What! That’s right, we are believeing God for the impossible. Many have been seeing posts and tweets with the hastag #4for400 and have been asking what that is. So here is the deal…
We need to WAKE UP! We need to get serious about the magnificent and omnipotent Lord God that we serve! We need to stop sleeping in the safety of salvation and walk in the realm of wonders and miracles! Believing God for the impossible is exactly what we need to do! When Elijah Continue reading “4 for 400!” »
This past weekend we ended the series Freedom on the fact that in Jesus we have the freedom to be bold in risk! The basis for this message was found in Acts 4:13-22 where Peter and John had healed a crippled man and the Leaders and Elders were opposing their actions and threatened them not speak in the name of Jesus anymore. The KEY to this passage was that Peter and John’s opposition recognized their fruit and it was because of their fruit that they were not killed or imprisoned!
However, that was only the beginning! Peter and John and the others did not shrink in the midst of their resistance but rather shifted into a FULL COURT PRESS!
I want to encourage you as a believer that now is the time for a FULL COURT PRESS! You know what I like about the biblical version of this? Even though they “cranked it up”, they let God do the cranking! I think sometimes we are guilty of being so excited and determined that our FULL COURT PRESS becomes a contest between the will of Men rather than the will of God! I’m not saying don’t crank it up…by all means now is the time! But let’s do it in the power of the Holy Spirit rather than the power of the will of man.
Reading further down in Acts 4 we see a perfect example of what it means to trust God for the impossible! Their reaction to the men who opposed them was a HOLY PRESS! They didn’t go after them in their own might but rather turned to God in prayer and said, God, you take care of this and empower us to be bold in your calling. That is exactly what God did! But the impossibility of what they prayed in Acts 4:29-31 is the AUDACITY that I encourage you as a believer to also tap! Ordinary men prayed for the extraordinary power of God and as impossible as that may seem, that is exactly what God gave them.
It is time for a FULL COURT PRESS! Believe God for the impossible!
Are Miracles real? Absolutely! Can and will God demonstrate healing by His Spirit through you, if he so chooses? Absolutely!
My boy Garrett, called me on the phone this week. With sound of fear, a trembling voice, and the sniffle of a tear, he said, “Dad, we were messing around with the fire barrel and the fire came out of the bottom of the barrel and it burned my leg.” He continued, “it hurts daddy, it hurts, it’s burning, can you come home!” It was difficult to tell whether or not he was severely burned or just “scorched”, so immediately I began to pray and rushed home.
When I arrived, he was sitting in a tub of cold water with his leg submerged trying to keep it cool. Sure enough he had burnt it pretty good, no blistering, but the hair was gone and it was scarred red where the fire had licked him. He was bare footed and had on shorts, so when the fire came out of the bottom of the barrel it got him from his toes up to his knee. I asked him to get out of the tub and come with me, that we were going to pray over it, and he said, “please daddy, please!” “Jesus can fix it!”
As a father, I can’t describe to you the sheer joy one has when their child believes against all odds that King Jesus can fix anything! Garrett is a 10 year old boy, going into Middle School this year (2010). He has given his life to Jesus and is a child of the Most High God! But he is a spunky kid, very outgoing, tough, not one that yet shows his gentle loving spirit.
Now, regardless of what you may think as a reader of this story, I believe with all my heart that God is still in the business of physically healing through His Spirit that lives and dwells in all those who have trusted in His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. This day was no exception! Garrett lie across the bed and we began to pray together for a touch from the almighty Father in Heaven to remove the fire from his leg, that He may be glorified in us and witness to all those who hear. After about 20 minutes, we both opened our eyes and to our delight, what was a pretty nasty burn that was irritatingly red, could barely be seen. The fire was gone, that burn that all of us know all to well began to subside. He said, “I knew he could do it!” Overwhelmed and hardly able to speak, I told him to just rest and that I would return later that evening to check on him. Three hours later upon my return, it was completely gone! PRAISE GOD!
Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done—by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.
(Rom 15:17-19)
I am not crazy, nor do I speak any untruth about the severity of the burn. My witness and the witness of my son of what God did by his Spirit through Jesus Christ is trustworthy and true, worthy of praise and testimony to all that will hear. To Him be Glory and Honor forever, Amen!
