Glorious Way Church
Glorious Way Church equips believers for the work of the ministry and stands for God’s truth in our culture. We serve as a regional center, where people from all backgrounds find refreshing worship and true communion of the saints.
Glorious Way Church
Growing Faith
Imagine growing your faith to new heights and experiencing miraculous transformations in your spiritual journey. Join us as we reveal practical steps to nurture your faith, inspired by the commendation of the Thessalonian church in 2 Thessalonians 1. Discover how consistent exposure to God's Word and setting extraordinary expectations can lead to a profound spiritual growth that truly pleases God. We'll explore the challenges that accompany great faith and how you can overcome them by relying on God's Spirit, with insights from Mark 4 and Hebrews 11:6.
Reach down and pick up your Bibles. Let's all say this together Heavenly Father, we know that you cannot lie and you cannot fail. You've given us your word. You've given us the ingredients for our faith to work, to overcome every obstacle. You've given us your spirit to lead, guide and direct us. He's our ally in the time of trouble. We look not to man or man's devices, but we look to our covenant. In Jesus' name, amen, you can be seated.
Speaker 1:Let's turn in our Bibles to 2 Thessalonians, chapter 1. The letters 1 and 2 Thessalonians are end time books because it talks about the coming of the Lord. Part of it instructs the church there at Thessalonica. We're going to start reading with verse 1 here in chapter 1. Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus under the church of the Thessalonians and God, our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace unto you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is, meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly. And the charity, which is an unfortunate King James translation, it's the Greek word agape, which is the God kind of love. They just missed it. Charities. People think charity like giving to somebody that needs help. No charity is agape, and so their agape groweth exceedingly, and the agape of every one of you all toward each other abounded.
Speaker 1:And so today I just wanted to share a message entitled Growing Faith, growing Faith. You know, brother Osteen used to say this on a regular basis there's no great faith without great tests, there's no great victories without great battles. And you know, if you live the Christian life you're going to have some great tests and great battles. And Hebrews 11, 6 says but without faith it's impossible to please God. So just look at it this way Every time you've got a challenge that seems too big, it's just your opportunity to please God that much more. He's going to be so much more pleased with you if you address your situation with his word and his spirit.
Speaker 1:So Paul is writing here to the church. He commended them on their faith and love and how that their faith and love were growing exceedingly, in other words, increasing above the ordinary degree. Increasing above the ordinary degree. That tells me something just right there. In other words, ordinarily you ought to grow anyway. I mean god, god's expecting growth.
Speaker 1:We expect our children to grow up. They're going to grow up, whether we like it or not. James and Claire's oldest girl grew up so much she left the house and went to ORU and they cried all the way home. It's kind of hard to let go. You know, you got them, you got them, you got them, and then they're gone. Well, we went through that already so we could kind of just we could sympathize and pray for them and know what they're going through. It's hard, but we expect children to grow, and they do grow.
Speaker 1:And God expects us to grow in the spiritual realm, our spirits to grow, our faith to grow, our love to grow. Faith and love really are a fruit of the Spirit. Romans 12, 3 says that God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. We all start out with the same measure. What's that measure? Enough faith to get saved. But what we do after that is up to us.
Speaker 1:And the Thessalonians had done something about it. They not only grew, they grew exceedingly, they grew above what you would expect. And so God, through the apostle Paul, is commending them. And so growing faith, and it's kind of two ways. Growing can be an adjective, you know, like I've got growing faith, I've got shrinking faith, I've got no faith, I've got little faith. See, that's an adjective, or it can be a verb. What are you doing? I'm growing my faith. I'm limiting my faith, I'm stopping my faith. I'm stopping my faith, I'm frustrating my faith. See, you can use a verb. So it's either one. They both work, and so this is consistent with God's desire. God's desire for us is for us to grow, and when we grow exceedingly, we get commended. I mean, god is going to notice how many of you want to please God. I mean, I don't want to just barely please him, I don't want to just be acceptable, I want to go over the top or just something about the wiring and it's in me. I want to go over the, I want to exceed Amen.
Speaker 1:So it's a simple message how to grow your faith. And somebody said oh, this is basic. Well, it's the basics that people miss, like blocking and tackling. No, it's the basics. It's the basics. So you know I don't apologize for preaching the same thing over and over again, because faith cometh by hearing and hearing. You have to hear it more than once and you have to be refreshed in it. You go to a church that never. I just think about how valuable this message is that you don't hear very many times You'll go to hear a fancy sermon by you know, and all of that and some kind of fancy thing with a PowerPoint presentation and it's a lot of information. But listen, this will build you, this will increase you, this will cause your faith to grow by hearing the Word of God. So how to grow your faith? Number one take heed what you hear.
Speaker 1:Let's look at Mark 4. Take heed, in other words pay attention to what you're hearing. You know, these are not garbage pails on the side of your head and they're not designed just to hear just anything. Mark 4, verse 24. This is Jesus speaking about the sower soweth the word, the parable, and then he expounded upon it to his disciples and he talked about the four kinds of dirt. The sower sows the word into four kinds of dirt and he describes the dirt and three kinds of dirt had a crop failure and one kind of dirt produced some 30, some 60 and some 100 fold, even varied there. Even that even good dirt varied in the results. And so then he goes on and he says in verse 23, if any man have ears to hear, let him hear. See, it's up to us to hear. He's not going to hear for us If you've got ears and he's really not talking about these things on the side of your head. He's talking about the ears of your spirit. Man, if you've got ears to hear, let him hear. And then he said unto them take heed what you hear.
Speaker 1:The word hear doesn't mean hear like this. It means understand. Your faith is built on what you actually understand, or what you know. It's built on revelation Romans 10, 17,. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the rhema of God, the word word. There is rhema word. It's the God breathed word, it's the. It's the word that you have in the moment. Yes, this is the logos. I, like the word brother was saying, used to teach us. He said look, read the logos and store it up and God will bring it out of you as Ramah when you need it.
Speaker 1:See, that's why you have to read your Bible. That's why you have to come to church. You can't get it by yourself. If you could, there wouldn't be any church. There wouldn't be any need for the fivefold ministry. There wouldn't be any need because you could just be your own individual person.
Speaker 1:There's lots of people out there that think they know all this stuff. They're always telling me I need to read my Bible. When they read my posts on my Facebook page, they think I need to study a little harder and I'm thinking well, where did you study? It's obvious you don't know what you're talking about. I just feel sorry for them. They don't have a pastor. They got offended. They got offended somewhere down the line and then COVID gave them an excuse. When the churches all closed down, they gave all these numb skulls, skulls full of mush, no Bible knowledge.
Speaker 1:You just pick up the Bible, start reading and think that you can understand without someone to teach you, without someone to instruct you, to show you the way. More is caught than taught. You've got to have somebody that lives it in front of you. It's how it's designed. It's called discipleship. So, oh, faith comes, he said. Take heed what you hear.
Speaker 1:Romans 10, 17 says that faith comes by hearing, or understanding, and understanding by the rhema of God. You've got to position yourself to hear and we're going to have a new members class starting today and some of you have signed up. Some more of you are going to decide to sign up at the last minute. We welcome everybody, but this is what we like to have. Minute. We welcome everybody, but this is this is what we like to have. It's a it's. It's not a an obligation that you become a member after you go through the class. It just gives you the information so you can hear more about what the church is all about and and ask questions and have have somebody to answer your questions. And you know we have three weeks of teaching and it's very interactive.
Speaker 1:I used to be, like Brother Osteen said come three times and I count you a member. Well, that doesn't work for us. We're not Lakewood and the society is, quite frankly, is different now and people blow through here and blow out the other side like tumbleweeds and we need to get people to pause just long enough to consider how important a church is. A lot of people just don't think it's that important. Well, we hope to change your mind, because I think it's vital. Or God wouldn't have instituted the church.
Speaker 1:Jesus is the head of it. Would he be the head of something that's insignificant? Would he be the head of something that's not? Would he be the head of something that's not necessary? See, people just don't think anymore. They're not. You know, forget about the spirit. I mean, if you just had a brain you could figure this out. It's not that hard. It matters where you go to church. You go to some woke church. That's got some you know sissified person up there telling you all this stuff. Oh, we love everybody. Well, we love everybody, but not everybody can come through that door dressed the way they're dressed. All right, here we go, get off the subject. So position yourself number one to hear pastor's messages.
Speaker 1:I'm your pastor if you commit, and I ask people to give me a year of your life. Brother Osteen did that. I gave him 15. And I needed every one of them. I'll tell you what I needed. Every year. I gave him. But give me a year of your life. I'm looking around here. We've got people who gave me a whole lot more, but maybe you're not used to that of your life. I'm looking around here. We've got people gave me a whole lot more. You know and, but maybe you've not used to that.
Speaker 1:The society nowadays, people change churches like they change husbands and wives. They change churches like they change jobs. They change churches like they change places to live. Oh, I'm transferred to Timbuktu. Well, did the Holy Ghost tell you to move? Well, no, but my job, that's what I have. See, they're led by money, they're led by their boss. It's unsanitary. No, no, you've got to be led by the Spirit. We just got through a series on being led by the Spirit and whether you follow the Holy Ghost. You can be led, but then you've got to follow. And if you're going to follow your job, well, you're going to miss God because you might move to some place that there's no proper church for you to go to. And then what? So we like to hold people up just long enough to give you some information to make a good decision, and pray and look on the inside.
Speaker 1:All we're interested in is making sure that the people that belong here get here. Amen, that's all we want. We're not trying to hook anybody. Fact of the matter is we believe in commitment without bondage. With commitment, yeah, but without bondage.
Speaker 1:Teresa asked me now they're going to be gone and they're going on a trip. You know they can. They can leave that. People go on trips, they go on vacations, they go on places. She said now don't write me a letter like my church growing up did we. We left the church for a week and they wrote me a letter telling me we're not welcome to come back because we put our own agenda ahead of the churches.
Speaker 1:I mean you've got all kinds of Lulu birds out there that call themselves a church. It's controlling, it's just manipulating and making merchandise of people. We don't do that. But we will disciple you. You give us an opportunity, amen. It takes about a year for me to share enough truth for you to really grow some. And then my hope is that after that year, if you belong here, you will never leave. That's my hope. I mean, a farmer has got some kind of hope, or he wouldn't plant a crop. Amen, this helping anybody.
Speaker 1:So you know, position yourself to hear pastor's messages. Number two feed, hear them. Yes, feed on those messages. That's a different thing, that's another level, because that means you're going to listen to that message more than once. And whether it's me or whether it's my pastors, that I have our associate pastors, my family and we're about to have another pastor, administrative pastor Joseph Davis, is coming on board. Whether it's him, whoever it is that's in this pulpit is anointed to feed you what you need to eat, and I like it this way.
Speaker 1:I mean, when I was growing up, you know we got to. I mean, listen, I was four or five years old and I didn't stay in my house. We didn't have play dates. I went out and I played with everybody up and down, two or three block radius. I walked to the movies when I was five. When I was four, I rode by tricycle to Woody's Barbershop on Clinton Drive. I didn't have to cross Clinton, but I rode parallel on the sidewalks. Woody Woody was our barber and I went by myself.
Speaker 1:He oh, look here, your mother told me you were coming. My mother mother called and said you watch for my son, make sure he gets there. I didn't know, I just thought she just trusted me, four years old. We can't do that now, can we 14, we can't even let them out of our sight, can we? But you know, when I heard my mother call John Walter, she always used both names John Walter. She didn't have to use the last name because there wasn't any other John Walters around. I knew that dinner was ready and dinner was. Mama had dinner at my house. I didn't stop at Claire's house. I didn't stop at the, you know, the Dominey's house or the McBride's house. I went back home to eat at my house. This is your house. There's food for you in this house. And if you're always feeding someplace else, feeding. I mean meditating and really going over.
Speaker 1:I had some people one time that said you know, we're just getting back to basics around. They've been coming to our church a couple of years. They're kind of highfalutin people, you know, and rich and highfalutin, and I guess I wasn't highfalutin enough for them, I don't know. But anyway they said you know, we're just at our house, we're just getting back to basics, and that let that told me something, that that what I was preaching was over their head and that they were having to stretch to receive it. They were having to stretch themselves to receive what I was saying. They wanted to stay over here in the milk. So we broke out all of our old tapes. We've got a bunch of old kenneth copeland tapes and we've been listening to those. And I said, well, you know, I love kenneth copeland but I think he's grown a little bit since the 70s. If I were you I'd listen to him what he's preaching right now and I just kind of laughed.
Speaker 1:But they didn't last very long. See they? Just finally they listened themselves right out the door they grew the. What were they doing? They were feeding on the supplements. What if I sat down for a big old meal and I've got chicken, fried steak and gravy, mashed potatoes, collard greens. Just sitting, there Are y'all. Are y'all hungry? Yet I'm hungry right now. I could, I could, I could quit right now if I could find a place open that had that anyway. So all the restaurants out here closed that I used to go to anyway.
Speaker 1:So then you've got a handful of supplements over here. You got some vitamin c, some vitamin d, you've got some niacin. You've got some supplements. Oh, I'm going to sit down to these supplements. I mean, no, that's a supplement. It's something that you add to what you hear. If you've got time for that, great. If you don't have time for that, stick with what's being preached here. You sound like a cult. No, I'm not a cult. We're preaching out of the Word. This is your church, it's your mission. Remember last week, don't forget last week. There's some stuff going on in the lobby after church that's consistent with what you heard last week. Stuff that God had in mind for this church to accomplish is going to be accomplished out there in the lobby after church today. Are you all with me now? So feed, see, you've got to listen, but you've got to feed on the Word.
Speaker 1:And then, of course, the second thing is you know, avoid the naysayers and the religious crowd and the pretenders. They're all over the Internet. I mean, there's some big churches that are folding right now Huge, I won't name names, but just recently a big church, it had all kind of campuses and I've been hearing about them for years and it came out about what the kind of person was leading the whole thing Rotten. Anybody can sin, anybody can miss it, any man of God. But when you miss it and you cover it up, then you know what. You haven't got anything. We live in front of you, transparent, when we go through things. You know about it. I don't hide it, are y'all with me now? But that guy on the internet, you don't know anything about his lifestyle, you don't know anything about where he lives and what he does and how he lives.
Speaker 1:And you're going to listen to him and not listen to the pastor that God selected for you. That's, it's a serious thing. That's why I'm bringing it up. So he said in Mark, chapter four he said take heed what you hear, verse 24,. Take heed, pay attention, what you're listening to, for with what measure you measure it out, it shall be measured back to you and unto you that hear hear what, Hear the word, hear the rhema word shall more be given. You get more. You're in here and you're hearing it and feeding it. You'll get more. I said you'll get more For he that hath and it doesn't say heard, but that's the verb hath heard For he that hath heard to him shall be given. That explains why people's faith can grow and then it can go back down. It can decrease because you quit hearing, you quit putting the word into you.
Speaker 1:This is what happened in the Hebrew church. You know, paul wrote to the Hebrews for the time that you ought to be teaching others. You have become such as have need of milk and not of meat. You've decreased. You've gone backwards. You quit growing and went the other. You started shrinking. You've gone backwards. You quit growing and went the other. You started shrinking. You started having incredibly shrinking faith.
Speaker 1:Well, I didn't think. Yeah, you have everything to do with it, not God, and God's not the one that took the word out of your heart. It's the devil that comes and steals the word. It's the devil that comes to steal what you used to know. There's a whole lot of people running around and they're way below where they ought to be. They were at a benchmark.
Speaker 1:Then they changed churches for some stupid reason. That wasn't God. They got out from under God's assignment and the next thing you know they're dead. I've seen it. People leave here and die. I knew when they left they were left, and when they say God's moving us on, I don't say a word. I pray over them, I bless them as best I can and I release them. But I don't agree that they heard from God, because I know they didn't. I'm the pastor, I'm the one that knows my sheep. Are y'all with me now? Y'all are looking at me like whoa. I just want you to know what kind of church this is. It's serious business. Jesus is coming in about this long. He's coming. He's coming for a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Hallelujah, let's make ourselves ready. Glory to God. Romans 4.18,.
Speaker 1:Abraham believed according to that which was spoken, in other words the rhema word Behold, I have made thee a father of many nations when he's 100 years old, or 99 rather, and his wife is 90, and God told finally, he'd been saying I will make thee, I will make thee From 60 years old to 75 to 99,. He'd been saying I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to. And when he's 99, he said I have made thee. After all, physical hope of that happening had gone. His body is now dead and her womb is dead. And besides that, not only is her womb dead but she never has been able to conceive. So she's double dead. Remember, she's double dead. Never has been able to conceive. So she's double dead. Remember, she's double dead. He didn't consider that. He considered what, what, that which would had been spoken, and he agreed with it. Well, I'm Abraham, I'm the father of many nations, so glad to meet you. This is my wife, princess. Amen.
Speaker 1:You're going to hear Ramah words. You're going to hear them in church, you're going to hear them outside of church. You're going to have material for your faith to attach itself to and your faith is going to increase. Amen. We're in this building because 20, however many years ago, 1996, how long has that been? 28 years ago, I heard regional center. It was spectacular guidance. I'll admit, it was a vision. And I heard the Holy Ghost say regional center. And this church is where it is right now because I acted on faith of that word that God gave me when I was out looking at five acres. I had five acre faith and within a few months I had 92.7 acre faith. By doing what? By just basically doing what I'm preaching to you today and what I, what, what we, what we. And then see, I wouldn't buy myself. I had to announce this to the church. When I got to the place where I had decided that we were going to buy 92.7 acres, I announced it to the church and we lost half the church.
Speaker 1:Some of the men in the church got mad and started lying and started spreading lies about me and my family. They said that we were going to buy this property in our name with the church's money. Well, that's stupid. All you got to do is go check the records. It's not in my name, it's in a corporation. It's in a nonprofit corporation called Glorious Way Church Incorporated. Doofus, if you had a brain, you know you're just a liar. Why? Why? They just didn't. They didn't agree, they didn't like, they didn't like. It wasn't even their money. None of them gave into it and I never received an offering for it. I'm going to say, I'm going to tell this because it's true.
Speaker 1:At the time we had a businessman who was $8 million in the red, he was about to close the doors in his business. He started coming to Glorious Way Church. In less than a year his business went from minus eight to plus 12. And they sold that business and it was an oil field tool manufacturing company and him and his partner were for the longest time just there making all the orders what few orders that came in. They had to let all their people go and they were skilled enough to do the work. So they did the work, you know, seven days a week, working all the time. And finally the bank wanted to repossess it and the partner slammed the keys down on the table and slid them over there. Here the keys are yours, we're tired of this, go ahead, take it. No, no, no, no, no. And so they got favor with the bank and they worked with them, worked with them and they built the thing back up and when they sold it, oil was at $6 a barrel. Oil went to $32 a barrel. They sold that business and boom.
Speaker 1:So anyway, this member of my church brought his. He, personally, enriched by $4 million, was his gain. He brought a tithe. Everybody say tithe, not an offering. What is a tithe? A tithe is to pay me. A tithe is to pay my staff. A tithe is to just pay the bills in the office. The tithe is not for a building project. The tithe does not build a building project. The tithe does not build a building. Are y'all looking at me crooked? But we took 400, he brought $400,000 tithe. We had 200,000 saved up. We still had 150 besides that in the bank and we made a down payment on 92.7 acres and half the church left.
Speaker 1:Now you know what. I'm telling you that story because this is the society we live in. These are people that call themselves spirit-filled Christians, and I forgave them. I love them. I went through the whole thing. I asked the Lord what do I do with these people? They just really betrayed not only me, but the whole church. They lied about us and everything else. What do we do? Just really betrayed not only me but the whole church. They lied about us and everything else. What do we do? Well, forgive them. I said, well, yeah, lord, I'm going to forgive them.
Speaker 1:I was crying in my den, laying on the floor, crying, weeping, because these people I would have given my life for. I would have given my life for them. And I said, god, what do I do Well, forgive them. I said, lord, I started laughing, tears running down my face. He's got to deal with me like a first grader and forgive him. I said, yeah, lord, I forgive him. He said pray my mercy on him. I said, okay, lord, I'll pray your mercy on me. He said take your pastoral covering off of them. And I went what is that? I didn't know there was a pastoral covering. I didn't know that my rod of authority is in effect over the sheep that God brings here and that when I stretch my rod out, there is a measure of blessing and a measure of protection. And so, yes, I forgave them, yes, I prayed God's mercy on them.
Speaker 1:And then, once I had done those two things, I withdrew my influence in the spirit realm that I could exercise for their benefit and I never prayed for them again. I never will. Why? Because they decided. They decided so let's, hey, boy, this is going in a different direction than I planned. I really wasn't planning on any of this, but that's how it goes sometimes.
Speaker 1:Are y'all getting anything out of this? I mean, really, this is a positive message. I want to wake the church up. I mean, really, this is a positive message. I want to wake the church up the church is asleep to the significance of church membership and how important a pastor is in your life. It's life or death is what it is.
Speaker 1:I've had wonderful people. They were such a blessing, so sweet and kind, and they just decided to move out of the city to be close to relatives. You know that's not a reason to move. The only reason to move is the Holy ghost moves you and he just doesn't do that, just willy nilly. The Holy ghost doesn't move people around as often as they think he does. See people just going like this. Well, the Holy Ghost moved. Well, I'm going over here for a while. Yeah, see, I don't care if they ever come back, I don't want them here. If they've got that attitude, they're the wrong people.
Speaker 1:Commitment, but without bondage. Commitment, it is commitment, but without bondage, all right, praise God. It is commitment, but without bondage, all right, praise God. So we're in this building because all those years ago, 28 years ago, I took God at his word and I started moving in the direction of a regional center, and that's why we're here. All right, take heed.
Speaker 1:Number two Take heed what you hear, take heed what you do, or take heed how you act. James, chapter two, 17, uh, says in the way of faith without corresponding action is dead. Being alone, and on down in verse 26, as a as a body without the spirit is dead, so is faith without corresponding action dead also. So if somebody's spirit leaves their body, what happens to their body? Their body drops dead. Can you get anything out of that body? Is the body able to do any work? No, the body can't work anymore, can't function anymore, can't see, hear, taste, touch, smell, feel, can't do anything. What do they do? Put it in a casket, or put it in an urn, or burn it, or whatever they do. You know, you've got to dispose of the body. You've got to bury it or burn it, one of the two. Because? Why? Because the body is useless. The spirit is gone out of that body. So when you don't act according to the word, your faith is just like a dead body. It's not doing you any good. It cannot do anything for you. You might have, you may say you have it, but you haven't got it. It's dead, unless you act like the Bible is true. You know, simple definition of faith is acting like the Bible is true or acting on the word. I acted on the word regional center.
Speaker 1:I went back to my landlord, whose land it was that I was looking and I said have you got 10 acres? See? When he said regional center, I thought bigger, I thought bigger. Got 10 acres, see. When he said regional center, I thought bigger, I thought bigger. I said have you got 10 acres? Or maybe 10 acres next door that I could buy an option and all of that. And he said well, have I shown you my 63-acre tract? 63 acres he had more faith than I did. He's an unbeliever. 63 acres. I mean I still remember how, totally. Uh, 63. I looked at it and it looked pretty good. And he said well, this is it right here, I'll sell it to you for so much. I said, look, wow, I gotta pray about that. I mean it blows, I'll get back. Are you in a rush or you got it under control? No, no, I'm just showing it to you. I said I'll let you know.
Speaker 1:So I went back and I had a witness to do it and I went back to him. I said now, look, we're not ready to buy it today. Can I get an option? Will you sell me an option to buy this property? That the terms that you gave me. He was going to loan 100% if we needed it, at two points above prime interest rate. That's pretty good for a 100% loan.
Speaker 1:Owner finance, no payments. You don't even have to make payments. Just sign the paper and pay me when you're ready to start paying. I mean what in the world? I said. And I still didn't have peace about going forward with it. So I said look, I'm not ready. I mean, it's a big, that's a lot of money and I, even though I'm not paying you anything, I'm on the hook for it. So how about an option? Can you sell me an option so we can tie this thing up by a certain date? Give me for a year or something. He said just shake my hand, just shake my hand. He didn't want anything. In writing. We shook hands and that property was ours. We had first right of refusal. He still got it on the market and if he sells it, we have first right of refusal. If he sells it, then he's going to come to us with what he sold it for and then we can step in and take it at that point. And that's exactly what happened. But it was 92.7 instead of 63.
Speaker 1:And six months later, after the 400,000 came in and we had 200,000 down payment, we and we had $200,000 down payment, we $1.25 million piece of property, 92.7. That was such a deal. I mean, it was an amazing deal. And when he told me I've got two offers on it, this is what they offered and I'll sell it to you, I said, well, they're paying cash. Yeah, I don't care, I'll do all the financing, just like I told you. But this is the price. And it was the same price. He told me they offered full price Poole, t Holmes and another big builder, forget which one. And so I went home, prayed about it, had a witness and we say we acted on that word. We gave the down payment, we close on that property and eventually that's the property in champions, crossing right down the street. That's the property. And eventually it wound up for us to be here.
Speaker 1:This is a land miracle. This is a you're sitting in a miracle. You're sitting in a miracle. You're sitting in a miracle because when you take heed to what, how you act and what you do, I mean, if you've got faith, you've got to, you've got to put you know, you got to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. We believe in confession. You must have a consistent confession, but you also have to have a you've got to have an action that goes along with what you're saying. Is that helping anybody today? Glory to God, thank you, jesus. Come on, lift your hands right now. Lord, we thank you for the Word of God, simple Word of God. The simple Word of God is just so powerful. It's a seed. Everything in an oak tree is in this little acre. I mean, how can that be? God just created everything like that. That's how powerful the Word is the Word. Everything that you need is in that Word, that seed that's planted in your spirit when you speak it and then when you act on it.
Speaker 1:All right, you know, brother Hagin, I appreciate the people that I follow, brother Hagin and Brother Osteen and all the rest. They preached out of their mistakes. They preached out of their lives and they would tell stories where they had failed. They would tell stories where they or how they learned. You know that's not. The best way to learn is by your mistakes. The best way to learn is by somebody else's mistakes. So I don't mind preaching out of my mistakes, because I learned from my pastor's mistakes Some of the things that they didn't know about.
Speaker 1:They didn't have anybody to mentor them. You know, mentoring I don't even really like the word, honestly. It's just father. I prefer father. That's what we have. We have a few fathers and a father-son relationship is rare. I mean, you can't get it as a tumbleweed. Tumbleweeds don't have fathers, tumbleweeds just tumble from one place to the next. I get back to this. Listen, commitment is so important On both sides. On both sides. I commit, but you commit, and hopefully in a few weeks some of you will commit and then we'll have a special service and I'll lay hands on you and receive you into the church officially, amen.
Speaker 1:So, uh, brother Hagan was crying one time, bawling and squalling, and he was preaching. He'd gone on the field ministries and finances had gone down because he'd always been a pastor for 12 years. And as a pastor you get a parsonage, you get a salary. You know he worked at church and he got paid to be the pastor and he got, you know, the benefits of that. But then, when God let him out of that and go on the field ministry, where he's going from church to church to church, he no longer has a parsonage. They're not paying for his house. They're not paying for his utilities, they're not paying, you know, for his expenses.
Speaker 1:He's got an old, broke down car that's got four ball tires. It barely goes down the road and he just starts where he's at and he's tough, it's tough sledding out there getting started in the field ministry, field ministry, and he's, you know, 500 miles from home and you know, and, and his kids are sick and uh, and he's crying in the, in the, in the church where he's about to be preaching that night. He's there and bawling and squalling and, oh God, children are not properly clothed, they're not properly fed, you know, they've got sick, it's cold, they can't keep the house warm enough, we can't pay the utilities, we're behind in the rent, and, oh God, you know, and he's whining and crying. And finally he took time to take a breath and wipe his nose and eyes and the Holy Ghost said what are you doing? He'll never condemn you. He'll never condemn you. What are you doing?
Speaker 1:Brother Hagin says well, lord, I'm just praying through. So he'd been around. See, he's Baptist, really Grew up Baptist, but he hung around the pentecostals enough to know about healing and to pick up a few of their habits, like praying through. He said what do you mean exactly by praying through? Well, I'm just praying here until I had some kind of sign from heaven that my needs are met and my kids needs are met. My wife's needs are met. I mean 500 miles. I just want to try to find out some kind of sign, some kind of.
Speaker 1:He said well, it sounds to me like that you're trying to, you know, trying to get me to agree with you that I'm not a liar and that I don't care about what's going on with you. It's what it sounds to me like. Oh, he said, you're not going to get your needs met by what you're doing. That's not. I am not. I don't have any money up here and I don't have any money to give you the all. Everything you need is down there. The problem is not me, the problem is down there. You haven't loosed your angels to go out and cause men to give to your bosoms. And so he taught him how to pray about money. Oh, come on, glory to God. Nobody taught him that. The Holy Ghost had to teach him that out of his own pitiful condition. Well, thank God, you know, I've gone through some pitiful conditions myself, but at least I knew more about how to pray about it than he did, because he taught me brother, brother Osteen, the same way. And so, uh, just think about him getting that victory where his.
Speaker 1:He started climbing out of that hole and he got to the place where he bought a brand new 1955 Chevrolet Cameo, carrier V8. And got a nice trailer to pull behind it that he would be able to stay in while he's traveling. And he graduated up and I mean he had a nice home there in McKinney, texas, and operated his ministry partly out of the garage and all of that kind of thing. He just started improving. It wasn't overnight, it's no overnight, nothing. You just start where you are and you start going one step at a time, one stage at a time.
Speaker 1:Your faith is growing. Your faith is moving up the ladder. It's not going like this, it's going up, it's steadily going up. Until now, all over the world there are Rhema Bible training centers everywhere on the globe where people are learning the word of faith. People are getting out and preaching the word of God and people are getting disciple, not just saved, they're getting disciple.
Speaker 1:Jesus didn't say get everybody saved, he said said, make disciples of all people, groups. And you're not discipling, you're not getting the job done and it takes local churches to do that. Are y'all with me now? All right, number three that's all we'll have time for today. Take heed, see what you hear. Take heed what you do or how you act. Number three take heed that you pray.
Speaker 1:And faith doesn't come by praying. You're not praying for faith, you're not praying. Oh God, give me more faith. No, that's not how it comes. It comes by hearing and understanding. And so, to that end, when you pray, praying is not a laundry list of requests for God, you know. Give him a to-do list. That's not what it is. Prayer is simply communing and fellowshipping with Almighty God. It's worshiping Him, it's praising Him, it's getting in His presence. You know, the closer you walk with God, the better you can understand his communication.
Speaker 1:I don't say voice, because then people start listening for voices, and there's many voices. First Corinthians says there's many voices in the world, none without significance. So if you're going to listen for a voice, you'll hear one. The people I'm talking about heard a voice. I talked about these people that betrayed the church and lied, and all they heard a voice. There's no question about it. They just, oh God told them. No, god didn't tell you that at all. The devil told you, or your stinking flesh told you, or your squirrely mind told you. You see, your mind's got a voice, your flesh has got a voice. The devil's got a voice. So. But when you hang out with God, you get more tenderized toward Him and you begin to pick up more of what he's communicating to you, many times without words, but he always uses His Word. I mean, that's when the Word of God can jump off the page and become a rhema.
Speaker 1:Or God, can I, can I tell you I believe in supernatural hearing. Sometimes, when I'm preaching under the anointing like this, people will hear me say something that I didn't say. Somewhere between my voice and their ears, god turned that into what they needed to hear. At the moment You're looking at me funny again. Keep looking at me funny. Today I'm not going to go by what I see. Praise God. I'm going to call the things that be, not as though they were.
Speaker 1:Everybody say supernatural hearing and see especially praying in the Holy Ghost, jude 20, building up yourself on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. You know, praying in the Holy Ghost doesn't exactly. It doesn't add to your faith. It builds the capacity. Can I say it that? Faith it builds the capacity. Can I say it that way? It builds the capacity for faith.
Speaker 1:For instance, if your spirit is a one-gallon bucket, when you pray much in other tongues, it becomes a three-gallon bucket, it becomes a five-gallon bucket, pretty soon it's a 500-gallon tank and pretty soon it's an 18-wheeler tank and pretty soon it's you know it's an 18 wheeler full. And pretty soon you begin to build a capacity. Are y'all getting this? He that prayeth in an unknown tongue edifies himself. And so when you pray much in other tongues and you pray with your understanding also, you sing in tongues and you sing with your understanding Also, you worship God. When you do all those things, the Bible just simply says this. And James. He says draw near to God and he'll draw near to you. And notice, notice the order. You draw near to him first. A lot of people waiting for God to come down and visit them. Well, they're not visiting him, they're going along their own merry way.
Speaker 1:You know, years ago God told me a couple of things. He said there's a dearth of the word. I said God, how can there be a dearth of the word? I said there's churches on every corner and I know not all of them preach the word of faith, but there's churches everywhere. How can there be a dearth? How can there be a famine of the word? There's more revelation now than ever before. How can there be a dearth of the word? He said this to me. He said your children don't know what you know, so there's a gender and he's really talking about the generation gap.
Speaker 1:I took it as children's church in this church and man I mean and we revolutionized children's church. I made sure that we were having a curriculum. I made sure that we were covering all the bases for our little ones on the word of God and the Holy Ghost. We wanted to make sure they all spoke in tongues. We wanted to make sure that they knew the Word of God and we're not just turning these kids out with candy and pizza and all this kind of stuff and games that have no real purpose. They might have a game in there, but it all has a purpose. There might be some entertainment in there, but it has a purpose.
Speaker 1:Well, I started there, but that's not really what God was talking about. He was talking about where we're at right now. There's a huge gap in generations, and people don't know what I know. So how do they know? I have to teach them. I have to teach what I take for granted. That's what he told me Teach what you take for granted. I take this message for granted. I think everybody knows it. Well, I found out they don't know it. That's why I have to keep preaching it and I preach it, and I preach it, and I preach it over and over again. Why? So you can get it and practice it. Amen, glory to God.
Speaker 1:So I like to pray the Holy Spirit inspiredinspired prayers we found in Ephesians 1, ephesians 2, ephesians 3, colossians 1, philippians 4. I mean, there's all kinds of Holy Spirit-inspired prayers that you can pray. In your understanding and Brother Hagin, talking about Ephesians 1 and 2, if you pray that every day for six months, your life will never be the same. You'll know more, the Word will start opening up and you'll see things you've never seen. And that's so.
Speaker 1:Prayer is so important for our faith to grow. You don't pray for your faith, you don't pray for more faith, but your prayer comes as a result of your prayer life, because you know God better, you know when he's communicating to you, and that way you can attach your faith to what he says to you, hallelujah. So as you take heed to these and other principles maybe I'll share some more next week your faith will grow exceedingly and God will be exceedingly pleased with you. Come on, lift your hands and receive the Word of God today. Hallelujah, glory to God, amen. How many excited about the word of God? Amen, amen.
Speaker 1:Everybody say my faith is growing, and not just a little bit. My faith is growing exceedingly. Now notice this. Now I want to tell you, I want to warn you ahead of time there's no great faith without great tests. There's no great victories without great battles. So you know, that's what happened. If you read all the Thessalonians, I mean, they went through a tough time. They were highly persecuted and we're living in those days right now where the church has got a target on its back. If you're a Bible-believing Christian, you've got a target on your back. There are people coming after you. They hate you, they hate everything the church is doing. Amen. So let's grow in faith and let's overcome. Praise God, hallelujah.