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
Let The Word Work
What if unwavering faith could be the anchor you need in life's fiercest storms? This episode promises to guide you through powerful biblical narratives that reveal the transformative potential of faith and the spoken Word of God. We delve into Apostle Paul's steadfast belief during a perilous sea voyage, showing how his trust in divine promises led to miraculous outcomes. Discover how these ancient stories hold timeless lessons for us today, encouraging us to trust in God's Word and act with unwavering faith.
Well, let's get into the Word together and then we'll see later on what the Holy Ghost might want to do in our midst. You don't have to stand back up. You've been standing a while but let's just get our Bibles up and wave them around. Make Jesus glad, the devil mad. Say this together. Say, heavenly Father, I'm glad to be here tonight. I'm hungry for the Word and the Spirit. I want more. I want more than I've got. I need to build myself up and I thank you that the Word and the Spirit are here tonight to give me revelation, to lead me in a direction you have for me in this season, and I triumph over every hindrance. I have the victory in Jesus' name, amen. Let's look at a couple of places. Mark 11 first, very familiar Mark 11. And also Acts 27. Jesus is speaking to the disciples, and Mark 11, 24 is the one that I want to read. 23 is good too, but Mark 11, 24. Therefore, I say unto you, mine is in red, that means Jesus said it. Therefore, I say unto you what things soever you desire when you pray, believe you receive them and you shall have them Alright.
Speaker 1:And then in Acts, chapter 27, we see an example of this working out and Paul's voyage on the great sea where that great storm tried to sink the boat Verse 20, remember. This voyage started with him perceiving that there was going to be damage not only to the ship and the lading of the ship but also to our lives. And he warned the captain and the centurion, the owner of the ship, not to sail. And they ignored him. And so the fact that he was able to walk by the perception of the spirit. In other words, he just had a witness. It was not right to go. He didn't have any visitation. In fact, the visitation was a couple of chapters earlier, when Jesus said you know, you must stand before Caesar. So he knew he was in the will of God generally, but specifically now he lost his peace. He said we better not say all, and they ignored him. So now verse 20,.
Speaker 1:And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away. Well, who stole the hope? Well, the devil stole it. God's not in the stealing business. All hope that we should be saved was then taken away. But after long abstinence, paul stood forth in the midst of them and said, sirs, I told you. So, sirs, you should have hearkened unto me and not have loosed from creed and to have gained this harm and loss. And now I exhort you to be of good courage, be of good cheer. In the middle of having all their hope taken away, that's kind of a tall order. Be of good cheer, for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship, for there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am and whom I serve, saying fear not, paul. Thou must be brought before Caesar, and lo, god hath given thee all of them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe, god, that it shall be even as it was told me. I believe, god, that it shall be even as it was told me. Has God told you anything, you know? So tonight I wanted to just share a message entitled let the word work. Let the word work.
Speaker 1:So here we see Paul in the middle of a deadly storm. He heard from God through his angel fear not, be of good courage, I believe it will be even as it was told me. And then they all ate and they strengthened themselves, and you know, they had to follow the directions the angel gave. You know you, stay with the ship, don't don't try to. Don't try to get out of the ship and get in the lifeboats and all that. You've got to stay with the ship. Don't try to get out of the ship and get in the lifeboats and all that. You've got to stay with the ship. Well, they stayed with the ship until the waves broke it apart. And then they used the broken pieces of the ship to ride on the stormy seas over to the shore of Malta, the Isle of Malta, where they had a revival on the island. And so Paul believed that it would be even as it was told him.
Speaker 1:And so Paul spoke his faith and he let the word work. I mean, you know, this storm is uncontrollable. I mean it's just breaking everything up, it's just tossed for days at a time. He let the word work and it did See, he was following Mark 11, 24. He believed he received when the angel told him. And he just went ahead, and he believed he received and he said it's gonna happen, I shall have it, it's gonna be just like he was told me. Now think about everything that had to happen before it actually manifested. I mean, they wanted to kill him there.
Speaker 1:A little while later, I mean, when the ship did break up, some of the soldiers said we're not letting these guys go, these prisoners, let's kill them. Let's kill Paul. No, no, we better not do that. And so there's a whole lot of things that got so. So you know, the minute that we believe, god becomes responsible, when, whenever we act on the word, god becomes responsible to bring it to pass. I said that this morning.
Speaker 1:I want to say it again tonight that fact has got me through a lot of tough times that once you have spoken and believed the word, you see, whenever you believe something, you've got to speak it out of your mouth. And once you speak it out of your mouth, then there's usually another thing you've got to act on. In his case, he had to act on preaching to the crowd. He wasn't exactly popular with them, but he had to tell them again. You should have listened to me, told you so, and I love the Bible. I love you know. He said look, look at the language. This is.
Speaker 1:Luke has written this. Luke is a is a character I can't wait to meet luke. Luke is he writes in a little bit of a smart aleck. Uh, he says no small tempest laid on us. No small tempest laid on us. No small tempest laid on us. Anyway, all right. So God's word was spoken so it could be written, and it was written so it could be spoken. So you know, here's the angels telling him everything's going to be all right. You got to stand before Caesar, and so he did, and he was. And God has given you all them that sail with you In God's mind. Everybody was sailing with Paul. It wasn't the other way around. They were his entourage and didn't know it. That's how God sees us right now. He sees us as in charge. It's not Biden in charge. Come alive, come alive. I like Trump. He makes fun of her name. I love it. Come alive, you're fired, can't wait. All right.
Speaker 1:So let's look at John chapter four. I I preached this before and I've used other verses, but the other day I came across John chapter four and and I wanted to share John four with you because it's connected to John chapter six the living bread. You know, we preached out of John chapter six, where Jesus revealed to the Jews and to his disciples he's the living bread. If you don't eat the flesh of the son of man, drink his blood, you have no life in you. It was a dividing line, it was a plumb line. 70 of his disciples turned their back on Jesus, had no more further thing to do with him. It's too extreme, it's offensive. That message, who does he expect us to preach that? I'm not preaching that message, I'm not preaching about that blood. And so they turned their back on Jesus. He asked the disciples, he asked Peter, he said well, will you also go away? Oh Lord, no, nobody's got the words of life, but you, we're not leaving. We don't understand it, but we're not leaving. Amen, we're not leaving. We don't understand it, but we're not leaving. John, chapter 4.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, he was preaching in a synagogue to that group about the living bread, in a synagogue in Capernaum, and I've been there and I've been to a synagogue I don't know if it's the same synagogue, but I was at the ruins of a synagogue in Capernaum and the floor of this synagogue was probably, I want to say, about the size of both aisles, all the way, you know, all the way from here to the back wall right here, and it was the most beautiful mosaic tile you've ever seen. It had the beautiful blues and the purples and the faded reds, and it was just. I don't know what it was. I don't remember what it was depicting, what if it was a flowers or what it was, but this ancient place was a synagogue and this was the floor that they had uncovered. You know, the Jews have uncovered. They've got the greatest archaeologists in the world work there all the time and they're uncovering treasures and it proves without a shadow of a doubt who owns the land, and it ain't the Palestinians. I can tell you that it's the Jews. It belongs to them and any plan that says there's a two-state solution is going to be is going to fall. It's going to be upended. So you know, I pray for our next president, that he'll get off the two-state solution.
Speaker 1:Finally, this country has suffered so greatly. Just think of that terrible storm that hit North Carolina. All of that was a direct result of Kamala and Biden holding Israel back from doing what they needed to do to defend themselves. They threatened them. Don't you dare. Don't you attack the oil field. Don't you attack. See, it's election time and you cannot disturb our election. See, that's what this whole thing is about. It's all political. These people are evil, filled with evil, filled with demons. I see them when I look at their faces, I see demons. Joe Biden is so full of the devil you can't even hardly look at him. He's always talking about beating somebody up. He's a bag of bones. He couldn't beat up a chicken wing, all right. Well, anyway, let's not get personal. I already have John, chapter 4, verse 46.
Speaker 1:So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, a certain ruler, whose son was sick at Capernaum, see. So he was at Capernaum. Now he's back in Cana and then in chapter 6, he goes back to Capernaum and then he preaches that message. So this is kind of you know. He's preaching to the Jews, he's sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Speaker 1:And when this nobleman heard that Jesus was come out of Judea into Galilee, he went unto him and besought him that he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then said Jesus unto him this nobleman, except you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. You know, he wasn't exactly compassionate. You know, just think about what he's asking. He's asking Jesus to take a journey from Cana to Capernaum. I don't know how far it is, but evidently, if you keep reading, it's overnight journey. It's not just 30 minutes down the road. He's got to travel overnight to get there and him and his entourage he's supposed to pick up.
Speaker 1:He just got to town and now this guy is wanting him to come and heal his son and you know, because I guess he deserves it or something, I don't know and Jesus just basically said go pound sand. He didn't. He didn't, he didn't say yes, I mean, he's supposed to get up and he's there by the Holy Ghost. And this man's wanting him to come and heal his son. He was just there. He had to have been sick then. Why didn't you come then when he was there? And so he said unless you see signs and wonders, you won't believe. Get the picture now. And then he said verse 49, the nobleman said unto him sir, come down before my child dies, come down before my child dies, come down before my child dies, so you can admit.
Speaker 1:Then you can kind of see the desperation in this man. I mean, he doesn't want his child to die and he's got enough faith to come after Jesus and get Jesus to come to his house, and his faith was that Jesus is going to drop everything and travel overnight back to his house and somehow heal his son of this whatever. We don't know yet what the problem is. It doesn't say yet what the problem is. Find out later. It's a fever, but it doesn't say that here. We don't know that. Jesus, please come before my child dies. Now he's already left his sick child and he's left him. We don't know that yet either, till a little later. But it's overnight, it's an overnight journey. So you know he's on pins and needles. You know he's desperate. He's asking for Jesus. He's got that much.
Speaker 1:His faith is wrapped up in Jesus coming with him back to his house to either lay hands on his son or whatever Jesus is going to do. Kind of reminds you of Naaman the leper. Naaman's faith was that the prophet Elisha was going to come out of his house and he was going to, you know, have a big prayer, you know, and he was going to have a big to-do and he didn't even come out of the house. He sent Gehazi go, tell him to dip in the Jordan seven times. Gehazi got some mad.
Speaker 1:I mean, he's an important man. See, sometimes when you're dealing with important people. They, you know, they're too proud to really receive. So, you know, this guy kind of passed a test when Jesus said unless you see signs and wonders, you won't believe. You know why don't you? And so he, he had to, he had to get real with you. He had to let Jesus know. He really, really, really trusted that Jesus was the healer. So he said so.
Speaker 1:If things are not quite working out the way he thought, he said so. If things are not quite working out the way he thought, he said please come, jesus, come down before my child, in other words, before we don't use the word air in our language before come before he dies. Please. Times times, you know, wasted here. Jesus saith unto him, verse 50. Time's, you know, wasted here. Jesus saith unto him, verse 50, go thy way thy son liveth. I mean just no prayer, no rebuke in the devil. Go thy way thy son liveth. Six words. Go thy way thy son liveth. Six words. Go thy way thy son liveth.
Speaker 1:And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him. How do we know he believed it? He went his way, he acted on the word, to be exact, six words that Jesus spoke. He acted. Now, it was different than his plan. He had a plan. He had a plan to get Jesus and, I guess, his whole entourage.
Speaker 1:He's got 12 disciples, he's got all these people that are around him mobbing him. They're going to all walk to Capernaum again. They just can't. Came from Capernaum, now they're going to go back there, capernaum again. They just came from Capernaum, now they're going to go back there. And he had it all planned out. I'm an important man, he'll come if I ask him to come. Yeah, he had it all planned out, except Jesus wasn't buying it. He said well, just go your way, thy son liveth.
Speaker 1:And he believed the words that were spoken of Jesus and he went his way. I'm talking about let the word work. So as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him saying thy son liveth. He didn't have to get all the way home before his servants came running to tell him Thy son liveth. Where his servants came running to tell him Thy son liveth, then inquired he of them the hour when he began to amend and they said unto him Yesterday at the seventh hour.
Speaker 1:The fever left him One o'clock in the afternoon. Yesterday at one o'clock what time is this? I don't know it's the next day now. The hours have gone by. He went all night, think about it. He traveled all night to get to Jesus. He turned around and went home and traveled all night to get back to his son. You know he's tired and now he finds out his son is, it does indeed live. He had to, he had to take, he had to keep hold of his faith the whole all those hours and hours.
Speaker 1:You know the devil attacked his mind. You know the devil told him it was too late, that preacher doesn't care about you. He didn't even. He's so lazy, he wants to stay where he's at. He didn't want to even come. All they care about is money. They don't care about you, you prosperity teacher, preacher.
Speaker 1:But the anointing, I mean, you know Jesus just spoke the word and he believed the word that was spoken and he went his way and he's just now going. He said you know your son lives. And he said when did he begin to amend? When did he begin to amend? When did he get begin to get better? Yesterday, at one o'clock the fever broke. The fever left him. Now he's still not fully recovered. He's probably weak. We don't know what kind of fever, scarlet fever? What kind of fever? Dinghy fever, I don't know what kind of fever, but the most serious enough to kill him. I don't know what kind of fever, but it was serious enough to kill him and now he lives. So the father knew that it was at the same hour in the which Jesus had said unto him thy son liveth. And himself believed, and his whole house.
Speaker 1:This is again the second miracle that Jesus did when he was come out of Judea into Galilee. The first miracle is the miracle of the water turned into wine in Cana. That was his first miracle. I like to point people to the book of John, because it's got the miracles of Jesus just right in order. So this is the second one. He does. You get acquainted with a miracle worker.
Speaker 1:But this miracle was nothing but his word, speech. See the power of the word, of the spoken word. You know this man had to believe, but so did Jesus. Jesus had to believe the thing that he spoke he did not minister. And the gifts? That was not a gift of the spirit. Well, why would you mean it's not a gift? It wasn't a gift of the spirit. Well, why? What do you mean? It's not a gift? It wasn't a gift of the spirit. He just spoke his faith.
Speaker 1:We can do the same thing. We can let the word work for us, because Mark 11, 24 says what things, whoever you uh desire when you pray or when you say believe, you receive them and you'll have them. That's why, tonight, I spoke some things over this nation, and I know that we have authority in many of these areas. Over these many years, god has proven this out over and over and over, and I've got faith in my heart to speak, and I know, angels, that you know, yeah, we can have a prayer meeting. We're going to have a prayer meeting Tuesday night during the election returns. We're going to have prayer because this nation needs a lot. It's going to need a lot no matter which way the election goes. But at the same time, though, there's power in making proclamation.
Speaker 1:You know, you can say some things about your family. You can say some things about your health. You can say some things about your children. You can say some things about your health. You can say some things about your children. You can say some things about your marriage. You can say some things about your finances. Let the word work, so faith works, like Brother Hagin used to teach us. Faith works by praying and or by saying.
Speaker 1:A lot of times Brother Hagin would just say things. He didn't pray, he'd just say. One time his mother called him and said you know, your cousin's real sick. They're not expecting her to live, or it was the baby. It was the baby, the baby was born. Okay, it was, the baby was born. Your cousin's baby was born and it was deformed. It was basically deformed and it was dying. And so they just wouldn't let his cousin look at the baby, because it wasn't going to make it anyway and it was deformed, it was terrible. And so they had the baby laying over there.
Speaker 1:And so his mother called from a pay phone and his cousin was right next to her and he said you know, just tell, whatever his name was, billy, tell Billy that the baby will live and not die. Tell, tell Billy, tell my cousin, the baby's going to live and not die. And he said oh, son, I'm so glad you heard from God. Oh, it's wonderful that you had a word from the Lord. He said yeah, mother, I had a word from the Lord. Mark 11, 23. And she says oh, oh, brother Hagin's mother. Oh well, do you suppose that'll work. Do you suppose that'll work? He said do I suppose it'll work? Will the multiplications table work? 12 by 12 is 144. Nine times nine is 81. Will the multiplication tables work? This work, mark 11, 23 work, he said.
Speaker 1:And then he goes on and I said, boy, he had to apologize to his mother. I mean, that's kind of a tough way to talk to your mother. I don't care how big a preacher you are, but anyway, so he, he, he went off on this on this tangent. I heard him preach it live one time. It's hilarious. He was sitting there laughing but he just said the baby will live and not die. Just tell him, the baby will live and not die. You know, by telephone. He didn't go, he didn't drop everything. He was going and catch a bus and go to wherever they were, timbuktu, and pray for the baby. He just spoke it. He never prayed, he didn't bind the devil, he didn't loose the angel. He just said it. Tell him. Tell him, tell my cousin, the baby will live and not die. And so he said, you know, a lot of people put more emphasis on the gifts of the spirit than they do the word of God, and that's really kind of the point of this message is kind of tie into the living bread is how precious is the word of God that we have this living bread?
Speaker 1:I love the gifts of the spirit. I depend on them. I need them, you need them. But let me tell you something this Word works whether the gifts are in operation or not. The gifts are as the Spirit wills. You can't make the Spirit move a certain way. You can make things attractive. You know, sometimes on a Sunday night it seems like I come in here and the Spirit of God is just walled and there's just. Gifts of the spirit are flowing, words of knowledge and stuff is going on, and other times it's just, you know, it's just a good night in the word. Would that's not be disappointed in a good night in the word? I mean, the word is precious. You can put it in the bank. Fact is, if you don't get it settled in the integrity of God's word, you're not ever going to have very much. That's the way a lot of people live. They live their lives kind of doubting the word. Well, son, do you think it's going to work? Yeah, if you believe it and act on it, it will Every time, not some of the time, not part of the time.
Speaker 1:Every time you say 12 times 12 is 144, it's always 144. I know most of you didn't have little cards with 12 times 12 on there, but I did. The multiplication tables is what I grew up on and I had to memorize the multiplication table. I still remember them. I don't have to use a calculator to do basic. I think, I don't know, in my school we'd stopped off at 12. I wish we'd have gone all the way up to 20, but we didn't. So sometimes I don't remember what 16 times 16 is, but I think it's 196. But anyway, regardless, I don't have that in my memory, like I do 12 times 12.
Speaker 1:So when you have the Word of God in you, hallelujah. So Mark 11, 23,. What does it say? It says Whosoever shall say not pray, say to this mountain be thou removed, be thou cast into the sea, shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe those things which he saith, continually says, consistently says Not say it one time and then forget and say something else the next time. But you have a systematic discourse of what you're saying about a situation.
Speaker 1:We've been systematic about taking authority over the Antichrist spirit in this nation. We've been systematically opposing terrorists and terrorism in this country. I remember I think it was 2009,. I'm trying to remember it was after Obama took over what a disaster. We've had some real Lulu birds. We've had some real Lulu birds, but we had this terrorism started breaking out all over the place.
Speaker 1:And I went to Galvis and he said you know, there's going to be five terrorist attacks, but if you will pray, you will pray. Houston and Texas will be exempt. None of them will happen in your state, in your city. And I happen to know that Houston is high on the list of terrorism targets. I mean, you take the Houston ship channel. That is a prime target. Just think about the Houston Ship Channel. How do you guard it? How do you keep somebody from being in a boat filled with TNT bombs and all kind of sophisticated plastic explosives that could blow up the whole ship channel, all the refineries, all of the plants and everything else, all the storage back? Can you imagine the the economic and the ecological disaster that would happen with one terror attack on the Houston ship channel by just that alone? So we have been vigilant about speaking about Houston being a safe and prosperous city, and uh, but anyway.
Speaker 1:So we started praying and uh, you know, I don't remember, I don't know if you remember, but the guy was on the airplane flying in to to the country and he had this bomb that started going off. It started started, it lit fire in his pants. He had it stuffed in his pants. It was burning him, you know, he was exposed. Another guy had had a bomb in his shoe and it was exposed. Another one. They found a bomb coming in a in a printer head that was made in Europe, it was going to be shipped over here and it was going to explode, and they found that before it ever got on an airplane.
Speaker 1:And then, finally, the one that did happen was at Fort Hood, and Fort Hood was a nut job Muslim soldier that we led in our, in our, and he was a psychiatrist, a psychologist and his uh, you know, just demon possessed and uh, he, he murdered 13 soldiers because it's a gun free zone. Can you imagine being in the army and they don't trust you to carry a weapon and you can't defend yourself on a base? And here's this freak that's got a gun and he just starts opening fire and nobody can stop him until somebody finally the MPs finally find him and kill him and didn't kill him. They wounded him and paralyzed him and Obama classified it as a workplace violence. But he was saying I'll do Akbar the whole time. It's terrorism, you fool.
Speaker 1:And this whole DEI diversity, equity and inclusion that's been going on for a long time and we let these people into all the highest places just because they're Muslim, just because they're a certain you know color of skin, just because they're a certain you know gender or transgender, and that's supposed to make us better. No, it makes us worse. In really fact. All of the fecklessness, the stupidity that we've had with the FEMA and all of that is all directly at DEI, every bit of it, and the upper echelons of our military. It's eaten up with this whole wokeism. So you know we've got a record.
Speaker 1:We can speak and let the Word work. You know we can have prayer meetings. We do believe in prayer, we're going to pray, but nothing will take the place of faith-filled words. You can release the Word of God toward your situation If you believe it and believe when you speak, you have it and you act on it. And so, yeah, I've spoken on that, I've got that. That's taken care of right now, lord, I just thank you right now, the greater one's in me he's putting that. That's taken care of. I don't have anything to think about on that one Boy. Praise God, we took care of that with that proclamation I believe I received. I know I shall have it. Well, god has taken responsibility for performing what I spoke. I don't have to do it, he does it. That's good to think, that's good to remember.
Speaker 1:So Brother Hagin knows that, and so when he spoke that over that baby, they went back in and the nurse brought the baby out and said I don't know what in the world is going on, but we had the baby. It looked like it was going to die. But all of a sudden his little head was all caved in, the face, was just like a flat. It's like a soccer ball that didn't have any air in it, it was just. His face was concave and caved in and all of a sudden it looked like somebody blew his head up and it went pop and all of his bones popped out and his face was normal and they brought the baby in to mama and everything was fine and to my knowledge nobody ever laid hands on it, nobody ever prayed for healing.
Speaker 1:No, the man of God spoke something very simple Ah, tell him, the baby will live and not die. Where'd he get it? We got it right out of these verses, right here. Come on, lift your hands right now. Glory to God. We just need to let the Word work. You know, put all the pressure on the Word. I said put all the pressure on the Word. Don't take the pressure yourself. Put the pressure on the Word.
Speaker 1:Once you speak it in faith and act upon it, then God immediately takes responsibility for the performance. He watches over his word to perform it. He's the performer, we're the believer. That's all there is to it. I mean, there's no performing we have to do. He does the performing, we do the believing, he does the performing, we do the believing. Everybody say we do the believing, he does the performing. Oh, I'll tell you right now and set you free from sleepless nights, set you free from just going around and around and around and just praying and praying. See, all of that is just wastedness, religiosity. It doesn't do anything, it doesn't do one thing. God doesn't respond to that kind of praying. He responds to what Faith? He responds to his word. So once you believe, you receive. Then God becomes responsible for the results. Or I could say it this way Once you act on the Word, god becomes responsible for the results. Or we could say it this way Once you act like the Bible is true, then God becomes responsible for the Word.
Speaker 1:What happened with Paul? He, absolutely he, believed he received that Word from God and he told those men now y'all be of good cheer, I believe it will be even as it was told me. But now we've got to stick with the ship. Now don't you cut those ropes and get rid of those lifeboats? You don't get in those lifeboats. Better not do it. The angel told him you got to stick with the boat. You got to stick with the boat all the way to the shore. And that's exactly what they did, and every person, not one of them, died, not one of them, and the whole ship was destroyed, along with all the cargo.
Speaker 1:I tell you, we're not in the battle, we're in the victory. We ain't got, we haven't got any battles. Not when you, not when you've got the word of God. Have you got the word in your battle? I mean, if you've got a battle, he's got a word for you, and then the battle's over, because all you've got to do then is just speak. You don't even have to pray, you can speak. I'm not against praying, but sometimes there's a time to pray and sometimes there's a time to say Are y'all getting anything out of this? 1 John 5, 4 says faith is the victory. Amen. No whining, no complaining, no struggling, just praising God. All that's left is just to praise God.
Speaker 1:People come up to me and say oh, pastor, we're praying for Gladys, we're praying. Well, I appreciate you praying, but why don't you just praise God? Because it's done. We've already prayed, we've already released our faith. We believe we receive and we shall have. I believe it will be unto her.
Speaker 1:Even as it was said in the Bible, by His stripes she was healed Himself, bare our sicknesses and took our frailties of mind and our body. If he took them, she don't have them, but yeah, I know it doesn't look like it. Frailties of mind and or body. If he took them, she don't have them. Well, but but. But. But, yeah, I know it doesn't look like it, but I don't care what it looks like, because I've got the word and I believe it will be even as it was told me. So praying doesn't really have much to do other than praising.
Speaker 1:Praising is the best prayer you can have for Gladys. If you want to pray for her, praise God that she's healed, and you can pray for wisdom because we still have to interface with you know the crowd down at the doctor's office. Praise the Lord that takes. I welcome all your praying on that part. Oh, the greater one is living on the inside. He puts us over. Come on, lift your hands right now. Thank God for the Holy Ghost. He's the greater one, is living on the inside. He puts us over. Come on, lift your hands right now. Thank God for the Holy Ghost. He's the greater one. Greater is he that's in us than he that's in the world. The Word is working for you, so let the Word work.
Speaker 1:I'm reminded of years ago. I've told this story many times. I'm going to tell it again. I go to Galveston Galveston sometimes not every time, but many times he'll just show me something I've never seen before, and usually it's a one-off event. I never see it again. I mean, one time I was there and I saw three powered hang gliders. Who ever heard of seeing that? I mean, I'm out there on East Beach and here's not one, three, three of them are flying right down the beach. I've never. I've been there all these years. I've been going out there 40 years. I've never seen it before since. But that particular day I saw those powered hang gliders flying right down the beach. They went down and went all the way down, uh, seawall Boulevard, went out over the jetties and circle back around. You know like they were fighter. Went out over the jetties and circled back around. You know like they were fighter. You know formations. It's hilarious. And I don't remember what word he spoke to him, but he spoke a word about something.
Speaker 1:This time I'm sitting on the seawall. Seawall is 15 foot above sea level and so when you're looking at the surf right there, you know the water's. You know, coming in there's a water line, it's a little ways, and so you're kind of looking down to the beach and to the edge of the water. And it was a rough day. The wind was blowing really man, it was blowing hard, and the waves at the surf were this brown and dirty looking and you know all the turmoil of the waves and stuff, white caps, and here's this dude with his goggles on and he's got this outfit on and he's got a kayak, and I have never seen anybody in the surf at Galveston with a kayak. I mean a kayak that's for the bay. Or maybe you're kind of adventurous, even in the bay with a kayak. I mean a kayak is just kind of easily topped over. I mean there's no way I'm going to get in a kayak and surf.
Speaker 1:But anyway, here he was and you know, you sit in the kayak right, sit down on it and your feet are out in front of you and you got this little paddle like this and he launched it right into the teeth of those waves that are breaking and they're coming right over the front of his kayak and hitting him right in the teeth of those waves that are breaking and they're coming right over the front of his kayak and hitting him right in the face. Bam. And I knew he had goggles on because I'd seen a side view of him before he got in the kayak or on it, in it, on it, I don't know, anyway. So he starts paddling and boom, you know boom. And I'm up there laughing. I'm thinking how long is he going to last with that salt water hitting him right in the face? I mean it stings, it hurts. But he did have goggles on, but still you get in your nose, your mouth. It's just, man, it's hard, it's hard work.
Speaker 1:He's paddling into the wind and into the waves and he just man, paddling, paddling and finally he gets even with the far side of the jetties, where the jetties now are no longer, uh, taking some of the, uh, the waves out. And he's out there where the waves are not curling over and hitting him. So now he's going up and down and he's out, far enough away. Now he's probably far from here, is the other side of the building. So now my line of sight is more level. And so every time he goes over a wave, he disappears, he disappears and I don't see him. And then he pops up and he's still paddling. He goes down, he pops up, and I'm just laughing, I'm thinking, well, is he going to Guadalajara?
Speaker 1:Where is he headed? Is he going to Cuba? I mean, is he going to keep? When is he going to get tired and turn around and come back? Maybe, maybe the currents caught him, you know, maybe the current caught him and he can't really stop. I don't know. I mean, it's just, I'm. I'm just, I'm laughing, I'm not being, I'm not praying, I'm not, I'm not asking God anything, I'm just, I'm just enjoying my the view of this crazy looking view of, of this crazy person.
Speaker 1:And uh, and the Holy ghost says that, right, there is your faith. That's your faith. That's what your faith does. Your faith is working 24 seven. It's paddling, it's moving against every current, it's overcoming every obstacle. It never stops until it accomplishes what you please.
Speaker 1:Oh, come on, lift your hand right now. You don't have to stay up at night, you don't have to. You don't have to sweat bullets, you don't have to be in wonder, you don't have to be in in any kind of pressure. Put the pressure on the Word Hallelujah. I believe it will be, even as it was told me. So let the Word work. Number one, let it work in your health. Put it to work in your health. I mean, you know, years ago I proved this out in Proverbs 4. Find Proverbs 4, please. Proverbs 4 sent right to you, it's written right to you. It's for you, verse 20. My son, are you a son or a daughter? See, when I see my son, even in the Old Testament, I just put my name there.
Speaker 1:John, attend to my words, incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes, but keep them in the midst of thine heart. See? It kind of sounds like meditation, doesn't it? Or what my words they. My words are life unto those that find them, and health.
Speaker 1:My margin says medicine to all their flesh. His word is medicine to all their flesh and I speak the word every day over my health. I speak it over my body. I speak it over my body in the shower, at night before I go to bed. I speak the word of God over my body, top to head to my bottoms of my feet. I speak it over Gladys. The word works. I let the word work. I put all the pressure on the word. My job is to believe it. His job is to perform and he does. He will if you let him, but you have to let him. We have cards out there, healing scriptures that will help you. You know, back in the old days I just had to sit, go through my Bible and write all the scriptures down that I could find on healing. I had a notebook in those days.
Speaker 1:I was real young in the Lord when I discovered this and I overcame an allergy to elastic. It took me about six months, but I took the word four times a day as medicine, just like you'd take a pill. I took it first thing in the morning, I took it at lunch, I took it at supper time, I took it at bedtime every day for about six months. Nothing. In fact, it got worse. I had such rash around my middle where the elastic would touch my skin. My socks would just break out around my ankles. I was miserable.
Speaker 1:I'd sit in Lakewood and I'd get my ballpoint pen and I'd run it down and scratch, you know, by my shirt, you know trying to Hello, there you go, messed my microphone up. I mean it's kind of embarrassing, you know, be scratching, but it's just, it was just tormenting. It's hard to sleep at night, and uh, and then one day I woke up one morning, went in the restroom, get ready, go to work, and was standing in front of the laboratory, the mirror and all that kind of thing, and and I stood there for a little while, brushed my teeth, and I realized I don't itch, there's no itching. And I looked at my skin and it looked as bad as it did the day before. It was nasty looking, it was open, you know, runny, bloody, I mean from all the scratching. I'd scratched all the top skin off and that's not good. I mean you get infections, you know, and you get all this kind of stuff. You know it was bad. It still looked bad, but I didn't have any torment. I had no itch that day and the next morning as God is my witness, when I looked at my skin, it was like baby skin. It was like it was gone.
Speaker 1:The word of God drove that allergy and all the eczema or whatever that was. Whatever it was, I don't even know what it was. The doctor had said years before it was an allergy to elastic. I don't know. But now, praise God, I'm free of it and I've used it for all kinds of things. Everybody say the word is medicine to my flesh.
Speaker 1:You know, let the word work in your dealings with people. Persecution, gossip, lies, people lie about you. You're a target when you live for God. People hate you. The devil in them hates Jesus in you. I mean, you know, I believe in favor and I know God can give us favor, but he doesn't give us. He does not give us favor. 360 degrees around us. We have favor in a direction, all right, but I'm telling you a lot of times you'll run up against people that just hate you for no reason and instead of battling that in the natural and getting all offended and getting their feelings hurt and all of that. Well, just let the Word work. You know, when somebody's particularly bad, you know. I'll just go to Jeremiah.
Speaker 1:Let's look at Jeremiah, chapter 20. First of all, I forgive. Forgive them, I pray for them, but a lot of times that doesn't. I can't tell any difference. They're still ugly, you know. They're still ugly and they're still doing, you know, lying about me and saying things, and shouldn't Jeremiah 20 verse 11? But I like to remind myself and saying things, and shouldn't Jeremiah 20 verse 11. But I like to remind myself.
Speaker 1:But the Lord is with me, as a mighty, terrible one. Therefore, because he is, he's with me, my persecutors shall stumble and they shall not prevail. They shall be greatly ashamed, for they shall not prosper. Their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten. Well, pastor, that's kind of well. I'm just praying the Word. You ought to look at Psalm 55. Hold your place right there. Look at Psalm 55. There are some things that you can pray and say. You don't even have to pray it, you can say it. And if you want to be a little more merciful, you can leave off the more radical things that are there. But before we get to Psalm 55,. But the Lord is with me as a mighty, terrible one. When you look that up, in the Hebrew it means that God is a violent champion. He is a ruthless tyrant. So you mess with me. You're going to have to deal with the ruthless tyrant. Now he's God, but to you he's ruthless. Now he's God, but to you he's ruthless. To you, he's got it, he's going to, he's going to give you some things to think about if you keep messing with me. All right, let's look at Psalm 55.
Speaker 1:Verse 6, I said, oh, that I had wings like a dove, and then I'd fly away and be at rest. Then I would wander far off and remain in the wilderness. I would hasten my escape from the windy, storm and tempest, destroy O Lord and divide their tongues. He's talking about people that are lying about you, gossiping about you. I could have borne it if it was an enemy. Neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me. Then I would have hid myself from him. But it was you, a man, mine equal, my guide and my acquaintance. We took counsel together and walked into the house of God and company, in other words. Somebody that was close to you, somebody that called themselves your friend, is your betrayer.
Speaker 1:I can't count the times that's happened. Does that make you negative? No, it just means that I know that the devil is the devil and some people just turn. Some people just turn for whatever reason. They give themselves over to things they shouldn't, and so this is kind of tough. Let death seize upon him and let them go down quick into hell, for wickedness is in their dwellings and among them. But as for me, I'll call upon God and the Lord shall save me. Evening and morning at noon I'll pray. He delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me. I don't usually pray that they die okay, I don't pray that. And I don't say that I had one die, though I didn't pray it. In fact, god told me ahead of time so and so is gonna. In fact, god told me ahead of time so-and-so is going to die.
Speaker 1:He gave me the date. I put it on a note card. I mean he had betrayed, he returned evil for good and I forgave him. I marked it, I did the best I could to walk in forgiveness, but I didn't get anything back. There was never any repentance. There was never any reaching back to make it right. And one day I was minding my own business and God gave me the date when it was going to happen he's going to die. I wrote it down on a note card, put it in my desk in my study at home and I said, wow, god, man, man.
Speaker 1:Then we heard and that date, I'm talking about the date, I'm talking about the month, not the day, but the month. He gave me the month. And that month we heard. And so I pulled that note card out of and I had it dated. It was three months before that and I took it and I hadn't heard anything about him. I know he was sick. I don't think anybody knew he was sick, but anyway, I said honey, read that. I said, did you hear about so-and-so? Yeah, I just heard. I said read that right there on that card, because I heard about it three months ago.
Speaker 1:You know these things. Look, you know God is for you. He's a mighty terrible one. People mess with you. See, don't get victim. My point of all of this is not so you can hurt people. My point is for you not to be so sensitive about people messing with you. Just say you know, god, they're messing with me. I'd rather them mess with you.
Speaker 1:I'm going to put the pressure on the Word. I'm going to let you handle this. I'm not going to touch it. I'm not going to go around trying to, you know, talk about it. I'm not going to go out trying to get vengeance. I'm not going to try to pay them back. I really don't care. I mean, I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing. I'm not, I'm not guilty of the things that they're saying. And if I am, you just let me know and I'll go and repent to them if I have to. Are y'all with me now? Y'all are looking at me kind of oh, put the pressure on the word and stay free, stay free. And then the last one you know, let the word work in your finances.
Speaker 1:You know we talked about tithing and giving this morning. Or, roberts told me. He said God told him about tithing and how very few people in the church tithe. Something like 2% of Christians tithe. And why? Well, because they're not taught that. They have gimmicks that they give in to. They have capital campaigns their churches run where they're manipulated into giving a bunch of money to some project, and the means by which they use.
Speaker 1:That is just not God Guilt, tripping people and manipulation. I don't believe in that. I believe in letting you know what the need is. We've got a need together. This church is ours. It's not mine, I don't own it. And when we have a need, it's our need, and so I open it up for you to hear from God about what your participation level will be. And I'm not going to hire some firm to come in and interview you in your living room and try to pressure you into a schedule of payments that you're going to make for the next 30 years. Are y'all with me now? So?
Speaker 1:But God told brother Oral Roberts. He said you know my people, tell my people to tithe, bring all the tithes into the storehouse. They are cheating themselves. They're cheating themselves. When you don't tithe, you cheat yourself. When you don't give over and above the tithe, you cheat yourself. You're not saving anything. You're not getting away with anything. You're not doing anything for yourself. It's profitable. You are cheating yourself. Tell them that, he said, and he told me.
Speaker 1:When I interviewed Brother Roberts, he said John, this is the guts of the gospel. Preach this all the time, preach it over and over, don't stop, grab me by my lapel, don't stop preaching this, john. So I don't. And what about cheating yourself? Well, the Bible says when you tithe, god will open up the windows of heaven and pour you out ideas, concepts and insights so much that you can't contain them. You'll have ideas that will either save you money, make you money you know saving money is making money God will give you ideas, for you're a tither God will give you ideas about money.
Speaker 1:I had a lady she's in heaven now, but she heard this message years ago and the Holy Ghost said buy Apple. You know Apple is an ungodly company. You know they're woke, they're liberal, but you know the Holy Ghost told her buy Apple. So she bought Apple stock. When the Holy Ghost told her buy Apple, so she bought Apple stock. When the Holy Ghost told her, she called her stockbroker, said buy Apple. And she put a pretty good chunk of money into Apple and I mean in two months it doubled and she made money. Little old lady, you know, praise God.
Speaker 1:You know the tither it says. You know if you tithe, he will protect your assets. You know he'll protect your assets, he'll protect. You know we have insurance. You know that covers us. But sometimes insurance is not enough, and if you've got an asset, you know if you're a tither, god will protect your assets, and so that's a word that you can use that when your assets are attacked, like right now under the Bidenomics, you know your assets. If you've got 401ks, if you've got a stock portfolio, it's been attacked. Yeah, I know the stock market is up, but inflation is up, and so your dollar today doesn't buy what a dollar did four years ago. It has hit the retirement, the people of retirement age. It has been disproportionate in its damage. And to the middle class, no, apple's not hurt. All the bigwigs aren't hurt. They keep talking about Trump giving tax cuts to rich people. They're the party of the rich. Democrats are the party of the rich, not Republicans. They're the party of the rich. Democrats are the party of the rich, not Republicans.
Speaker 1:So protect your assets and he'll give you favor. He'll give you favor. I mean, it's key for us to have favor in the direction that's consistent with God's call on your life. So get your mouth working. Get your mouth in gear. Don't come against what you're doing with your tithes and offerings.
Speaker 1:Come back around and speak now, because I'm tired, you know. That's why we like to have you bring it up to the front, we like to dance it up here, rejoice. And then I like I. I see some of you standing in front of your of the offering bucket and you've got your. You've got your offering in your hand and you're speaking. I see that you're speaking before you put it in there. See, I like that because that's what I'm talking about. You wrap your words around your offering and God then see, you gave by faith, you acted in faith and now God takes full responsibility for the results, and the results are. You're going to get blessed. So hook up your tongue to your faith and let the word work. Come on, lift your hands and receive tonight. Hallelujah. Thank you, lord. Did you get anything out of this tonight? Well, come on, let's rejoice a little while. Hallelujah. Everybody say I'm putting pressure on the Word. The Word can take the weight. I don't have any weight. I might have come in heavy, but I'm leaving light, I'm all right.