Let The Word Work 1

those Bibles and make Jesus glad and the devil mad.

Say this together say, heavenly Father, I'm so glad you're at work today.

You're moving on our behalf.

When you lean in to me, you're going to hear words of faith.

I speak your word, I believe your word in my heart, I speak it with my mouth and I have the victory.

I have the victory in Jesus name.

Amen, you can be seated.

Let's look at Acts 27.

You mean, it's not a Christmas message.

You know I've been.

You know there's been Easter's where I didn't even preach an Easter message.

I just preach whatever the Word of God is supposed to be.

I mean, I don't.

As a Catholic, I grew up with liturgy.

You know what liturgy is.

They celebrate each you know season and all that Advent, lent and so forth and so on.

Brother, those things taught me just to preach the Word.

It's not wrong to preach a Christmas.

I'll probably preach a Christmas message sometime, but right now I want to preach this message because this is what you need to hear Amen.

All right, let's look at Acts 27.

This is starting with verse 20.

This is Paul and he's on a ship 276.

He's one of 276 people on this ship and it's being I mean, it's a big storm.

You know, the disciples thought they were in a big storm.

They had to wake up Jesus.

He was asleep in the back of the ship on the Sea of Galilee.

I've been on the Sea of Galilee, that's kind of like Lake Conroe, but this is a Mediterranean here.

This, you know, this is not a ship with 13.

This is a ship of 276, and they, man, let me tell you something, they think it's bleak.

So let's pick up the testimony of verse 20.

And we, when neither sun nor stars and many days appeared and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away.

Who took it away?

Well, the devil took it away.

I tell you, fear will take all your hope.

But after long abstinence, paul stood forth in the midst of them and said sirs, I told you so you should have harkened unto me and not have loosed from Crete and to have gained this harm and loss.

And now I exhort you to be of good courage, be of good cheer, be of good courage, 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, for thou must be brought before Caesar, and lo God hath given thee all them that sail with thee.

Wherefore, sirs, be of good courage.

He said it the second time.

Be of good courage.

I mean why?

Because all hope had been taken away.

I mean, they're desperate, they think it's all over.

Be of good courage, for I believe, god, that it shall be, even as it was told me.

I think it'd be good for us to repeat that last, for I believe, god, that it will be, even as it was told me.

Glory to God.

And so the title of the message today is let the word work.

Let the word work, let the word do the work that it's designed to do.

And in the middle of this deadly storm, all hope.

They had no hope.

They just knew they were going to die.

They were at, they were abstaining from meat, so they weren't believers.

But yet when they were face, see, there's no, there's no atheists in foxholes.

You know, when people face death, they might be an atheist, but, boy, when they get down to it and the sword is headed for their neck or the bullets are flying, all of a sudden they start praying.

They don't even know who they're praying to.

That's kind of what.

275 of these people.

That's where they were, there's one on there and they thought Paul was sailing with them and no, god.

God said no, they're sailing with you.

The whole purpose of this ship is to get you to Caesar, and I've given you, I've, you know, because you obeyed and you, you were bold enough to tell them don't sail, don't sail, don't.

They didn't listen to you.

That gives me, opens the door.

See, god, I'm telling me he's looking for every excuse to heal people, to save people, to rescue people Right, I mean even unbelievers.

I tell you, god doesn't work against people, he loves people, he loves the center.

And so you know His, his message.

The angel said fear not, paul, you must stand before Caesar.

Now, that wasn't the first time that Peter had that.

Paul had heard that, because over in Acts, chapter 23, if you'll just turn over there real quick, a couple of pages back, it says in verse 11, the night following, the Lord stood by Him.

Acts 23 · chapter mention

That is, stood by Paul.

The Lord stood by Paul.

The Lord, it wasn't an angel that appeared to him.

The Lord appeared to him, stood by Him and said the same thing be of good courage.

You know, when the Lord says, be of good courage, that tells you something right there that you're going to have an opportunity to melt.

You're going to have to be, you're going to have an opportunity to be a snowflake.

It's up to you.

Be of good courage, paul, for as thou has testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.

So you know, in the middle of this terrible storm, all these sailors are not eating meat.

Abstinence means they abstain from meat.

They didn't eat meat.

They ate bread.

They ate a little bit to keep them going.

But, man, when you're, when you're working as hard as they're working, I mean they're just trying to keep the boat upright in the water.

I mean it's, it's, it's being tossed, it's being thrown, it's being blown, waves are crashing on top of it.

They're trying to bail water out of it and then fighting a losing battle.

And so, you know, paul comes with a message be of good courage, be of good cheer.

See, god never pedals fear.

He never pedals panic.

Lots of folks' hearts are failing them for fear of what is coming on the earth right now.

There are horrible things happening everywhere.

But what's the message of the gospel Be of good courage.

Jesus said I have overcome the world.

In the world you'll have tribulation, but be of good cheer.

Glory to God.

And so he tells the crew and they're probably looking at him Really an angel stood by you.

I think they were by that time.

I think they were ready to hear it.

They were ready to hear whatever he had to say.

Now he said I believe it will be even as it was told me.

We could use Mark 11, 24 and say I believe I receive.

What is Mark 11, 24?

What things so ever you desire when you pray, believe you receive them and you shall have them.

See, there's a difference between receiving and having.

Receiving means.

You got it in the spirit.

It's just like.

You know, I grew up in the 50s and we had Coke machines with a nickel.

You could put a nickel in a Coke.

And now, the last time I bought a Coke in a Coke machine, I took a credit card.

It was 250 for a king-size diet Coke and I didn't want it.

And the thing, it didn't cold anyway.

It's kind of Luke, you know, cool.

But anyway, back in the 50s, a nickel.

And when you put that nickel in it just had a sound, it just go down in there and click.

You know, and you knew your nickel went all the way down.

Now, if you messed around and pushed down on the lever before the nickel hit the bottom, it's gonna clog up the machine and you're not gonna get your Coke and you lose your nickel.

So you gotta get the thing down in there.

See, the word has gotta get down in there, it's gotta come down into you.

Yeah, I mean you know.

And then I remember, you know this was probably I don't know what year, 1958.

We had a Coke machine in our Lady of Refuge Catholic School in Refuro, texas, and it was a popular place at lunch.

I don't think the parents liked it, but we would.

You know they didn't have Coke in the cafeteria.

We could get our own Coke, little Coke, you know, the little Coke that are better.

The king-size Coke, they're not that good.

The little Cokes, six ounce Cokes, they're full strength.

And so in 1959, coke, coca-cola, I'm going off on a rabbit trail.

Coca-cola and all its wisdom, the high muckety mucks, the CEO and all the executives.

They decided, you know, we're just.

You know, probably the CFO, the chief financial officer probably came to the brass and said, hey, we're losing money.

We ought to raise the price.

It needs to be six cents.

How stupid are you?

They had to retrofit all the Coke machines to accept a penny.

So now, when you went to school, you had to make sure you had nickels and pennies to get a Coke.

And then, you know, within a year of that, within a year of six cents, taking six cents, they had to haul that machine off and bring a new one in that would accept two nickels or a dime, isn't that?

I mean, this is how stupid corporate America is.

I mean, you look around right now.

It's been going on all my life it's been.

These people are brain dead.

Why?

Because they've taken God out of the schools.

They're not raised with the word, and the word works.

This country was built on the word of God.

Let's get back to the word.

Praise God.

All right.

I kind of went off the rails, but anyway, it's all right.

So when he spoke these words, I believe it will be even as it was told me when Paul spoke those words, did the storm just quit?

It got worse.

I said it got worse and it was driving them into where two seas met and they were grounded right off the Isle of Crete and it was grounded into the, not the beach, but you know it just got too shallow for that big old boat, 276 people on there, and once that boat couldn't roll with the waves.

The waves beat upon that ship and Paul had to say now look, don't try to get off the ship, don't try to ride the life rope.

They were gonna get off and get on the life boats.

He said no, so they had to cut the life boats off, said you gotta stay with the ship.

See, god gave them mercy.

You gotta think about that ship, how big it was for 276 people to be on it.

And then they had to stay on it while it was completely destroyed, with the waves that were crashing on that beach, in the wind.

And you talk about a miracle.

Not one sailor died, not one, and they all rode to shore on broken pieces of the ship.

Man, glory to God.

I'm telling you, I don't care how severe your storm is, let the word work.

I believe it will be unto me according, and just like I heard, I believe I receive and I shall have.

The receiving is in the spirit.

It's now when you pray, or when you say see, faith works, for praying.

It works by saying Mark 11, 23.

Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, not pray, say to this mountain, be thou moved, be thou cast in the sea, shall not doubt in its heart.

But y'all believe that those things which he saith, having a systematic discourse repetition you say it the same all the time, you're saying it, you're continually saying it Then he shall have whatsoever he saith.

And then the next verse, verse 24,.

Therefore, what thinks whoever you desire when you pray?

Or you could say it this way what thinks whoever you desire when you say believe, you, receive him and you shall have him?

Well, god didn't tell me.

Well, yeah, he told you.

Didn't he tell you that you're healed?

Didn't he tell you that you were saved?

Didn't he tell you that you're the righteousness of God in Christ?

I mean, he's got a whole bunch of things he's told you.

Maybe he didn't appear to you, maybe you didn't feel goose bumps, but when you read your Bible, god is talking to you and he's giving you ammo.

I just challenge you In fact, I just double dog.

Dare you to read your Bible and come up against some of these wonderful verses and say I believe it will be even as it was told to me Just hold your Bible up, just like that and say that, and then you don't say anything else, no matter how bad it looks, because it got a whole lot worse than it was when he said that the whole ship was destroyed and yet not one of them In fact, they all got to witness a revival on the Isle of Malta.

I said Cretan Malta, the Isle of Malta.

I mean the father-in-law of the brooder got healed of a bloody flux whatever that is, I would not want to know what that was.

He got healed and the whole island came to Jesus and they got to see that these guys that prayed to a God they didn't know I believe a lot of them got saved on that island in that revival.

Are y'all getting this now?

So God's word was spoken and holy men of God wrote it down, as they were inspired by the Holy Ghost.

It was spoken so it could be written and it was written so it could be spoken.

I mean I'm so glad they wrote it down so now we can speak it.

We don't have to write it again, we don't have to make up any more scriptures.

I mean he gave it to us and if there's no other reason to thank God for Israel and for the Jewish people.

We ought to hold this Bible in your hand because we wouldn't have it if it wasn't for Jews.

We owe it debt.

I'm so glad that UN you know that UN was going to pass a resolution to demand a ceasefire.

Un is the most anti-Semitic, anti-christ organization on the planet and I hope our next president will just take us out of it.

It is useless.

They have nothing good to say about America or Israel ever, because most of them are, you know, islamic countries.

They've just taken over the UN and then you've got Europe.

They're just useless.

They're in a post-Christian phase.

They have no excuse.

You know God has got a roll call going and you can see the roll call.

I mean, nation after nation after nation are going over to the goat side and our nation is teetering.

It's like it's on the point and it's going one way and another.

It's going one way and another.

And so, thank God, whoever's idea it was to veto that.

America is a member of the Security Council and America this last, just the other day, they vetoed that resolution to demand a ceasefire.

But on the back, in the back door, they are trying to hinder Blinken.

Blinken is a Jew, by the way, the Secretary of State, he's a.

He's a basically an Israel-hating Jew, a self-hating Jew.

He hates himself.

There's a lot of Jews like that.

They hate the fact they're Jewish.

They wish they weren't.

They have no idea.

They have no Bible knowledge at all.

They're atheists.

Many people believe the Antichrist will be a Jew.

I don't doubt it.

I don't know if that's true or not, but I wouldn't doubt it.

Some of the most evil people call them I mean these people, man.

They're.

When they go away from the word they, they sell out to the devil, all the way Jesus told the Pharisees you're of your father, the devil and the works of your father.

You shall do.

See, we shouldn't be surprised.

But yet on the other side, israel is supernatural, his.

These people have gathered there.

Some of them aren't right with God yet, but they're going to all be saved.

The Bible says they'll all be saved.

It's not.

They're not going to be in the church, but they'll all come to know God.

They'll come to know Jesus.

Are y'all getting this now?

All right, so God's word was spoken so it could be written.

It was written so it could be spoken, and so we ought to let the word work, you know.

Let's look at the centurion here in Matthew, chapter eight.

It's only two times in the Bible where Jesus marvels Verse five.

And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion beseeching him saying Lord, my servant life at home, sick of the palsy, palsy's paralysis, of the terminal disease.

He's grievously tormented.

You look that up and go through all the Greek.

It means that he's in being viciously attacked with pain.

So you don't you think about palsy, you just think about somebody laying, somebody laying in bed paralyzed.

But he's not just paralyzed, he's in such pain that he is literally beside himself.

He's miserable and yet he's alive.

There's people you know, you get so sick and you want to die and you can't die.

And it's going to happen in the book of Revelation.

There's going to come such plagues on the earth that men will want to die and they won't be able to.

That's a curse.

And so he didn't ask him to do anything, he just informed him.

He just said I've got my servant.

He came on behalf of his servant and Jesus said I'll come and heal him.

He said oh no, lord, you don't have to come to my.

I'm not worthy for you to come under my roof.

Just speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.

And then he gave him the reason why he believed that because I'm a man under authority and I have men under me that if I say go and they go.

And they say, if I say come, they'll come.

If I tell them to do this, they'll do it.

And Jesus marveled.

He said I have not found so great faith.

No, not in Israel.

Now he's poking the Pharisees right in their eyes.

You know, just like the three Stooges, you know, bow, I have not found so great a faith.

No, not in Israel.

People are going to come from the north of the sea, south, the east and the west and sit down to the kingdom of God, and all these are going to be thrown out into outer darkness.

There's going to be weakening and gnashing of teeth.

He's prophesying over Israel and Israel's had to.

They've had to live that way.

They've had to live persecuted.

They've had to live through the Holocaust.

They had to live through that horrible mess.

In October the 7th, we witnessed it.

Billy Brim is over there going through and interviewing a lot of the people that have gone through it all.

I mean, you know, glory to God, standing in solidarity with them.

I tell you, we stand in solidarity with Israel and they can destroy Hamas and every aspect of it.

And while you're at it, go ahead and get Hezbollah too, and all the rest of these crazy people demon possessed.

What they did was horrendous.

I had so much pressure on these Ivy League schools the head of Penn University of Pennsylvania and one of those big Ivy League schools she resigned.

She shot her mouth off in Congress, couldn't even make it to where she could condemn this horrible stuff.

Why don't you drop her over there in the middle of these people and see what they do to her?

But all the Ivy League schools have hired these upper echelon executives and they're all diversity, equity and inclusion DEI.

That is just nothing but communism.

That's all that is.

That has nothing to do with the words that they are saying.

The words are lies.

The words are lies.

It's just a way to poison our kids and poison the next generation.

We're going to get a harvest, all right.

So he said, I have not found so great a faith.

No, not in Israel.

He said go your way and as you have believed, so be it under you.

Glory to God.

I mean.

His servant didn't have.

He wasn't even.

His faith wasn't even mentioned.

And the centurion is not Jewish.

Oh, come on now y'all.

Glory to God, as you have believed, mr Centurion, as you have believed, so be it under you.

You want your servant to heal.

He's healed and he was healed that moment.

Come on, lift your hands right now.

Glory to God, let the word work.

The word works Well, but that was Jesus speaking.

Well, it's the same word, it's the same Holy Ghost.

It might not be instant, like Jesus had a lot of instant miracles.

Not every miracle was instant.

One miracle was he.

They began to amend.

It wasn't instant.

So again, faith works by praying, faith works by saying but you've got to believe, you've received, you've got to have a date, you've got to have a time where you say I believe, I received that the nickel went down in the coke machine and I pushed the lever and I got my coke.

Now, dude, I get it in the, in the natural.

No, I got it in the spirit, and then I shall have.

See, there's a difference between receiving and having.

Having is the manifestation in this realm, but everything in this realm comes from that spirit realm, or I would call the causal realm, if you don't move it in the causal realm, it will not show up in the present.

Are you all getting this now?

I know I keep saying this over and over.

I preach faith all the time, but our faith has to be replenished.

We have to feed our faith because we're under tremendous pressure and when you get under pressure, sometimes you get let the pressure get on you.

Well, let's put the pressure on the word.

The word will work if you'll work it.

Let the word work, let the word take all the pressure.

I mean we're not in the battle, we're in the victory.

First, john 5, 4, this is the victory that overcomeeth the world, even our faith.

I mean, once you say I believe, I received, I believe it will be, even as it was told me, once you say that you're no longer in the battle, you're in the victory, right then, because faith is the victory.

Everybody say faith equals victory.

Yeah, I'm just battling.

No, you're not battling, you're in the victory.

Glory to God.

No, I'm just fighting.

No, you're not fighting anything, you got the victory.

Faith is the victory.

Now there was a fight of faith.

You had to fight to get to that place of that word that you needed.

And once you got it and the nickel went down in your coke machine and you pushed the lever, it's a done deal.

Baby, I hope some of you are getting this.

I just trust that you are no whining, no complaining, just praising.

Just pray about all that's left to do.

Between the time you said, I believe I received, or I believe it will be, even as it was told me about the only thing left to do then it's just praising.

There's no sweating, there's no flapping, there's no, you know, struggling.

Amen.

Glory to God, you know, in the words, working for you.

I've told this story recently.

I'm going to tell it again because some of you weren't here.

But years ago I was in Galveston and you know I like to go multiple times a year and just get away.

I've got a hotel I like to stay in, right on the Gulf, here on 51st and Broadway, and my room overlooks the Gulf.

I like to look at the water and sometimes I go down and sit on the seawall.

Occasionally I'll walk out the jet he's not very often much anymore, but I do.

I have this particular trip and God, you know, he just almost always gives me something to see that I've never seen before.

It's kind of a running little joke.

I don't have to have it.

But I kind of, tongue in cheek, laugh and say, okay, lord, I'm ready to see anything you want to show me for the first time.

I've seen all kinds of crazy stuff.

I see that one time and never saw it again.

It's just kind of one of those and it's a little illustration, something to kind of show me something.

I don't know why it just does it.

It's this little thing that he does.

And so this particular time I went and I'm sitting on the seawall my feet dangling over and it's 15 foot above sea level and there's the beach and then out there is the water and the jetty is going out.

And that day the flags were straight out, wind was coming out of the southeast and it was blowing and the waves were rough all the way out.

It was blowing from one wave to the next and white caps way out in the Gulf.

We're kind of unusually rough and the surf is all brown and it's ugly.

But there's this guy and he had his kayak and I just started laughing.

I said kayak.

I have never.

I've been coming to this beach all my life and I've never seen anything with a kayak.

Maybe you have a kayak on Lake Houston, or a kayak and a little, I don't know.

Kayaks just don't seem to me the right kind of a boat to have in the Gulf.

It's a little too rough.

But he didn't know or didn't care and so he's all decked out and he's back as to me.

So I couldn't tell if he had goggles, but I was hoping he did, because when he got in that water and he's sitting down, he's got his little thing.

He starts paddling and those waves were breaking over the front of his kayak, hitting him right in the face, bam.

And he just kept paddling, bam, kept paddling, bam.

And I'm thinking, just laughing at him, thinking I wonder when he's going to quit.

He's probably going to quit about another 30 yards now.

He didn't quit.

He's probably going until he got out there past the end of the jetties.

And now he's far enough away from me where I can't see him when he goes down in the bottom of the trough and he would pop up like a cork and going up down, up and down, he's just paddling away and I start laughing.

I keep still laughing and I'm saying, lord, where's he going?

Is he going to Tampico?

Is he going to Cancun?

Where's he going?

Cuba?

Where is he headed?

And he said that's a picture of your faith.

Your faith is working.

24, seven.

You go to sleep and your faith is paddling.

It's moving.

It's working just like that kayak.

Oh, come on, let's lift our hands.

Right now.

There's no sweating.

We're not the ones that have to paddle.

We don't have to flap, we don't have to.

You know, sweat.

Glory to God.

Our faith is working.

Let the word work.

Put the pressure on the word.

Everybody say I believe it will be, even as it was told me.

Yeah, I get used to saying that.

So three things today Let the word work.

Number three.

Three things.

Number one let the word work in your health.

Let the word work in your health.

Proverbs, chapter four.

I've shared this recently.

I'm going to share it again.

You know we need to hear it over and over and over again.

Verse 20, proverbs 420.

My son, my daughter, attend to my word.

Who has to attend you?

The understood subject of that sentence is you.

You, my son.

You attend to my words.

You incline your ear under my sayings.

You let them not depart from thine eyes.

You keep them in the midst of thine heart.

See, that's the only work there is.

The work is all about getting the word down in your heart, the word.

The work that there is is all about the nickel going down in the coke machine.

Are y'all getting this now?

It does take some effort.

I'm not saying you're just going to sit back and do nothing.

No, you have a part to play, your part God won't do.

But you can't do His part.

What are we doing?

We're getting our play, we're getting in the position of believing and speaking, and his part is the doing or the performing.

Isn't that easy, that's not hard.

This word, see this word.

And then it says well, why am I gonna do all of that?

Because verse 22, four, because you do that, because my words are life under those that find them, and medicine, health or medicine to all your flesh.

So I mean it's just a simple thing.

I mean you go to the doctor when you're sick.

He gives you a prescription.

You bring it, you go to the pharmacy, you get it filled, you pay the money, you go home.

What do you do with it?

Well, you don't just sit it there on the bureau, you don't just sit it there on the dresser.

You have to open the thing and take it as prescribed.

I mean won't do you any good sitting there.

I mean you've got to get the medicine down on the inside of you for it to do any.

See, that's the same with the word.

You've got to get the word down on the inside even before it can be medicine to you.

Everybody say the word is medicine to my flesh.

The word is life, man life.

Could you stand another couple of gallons of life?

How about?

Just you know the kind of life that God gives is super, abundant in quantity, superior in quality.

You know we have these cards with healing scriptures that are available in the media center out there.

We've already written down a bunch of healing scriptures.

You might find some more that.

You'll be reading your Bible and all of us are saying, oh, this is a healing scripture.

You just write it down, start using it.

It's been a while since I've told this story, especially in mixed company, but I feel led it's Christmas time, we need a laugh.

But when I first got saved I, sitting at Lakewood, been saved a few months.

Those team was preaching on healing and he had a word the woman that was sitting right in front of me.

He had a word of knowledge over her.

He said you know so and so, and she stood up.

God touches on you and you're gonna start laying hands on people and they're gonna start getting healed.

You're gonna have a special healing ministry, you know, and she kind of had her tears and all that kind of thing and service was over wrapped up.

Holy Ghost said when are you gonna, when are you gonna, have hands laid on you for your healing?

I said, well, I don't need any healing.

Well, sure, what do you mean?

You don't need healing?

You've got allergy to elastic.

I said, well, it doesn't bother me, I don't have any problems.

I just quit wearing elastic Because back when I was lost, I developed an allergy to elastic and so my shorts would just break me out around the middle and I mean, it was nasty, just really just eczema or whatever it was.

Just, man, I just claw at it and caught.

And back then they didn't have cortisone cream, it was by prescription only, and so my pharmacist just gave me a whole bunch of big old box full of testers to just he smeared that on there, it might help.

Well, it didn't help much.

And so finally the deal was I had to go find shorts without any elastic.

And you know, man, that was kind of hard to find drawstring shorts, I mean had drawstrings on them and they were as big as an American flag.

They were huge.

You could have hoisted up on a pole and surrender to the entire third army.

They would see it 10 miles away.

You would have it flying out there and you know, by the time you stuff those shorts down in your pants, you know it's just huge.

Just so.

I knew you'd laugh at me.

I knew you'd laugh.

So I'm saying to the Lord all this time now I get saved, now I'm sitting under the word why don't you, when are you gonna receive your healing?

Say, listen, god, god's not pleased when we don't receive what he paid for.

I said okay.

He said well, have her, you can be her first subject.

And I was kind of embarrassed.

I didn't know this lady, from who you know.

She looked at me and I had my.

I got glad it's real close to me so she wouldn't think I was being inappropriate.

I said just touch me.

I'm just, I'm gonna be your first subject.

God spoke to me I need healing for an allergy I have.

And so she touched me and so that was fine.

And a few days went by and I forgot all about it, didn't think anything about it.

I didn't feel any goosebumps, I didn't, you know, sure didn't fall out, and but anyway, I didn't think anything about it.

And he says well, when are you gonna, when are you gonna act on your faith?

What do you mean?

Well, you haven't acted on your faith.

You've been healed of allergy to elastic.

You haven't done anything.

You mean, I have to go buy some new shorts.

Yeah, well, I went and bought some new shorts and put them on and within a couple of days I broke out, man, I mean, and it was torn, man, I couldn't hardly sleep at night, you know, just itch, itch, itch, itch.

And I'd sit in Lakewood, I had my suit on.

I'm sitting there all decked out, and I'd take my pen, you know, and I'd run it and I'd try to be real, I'd run it down, you know, like this, and you know, just try to just, it was hard just to sit through church.

It was itching, so bad, just tormenting.

And I got a hold of these verses.

I got a hold of these verses and so I started taking medicine.

I took them four times a day morning, lunch, supper time and before I went to bed four times a day I would take and I wrote down.

I didn't have a card, you know, and nobody gave me a card.

I just went through the Bible and wrote down my own healing scriptures, had it on in a notebook and I got to where.

I didn't even have to go to the notebook.

They were in me.

I mean, the Word got in me and I could just sit there, you know, for 15 minutes at a time and go through the take the medicine for 15 minutes or so.

However long it took me, and thank God all the way through it Month one, month, two, month, three, month, four, month, five, month, six I'm still itching like crazy and it's looking nasty.

I mean, it's just nasty, look at it.

Bloody.

I hate to be any more graphic than that, but it was really bad.

And so one morning, you know, I get up and I get in there and I have to brush in my teeth and all of a sudden I just realized I'm not itching and not at all.

And I look and you know, peel the elastic back and it's nasty looking, but it doesn't itch.

And the next day, as God is my witness, my skin was just like baby skin.

It was all completely cleared up because I let the Word work.

The Word did it.

I said the Word will do it.

I said God's Word is medicine.

Let the Word work.

Put the pressure on the Word.

It won't take you six months, because you know a lot more than I did at that time.

You're not as hard headed as I was.

All right.

Number two let the word work in your dealings with people.

In your dealings with people, I mean out there, people aren't very nice.

The devil and them hate that.

Jesus and you.

You just never know who you're gonna encounter.

Well, but God gives me favor.

Well, I know he gives you favor, but not with everybody in every direction.

I'm gonna tell you right now you're gonna run into people.

Jesus said you will be persecuted for righteousness sake.

You can't be everybody's favorite and I'm not saying that to.

You're just gonna run into people that you just impossible to get along with them.

What are you gonna do?

Well, you let the word work.

Let the word work for you.

Look at Jeremiah.

This is worth looking at, jeremiah.

Are you getting anything out of this?

Today?

I wanna encourage your faith, because we all are believers and the just shall live by their faith.

Jesus searched for faith.

He looked for faith.

When he found it, he was marveled.

When he found faith, he rejoiced.

And when he didn't find faith, he said how is it that you have no faith?

Oh, you have little faith.

Say he didn't like it.

How many of you wanna please him?

All right, jeremiah 20.

Jeremiah, you know he had people didn't like him.

He said, lord, I'm not gonna fear their faces In verse 20, but the Lord is with me as a mighty terrible one.

Therefore, 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, that sounds pretty harsh.

Well, that's Old Testament.

I understand.

We're supposed to love people, but my point is that God is not any different now than he was then.

If he was with Jeremiah as a mighty terrible one, he's with you as a mighty terrible one.

What does that mean exactly?

It means he is as a violent champion, as a ruthless tyrant.

When people persecute you, they're not persecuting you, they're persecuting Jesus.

Well, what do you mean?

Well, I mean that's what Jesus told Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus.

Saul, saul, why persecute is thou me?

What was he doing?

Well, he was halin' Christians off to jail, persecuting them, and stood there while they were being martyred, thinking he was doing a favor to God.

And so Jesus confronted him and he was so glorious when he confronted him he got blinded.

He was blinded for three days.

And so you know he's with you, he loves you, and that's why you shouldn't waste any time getting all flustered at people that don't like you or that are having it in for you.

Gossip and lies and unfair treatment, persecution all this kind of thing we see it in the corporate world.

Many of you could say what you've had to go through with your boss and with your department at work, or maybe your customers.

Or if you've got a business, there's always a customer that just gives you all kind of trouble, complain, complain night and day, listen, you know, just say Lord, I forgive him, You're with me as a mighty terrible one.

You know, I don't wish evil on him, but, god, you just deal with it.

I can't deal with it.

Just release him.

Just go through life praising God, and if you have to bake him a cake, why do I say that?

Well, you heap coals of fire on top of their head when you do good to them, do something good to them, and why?

Because you know God's on your side.

You know why.

Because you're hooked up with him.

Amen, are y'all getting this?

Now?

Let the word work in your dealings with people.

Now, in the church, you know, we've got a different rule, because we're supposed to love each other here.

We love out there too.

But I mean, we don't have associations like we do in church.

In church we're one.

So sometimes if somebody steps on your toe a little bit, well you know, forgive them.

And if it's recurs, well you ought to let them know.

Hey, you know, when you say that, it kind of hurt my feelings.

I just want you to know I love you.

But I just let's make sure.

Am I doing anything that irritates you?

Let's keep it out on the table.

Let our love be without dissimulation.

What does that mean?

You're not fake.

I've had people tell me they love me and they've been meeting behind closed doors against me.

You know, and I knew it.

Well, I didn't.

You know, I didn't come against them, I didn't say anything, I just kind of laughed.

Because you're not fighting me, you're fighting the mighty terrible one.

It's kind of a bad way to go.

I don't suggest that.

So let the word work in your health and in your dealings with people and in your finances, especially in your finances this time of year.

I mean, you know it's Christmas and I keep hearing about all you know back.

Just we went through Thanksgiving and they were talking about how that, how expensive the Thanksgiving food was.

Now, get ready, they're going to start talking about how expensive the Christmas presents are going to be.

They're going to, and I'm sure that's true.

But listen, I mean I'm not suggesting that we ignore reality, but I am saying we have a source.

God's our source.

This just let's not get all bound up in the economy when we've realized that we've got a supernatural supply, and the supernatural supply is not your credit card.

I mean, I, like you know, I had to live about 10 years without a credit card.

That's no fun, because there were things that I just had to do without because I couldn't.

I could.

The only credit card I had was a gasoline credit card.

You know what?

You can't put groceries on a gasoline credit card.

Well, maybe you could nowadays they've got more gas, I guess if you want to buy a box of free toes or a bag of free toes.

But really, I mean, you know what I'm talking about.

All my credit cards have been cut off and so credit is convenient, it's good to have, but when you let it ride and you have this big credit card debt.

So just think about Christmas and let's make sure that we aim.

Let's just say, you know, you decided in your family we're gonna spend X amount of dollars for Christmas, we're gonna budget X amount of dollars for Christmas because we want to have a good Christmas.

Last Christmas we, you know, we cut back.

This Christmas we're gonna do a little bit more.

Let's just I'm just making up a figure.

Let's just say we're gonna spend $1,000 on Christmas.

Well, right now I'd say, lord, I just, I've sown my seed.

And you said if I sow my seed, I reap the harvest.

You said giving it shall be given unto you.

Good measure, pressed down, shaking together, running over.

So now, lord I just, I need an extra $1,000 by the first of next month to pay Christmas bills, over and above everything else, all the rest of my bills.

I need an extra thousand because I don't want to go into debt for Christmas.

I don't want to come up in the middle of January and have this big old figure that I've got to pay 25% interest on.

And I want to be a good steward of your finances and I just believe I believe I receive, I believe it will be even as you told me.

I've got a harvest coming in and I believe that $1,000 will be in my hand by the first of January 2024.

Father, I thank you for it and I believe I receive it now and I shall have it.

Angels, go, cause it to come to pass.

See, it's not about begging and crying and boning and groaning and waiting till after the fact, when the pressure is on and it's due.

And now you've got, I can't make the payment on that, see.

No, let's take it ahead of time and put all the pressure of where on the word.

Put the pressure on the word on your finances.

Don't take the pressure in your finances.

Take it on the word.

Get your mouth and gear, get those angels working for you.

Are they not all ministering spirits?

Sent forth the minister on behalf of those who are heirs of salvation.

So your angels are waiting for you to speak the word so they can go to work.

Glory to God.

Hook your tongue up to your faith and let the word work.

Come on, lift your hands and receive today.

Glory to God.

Thank you, lord.

I'm letting the word work.

I said I'm letting the word work.

There's no pressure on me, all the pressure's on the word, and the word is working for me.

Amen, praise God.

I hope that blessed you.