1- Beyond Ordinary: Leaving Our Boats - Beyond Belief

There are things we know, and things we profess to believe, but if we are honest, we don’t really know them or believe them at all.  It’s this culture of doubt, this culture of heresy and apostasy that I want to batter.  Today we will tear down doubt, but we will do more than that.  We will build up the wall, the shield, of our faith. 

Will you stop believing the devil?  Don’t you know yet that he is nothing more than a liar?  Why put your trust in his word?  Why should you go on believing anything he says?

I want you to come into more than “believe” and set of doctrinal points, today I want you to come into a living and active trust with the Man, Christ Jesus!  After all, today is the day of salvation.  Today is the day of atonement! 

Salvation:

Deliverance from sin and its consequences, believed by Christians to be brought about by faith in Christ // Preservation or deliverance from harm, ruin, or loss //  A source or means of being saved from harm, ruin, or loss.

I.  IN THE BEGINNING

Genesis 1

[1] In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. [2] The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.  [3] And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

A.   The Holy Spirit did nothing until the Word came.  We don’t know how many years the Holy Spirit hovered, waiting to act.  The Bible doesn’t say… He could have waited for millions of years.  What we do know is that when the Word came, and as soon as the Word came, there was light!

B.    This relationship between the Word and the action, or the manifestation, of the Holy Spirit has been in place from the beginning.  We are relatively new to the scene… part of creation.  As part of creation, we too, are recipients of the Word… and when the Word came, there was light within us.  But there is more!  Now we have been called into partnership with the Word… we are ambassadors of the Word, and the Holy Spirit waits for our command.

C.    This week we got to be part of Outreach Orlando in partnership with El Calvario.  What an amazing week!  I was preaching on being a burning one for God and the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and I asked the young people who had not being filled with the Holy Spirit to come up to receive the infilling of fire and power.  I told them that when I prayed for them they would receive the Spirit of burning, and many of their hands would begin to feel fire. I prayed and was watching for the spontaneous outpouring of tongues to manifest (In part because right now I am reading a booking titled, “Tongues.”)  At the end of the altar time several reported to me that they felt the fire of God and a burning in their hands.  After leaving the meeting, while driving home, I asked the Lord why there was no manifestation of tongues when I prayed, and He said, “Because you did not declare it.  What you declared did manifest.”

D.   The Spirit waits for the Word.  This is the partnership we have been given with the Spirit. 

1 Corinthians 2

[11] For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. [12] Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. [13] And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

E.    Many times what we believe does not manifest until it is confessed.  Why?  Because of this partnership, this relationship between the Word and the manifestation of the Spirit.  How do we impart the things freely given to us by God?  We impart the Word with words. 

F.    Our beliefs are stored up, they are full of potential energy.  It’s in it’s release (the confession of our beliefs) that we see movement or manifestation. 

II.  FROM POTENTIAL TO KINECTIC

Mark 16

[14] Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. [15] And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. [16] Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. [17] And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; [18] they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

[19] So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. [20] And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.]]

A.   This is the partnership we have been given.  We preach, He performs.  We declare, He does.  We touch, He heals.  This is the partnership.  And this is the order.  How do we release the power of God in the earth?  We open our mouths and preach the Good news.  How do we release supernatural manifestation of healing and deliverance?  We lay hands… or ordinary hands, on sick people, on desperate people.  We impart something heavenly, by doing something quite ordinary.

Romans 1

[16] For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. [17] For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

B.    The speaking of the Gospel is the impartation of faith for the sake of faith!  This faith is the door and the life we come into with God. 

III.  THE OPERATION OF FAITH IS BASED ON THE WORD OF PROMISE

Galatians 3

[2] Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? [3] Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? [4] Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? [5] Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—[6] just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?

A.   How did Abraham believe God?  What is his example to us?  He received the Word of the Lord, the promise and believed that rather than the circumstances of his own body.  He believed the Word rather the believing the circumstances of Sarah’s body.  Abraham lived and waited for the Word of promise to manifest though in every way this promise was impossible.  God came through! 

B.    And then came another directive from the Lord, one that made no sense.  The promise was not just that Abraham would have son (Isaac), but that all of the nations of the earth would be blessed through Abraham, that the seed of Abraham would become a nation.  This was the promise!  God directed Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, the son of promise.  What is this final test?

F.F. Bosworth, Chris the Healer:

Abraham's faith was not based on anything he saw. You must see to it that yours is not. All that Abraham could see was contrary to what he was expecting. After Isaac was born, Abraham had a prop for his faith. Through Isaac, "all the nations of the earth shall be blessed." With his eyes upon Isaac, the channel through which God was to fulfill the rest of His promise, it was easy to believe. So God tested his faith, by telling him to offer Isaac, to destroy the channel. This did not daunt Abraham. Real faith thrives on a test. Since he still had God's Word for it, he was ready to remove every visible encouragement to his expectation and yet continue to be "fully persuaded." God had to halt him or he would have offered Isaac. This test was God's way of perfecting his faith, not of destroying it.

If, after coming to God for healing, He finds you more encouraged by your improvement than by His Word, He may find it necessary to test your faith. This is to teach you the glorious lesson of believing His Word, when every sense contradicts Him. Faith has to do only with the Word of God.

Hebrews 10

[35] Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. [36] For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

IV.  CALVARY TRUMPS ALL SICKNESS

A.   I know there are many things we believe, but today I want you to come into faith for what you believe.  The enemy lies, and pushes us back many times.  Doubt begins to creep in and then take over.  But I am here to speak a better Word to you.  Our God hears, and our God acts.  Jesus has carried our griefs and sorrows.  Some translations say, sickness and pain.  He has done it!  And it is finished!

Isaiah 53

[4] Surely he has borne our griefs

                        and carried our sorrows;

            yet we esteemed him stricken,

                        smitten by God, and afflicted.

[5] But he was pierced for our transgressions;

                        he was crushed for our iniquities;

            upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

                        and with his wounds we are healed.

B.    How can we interpret this for our lives and for our loved ones.  We must let scripture interpret scripture!!

Matthew 8

[16] That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. [17] This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.”

C.    Jesus, the Fulfiller, has come to deliver those oppressed by demons and heal bodies riddled with disease.  He is Jesus from Nazareth, the Fulfiller of the prophetic Word.  This is who He is!

Psalm 107

[20] He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction.

D.   Jesus is the Word that was sent.  And now He is sending us! 

V.  HOW DO WE BEGIN?

A.   We are learning how to do this together.  We are enrolled in the School of Christ, and we have been given the best Teacher of all.  He is leading us into all of the things that are already ours in Christ.  And together, through submission to our Teacher, we are learning how to walk in these heavenly things. 

B.    How do we begin?  Start by declaring what you have seen.  Consider and share what you have experienced in the Lord and begin to share that.  Faith begets faith.  Moses had to go talk to Pharoah when all he knew of God was in the burning bush.  Later he had to cross the Red Sea (a Sea!) when all he knew what frogs, and boils and knats.  Faith begets faith.  Declare and recount what you have seen and look for God to spring up in the new thing.

Mark 11

 [24] Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

C.    Today you receive your marching orders.

Romans 10

[13] For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”  [14] How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? [15] And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” [16] But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” [17] So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

D.   Go out and begin to share the word and your experience in God.  Release faith and faith will come forth.  You will begin to see the supernatural power of God manifest….signs accompanying you as you go.  This is what you were made for.  This is what you have said yes to!