Believing God For Great Things

Pick our Bibles up.

Let's all stand back up if you've been sitting a while, and then let's lift our Bibles up, wave them around, make Jesus glad and the devil mad.

Let's say this together Say Heavenly Father, I'm so glad for what I've witnessed here tonight.

I'm so thankful for the Word of God and for the Holy Spirit and I'm thanking you for the zoe life of God that quickens my mortal flesh and I thank you for the word that's going forth tonight.

I receive it by faith in Jesus' name, amen.

Well, you know Jay has already been sharing out of Ephesians, chapter 3, and that is my foundation scripture Ephesians chapter 3.

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

Didn't know he was going to share that.

He didn't know I was going to share it.

So I've got a message here and the message is believe in God for great things.

Believe in God for great things.

Right in the middle of all of the bad news.

You know we are the ones who have the good news.

Believe in God for great things.

Right in the middle of all of the bad news.

You know we, we are the ones who have the good news.

Believe in God for great things.

Let's look at Ephesians, chapter three, verse 14.

This is one of the prayers that I pray over myself every day, and uh, and so this being written in the Bible is God's will.

You know when you can pray this prayer.

You know it's God's will for you to have everything that you're asking for in this prayer.

So, verse 14, for this cause, paul's writing to the Ephesian church.

And of course we can say the same thing, and I'm going to probably lapse into the prayer for myself.

So I'm not going to read it as it is in the King James, I'm going to pray it because that's what I do every day.

So, lord, I just bow my knees under the Father of my Lord, jesus Christ, of whom I've been named.

I'm part of the family in heaven and earth and I have that name that he would grant me according to the riches of his glory.

You would grant me, according to the riches of your glory, to be strengthened with might by your spirit in my inner man that Christ may dwell in and have a happy home in my heart by faith.

That's what the Amplified says that I, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passes all knowledge, and that I might be filled with all the fullness of God and that I might be filled with all the fullness of God Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly.

Above all, that I dare ask or think According to the power that worketh in me.

To him be glory in the church throughout all ages, world without end.

Amen.

So I just wanted to remind you.

Here we are in the, you know, almost halfway through 2024, which is the year of momentum, god's momentum.

God has built up momentum.

It gave me that to end of 2023, last year, year of God's power.

Now, god's momentum and momentum is defined as the force or energy exerted by a moving body.

You know, god is moving in the body of Christ.

We and God has been moving and this energy, this force, it's generated.

It's called momentum in physics.

It's a force or energy exerted by a series of events, and there certainly have been a series of events that God is moving.

You know, we, we focus a lot on what the devil is doing, but God is doing a whole lot more than the devil.

God, many times working behind the scenes.

God is awakening the church and we're seeing evidence of it everywhere we go, the favor that we have as we go across this country and people that we talk on the phone we're invited to be on calls and podcasts.

I mean it's just, doors are flying open like the old-timey screen door.

A couple of weeks ago I was praying over James and Claire to go to Baton Rouge for our first meeting or maybe it was our second one there in Louisiana, and I saw doors open before him and he didn't yet have the whole team assembled and I saw this like old-timey screen door blow open like bam.

You know, maybe you're too young to have grown up with screen doors, but I remember screen doors, you know, in my house in Galena Park and I saw that door just fly open and on the way there he got a call from a pastor and it was a pastor they'd been wanting to talk to and God put it all together and they're our team that are representing my God Votes there in Baton Rouge.

So a force or energy inserted by a series of events and of course the momentum results in prevailing and we're prevailing over the contrary circumstances in this nation.

We're prevailing over the contrary circumstances in our own lives.

You know God, god doesn't love the big picture anymore, that he loves you and everything that that involves with you.

So, and then he, god, gave me some other things.

Everything old is new again, everything receding is advancing again.

I thought about the tsunami, how a tsunami has to gather the water from the shore before it comes back on the shore.

And I'm telling you we've got a tsunami about to hit the world.

This tsunami has got two elements it's got judgment, but it's also got glory.

The same wave that brings the glory brings the judgment, brings the separation.

Judgment just simply means separation.

In order to have a harvest, you've judgment brings the separation Judgment just simply means separation.

In order to have a harvest, you've got to separate the chaff from the wheat.

You've got to separate, you know, the tares from the wheat.

That has to be separated.

So this, this tsunami, it's simultaneous and it's it's we're beginning to see the beginnings of it.

This momentum is what I saw.

This is a year of momentum, and so, uh, and then a kingdom of God mightily grows and prevails.

Prevails means overcomes.

It doesn't mean everything's wonderful.

It means that you have to make it, you have to prevail over it, you have to overcome certain things.

I mean, wherever there's an open door.

There are adversaries there on either side to stop you from going through an open door that God opens, and so I just wanted to let you know that God wants us, this generation.

He wants to break the mold.

He wants to break us through the limitations that we've experienced the last long while.

There's been a lot of short failings and shortcomings.

The church has been asleep and you know we're waking up and, of course, this church has been awake because God woke me up a long time ago, 1999, to be exact.

He woke me up, told me to wake up the church, and suddenly it has occurred to me recently that I mean the church means the church.

There's only one church.

There's not just a word of faith church, they're not just the full gospel church, there's not just, it's the church, there's only one.

And we've got it all split up into denominations and different sectarian beliefs and all of that, but there's only one true church.

There's only one Jesus.

There's only one God.

There's only one Father, amen.

And he didn't tell me just to wake up my kind of people.

He told me to wake up the church and guess what?

That's what we're doing right now.

We're waking up the church and we're finding people that are Baptists, they're Presbyterian.

I mean, we've got Presbyter and I'm telling you, the frozen chosen are defrosting fast.

Praise God, all right.

So God wants us to break the mold with this generation, break through the barriers.

You know, I've lived long enough to see man on the Moon.

I remember listening to John F Kennedy in 1960.

It was a big deal.

When I was a teenager he in fact barely a teenager, I was what 14, 13, I guess.

When I was a teenager In fact barely a teenager, I was what 14, 13, I guess.

When he was inaugurated, a big deal.

When he was president.

He was first Catholic president.

That was a big deal because my family was Catholic.

And you know, watching the Nixon-Kennedy debates on television, and Nixon looked like a criminal.

He had a growth of beard, he looked dark, he looked bad.

I mean here's Kennedy, young and youthful.

I mean he had a makeup person made him up.

Nixon arrives at this thing sweating.

He's got sweat under his nose.

I mean disgusting.

I mean he lost.

Just because it was the first televised debate, he lost the whole thing.

Nobody paid any attention to what Nixon said, they just looked at him.

He looked like a crook, you know.

But John F Kennedy.

He said you know, this decade we're going to put a man on the moon.

You've got to remember, 1960 was when Russia and America were the two superpowers we're.

You know, nobody even thought about China, forget about China.

Nobody even knew China existed.

It was Russia and America and we'd go to school and hide under the desk and do drills for the atomic bomb.

Whenever we had nuclear war, we'd act like they would actually think that you could hide under a desk and get away from a nuclear bomb.

I mean, how dumb can you get and still breathe?

Yeah, that's going to really help you a whole lot with a nuclear bomb.

That was the atmosphere that I was in, these young people, that was the atmosphere I was growing up in back then, and I remember him saying we're going to put a man on the moon and that seemed like the furthest thing.

But you know, momentum is a series of events, and so, by a series of events, first of all we got a guy that orbited.

You know, first of all we sent the spacecraft around with nobody in it.

Then we had an astronaut go in it and make one orbit around the earth.

And then you had a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more until you finally.

I mean I was there, you know, in 1969, my parents house, watching the.

You know the man on the moon.

I mean it was he.

He had vision.

You see, in just 1903 was the first manned flight and then, less than 66 later, you got a man on the moon.

Look at you talk about breaking through barriers.

I was watching my granddaughter and my grandson running their track meet yesterday.

It was on, it was on live stream, so we got to watch the state meet and and uh, their Christian school, uh uh.

The girls team won state first place in state.

Their track team won.

But Thea was running and I think I was watching her run and I was just thinking about she's faster than I was at her age.

I mean, I couldn't run a 400 meter dash as fast as she could.

And girls in that meet, they were all much slower than the boys.

By the way, I saw the times.

The times were not comparable.

The boys were way faster.

So this whole thing about boys competing against girls is just a bunk.

We know that, but it was illustrated right in front of my eyes yesterday afternoon.

But I was watching my granddaughter just thinking, man, she broke the most.

She ran faster than I'd ever.

I never did run that fast.

You know, when I was in my granddaughter, just thinking, man, she broke the mold.

She ran faster than I'd ever.

I never did run that fast.

You know, when I was in high school and you know it made me think about this message.

It made me think about breaking the mold, the four-minute mile.

I had a guy that was my roommate at A&M.

I went to high school with him and he ran the mile run.

He won state in class 2A his senior year at Refugio High School.

He won the state meet running the mile and he ran it under four minutes.

And that's a big deal, because that didn't happen until 1955.

No one had ever run a four-minute mile until 1955.

John Barrister ran it and no one had ever climbed Everest, mount Everest until 1953.

Sir Edmund Hillary was the first man.

I mean no telling how many people have died trying to climb Mount Everest.

He was the first one to do it and then, after he did it, lots of people did it.

After the four-minute mile it wasn't a barrier anymore All of a sudden.

It was just like magic.

It just like everybody broke the four minute mile.

It was like an artificial barrier.

Listen, god wants this generation in the church to break through the barriers and to do some great things.

It's going to take great things to usher in the glory of the Lord.

We ought to be about that.

Jesus said the works that I do shall you do also, in greater works than these shall you do Because I go to my father, and so I believe that belongs to this generation.

I really do so.

I think about Brother Hagin.

We watch his International Rhema Day.

So we had a promotion this morning about Rhema and Brother Hagin.

Brother hagan next to brother osteen, and brother hagan's probably the biggest influence in my life ministerially and uh, I followed him very closely.

I didn't go to rhema but I could have, but I didn't.

I asked the lord if he wanted me to go.

He said no, you just stay there, brother osteen, and go to his bible school.

He didn't have a bible school but I, I just there every, every time the door was open.

And you know I learned a lot from that association.

But I've always admired brother Hagan and and uh, and so he, he, he testified that it took years and years for him to believe God, to get a $1 million gift given to his ministry and when it happened the first time it happened.

After that it started happening with frequency.

It just like it was a barrier and he broke through it, his faith broke through it and then it was just more and more and he was able to gather the resources it took to to cause Rhema Bible training center to go all over the world.

And I mean it's just amazing what they've done with that vision.

And even since he went to heaven he went to heaven in 2003 and his son, kenneth W Hagen, pastor Hagen, I mean, he just picked up the mantle and kept going.

In fact, it's probably grown more since Brother Hagen went to heaven than beforehand.

It's amazing.

And you have that double portion kicking in.

Are y'all with me?

Now Talking about breaking through the barriers?

Let's look at Psalm 78.

Children of Israel.

Psalm 78, verse 37.

Psalms 78:37

Well, we'll back up Verse 35.

They remembered Israel, remembered that God was their rock and the high God their redeemer.

Nevertheless, they did flatter him with their mouth and they lied unto him with their tongues, for their heart was not right with him.

Neither were they steadfast in his covenant, but he, being full of compassion see that word compassion again is hesed.

It's covenant kindness, it's covenant obligation.

God cannot not bless them, even when they really don't deserve it.

Why?

Because he had covenant with Abraham and uh, but he nevertheless, he being full of compassion, forgave their iniquities.

He's so patient, god's patient.

He's patient with America.

We're ready to throw rocks and God's still patient with America.

He's going to let us reap a few storms and he's going to let us reap a few difficulties and financial reversals until we learn that in God we trust.

As a nation, we better start getting back to our motto and God is not the God of the Muslim, and God is not the God of the Hindu.

God is the God of Abraham, isaac and Jacob, and God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That's the God.

There's only one of him.

He's not your higher power, he's your God.

He's not who you call God.

See, that's what their favorite thing is to say.

No, that's watered down, that's not true.

There's only one God.

All right, so, but he, being full of compassion verse 38, forgave their iniquity, destroyed them not, yea.

Many times he turned his anger away and did not stir up all his wrath.

See, he's not stirred up all his wrath yet, even at America, for he remembered that they were flesh, a wind that passes away and cometh not again.

How often did they provoke him in the wilderness and grieve him in the desert?

Yea, they turned back and tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel.

They limited God.

If we're not careful, we can be like Israel.

We can limit God If we fail to break through when we have this Holy Ghost power.

That Jay was preaching all the way through the baptism service.

I mean, you know, you heard it over and over again.

He didn't know what I was gonna preach tonight.

But listen, we've got the third person of the Godhead filling us to overflowing.

We have no excuse to limit God.

We have every possibility of doing great things for him.

Amen.

And so, you know, they kept forgetting God's miracles.

They, they never learned from their mistakes.

They, they weren't steadfast in the miracles.

They never learned from their mistakes.

They weren't steadfast in the covenant.

They forgot.

You know, they turned back.

They limited God through unbelief.

And so let's take the limits off of God, let's believe for great things.

You know Jesus said I've come.

He didn't come to make good people, bad people, good.

He came to make dead people live.

That's what he came to do.

He came to give us life, zoe life, he said.

I came to give life life more abundantly.

And you look that up in the Greek it means super, abundant in quantity, superior in quality.

That's what we've all received.

When we got saved, we received a quantitative and a qualitative life that's unmatched.

What we had before was death.

Oh, yeah, we had a heartbeat.

Yeah, we could walk, we could think, but it was death.

Why?

Because it was separation from God.

What we have now, oh, we are united with God.

We're one, we're in the family, we've been named and we're called in the family of God.

We have an.

We're in the family, we've been named and we're called in the family of God.

We have an opportunity to do the greater works.

Lord, come on, lift your hands right now.

Hallelujah, I like to say about eternal life.

He gives us life too much and too nice.

Too much and too nice, oh, that's just too nice, that's too nice.

A jacket, well, that's befitting of what God gave me.

He gave me a really nice.

You know, he fulfills all my needs.

If I need a really nice jacket, he'll give me one.

Won't bankrupt heaven for me to have a real nice jacket, praise the Lord.

I think I paid almost $100 for this one.

I don't know what I paid for it, but anyway, all right.

So I want to leave you with three things tonight about accomplishing and doing the greater works and believe in God for great things.

I mean, you know, you may be in a kind of a.

I've been there, I've been in places that were uncomfortable.

There was a shortfall, there was a disappointment in my expectations, you know.

But listen, we're chosen to live right now.

This is so pivotal right now, and so there's three things I want you to realize and keep in mind about, uh, believe in God for great things.

Number one is found back in Ephesians three.

Let's turn back over there.

That Holy ghost prayer.

I tell you when you, when you pray this I've been praying it for years, years and years.

I can't count how many times I've prayed it, because I pray it every day.

I pray it every day.

Sometimes it's at different times, but most of the time early in the morning.

But in verse 15, realize that you're named with his name.

You're part of the whole family in heaven and earth.

You're named, you're part of that family.

You're named, you carry the family name, you're royalty.

You're a royal priesthood and a holy nation.

You're a peculiar people, amen.

I mean that alone ought to give you some encouragement that, hey, I don't have to just settle for average, I don't have to settle for just mediocre.

Let's do something great.

Let's realize we're named with his name.

Miracles are in our DNA El Shaddai, the God who is more than enough.

He's in your DNA.

He's your heavenly father.

That's part of the family name.

Praise God More than enough.

Everybody say I'm believing for more than enough.

Well, that just seems greedy.

Well, no, it's not greedy, because if you have more than enough, you'd be bigger blessing.

I mean, sure he wants you to have enough for you, but if you have more than enough now, you've got a whole lot to share.

Now you've got more to bless other people with.

So let's realize we're named with his name.

Number two, the very next verse let's realize that we are strengthened and reinforced with mighty power by the Holy Ghost and our innermost being and personality.

Jay quoted that earlier and I've got it right here in point number two let's realize we're strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in our innermost being and personality.

And I heard Jay say this.

He said don't, don't be just settling for your person.

And well, my personality is different.

No, let the Holy ghost shape your personality.

You know, your personality can expand, your personality can change.

I think about Saul, king Saul.

You know he was head and shoulders above everybody else and he, he had weaknesses, he had, he had shortcomings that were hidden.

But God chose him to be Israel's first king because God was upset with Israel, that they wanted a king.

He never wanted Israel to have a king.

He wanted to be their king.

But they wanted to be like all the other nations.

And the prophet Samuel warned them, said don't do this.

God does not want you to do this.

He's going to make him mad.

No, we'll have a king.

So Samuel goes back to God and they're just determined they're going to have a king.

See that, you know, israel is just over and over.

They've just kicked at the pricks.

They just keep busting at the traces.

They don't want to do what God wants them to do from the very beginning.

That's our flesh.

That's a picture.

Israel is a picture of your flesh unredeemed.

Your flesh cannot please God.

Your flesh can't serve God.

Your flesh always wants to go diametrically opposed to God.

So that's why we've got to get over here in the spirit realm.

We've got to put to death the deeds of the body, crucify the flesh.

People say die to self.

No, you don't die to self.

Self is a spirit.

No, you crucify the flesh, you crucify the, you mortify the deeds of the body.

You put, you put the flesh to death, the deeds of the flesh, and you walk in the spirit.

So we are strengthened and reinforced with mighty power by the Holy Ghost in our innermost being and personality.

And so, getting back to Saul, god said okay, anoint Saul, I'm going to have him be the king because he looked the part.

He is who, if they had voted, if they had had an election, he would have won the election.

Israel would have voted for Saul because he was man, he was handsome, he was tall, head and shoulders, taller than everybody.

He looked the part part, he looked like a king.

But he was very humble, very quiet, very meek.

And so when he was first, you know, anointed to be king, well, he, you know, he didn't know what to think.

You know, he, he was embarrassed, everything.

And you know, if you keep reading in that in first sam, in first sam, you'll find out that later on he got over there and he started prophesying and he was he and he, and he took his clothes off and laid on a roof and he still prophesied all day long and he was likened unto another man.

The anointing came on him and changed his personality.

Are you with me now?

And that's old Testament, so you don't have to be like meek and backward and embarrassed and shy.

Uh, you know, that's that.

You may be shy, but listen, let the Holy ghost get inside of you and transform your personality so that you're both.

The righteous are as bold as a lion Doesn't say the righteous are shy, amen.

So let's realize we're named with his name, we're, we're in the family of God.

Let's realize we're strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in our innermost being by the Holy ghost and in our personality.

The greater one, greater is he that's in us and he that's in the world.

And then, finally, let's realize how much God loves us, so we're filled with all his fullness.

It's not just a one-time thing.

It's not just one time we got filled with the Holy Ghost and one time we spoke in other tongues.

It's staying full, being continually and habitually filled with the Holy Ghost.

That's the will of God, ephesians 5.

Don't be unwise, but know what the will of God is and be being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Be continually and habitually filled with the Holy Ghost.

Well, that takes diligence, it takes time, it takes attention and if you'll do that, you'll be filled with all of his fullness, so that you're never down, you're always up.

You're never finished, you're just getting started.

You're never finished, you're just getting started.

You're never weak, you're always strong.

Praise God because you're strong in him.

Let's live from this position.

Let's break the mold.

Let's break through the barriers that have held us back Sometimes.

You know personally, we have barriers that we, you know, we've stood in our way sometimes for years.

Let's break through those in this year of momentum.

This year of momentum is a time when we're going to break through things that have held us back and I believe, as the whole church enters into that, the church itself will rise up and break through some things and we're going to see great things before the Lord comes back.

He's coming soon and I want to be found doing what he wants us to do.

Come on, lift your hands and receive tonight.

Let's believe God for great things.

Believe God for great things.

Amen, hallelujah.

Glory to God.

Just be encouraged, be encouraged.

Thank you, lord.