisees and the Sadducees? Their teaching was the Law, salvation by works. In everything, salvation was by works to the people under the Law. Now, the disciples thought, “Well, we don’t have provision, we didn’t bring bread. We should have stored up some bread and brought it with us.” That was what they were thinking, but Jesus wasn’t talking about that.

He said, “Don’t you remember the five loaves of the 5000 and how many baskets you took up?” And that was 12. Remember, there were 5000 people to feed. They had five loaves to feed them, and after the miracle, they took up 12 baskets of leftovers. That’s a miracle, right? Jesus wants you to compare these two miracles. In the next miracle, He says, “the seven loaves of the 4000.” There were fewer people to feed and they started with more to feed them. They had seven loaves and the baskets they took up were only seven.

In other words, when they put in more, God put in less, and there was less left over. Jesus is saying to the disciples, “Look at these two miracles carefully. Don’t you remember? When you didn’t put in, God made a bigger miracle. When you put in, God made a lesser miracle and there was less left over. Understand the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. They think it’s by their own strength.” And that’s how the Law worked, by the way. God just gave them the Law and said, “Okay, you keep it or else.” The strength of the Law was the individual’s own strength. But what Jesus was saying is, “Don’t worry because you didn’t bring bread. God’s still here. This is not a problem. Don’t you understand? Don’t you remember what happened?” Look, when you put in less, God puts in more. The less that you have to put in, the more God puts in to show you that it was Him. But the more you put in, the less God puts in. It’s that way in everything. The more of self that goes into something, the less of God is going to be there. We must decrease so that He may increase. Remember John the Baptist? (Joh.3:30) He must increase, but I must decrease. That’s the truth. That’s for all of us. The more we decrease, the more God will increase.

Remember, God wants salvation to be by grace – unmerited and unearned, not of your wisdom. (Ephesians 2:8). God is not dealing with us the way He deals with the world. Don’t look at the world and think that’s the way God wants to deal with you. The world is totally different. He wants all of our salvation, deliverance, prosperity and blessing to come by grace. It has to come freely and trusting in the promise of God. He’s called us out of this world (1 Peter 2:9) and He’s dealing differently with us. When this life is over, we’re going to see how great God is and how little we are. This is the whole point. (Rom.4:4) Now, to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt. See, if you could earn it, God would owe it, but God will not permit that. Think about it again now. “To him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt.” That’s your works, right? This salvation would not be by grace. You’d be making your way to Heaven and God would owe it to you. Think that’s ever going to be possible? It’s not possible. He’s sovereign and He’s not going to permit it.

Even where God permits the world’s works to save them, He won’t permit your works to save you. (Rom.4:5) But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness. You see, God calls a person righteous because they walk by faith. (Rom.4:17) (As it is written, A father of many nations have I made thee) before him whom he believed, [even] God, who giveth life to the dead, and calleth the things that are not, as though they were. (18) Who in hope believed against hope, to the end that he might become a father of many nations…. See, it looked hopeless. God made a promise and then He waited 40 more years until Abraham and Sarah were ancient, when it couldn’t possibly come to pass. God waited because, if He had done it right there, everybody would have said, “Oh, it’s possible; maybe Abraham did that.” No. God waited until Abraham couldn’t do that, and then God brought it to pass to prove it was Him. He wanted all the credit.

In our circumstances, it may also become increasingly impossible. Don’t lose faith, because the more impossible it gets, the more possible it is for God. Why? Because when you’re in the position of weakness, that’s what God likes. It’s where He wants you to be. It’s where He gets all the credit for the miracle, and He looks greater in the eyes of the world when these great things happen. (Rom.4:18) Who in hope believed against hope, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, So shall thy seed be. (19) And without being weakened in faith he considered his own body now as good as dead (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; (20) yet, looking unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God, (21) and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. Now, there was one time when Abraham and Sarah decided to have a little insurance (Genesis 16) and God permitted them to do that, but ultimately, it brought a great curse upon his seed.

God’s plan and what He is doing is so wonderful. You should have more courage and more faith when things get impossible, because every time in the Bible, that’s where they were when the miracle came. Be encouraged when you see the odds against you, as the world calls it, because that’s when they’re in your favor.

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God Empowers the Weak (3)

(audio)

David Eells, 9/13/26

Let me share a testimony with you. Back when I was in the world, I had a deficiency that was passed on to me from my daddy. His daddy had this really bad sinus problem. My daddy used to pack around this bottle of Neo-Synephrine. It opened up the sinuses, and he carried it year-round. Growing up, I had the same problem. My sinuses would close up, and so I used that stuff to open up my breathing, but eventually it will eat the lining right out of your nose, and then I would have to use it even more. Well, when I saw that Jesus healed me at the cross, I threw that bottle away. God healed my nose then and it hasn’t stopped up to this day. That was in my low twenties when I threw that bottle out by faith. And I’ve had head colds since then, but my nostrils haven’t stopped up. When I threw that bottle out, that honored God so much that He just took it out. I used to have a natural problem with colds and sinuses, chest congestion, and all that left. The doctors gave me so much penicillin that it no longer worked for me.

Then I caught on to vitamin C, and I started taking it, and let me tell you, it did twice the good that the drugs and Neo-Synephrine had done. I saw it worked so much better than the shots, medicine, and stuff, but when I found out what Jesus did for me, I stopped taking vitamin C and I got deliverance from the whole curse of colds, congestion and sinuses. Even though the vitamin C worked better than the drugs because my system totally just was ignoring them by that point, I threw the vitamin C out, too. When I’d get a cold back then, and we’d have orange juice in the ice box, God would say, “Don’t drink any of that; just totally avoid it.” He wanted to prove to me that the deliverance I was getting was from Him; it didn’t have anything to do with vitamin C. Listen, I got delivered of something I had all of my life to that point. It was so bad that the infection would get in my inner ears, then my eardrums would burst, and I had fluid draining out of my ears. When God delivered me, I threw out the Neo-Synephrine, and I threw out the drugs and the vitamin C; I got total deliverance from that. It’s no longer a problem.

So, what is it to walk by faith? We can pick up parts of walking by faith by looking at one another, but we need to get an image of what God’s faith is. Look at Mark 11:22. Most versions read, “And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.” But in the original version, it says, “Have God’s faith” and the Numeric Bible says that, too. I thought about that, and I felt like the Lord told me that God’s faith is not the faith of man in God, but the faith of God inside of man. It’s hard for us to work up enough faith in God, but it’s our right and privilege from the Scriptures to have God’s faith in us, which is what salvation is all about. (Php.2:13) For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure. And you know it’s our right because that’s what Jesus did. He made reconciliation.

Reconciliation is an exchange. Jesus took our unbelief; He put it on the cross along with the curse and He gave us His faith. We have to reckon ourselves to be dead unto sin (Romans 6:11). Self is the unbeliever, but your spiritual man is not able to walk in unbelief because he is born again. He’s born of God. The problem is our old carnal man gets in the way. From the time we are children, our carnal man is being trained to be our savior, to be a grown-up, but Jesus taught us that we have to become as children, or we won’t enter into the Kingdom with its benefits. Now, we know that we’re entering into the Kingdom because Jesus said, “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luk.17:21) and some translations say “among you” instead of “within you.” Both are true.

So we are entering into the Kingdom, but we can’t enter into the Kingdom without being a child. And that means we are weak. That’s not a grown-up, right? The qualities the world calls “grown-up” are not considered to be qualities in the Kingdom of Heaven. Casting all our cares upon Him (1 Peter 5:7) and putting our total trust in Him to be our supplier (Genesis 17:1), our Savior (Ephesians 5:23), our Healer (Exodus 15:26) – these things please God. (Heb.11:6) Without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing [unto him]; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and [that] he is a rewarder of them that seek after him. So what we need is what He says in Mark 11:22. We need to “have God’s faith” in us.

When you get a picture of Jesus, you may get a picture of a faith that you don’t have by manifestation. Let me say that you can have that faith. The Bible says, We all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory…. (2Co.3:18). You have to see it as an accomplished fact. You have to see the fact that Jesus has already given you everything that He is, and that includes His faith (Romans 5:10,11). And that’s the way faith works. It speaks the end from the beginning. It calleth the things that are not, as though they were (Rom.4:17).

When we look in the mirror and we are to see Jesus. The Bible promises us that for this we’ll be transformed into that image, from glory to glory, so we need to get a picture of His faith because that’s our faith. It is the faith of God inside of man, not the faith of man in God, because the carnal man has no ability to walk in faith. We try and try to work faith up in ourselves, and that is the faith of man in God. But the faith of God inside of man is the Father’s free gift given to us by grace. It’s by grace we are drawn to the Father; that’s His gift to us. And He will keep us in the same faith He put in us to cause us to come to Him at the beginning, if we continue to walk in that faith. He’s given us the faith that we need. He’s given “us all things that pertain unto life and godliness” (2Pe.1:3). He’s given us all things. His divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness (3) and faith is the victory that overcomes the world (1 John 5:4).

(Eph.2:8) For by grace have ye been saved through faith…. “Have you been saved” is what it says in the original and that’s what the Numeric says and that’s what the Nestles Text says. I believe the Received Text says that, too. “By grace have ye been saved through faith.” Faith always looks back. Faith believes you have received. It’s always past tense. Hope is future tense. Hope is looking forward to something, confident that you will receive something, a firm expectation. Strong’s says the Greek word elpis, meaning “hope,” is “a favorable or confident expectation.” But faith is looking back at something, not forward to something. It’s something that you have already received. It’s calling “the things that are not, as though they were” (Rom.4:17). So whatever salvation is, whatever salvation incorporates, it comes by grace through faith and it comes by looking back. And since our salvation is past tense, it makes being weak of primary importance. If you obey the Word of God, if you obey the principles of Jesus, you will be weak in yourself. You will cease from your struggling to save yourself in situations; you will enter into the sabbath and cease from your works so that God can do His.

Some time back, I ran into this one woman in Louisiana. She had been to “who’s who” in the healing circuit. She had gone to everybody. She had two very large, inoperable tumors, and she gave me a list of all the people she had gone to. She said, “David, I just don’t understand why I haven’t been healed.” And I said, “Well, I believe the reason just came out of your mouth as to why you haven’t been healed. You’re looking forward to healing and the Bible teaches us to look back at healing, for by His stripes you were healed.” (1 Peter 2:24) Faith is always in the past. The sacrifice of Jesus was at the beginning of this Testament so that we would always look back and accept what was done there, accept it as ours, because it is past tense. If we accept it as past tense and done, then it causes us to be weak because it causes us to cease from our works and we enter into the sabbath rest. If you believe it’s done, then you don’t have to keep working to try to bring it to pass. If it’s in the future, you’ll never know what method God wants to use to bring it to pass, but since it’s in the past, you can accept it as a free gift. (Eph.2:8) For by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God; (9) not of works, that no man should glory. (10) For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works…. So we do have works to do; only they’re not our works, they’re the works of God.

Whatever God’s work is between here and the manifestation, our work is to believe what the Bible says, and the Bible says, “by whose stripes ye were healed” (1Pe.2:24). We should never be moved away from that for any reason that would say, “Maybe not, maybe not in this case,” because we’ll never be able to have faith if we’re not convinced that what the Bible says is true about our healing. See, Jesus came to reveal the Will of the Father and He did that by healing everyone who came to Him. Our problem is that we can’t come to Jesus physically and touch Him, but we can all come to Him by faith. We can confess our sins that we may be healed. (Jas.5:16) Confess therefore your sins one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. We have the ability to get things out of the way that would hinder healing. So we confess our sins that we may be healed, as the Bible says, and then we can “touch” Jesus by faith. He healed everyone who came to Him. He came to show us the way and to be an example.

Everybody who came to Jesus was healed, so why isn’t everybody healed today? The number one reason is that it’s not being taught that by His stripes you were healed (1 Peter 2:24). You, as a Christian, were healed. This is not something you have to look forward to. That’s hope. See, that’s the problem with many Christians – they’re looking forward to something that they need to be looking back to. We were all healed at the cross. And we enter into that by ceasing from our own thinking and our own reasoning and saying, “God, I repent. Your Word is true.” What does it mean to “repent”? It means to “change your mind.” The Word is true. If it says by His stripes you were healed, then change your mind; you were healed.

What we need to understand here is this word “salvation,” or in Greek, sozo. The Scripture says, “for by grace have ye been saved through faith” (Eph.2:8). Now, I point out to you that faith is past tense. It’s always believing for something that you’ve received. When you pray, Jesus said, “believe you have received and you shall have it” (Mark 11:24). That’s the way that faith works. That identifies how our salvation is going to come, our sozo, our “saved,” is going to come. Grace is another thing that identifies God’s method for bringing you sozo, “salvation,” “saved.” Let’s look carefully at this example. (Rom.4:4) Now to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt. It says, if it’s grace, it’s not your works. If it’s grace, you have to cease from your works. See, many people are seeking healing and deliverance because they have hope. But hope will not get you either. Faith will. If you have to work for it, or pay for it, if you have to earn it, it’s not something that’s coming through grace because “grace” is “unmerited favor.”

Much of the church is caught up in their own works. They say, “You’re not saved by your works,” but they believe that only refers to their soul. When the Bible talks about salvation in other areas, like “deliverance” or sozo, “saved” in other areas, it’s, “Oh, well, no; now God does it this way.” So they continue in their own works. He says here, “To him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt.” In other words, God would owe it to you if you could work it up in yourself. But it’s not grace if you have to work for it because God would owe it to you. It would be a debt. He refuses to cooperate with you in that. (Rom.4:5) But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness. Notice: “to him that worketh not…” Grace comes “to him that worketh not.”

Here’s another example. (Rom.11:6) But if it is by grace, it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. Whatever salvation is, salvation is very big. It’s much bigger than your soul going to Heaven when you die. Salvation is here and now. Salvation covers everything that Jesus did on the cross. It covers everything having to do with the curse of sin and of death. We’ve been delivered from the curse of sin and of death (Romans 8:2), and that’s what salvation is all about. But if any part of that salvation is by works, then that’s not salvation through grace.

There are salvations out there that are not God’s method for His people. The world always wants to be your savior. The arm of the flesh always wants to be your savior. I.e.,“Let me do it my way, Lord. I know how to take care of myself. I’ll do it.” The worldly ways of deliverance don’t cause us to grow closer to God; they don’t cause us to manifest Christ, nor do they cause us to grow in faith. They are salvations that are of the world. When the children of Israel were brought out into the wilderness, they wanted to run back to Egypt for their salvation (Exodus 16:3). They said, “Let’s go back to the flesh-pots.” God said in effect, “No, you stay in the wilderness. Your salvation is coming out of Heaven.” But they continued to murmur. “Well, we would rather have Egypt’s salvation; it’s easier on the flesh; it’s not so much of a trial. Let’s go back to Egypt.” Every time the Israelites got into a tight spot, every time they lacked water, or food, or whatever, God put them in that spot. He brought them there, and He put them there so that they would come to the end of themselves and put their trust in Him.

Instead, they kept crying, “Let’s go back and get Egypt’s salvation.” Egypt had a salvation. The world has a salvation for you; it has a deliverance, but it’s not an eternal deliverance, and the end is always a curse. The Bible says, “Cursed is he who trusts in man, in the arm of the flesh” (Jeremiah 17:5). Maybe you don’t see it, but in some way, whenever the world saves you, there’s always a curse in it. Maybe you don’t see it yet, but there’s one there. When Christ saves you, it is eternal. It causes you to grow in faith. It causes you to grow in manifesting Him. It’s an affront to Him to think that you can pay for His benefits.

You remember when Peter and John were praying for people and they were receiving the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:15,17), that Simon the magician also received the Holy Spirit, but he wanted to pay Peter and John for this ability. (Act.8:20) But Peter said unto him, Thy silver perish with thee, because thou hast thought to obtain the gift of God with money. (21) Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right before God. Simon wanted this gift to be able to lay hands on people to impart the Holy Spirit. That’s all he wanted, but we need to see that the principle here covers much more than just this gift of imparting the Holy Spirit. Peter said, “Thy silver perish with thee, because thou hast thought to obtain the gift of God with money”; in other words, it’s not something that you can earn or ever pay for.

The gift of God doesn’t come through your ability, nor does it come through your earning it. You cannot pay for it. It has to be free. Do you know what happens when you go and pay for the world’s salvation and call that God? Because it’s not God; it’s going back to Egypt. You get an answer and you may grow, too, but you grow in the world; you don’t grow in God. You see, the Lord explained something to me about the image of the beast. The image of the beast is being manifested in this world right now. I’m not going to deny what anybody else has to say about the image of the beast in the future, but the Bible says that Christ was the image of God (Hebrews 1:3) and that His Body is made up of saviors. The Bible even says, “and saviors shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau” (Oba.21). “Saviors” is plural. God’s body is made up of people (1 Corinthians 12:27) whom He has gifted in different gifts (1 Corinthians 12,13,14) to enable them to do the work of Jesus in this earth, works that Jesus wanted done: of deliverance, of saving, of healing, of providing.

But, you know what? First of all, God’s administering these gifts through Spirit-filled believers. Don’t twist the Word, as many Christians do, and say, “Well, now God administers these gifts through pagans.” No. Not so. Although God can give you many gifts through pagans, and although the Holy Spirit does not have to go through a man, these particular gifts He’s talking about only come through Spirit-filled believers. None of these gifts can be bought. If you have to buy it, or pay for something that you call “God’s salvation,” it’s not grace and faith. Grace and faith cause you to be weak; it causes you to cease from your trusting in Egypt and in the ways of the world. God’s gift is free. You can’t pay for it, you can’t earn it, you can’t be good enough for it. It comes by faith. Faith is believing you have received.

When you believe you have received, it causes you to stop seeking it. Stop and think about it. If you believe you have received healing, are you going to keep running after it? No, because faith always cuts off the works and the methods of men. When you believe you have received, you can rest; you can cease from your works; you can enter into rest. Everything can come from God that way. Everything will come from God that way. It’s the most perfect way to receive from God.

You say, “Well, doesn’t God keep Egypt going?” Sure He does, but God wants Egypt for the Egyptians. God has planned the wilderness for Christians. Does God give strength to Egypt to keep running? Of course. (Act.17:28) For in him we live, and move, and have our being…. He gives you your very breath. The world gets its breath from God, but the world is not God’s method for Christians.

God’s method for Christians is receiving every salvation that comes from Christ through grace and faith. That’s His method. It is offensive to God to think that you would want to buy from Him any gift that He has already given to you. He has chosen it to be a gift. (Eph.2:8) For by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God.

Note the word translated “saved” here is the word sozo. “For by grace have ye been saved,” Sozo. That word is used over and over in the Scriptures. If we can find the places where this word is used, then every place this word is used, it should come by grace through faith. That means not of your works. A free gift of God; exercising faith in God. That’s what pure faith is. That is what God’s faith in man is. The other is not real faith and fails us.

I want to give you an example of what salvation encompasses, one probably every Christian would agree on. This was the sinful woman who anointed Jesus, and Jesus pronounced her forgiven of sins. (Luk.7:47) Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, [the same] loveth little. (48) And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. (49) And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that even forgiveth sins? (50) And he said unto the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace. Now I believe everybody who is a Christian would agree with me that forgiveness of sins is salvation, and it comes by grace through faith. As we look at some of the other places where the same word, sozo, is used, you may question whether that salvation still comes by grace through faith, but I can assure you, any kind of salvation that comes from God is a free gift that comes by grace through faith. Wherever this word is used, it fits into Ephesians 2:8. Everywhere it fits in there, no matter what we identify as being this salvation.

I once asked a Greek man, who spoke Greek as his native language, “What does the word soteria mean to you?” Soteria is the noun of sozo in the Greek and is the word in the Scriptures for “salvation.” He said, “Well, it means to us Greeks, ‘all of your needs supplied like a little baby; all of your needs supplied.’” See, we have such a very narrow idea of what salvation is. Most of the churches that we’ve been raised in have taught us that salvation is only getting to go to Heaven when this life is over. But when we look at that word and identify it in the Scriptures, we find out it’s very big, very broad, and that every bit of it is incorporated in these promises concerning being saved. (Eph.2:8) For by grace have ye been saved through faith…. This woman, to whom Jesus said, “thy faith hath saved thee,” was saved by grace through faith. This was where her sozo came from. All her needs were supplied like a little baby. A little baby needs all his needs supplied. We have to come to Jesus as a child, in need of our needs being supplied.

Adults are used to going out and supplying their own needs; they’re used to taking care of themselves, but God desires this sozo kind of relationship with us. He desires that we would keep the sabbath, cease from our works, and enter into the rest through faith in the promises of God, as the Bible says. (2Co.7:1) Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Now, that’s a broad promise, but salvation is very big.

Let me give you another example of this word, sozo, and let’s see if “by grace have you been saved through faith” still applies. This is the story of the 10 lepers. Remember the one leper who returned and gave glory to God (Luke 17:15)? Here’s what Jesus told him: (Luk.17:19) And he said unto him, Arise, and go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole. And the word for “made thee whole” here is the word sozo, “saved.” “Thy faith hath made thee whole.” What the leper received from God can only be obtained in the wilderness, not in Egypt. Sometimes there is a salvation in Egypt, but just like the mark of the beast, there are two marks. There is a mark of the beast, and there is the mark of God.

Exodus 13:16, speaks about the mark of God on the forehead and on the back of the hand, and the mark of God was to have the Word of God. The Israelites would write the Word of God, put them in these little boxes, and then they’d tie them right across their forehead and put them on the back of their hand (Deuteronomy 11:18). But, guess what? The corresponding verse in Revelation 13:16 talks about the mark of the beast. So, if it’s the Word of God being manifested in your mind and in your works, that’s the mark of God. In contrast, the mark of the beast can be the word of the flesh, the word of the devil, the word of the world, the thinking of the world being manifest, the mind of flesh being manifested in your mind and in your works. That might be just a spiritual revelation of it, but accept it because it’s still Scriptural.

See, if we walk after our own thinking and after our own works, it’s because we’re trusting in our own ability. We’re not walking by faith in Jesus, and your mind is not being renewed by the Word of God. You walk as a beast. I don’t care if you walk in church; you still walk as a beast if you walk after the mind of the flesh and if your salvation comes from the world. So we have the image of the beast being manifested in the world, while the image of Christ is being manifested in the Church. Christ’s Body is made up of people, each of whom has been given gifts to serve the rest of the Body. Do you know the world is made up the same way? Jesus said there are only two men in the earth (Matthew 24:40) – there’s Christ and there’s antichrist. The world works the same way. The only difference is that the saviors who make up the image of the beast want to save you from Christ’s salvation, and Christ wants to save you from their salvation. His salvation is free. Theirs is not free; theirs is very costly.

The Lord has a better way. He showed it to us in the Gospels. What Jesus gave in His provision was free; it didn’t come through the works of man, the ability of man, or man’s money. When you have to pay for it, believe me, that’s not salvation by grace through faith. This leper found that out. What did he have to pay for this sozo? He received a sozo that came by grace through faith. You know, a third example can be found in the story of the blind man. (Luk.18:38) And he cried, saying, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. (40) And Jesus stood, and commanded him to be brought unto him: and when he was come near, he asked him, (41) What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? And he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight. (42) And Jesus said unto him, Receive thy sight: thy faith hath made thee whole. Sozo, “saved.” “Thy faith hath saved thee.” That’s what He’s talking about that saves you. Salvation covers healing, and it’s always covered healing, even in the Old Testament. The word right here is sozo. It’s “saved.” The leper was “saved” of his leprosy. The blind man was “saved” of his blindness.

See, they’ve translated the same word different ways. They’ve translated it “saved”; they’ve translated it “made whole,” but the original word is still only one word; it’s the same word. I have the three most ancient manuscripts, and it’s the word sozo. Sozo is the word in the Scriptures for “saved.” Everywhere Scripture uses the word “saved” in talking about our eternal salvation, it’s the word sozo. We see now it’s also used for healing, which tells us that healing is involved. Remember, Jesus came to deliver us from the curse of sin and of death (Romans 8:2). Sin brought death. What was incorporated in death? Sickness, disease, everything else was incorporated in death.

Our salvation is double; it’s dual. It saves us not only from sin, but it saves us from the penalty for sin. What is the penalty for sin? The curse. In Deuteronomy 28, God expounded the penalty for sin and He gave us the curse there. When you go back and read it, you’ll find out that the curse covers not only sickness, but everything detrimental that ever happened to man because of his sin. Everything that came against man from the beginning because of his sin is a part of the curse. And you know what? Jesus became accursed for us that we might have Abraham’s blessings. He became a curse on that cross. Everybody who’s put on a cross is accursed (Galatians 3:13). What Jesus bore was not only the sin; it was the curse for that sin. Why would God say, “I’m going to take away your sin,” but not take away the curse?

So now we see this word, sozo covers all of that. It covers not only the sin, but also the curse. We’ve just looked at three people who were delivered of the curse of sin, and they were delivered of it because it was by grace through faith. Let me give you yet another example to show you the difference between God’s salvation and the world’s salvation. Let’s not change the Scriptures. What we see in Jesus is still the truth. He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). He is our Salvation. What He did, was to prove to us what He wanted to do. What He did in the Gospels, He does today to everybody who believes. The Gospel is the power of God to save everyone who believes (Romans 1:16). What’s the Gospel? It’s the Good News. It’s the promises of God. And it doesn’t matter if you’re a “Christian.” What matters is: are you a believer? Do you believe what the Gospel says?

There are Christians who are unbelieving Christians because they only believe what they want to believe. We have to believe in the Jesus of the Bible and that He really is the same yesterday, today and forever. Jesus still heals everybody who comes to Him. Let’s not make up another Jesus. Paul talked about those who would come to you with another Jesus. No, we don’t need another Jesus. We need this Jesus. The problem is not with God. People blame the problem on God. The problem is not with God because God has already healed you. It’s not a matter of God deciding whom He’s going to heal and whom He’s not going to heal. That’s not what the Bible says.

The Bible says that by His stripes you were healed (1 Peter 2:24). This is your decision to make. (Rom.1:16) For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation (soteria) to every one that believeth…. Look, the condition is on you believing. The condition is not whether God wants to heal you. The Bible says all of the promises of God are “yes” (2 Corinthians 1:20). Don’t believe the people who say, “Sometimes it’s ‘no.’” No, all the promises of God are “yes,” and through him is the Amen (2Co.1:20). That means “the so be it.” That means it will come to pass through Him. What we have to do is renew our mind and get back to the real Jesus. The real Jesus of salvation covers your body and your circumstances.

Now let’s look at this example. (Luk.8:43) And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, who had spent all her living upon physicians…. You know what? She was trying to buy salvation here. She was trying to buy sozo. The word “saved” is used in this text. She was trying to buy it. This is not God’s method for you to receive it. God’s method for you to receive this comes the same way as it did in the Scriptures: through the laying on of hands (Mark 16:18) and the confession of faith (Romans 10:10). That’s His method. You know why? Because it excludes all of man’s glorying in it. Nobody but God can take credit when you do it God’s way. (Jas.5:14) Is any among you sick? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: (15) and the prayer of faith shall save him that is sick, and the Lord shall raise him up … This doesn’t say it “would” or it “might”; this says it “shall” raise them up. The Bible says if any two of you agree as touching anything, it shall be done (Matthew 18:19), and I consider that to mean the person being prayed for and the person doing the praying. That’s two, right?

Let’s continue with our example. (Luk.8:43) And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, who had spent all her living upon physicians, and could not be healed of any. Some of you have been there. I’ve been there, too, only to find out that God gave it freely when I gave up. God gave it freely. Look at this same story in Mark. (Mar.5:25) And a woman, who had an issue of blood twelve years, (26) and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse … I just wanted to point that out to you: she spent all that she had. She came to the end of herself. I’ve been there. You don’t have to try everything but God. You can start out with God. God is faithful. He is faithful Who promised (Hebrews 10:23). He will not fail you.

There is no “maybe.” You can’t exercise faith if you think, “Maybe God will, maybe He won’t.” The Bible doesn’t say “maybe” He will, “maybe” He won’t. It says He’s already done it. When this woman was healed, it didn’t have anything to do with Jesus’ faith because she came up and touched Him, but Jesus didn’t know it until after it was all over. I do want to make a point here, though. This salvation she had been looking for was not sozo because it was not grace through faith. It was not. Why? Because if it’s grace, it’s no more works. If it’s a gift of God, you can’t pay for it. And if it’s faith, it’s past tense. She was looking for it in the future. She sought to receive it. But if it’s faith, she was looking the wrong way, just like this lady I told you about who had those two tumors. I told her, “Turn around and look the other way; you’re looking the wrong way.” That’s when God gave this to me, this thought of “You’re looking the wrong way. Turn around and look at the cross.” When the serpent on the pole was raised up in the wilderness, everybody who got their eyes on that serpent on the pole was healed (Numbers 21:9). You had to get your eyes off the snakebite and on the serpent on the pole to be healed. I told her, “Turn around and look at the cross. That’s where your healing happened. You’re looking in the future.” Tomorrow never comes. Faith never works that way.

Faith believes that you have received (Mark 11:24). Faith turns around and looks back at the cross because the Bible says, by His stripes you were healed (1 Peter 2:24). Your healing is certain. It was accomplished at the cross. Reconciliation was accomplished (Colossians 1:20). What is that? Exchange. At the cross, Jesus gave you His healthy body and He took your old, unhealthy one. He gave you His clean, pure soul, and He took your old, unclean one. He gave you His righteousness and His blessings, and He took away your unrighteousness and your cursings. The exchange was made. This is how faith works. (2Co.5:17) Wherefore if any man is in Christ, [he is] a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new. Now our old things have become new. What are we? New creations. New creatures in Christ. This is how faith works.

Faith sees the end from the beginning; faith accepts it, grasps it; and faith holds on to it. That’s why this particular method is God’s method. You ask, “Can God do it?” Sure. God keeps all the Egyptians alive until they come to know Jesus. Do you understand that when we come out of Egypt and go into the wilderness, we still need “Egyptology” to come out of us? Yes! When we come out of Egypt and go into the wilderness, we need to be delivered of Egypt. I’m not talking Law here; I’m talking about a privilege. It is our privilege to accept our salvation in Jesus Christ as an accomplished fact and what I’m telling you is just how big the salvation is.

(Luk.8:43) And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, who had spent all her living upon physicians, and could not be healed of any, (44) came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately the issue of her blood stanched. (45) And Jesus said, Who is it that touched me? And when all denied, Peter said, and they that were with him, Master, the multitudes press thee and crush [thee]. (46) But Jesus said, Some one did touch me; for I perceived that power had gone forth from me. By the way, I know the King James says “virtue” here, but the word is “power”; it’s dunamis. In fact, the King James does translate it “power” in other places in the Bible, like in Luke 10:19. The word “power” there is the word dunamis. So it was power that came out of Jesus, but if it was power that came out of Jesus, it didn’t have anything to do with His faith. In this particular case, all that was necessary was for this woman to touch Him by faith. It wasn’t a matter of Jesus making up His mind whether to heal this woman or not.

Jesus never turned anybody away anyway and He’s not going to tell you “no.” In fact, if there’s a “no,” the “no” is going to be in you; it’s not going to be in Him. Our problem is we listen to the devil; we listen to the flesh. We don’t listen to the Bible. Confess your sins and believe. That’s all you have to do. Now, if you have willful disobedience in your life, it will come between you and healing because you won’t have faith toward God. The Bible says, “if our heart condemn us not, we have boldness toward God” (1Jn.3:21). That’s why you have to confess your sins to get them out of your way. But Jesus always said, “Yes.” Do you think that there were some of those people who came to Jesus who needed something worked out in their lives? I guarantee you that all of those people who came to Jesus had something that needed working out in their lives, but that didn’t stop Jesus from healing.

You know what did stop Jesus from healing some? When He went to His own hometown, their unbelief stopped Him. He could not. It doesn’t say He would not. (Mat.13:58) And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief. Now, we need to have the faith of God in us. This salvation has been accomplished. It’s not a matter of you asking Him to accomplish it; “it is finished” (Joh.19:30). I have overcome the world (16:33). This is not a matter of Jesus doing something in the future. Ask Him, “Will You do it?” He’ll tell you just what the Bible says. “I did it.” He won’t say, “I will do it.” He never says that. The Bible doesn’t say that. He’s always going to agree with the Word. He won’t tell you something contrary to the Word.

I knew a man one time who was asking God to heal his wife of cancer, and God told him, “She’s healed.” You know what? His wife died. He was sure God told him that she was healed, and he was angry with God. I said, “Bud, God told you exactly what the Bible says. He’s not going to disagree with His Word. The problem is, do you agree with His Word? He’s going to tell you to believe the Bible every time. He’s going to tell you, ‘You are healed.’ By his stripes you were healed. What else is He going to say? Are you going to ask Him to tell you something besides what the Bible says? He’s only going to tell you what the Bible says.”

I know calling “the things that are not, as though they were” (Rom.4:17) appears like a lie to the world, but it’s not a lie because you’re in agreement with the Scriptures. You agree with God Almighty, the One Who does not dwell in time, and what He says goes. (Rom.3:4) … Let God be found true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy words, And mightest prevail when thou comest into judgment. Now, when you come under the judgment of the curse, what you need is justification. Justification is God calling you righteous. And He calls you righteous when you come under the curse, if you agree with the Bible concerning what Jesus did about the curse. Can you agree with the Bible about what Jesus did for you?

He became accursed for you so that you could have the blessings of Abraham. (Isa.53:5) But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. Do you agree with the Bible? See, if you’re not agreeing with the Bible, you’re going to consider, “Well, I need this.” Or “I’ll have to handle it. The crucifixion of Jesus was not enough, I’ll have to handle a little bit of it myself.” The worldly teachers will convince you of that, and you will be a double-minded person because you are not agreeing with God’s Word.

Jesus only preached to those people who had eyes to see and ears to hear (Matthew 13:9-11). He wasn’t talking about the physical eyes and ears; they all had them. He meant spiritual eyes and ears. (2Pe.1:3) Seeing that his divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness…. Do you see that? Do you see with your spiritual eyes that God has already given you everything that pertains unto life? It’s not a matter of Him accomplishing it. He did that almost 2000 years ago. Now the problem is, are you going to agree with Him? Two can’t walk together except they be agreed (Amos 3:3). You can’t walk with Jesus except to the extent you agree with Him.

Now, how are you going to agree with Him? I told Bud, “The Lord told you what the Bible says. The problem is you didn’t believe in it. You were waiting to see something first. That is not the way faith works. Faith accepts it as a fact before seeing it. If you walk by faith, you’ll see it, but if you walk by sight, you’ll never see it because that’s not the way it works. That’s not faith. Faith is looking back at the cross.” So, Bud was angry at God because God didn’t do what He said He was going to do. But it wasn’t God’s fault. See, we enter into the Covenant. The Bible says that the Gospel “is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (Rom.1:16). Listen, the power of God has already accomplished everything. What He’s done is already accomplished. Your part is to enter into that Covenant by your faith. That’s what brings it to pass. God’s part is sure; it is finished, and it is final. Now we enter into our part of it by faith. That’s our part of keeping the Covenant. When the disciples asked Jesus, “what must we do, that we may work the works of God?” (Joh.6:28), He said just one thing: “believe on him whom he hath sent” (29). All we have to do to do the works of God, whatever they are, is “believe on him whom he hath sent.”

Does everybody have to die under the curse? Does everybody have to leave this life under the curse? The world has taken for granted that you’re going to die of something. Do you have to die under the curse, or can you keep believing all the way up to the end, until you leave this life? Has everybody died of the curse? No, they did not. In fact, I have some books describing people who died on their deathbeds, and there was absolutely no pain in their bodies, and they couldn’t find anything wrong with them; they just went to be with the Lord. This is not to condemn the ones who do die, but we have to get our sight and our vision on Jesus. You can’t go somewhere that you can’t see, you know. The Bible says, if you can see Jesus in the mirror, you can go there. Of course, everybody’s not going to go there to the same extent. Look, one person received one talent, another two and another five (Matthew 25:14-30). Everybody doesn’t get the same gift. Everybody doesn’t manifest the same fruit, do they? There’s 30-, 60- and 100-fold fruit (Matthew 13:8,23).

Do you want to enter into only what you see other people entering into, or do you want to enter into everything that God has for you? That’s the point. We’re supposed to be looking at Jesus, not looking at our neighbor. Get your eyes on Jesus. He’ll show you what you can enter into. God is going to do a special thing in these days. Did you know that He’s going to do something He’s never done before? The Bible says He’s coming “to be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that believed (because our testimony unto you was believed) in that day” (2Th.1:10). Oh, glory to God! The apostle Paul said there was a day in the future when his words would finally be believed and that Jesus would be glorified in those people in that day because they did believe that word.

You know, God gives grace for us to enter into believing just as much as we can believe. God gives grace for us to reach out to places people have never reached out to. In this day there is more grace to believe more than there’s ever been. Do you understand what that verse says? He said, “in that day.” Paul was saying that they weren’t believing it in his day, but that’s what we’re seeking right now. We don’t want to stop with what religion has accepted; we want to go on and get everything God has given us. (Eph.2:8) By grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God; (9) not of works, that no man should glory. That’s one work. Now, here’s another work: (10) For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works…. The first is talking about your work, the work of the flesh, the efforts of man, the efforts of self, the buying of God’s gift, all those things. The second is talking about God’s work.

So let’s just use healing again as a “for instance” because we’re talking about it already. Do you know what? When you have faith that Jesus healed you, which is the only one that’s a Scriptural faith, that faith is going to be walked out by your feet; it’s going to come out of your mouth; it’s going to be seen in your actions. That is a work that comes from faith. You know what the other work is? It’s a work that comes before faith. Works of the flesh come before faith; works of God come after faith. When you believe, you’re able to walk just like you received, and do you know what happens when you do that? You do what the 10 lepers did. Jesus said to them, “go and show yourselves unto the priests” (Luk.17:14). Well, they understood that because in the Law of Moses, when a person was healed of leprosy, he went to show himself to the priests. Then the priest inspected the person and took his turtle dove and gave his offering. But these lepers went to show themselves to the priests before their healing was manifested. Their walk was a walk of faith.

But the way of the world would stand right there and say, “Well, I’m not healed.” Those lepers would look at themselves and say, “Well, I’m not healed yet. It’s not the time to go show myself to the priest.” That’s a carnal walk. That’s walking by sight and not walking by faith. So there is a work that follows faith. Faith without works is dead. If you believe that you’re healed, let me hear it come out of your mouth and let me see it in your feet. And if you believe that Jesus delivered you from sin, let’s see that come out of your mouth and see it in your feet. Do you understand? When you believe something, your actions have to agree with that belief. Faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself (Jas.2:17), or it’s incomplete. It’s not real faith until it’s put into works that agree with what the Bible says. But the world says, “I can see you’re not healed,” but your feet keep on saying, “I’m healed. Look at me walk,” because your works are going to agree with faith. So if you’re just healed by faith, you know you’re not healed by manifestation. As long as you’re healed by faith, you’re believing for something that you don’t yet see. That’s the way faith works. And if you don’t do it there, you’ll never see it by manifestation.

We have to repent of our worldly thinking. We have to repent of our Babylonish doctrine that’s been given to us. We must change our minds, and we say, “God, You’re right.” You have to say that before you can enter into it. (Rom.3:4) Let God be found true, but every man a liar…. Justification comes from agreeing with God. Agree with God; even if you’re failing, agree with God. God’s not going to condemn anyone. You don’t condemn your child if your child is a toddler and stumbles and falls. There’s no way you would condemn that child because that’s the way they learn to walk. That’s the way children are. They don’t always get it right the first time. Now, as they get older and they’re stumbling, you start asking what’s wrong with them. So when we start out on a faith walk, we stumble and fall, but we get up. If you don’t get up, you’re not overcoming. You get up, you walk a little farther, you stumble, you walk a little farther. Every time you get up, you’re walking farther, and you keep going.

But if you decide, “I’m just going to sit right here because it’s too dangerous to stand up,” then you’re going to be an unprofitable servant (Matthew 25:30) because you’ve been given knowledge and you’re doing nothing with it. Remember, it’s God’s faith inside of you; it’s not your faith in Him. You’ll fail as long as it’s just your faith in Him. It’s God’s faith inside of you. Remember that God has given you His faith. Accept it as a gift. Reconciliation has given you this gift. Unbelief was taken away from you at the cross. Did you know that? All your sins were put on that cross, including the one that’s at the foundation of every sin – unbelief. But that’s at the cross, and you’ve been delivered. The Bible says, “reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin” (Rom.6:11). That means to reckon your old unbelieving self to be dead and gone. “I’m delivered from unbelief.” Do you understand? That’s not a confession of faith in yourself; that’s a confession of faith in God. We are new (2 Corinthians 5:17). You have been made free from sin (Romans 6:22). You’re free from unbelief. Believe and accept it.

Don’t get anxious when you fail God because of your unbelief, and don’t let anybody put a guilt trip on you. Don’t let anybody put you under the Law to do what they expect. Don’t be moved by peer pressure because somebody else has faith. Don’t look at any of that. Get your eyes on Jesus. He will give you the faith that you need to do these things. It’s His free gift to you. You don’t have to be anxious or try to work it up yourself. You can’t pick yourself up off the floor by your bootstraps. It’s just not possible. It has to come from the outside in. It’s nothing that you can do from the inside out. So don’t be condemned if you’re not able to do everything that you see Jesus do or that you see others do. Don’t worry about it. It’s God Who started the good work in you, and it’s He Who’s going to finish it (Philippians 1:6). The people who put others under legalism cause a lot of people hurt. This is wrong. And I’ll tell you what, they ultimately get hurt, too, because what you sow, you reap (Galatians 6:7) and you can’t sow that legalistic thing without it coming back on you. You can’t judge others without being judged (Romans 14:4).

I’m just offering you the knowledge. I’m trying to put the picture of Jesus there in front of you. Look at Jesus and you’ll be transformed into that image from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18). Don’t look at any religion or put another Jesus up there because, believe me, you can be transformed into any Jesus. Religions do it all the time. The only Jesus we want to reflect is the One the Father sent. Look in your Bible. The only way you’ll see the true Jesus is to look in this Book. Look at Him. This is Jesus. He’s the same. He hasn’t changed. Men try to change Him; they have made a comfortable Jesus. One that the flesh could be comfortable with, a Jesus that wouldn’t bring you through any kind of a trial of your faith. It’s easy to have the Jesus that religion has. Let’s look at the Jesus in the Bible. I tell you the reason we’re not seeing the works of Jesus on this earth; it’s because they’ve made another Jesus and they’re being transformed into that image from glory to glory. That’s the problem. Let’s get back to the Word and believe it. Jesus sent His disciples out to do the same things He did. How can you do the same things He did unless you agree with Him?

So now let’s read the rest of the story from where Jesus perceived that power, sozo, went forth from Him. I really want to get beyond healings being included in salvation because I believe a lot of people already understand that, and I want to show you how broad salvation is. And it’s all going to come by grace through faith. All of it. The rest of it, let me tell you, is man’s works. (Luk.8:47) And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people for what cause she touched him, and how she was healed immediately. (48) And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath (my Bible says “made thee whole,” but the word there is sozo) saved thee; go in peace. He saved her. This is a part of salvation. She was saved. Remember, she sought the physicians.

The Bible clearly shows you the difference between seeking deliverance from the physicians and seeking it from Jesus. (2Ch.16:12) And in the thirty and ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet; his disease was exceeding great: yet he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians. (13) And Asa slept with his fathers…. The Scripture makes a difference between seeking the salvation that normally comes from the world and the salvation that comes from God.

Now, did you know that those Jews received their healing from God for many, many years. They started being drawn away from that when Solomon brought in all of his pagan wives, who brought the physicians into Israel. Up until that time, they got their healing from God. And when they went to Babylon, they started falling into many of the things of the world that weren’t Scriptural. And the word in Scripture for “healing by the use of medicine” is the word pharmakia – just what we use today. Pharmakia is the word for “sorcery” or “witchcraft,” depending on which Bible you have, and is where we get our word “pharmacy.” Jesus has a better way, and it won’t cost you anything, and believe me, you’ll get out of so much trouble. If you live a life of the carnal Christian, by the end of your life you will have spent a lot of money on Egypt. But I tell you, God will get you out of that; it’s His free gift. Don’t say, “I have to do this.” No, it is a privilege. God gives you a privilege. You don’t earn it; He’s given it to you freely. This is His sozo. This is a part of His deliverance.

Years ago, way back at the beginning of our Christian walk, my wife, Mary, and I were riding motorcycles up in Mississippi. And this was a real hilly area. We were on two dirt bikes, and this was new territory to us, so it was kind of crazy what we did. We were each on a bike and we came over this hill, and she turned one way, and I turned another way. Well, on her side it was almost a cliff. It just went nearly straight down. And I heard her screaming all the way to the bottom of that hill, “MOMMAAA!” And she was mashing the foot peg as hard as she could, but I don’t think she ever mashed on the brake because I never saw the wheels skid or anything. I mean, she was flying when she hit the bottom of that hill. It was painful for me to watch. I saw her bounce off a few trees, and I went down in there and scraped her off those trees and put her on the back of my bike. And then I took her out of there and got her to a hospital.

This was during the same time that Mary was taking some medicine to try to clear up an infection, so the doctors were talking about operating on her kidneys. But a friend of ours told us about the promises in the Scriptures about healing, and we went to this church that believed in healing. So she went down in front of the church, and they prayed over her. Well, nothing physical happened. We went home, and it was probably a week or two later when she was meditating and thinking on it all, and the Lord spoke to her. And you know what He said? He said, “If you believe that I have healed you, why are you taking all that medicine?” Because the Bible says, ‘He has healed you’. And you know what? When Mary ran into the bathroom and started pouring her medicine down the commode because of that voice of the Lord, she was instantly healed. And not only was she healed of the kidney problem from hitting the tree, but she was healed from a natural kidney deficiency that she’d had since she was a little girl. She was healed of always having infections. God did a miracle. He did it freely. The doctors were going to charge us an awful lot to do that, but God did it for free.

God will ask you the same thing one day. He says, “If you believe that I have healed you …” God expects us to believe, not because of what we see or feel, but because He expects us to believe what the Scripture says. We need no other grounds. Peter stepped out of the boat because of what Jesus said. “Bid me to come unto you, Lord” (Matthew 14:28). And when Jesus said, “Come,” that’s all Peter needed to step out (Matthew 14:29). All Peter needed was the Word of God, and he stepped out on that Word and the water held him up.

If you’re walking by sight, you’ll never be able to walk where we’re talking about walking because you’re calling the things that are as though they are, instead of calling the things that are not as though they were (Romans 4:17). God chose the things that are not to bring to nothing the things that are (1 Corinthians 1:28). Think about it again now. God chose the things that are not to bring to nothing the things that are. How does He do that? What are the things that are not? The promise. “By His stripes you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24), when you look at yourselves and say, “Well, I don’t see myself healed. I still feel sick. I still look sick.” See, the things that are not, are these promises that are not manifested yet.

So how do you translate that into this present physical time? It’s very simple. We do it the way the Bible tells us to: by calling “the things that are not, as though they were” (Rom.4:17). Please understand. If God chose the things that “are not” to bring to nothing the things “that are,” then He did not choose the things “that are” to bring to nothing the things “that are.” Did you get that? Read it again. He chose the things that “are not” to do away with the things “that are.” What are the things “that are”? The curse. What are the things that “are not”? The promise.

Don’t say, “God chose this method” or “He chose that method,” when you’re talking about the things that are, because the Bible says He chose the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are. That’s the promise. When you don’t see the promise, and you say, “Well, now God chooses doctors or lawyers or bankers or going in debt,” etc., if you say that God uses or chooses the things “that are” to bring about the promise, you’re contrary to the Scriptures. In the Scriptures, the men of God used faith to bring to pass everything.

Do you understand what I’m saying? The world will tell you, because it’s very convenient or comfortable for them, they’ll say, “Well, now God uses this method, now God uses that...” No, He doesn’t use “now methods”. That’s not Scriptural. He uses the things that are not. He still uses the things that are not. Jesus doesn’t have to heal you because He already healed you. You can prove it for yourself. Find one place in the Scripture, find just one place, where anybody who ministered healing to anybody else stopped and prayed and asked God to heal somebody. Find it. They didn’t do it, and do you know why? Because it was already an accomplished fact. You know what they did? “Be healed in the Name of Jesus.” They laid hands and they commanded them to be healed. They commanded healing in the authority of God. “As the Father sent me, so send I you,” Jesus said (John 20:21). So we do the same thing Jesus did: We command healing in the name of Jesus. The reason we can do that is that there shouldn’t be any question in our mind that it’s already an accomplished fact. None of the disciples in the Book of Acts ever stopped and prayed, “Lord, will You heal this person?”

Now God gave us conditions. He said, for instance, it’s “the children’s bread” (Matthew 15:26). That’s for us. He called deliverance from demons and healing the children’s bread. It’s ours. Is God ever going to deny the children their bread? No. May they go hungry? They might go hungry but it won’t be because He’s denying them their bread. That woman who was not one of the children, she said, “Well, even the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table” (Matthew 15:27). She exercised faith. She proved herself to be a believer. I’m not saying that God can’t do more than what it says in the Scripture. He won’t do less, but I’m not saying He can’t do more.

When Paul was shipwrecked on the island of Melita (Acts 28:1), it didn’t say anybody there believed him, but he prayed for the sick, and God healed them (Acts 28:8,9). He prayed for a bunch of pagans, and you have to get God’s permission to do that because Jesus said it’s not right to cast the children’s bread to the dogs. You have to get God’s permission to do that. He might give it to you. He might do it as a witness. He may do it as an evangelistic tool. He may do it for those reasons, but He doesn’t have to because you can’t hold Him to any Scripture for that. The Bible says it’s the children’s bread.

You may question, “What about the mercy ships and the mercy planes that have doctors and nurses specialized in a lot of the surgeries they do for cleft palates and so on?” Well, is it using the things that are or using the things that are not? I’m sure not going to condemn them, but let’s get our eyes just on Jesus and look at His perfect way and His perfect Will. Did you ever see Jesus doing that? No. Did you ever see any of His disciples doing that? No. Wasn’t Luke a physician? Maybe. Did you ever see him practicing that? No. Not after he came to Christ; you don’t see him practicing that. So we don’t have an example; we don’t have a foundation to do it that way. I’m not condemning them; I’m not going to come against them. I’m just trying to get back to the Scriptures. I’m just trying to get back to God’s method, God’s way.

You can make a mistake trusting in man and it can be dangerous because man can surely fail you. But it’s never dangerous to trust in God. He never fails. He’s never failed to heal me in almost 57 years, and I’ve gotten in some places where I needed healing. I’ve had broken bones; I’ve had cancer and He’s healed me every time. God has never failed me. It didn’t matter if it was a cold or a hangnail. It doesn’t make any difference. You see, it doesn’t matter how big it is. Jesus knew that He had the authority of the Father to come against all the works of the devil and destroy them. And that’s the very same authority He gave us.

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God Empowers the Weak (4)

(audio)

David Eells, 9/16/26

Now this question comes up often from people who are learning to walk by faith. What about when you know you’re healed, and you’re confessing you’re healed, but the symptoms remain? In other words, let’s say you have a rash. You know you’re healed, but the rash persists for days and weeks and months. Well, what I would examine is, first of all, have you confessed your sins? Is anything in the way? If there’s something in the way, you’ll know it. You don’t have to do a lot of introspection; you don’t have to examine your life and all that. If there’s something in your life, you’re going to know it already. God will show it to you. Get that out of the way first. Once you get that out of the way, our job is to believe in what we know of the promises, not what we see. That’s what faith is. God’s job is to manifest it, and He will. He will not fail. If we believe and we walk the walk of faith, He will manifest it. I’m not going to say He’s going to do it right away because there would be no such thing as a trial of your faith if He did it right away every time. We don’t take care of God’s job. Our job is to believe and exercise the faith. That is our part of the Covenant. God’s part was done at the cross and it will manifest in you. Exercise the faith and let Him take care of it. He will. He will never fail, although sometimes you may have to walk it out in faith for a while.

Some people think because it’s not manifested right away, God didn’t hear it, but that’s just not true. There have been some things I’ve had to walk out for a long time before I saw the answer. This is why we’re studying the Scriptures. We need to be convinced that Jesus is the same today (Hebrews 13:8) and we have to be consistent in saying, “Yes, I am healed.” (Jas.1:2) Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into manifold trials (or “temptations”; it’s the same word); knowing that the proving of your faith worketh patience. So you see that if your faith has to be proven, then the healing is not going to manifest right away. In times when God is teaching patience, it’s something that’s not going to manifest right away. Some wonder will He be on time. Don’t be double minded; make your faith pure.

’ve received some things right away, immediately. They were immediate manifestations. At other times, the more I walked it out, the more my faith grew and the more the answer came. Have you ever had that happen? It happened to Abraham. Hebrews 11 talks about the faith of Abraham. Well, let me tell you, he didn’t start out that way, believing for his son, did he? And he even laughed, too, didn’t he? He sure did. Not only Sarah laughed, but he laughed. And they had their Ishmael too (Genesis 16:15), too. This was because he wasn’t walking in faith but works. He grew from that point. The Bible says that “he waxed strong through faith” (Rom.4:20), which means he became strong through faith. He did not start out there. There are some things that the Lord worked patience in me to believe God for. Just know He won’t fail.

The devil will try to get us to walk by what we see and feel. Remember the motorcycle wreck that my wife was in? We were just learning faith. She had already received some surgery, and there were some problems and some complications and the doctors wanted to schedule another surgery. It was during that time that we really came before the Lord, sought healing and got prayed for. Since our insurance didn’t cover the planned next surgery for a certain time period, the doctor had her on medication, painkillers, and antibiotics while we were waiting for the date when we could do the next surgery. But Mary threw the medicine away because that was when we came to the Lord. And after that, she forgot about it.

Then there was a day she was going to take our little girl shopping and get some things she needed since she was starting school. So she planned to go shopping, but when she got up that morning, there were all those symptoms again. And she just started rebuking and praying all that day and saying, “I don’t accept it; I was healed at Calvary.” (I also was doing warfare.) She said, “I’m not taking this back on me.” And when she went to record the checks that she had written, she saw the date on the calendar was when she was supposed to go in for another examination because the doctor was going to schedule the second surgery. It was only that one day when the symptoms came back, and then after that, they were gone. It’s like the devil was trying one last chance to convince her to walk by what she saw and felt and return to the doctor.

The real problem in receiving healing is that God’s people don’t walk by faith. Yes, there are gifts of faith, and I’ve had gifts of faith before, but what I’m talking about to you here is not a gift of faith. Do you know what a gift of faith is? It’s when your whole consciousness is convinced, when you are convinced and you’re not wrestling with your flesh. It’s a gift that overwhelms your flesh. But waiting for a gift of faith won’t always work for you, where walking by faith will always work. About 90% of the people who look for healing through a gift of faith wind up the same way they started. But we know that the Lord is no respecter of persons. If we exercise faith, God will meet us by meeting our need. The problem with expecting healing only through the gift is you can’t count on it because you never know when the gift is going to manifest and when it isn’t.

But faith always works, if you exercise it. I’ve prayed over people before and seen instantaneous miracles. Then they’d walk away from there and the devil would convince them of what they saw and what they felt and they’d fall right back into their illness. That is because God expects us to walk by faith. A baby Christian may go into a church and people will pray over them and see an instantaneous miracle, where people who have been in the Lord for 40 or 50 years at that same church go down to the altar over and over to get prayed for but, you know what? There comes a time when God expects you to exercise your faith. For a baby in a crib, everything is spoon-fed. You’re not expecting anything from him; you just give it to him.

Once you’ve been in the Lord for a while, if you don’t abide in the things that are written and you don’t ever exercise your faith, you’ll stay a baby; you’ll just be a baby with a beard. Remember Brother Bolivar’s vision of babies with beards? They were old in the Lord but they hadn’t grown in Him. God expects us to use our faith and, if we don’t use it, we’re going to get into trouble. He’ll push you out in that wilderness where your salvation is going to come from Heaven or you’ll die in the wilderness. There are a lot of people who are dead in the wilderness because they went out into the wilderness and they wouldn’t trust in the salvation that comes from God. They kept wanting to run back to Egypt. Well, you can’t always trust Egypt’s salvation, because it’s not always there. I’ll give you two good examples of how there’s always a curse in trusting in the arm of the flesh (Jeremiah 17:5).

My daddy smoked for 50 or 60 years; I don’t know exactly. He had a lung removed and the doctors started giving him some Cortisone to try to get more oxygen into the lung he had left, but Cortisone destroys the muscles. The muscles just turn to mush. Well, you know, the funny thing is, when they did this, he had to have an examination. So he went to a doctor he really respected and this doctor said, “Mr. Eells, there’s one thing you’ll never die of. You have the heart of a much younger man and you’ll never die of a heart attack.” You know what happened? He started taking that stuff and a month later he had a massive heart attack. The heart is a muscle. It’s never a good trade-off, ever.

It wasn’t for my momma. My momma was taking a medicine for many years that she thought was good for some kind of psychiatric thing and one day she got to looking in this Reader’s Digest Side Effects of Medicine and the two side effects of this medicine were breast cancer and glaucoma. She had them both. Is that a good trade-off?

Trusting in the arm of the flesh is cursed. The Bible says you’re cursed. Don’t think you can get out of it. Don’t think you can keep running back to Egypt. God will push you out into that wilderness, where your salvation must come from Heaven. Water comes out of a rock in the wilderness. That’s not normally where it comes from. Manna came out of the sky in the wilderness; it didn’t come out there to them by way of boxcars from Egypt. Well, there’s a price to be paid if you get salvation from Egypt – a big price. A friend of mine out at the plant went to Fatima and he was healed of cancer. And I have to admit to you, I don’t know where the line is. I do know that God is weak to the weak. If you believe, I don’t care how you’re convinced. If you believe that if I anoint you with oil that you’ll be healed, then you’ll be healed. You know what Jesus said? (Mat.9:29) According to your faith be it done unto you. Some people believe in just the laying on of hands, and some people believe you have to have the oil. I don’t care what you believe. Whatever will help your faith, do it and accept it.

Let me give you an example. A sister who lived next door to me when I lived in Louisiana and asked God to fill some of her teeth. She wanted God to put a filling in her teeth. You know what? God did that. He put a filling in her teeth. Now, I had a really bad cavity over the top of two of my molars. I could shove my fingernail up in there on top of it. I could feel it with my tongue. I rebuked that thing and commanded it to be healed in the name of Jesus. You know what God did? He healed those two molars. He didn’t put a filling in there. He healed them. He put the tooth enamel back in there. According to Jesus, “be it done unto you according to your faith.”

God is weak to the weak. Many times He’ll meet you where you are. If you have faith that when a particular person prays for you, you’ll get healed, then go to that person. If you have faith, by all means go because, if that helps your faith, go do it. But if you have faith to be healed by just staying home and confessing it, then do that. “Be it done unto you according to your faith.” What I’m trying to tell you here is something that is consistent. I believe there are some famous men who have gifts of healing. I think they’re doing some things that aren’t right, but I believe they have some gifts of healing. But what I’m telling you always works. It always works because the Word of God says it always works, not because of my experience. Baby Christians can go in there to one of their services and get healing, but when they start growing a little bit, it’s going to take two to agree (Matthew 18:19). They’re going to have to go down there with faith and have somebody to pray the prayer of faith over them to get it because, you see, “to whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required” (Luk 12:48).

The more you continue to walk with God, the more He expects you not to behave as a child who keeps falling and getting up, but to grow and get up and stay standing and to walk out your faith. So that’s why I believe a lot of people aren’t getting their healing. The people of God are not being taught faith. They’re not being taught that you can trust God. You see, if you think that God’s a “maybe” God, that “maybe He will,” “maybe He won’t,” you never know whether He will or whether He won’t, and then you’ll never exercise faith. You have to be convinced it’s God’s Will to heal you before you can get healed because the only way you can exercise faith is to believe you have received. It works consistently, every time.

There’s one thing I know of that can get in the way of having faith and receiving and that’s willful rebellion. (Heb.10:26) For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins, (27) but a certain fearful expectation of judgment…. So a person who walks in willful rebellion is not walking under the blood; they are walking in a place where they’re going to get a chastening, and there isn’t anything you can do for that person until they repent. In fact, the Bible says don’t pray for them for life (1 John 5:16). Don’t pray for them for life. You know, you have to pray for people to repent. Sometimes people have to repent, or they’re not going to get what they need from God.

What about if you come upon an accident, like the time I told you about with the wreck on the bridge, where the man was bleeding out his lung blood and was unconscious? What if the person you would be praying for is a stranger and they might even be an atheist? Would God still heal them? Well, you know, there is such a thing as being led by the Spirit. That’s what happened to me with the wreck on the bridge. I knelt down there and prayed over him and God healed him. That will happen in every case where you’re led by the Spirit of God.

You see, you can always depend on the Word of God, but when you’re getting outside of what you know is your foundation in the Word, like, for instance, the children’s bread. If you get outside of something that you know is your foundation in the Word, you have to be led by the Spirit. There was this doctrine going around years ago that you had to get a rhema from God before you could receive. You had to hear God talk to you out of Heaven and say, “Hey, you’re healed,” before you could believe that by His stripes, you were healed (1 Peter 2:24). That’s hogwash. Don’t ever believe that. Every time you believe any Scripture verse, it’s a rhema straight from God to you. The problem is, are you humble to what that verse says? If you’re humble to what that says, that’s a Word for you.

I believe God wants so much to teach you the ways of faith and that you step out in that faith and lay hands on some that God might heal them. They may not keep it because they are not walking under the blood, but He may let you do it for many reasons. He may let you do it in order to exercise your faith, to show you that faith works, to show them that faith works, to be a witness. So He may do it even if they won’t be able to keep it. You cannot go beyond the principles of the Word of God with your faith. People try all the time and they fail. The Bible says the devil comes immediately to steal the seed which has been sown in their hearts (Matthew 13:19). You know, when you get a healing from God, the devil is going to come and try to steal that. He is going to come and try to convince you by your feelings and by using symptoms. The devil is a minister of symptoms, you see; he manipulates the physical realm.

That’s why God wants you to walk by faith, because the devil can’t manipulate what the Word of God says but he tries to deceive you. He’ll put questions in your mind to get you to doubt the Word. But he manipulates the physical realm. He tries to get you to walk by sight and not by faith. He can make you feel things, but that feeling can go away immediately when you stand firm on the Word of God. That’s the reason we have to have our spiritual senses exercised to know what’s right and wrong (Hebrews 5:14). We have to have spiritual eyes; we have to have spiritual ears. We have to see and hear what the Word says and ignore everything else.

Jesus did that. Jesus would have looked like a fool and He knew it, if He had said some of those things He did and God didn’t answer. But you know what? God is not going to let that happen. God never lets that happen. I’m saying that sometimes you may not be in the perfect Will of God, but God is so interested in teaching you faith, in teaching you that it’s working, in teaching you that you can trust in Him, that He will manifest that healing. It’s up to us to keep what God’s given us because the devil is going to come and try to steal it. When I see something like that in someone, I’m in prayer. It may not come out of my mouth, but I am thinking, and I am praying, and I’m asking, “Lord, do you want me to do something? Will You permit me to do something?” Maybe you don’t know if this person is a Christian; maybe you don’t know if they have a right to God’s blessings. Maybe you don’t know if they have a right to the Covenant. Pray. Ask God. God can show you what you don’t see and what you don’t know. The principles of God are to lead us to know in this conscious realm, but the Lord sees what we don’t see, and He can lead us to do something that we would think would be contrary.

I love to pray for baby Christians because God’s grace is upon their innocence. I tell you, you will see the best results. Christians in this country are so worldly; they’re always running after the world and not truly interested in growing in the things of God. They can be so double-minded. There was this girl in a mission when I lived in Pensacola, and I tell you, this miracle that happened really stuck with me; it was so wonderful. Well, she had come to the Lord at the mission. She’d just got saved, and another minister and I were ministering to her, and we prayed for her to receive the Holy Spirit. I’ll tell you, she just got filled with the Holy Spirit. She was really a very quiet little girl, but there she was, just jumping around and praising God. Oh, it was really just wonderful! See, what had happened to this girl was she had been raped by a friend of her husband. She feared what he might do if he found out. She had tried different methods to abort the child. Then she went down to the public health clinic, they checked her out with the sonogram and with the heartbeat monitor and they told her, “The baby’s dead; you need to have a D&C.”

Well, she was supposed to go back and do that, but meanwhile, she came to this mission when I was preaching and got saved. And when she got saved, we prayed for her to receive the Holy Spirit. And I felt to ask her, “Is there anybody whom you have not forgiven?” She said, “Yes, I have never forgiven this doctor whom I felt aborted one of my children purposely with drugs.” I said, “Wow! You just did the same thing. You’re judging him for something, but you just did the same thing; you just killed your baby.” And I said, “Don’t you see, you have to forgive that man.” So she did. She prayed the prayer and asked God to forgive him, and she prayed for his soul and asked God to save him. Then I just felt inside; there wasn’t any booming sensation or anything, but I just felt led, and I told her, “Well, I don’t see any reason God can’t resurrect your baby right now because you’re a new creature.” She was a born-again Christian that day, filled with the Holy Spirit, and not guilty of the thing that the person the day before was guilty of.

When I said this to the girl, the room cleared out. Everybody left the room, following the preacher. They just went right out the door. Then I called my wife to come over to lay hands on the girl’s abdomen, and I commanded the spirit of life to come back into this baby. Then I also gave her a few little exhortations, such as, “Now faith works like this. When you pray, you believe you have received and you shall have it.” I gave her a few more words of faith. Then I walked out into the hall, and the preacher grabbed me by the arm leading me into the next room and closed the door, and they were all in there. And he said to me, “Listen, God’s not going to do that for that girl. She killed that baby.” But I said, “Well, please don’t try to destroy my faith. I believe He’ll do it. I really don’t believe you understand grace. She is a new creation and is not guilty. That’s where my faith is.” And I opened the door and left them all in the room.

So the girl called me the next day and told me, “Nobody over here will take me down to the health unit.” I said, “Well, I’ll come take you down there,” and I went and picked her up. And while we were going, I preached faith all the way down there. I said, “Now listen, you remember what the Word of God says, that when you pray, believe you have received and you shall have it.” She was just a simple-minded baby Christian, full of the Holy Spirit, and she said, “Okay.” When we got to the public health clinic, she went in there, and she said, “I want y’all to check me again,” so they did. They put the heartbeat monitor on her, and they put her on the sonogram and there was no life signs. And the technician said, “Well, ma’am, you’re going to have to have a D&C. This is over three days and you’re going to be blood poisoned. You have to get a D&C.” But she said, “I don’t accept that. I just don’t accept that.” And when she said that, that heartbeat monitor kicked on, the baby’s heart started pumping and the baby started moving all around. That unbelieving technician looked at that, and he said, “That’s a miracle!” And her baby was born, and it was the baby of her common-law husband; it wasn’t the one she thought it was when she was raped by this other man who was of a different race.

Here’s a baby Christian who said, “I don’t accept that.” Why didn’t she accept it? Because it was not what the Word of God said. We don’t have to accept the curse when the Word of God says differently. We’ll get out of a lot just by not accepting the curse. And her faith is supposed to keep growing from that day on.

She’s supposed to be maturing in her faith. That’s what all Christians are supposed to do. (1Ti.6:12) Fight the good fight of the faith, lay hold on the life eternal…. This is continual warfare. If you don’t fight, you don’t win. In fact, if you don’t fight, you lose. We’re here to bear fruit. We’re here to bear the fruit of Jesus. We’re here to walk the steps of Jesus. (1Jn.4:17) … As he is, even so are we in this world. We are here to do the work of God. And let me say that it doesn’t stop with salvation of your spirit, nor salvation of your soul, nor salvation of your body. It doesn’t stop until it gives you salvation in all of your circumstances.

Anything around you that has to do with your life that’s part of the curse, the Scripture says you were saved from that by Christ. (Gal.3:13) Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. He became accursed for us. When you go to Deuteronomy 28 and read the curse, you see that most of the curse is circumstances surrounding a person’s life. We are saved from circumstances. When you get into detrimental circumstances that are a part of the curse and you remember that you’ve been saved from that, you can exercise your faith, and you can change it. Did you know that? You can change it so repent and believe. Sometimes it may not look like anything that’s all that important. For example, your grass might have a blight on it; it doesn’t have to be that important. I found out God wants to do something just because you’re exercising your faith. God will even heal animals.

As a matter of fact, He heals animals more quickly than He heals humans because there’s no faith necessary from the animal; it’s only you who has to have the faith. Your faith counts. God heals animals, and I’ve seen Him raise them from the dead. I’ve seen Him heal their bones. The only thing is, don’t do what I did one day and call an unbelieving Christian over there to agree with you because that’s the last thing you want to do. I did it one day.

Now we’ve had many dogs healed; their bones and legs healed. We prayed over them and God would heal them. We even found a bunch of puppies that were frozen solid and God resurrected them from the dead. There was this old dog; you could just tell it was a “Christian” dog. It had such a good spirit. Have you ever seen a good spirit in an animal? This old dog was out in the road right in front of our house, and it had a broken back. I went out there and carried that old dog over into our shed. Then I saw my neighbor come up to me, and I said, “Hey, come on over here and help me pray for this animal.” But, you know what? As I was saying, “Hey, come on,” the Lord said, “Don’t do that! Don’t do that.” But he was already at the shed. And when he got there, I just said, “Well, we need to pray for this animal that God will restore his back.” I’ve seen God heal lots of animals, but it didn’t always happen immediately. Let me tell you, the next morning that guy went out there and shot that dog. And I thought that’s why the Lord said, “don’t do that.”

We see in Scripture that when Jesus went in to pray for people, He only brought certain people into the room with Him and put other people out of the room, according to their faith (Mark 5:40). He doesn’t want to honor anybody’s unbelief. He doesn’t want people around who are agreeing with you but are unbelieving because they’re going to get in the way. I tell you, I have come to not like the term “Christian.” I like the terms that they used in the Scriptures. I like “believers,” and I like that they called it “the way.” It was the pagans who used the term “Christian,” but I don’t like the term because it doesn’t truly identify people correctly. The thing that identifies people should be, “Are you a believer?” It’s the whole thing that keeps you in the Covenant. In fact, you’re going to be broken off from the vine if you don’t abide in faith (Romans 11:22). The Jews were broken off because they fell into unbelief. Paul says, “and they also, if they continue not in their unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again” (Rom.11:23). You’re out or you’re in, according to faith. It doesn’t have anything to do with a label that’s called “Christian.” This is doing God a disservice.

What identifies us as God’s children is faith. If you lose your faith and start walking in the ways of the world, believe me, that’s not going to save you. That’s what the Lord taught me when I was a young Christian. I was going through the hospitals, and I would let the Lord guide me to go through the doors. I started asking people, “Are you a Christian?” And, guess what? They all said, “Yes.” So that just did not work very well, and I had to start figuring out better ways to ask people. I’d ask them, “Well, look, was there ever a time in your life when you just really turned your heart to God and you decided you wanted to please Him and you had a hunger for God?” I’d try to identify people that way.

Anyway, here’s another good example of sozo in circumstances. (Mat.8:23) And when he was entered into a boat, his disciples followed him. (24) And behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the boat was covered with the waves: but he was asleep. (25) And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Save (that’s the same word, sozo), Lord; we perish. (26) And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? And in Luke 8:25, He asked, “Where is your faith?” In other words, He was really expecting them to do something. Where is your faith? That was His rebuke. He was saying, “Why don’t you do something?” He had given them authority to do this, you see. (Mat.8:26) … Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. (27) And the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him? This is obviously a sozo that has to do with circumstances around your life. All the curse in Deuteronomy 28 that doesn’t have to do with healing, and your nature, has to do with the circumstances around your life. Jesus bore that curse. He became accursed. You can’t be much more accursed than what happened to Him on the cross. That was a circumstance. In your circumstances, you have a right to come against the curse because of what Jesus did. We are delivered from the curse.

In fact, every sickness and disease is listed in the Bible here: (Deu.28:61) Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed. So they’re all listed: every sickness, disease and circumstance. Anything detrimental to your life is a part of the curse, but crucifixion, spiritually speaking, is not detrimental to your life. That’s not a part of the curse; that’s a part of the blessing. We’re here to be crucified, so don’t get mixed up. Don’t mix up the curse with the crucifixion that we go through in life. We’re here to turn the other cheek, for instance, because God’s put people here to come against us. You have to distinguish between the curse and what God’s doing through the wicked to bring you to death to self. We’re here to die. We have to take up our cross and follow Jesus (Matthew 16:24).

For instance, when Jesus was going to the cross, He made no attempt at deliverance from it. He turned the other cheek (Matthew 5:39; Luke 6:29). He wouldn’t defend Himself. He knew He was there to go to the cross. Jesus knew that these men were there to do the Will of God and put Him on the cross. In our lives, too, there are people whom we can’t consider a part of the curse. God put them there to put us on our cross. The Bible says, if any man speaks, let him speak as an oracle of God (1 Peter 4:11). What they don’t say is what Jesus said. Jesus said, if they slap you on the one cheek, turn the other one (Matthew 5:39; Luke 6:29). He said, “resist not him that is evil” (Mat.5:39). Jesus said that. A lot of churches try to make that into something that you have to obey in the millennium, but why would you need to obey it in the millennium? This doesn’t make any sense. No. Jesus gave that to us because when you obey that, you’re going to be spiritually crucified.

Concerning these circumstances, God has delivered you. Sozo. In circumstances in your life, you are going to be saved, sozo, by grace through faith. And all of this is to show you that “my power is made perfect in weakness” (2Co.12:9). What God really wants from us is to be weak in ourselves. You know, dead men are weak, right? They don’t handle things themselves; they’re just dead men, and that’s the way we have to consider ourselves to be. If you slap a dead man, he just turns the other cheek. (Rom.6:11) Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus. Salvation isn’t from self; it’s from God, and it’s by grace and it’s through faith (Ephesians 2:8). (Mat.8:23) And when he was entered into a boat, his disciples followed him. (24) And behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the boat was covered with the waves: but he was asleep. (25) And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Save, Lord; we perish. (26) And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? (26) … Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. (27) And the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him? Well, no matter what the wind and the waves are in our life, I believe Jesus would ask the same thing: “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?”

Generally, we’re fearful because we get our eyes on the circumstances, instead of on the Savior. In verse 25, where they said, “Save, Lord,” that’s the word sozo. It’s the same word they use here: (Eph.2:8) By grace have ye been saved through faith. There is one thing we do have to fear and that is fear itself, because fear is negative faith in the devil and the curse. And when you’re in the midst of turmoil, when you’re in the midst of circumstances that you need God’s salvation in, only faith is going to bring it to you.

I believe God wants to take us by the hand and show us some things. Years ago, when I was a baby Christian, I felt, “I am a disciple of Jesus.” And I always felt that Jesus wanted to take me by the hand and guide me and show me how to walk in His Kingdom. Have you ever had that feeling, like the Lord wants to talk to you about circumstances and situations and teach you things? I’ve had Him say things to me that made me realize that about circumstances. We’re not to be moved by circumstances. If you remember, Scripture says, “so long as the heir is a child, he differeth nothing from a bondservant though he is lord of all” (Gal.4:1). So, as long as the servant is in bondage to the principles of the world, he’s a child, right? Or, in other words, the child is a servant. But that’s not sons. We are here to manifest God’s sonship in us, and we’re not to be in bondage to the principles of the world. Circumstances shouldn’t be able to stop us from doing what we need to do for God.

Whenever circumstances get in our way that seem to be stopping us from doing what we feel is God’s Will, we have authority over them. In this case in Matthew, the disciples exercised authority over their circumstances. The disciples never would have thought to do that, but this is what Jesus was doing. He was taking them by the hand, and He was teaching them. He brought them into those circumstances so that they would understand that they weren’t to be ruled by the circumstances, nor any other kind of curse, but they were there to change the circumstances. Has God ever done that with you – just taken you by the hand and shown you what to do in the circumstance? Has God ever shown you how to change the circumstance so that you could keep on going and doing God’s Will? Understand that God put the disciples in this little lesson

He did that with me one time when I was a baby Christian, but it stuck with me. God asked me a question: “Why don’t you do this?” It’s like, “Well, I could have done it,” but I had to wait for Him to tell me. “Why don’t you do this in this circumstance?” Has he ever done that to you? He’s done that with me quite a few times. It’s like, “Okay, let Me take you by the hand. Let Me show you how to do this. Let Me show you what to do.” Jesus asked, “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?” Like they naturally and normally wouldn’t be fearful in a circumstance like this.

If we think naturally, of course, we’re going to be fearful in a circumstance like that one. When your eyes see things that are terrible, naturally, you’re going to be fearful in a circumstance like that. But Jesus acted as though you weren’t supposed to be. “Why are you fearful in this storm and with the boat filling up with water? Why are you fearful? Don’t you know I’ve given you authority?” In fact, in another Gospel, He asked, “where is your faith?” (Luk.8:25), in the same situation. “Where is YOUR faith?” In other words, “Well, why didn’t you do something?” And why would Jesus ask that question? He was saying, “Why didn’t you take care of this?” God takes us by the hand to show us these lessons. He did that with Peter. Remember when Peter stepped out of the boat (Matthew 14:29)? What was the purpose in that? Everything has to have a real need or a purpose. What was the purpose in that? God did something only for the purpose of teaching Peter. That was the sole purpose of it.

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