The Vision Of Faith

We stand and pick up our bibles, wave them around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad.

Let's say this together Say Heavenly Father, I am glad to be here.

I'm here to exalt my Heavenly Father, to magnify His holy name and to stir myself up, to stir up the gift that's been given me, the gift of the Holy Ghost.

He's my helper, my strengthener, my standby, my advocate.

I'm not without help, I'm not alone, for he is always with me because he lives in me in Jesus' name.

Amen, you can be seated.

Beautiful job, worship team.

Thank you.

Let's look in our bibles, at 2 Corinthians, chapter 4, and we're going to start reading with verse 13.

2 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

Just a few verses here, and I've got some encouragement for you today.

I just believe it'll help you.

Verse 13, paul is speaking here to the Corinthian church.

You know the Corinthian church was a church that was, shall we say, a little bit loose and loose as a goose.

They had some sin in the church.

They had factions in the church.

They were a little bit like a lot of modern churches are.

You know God doesn't give up on church.

You know Jesus loves the church and gave Himself for it, and so some churches are not what they should be or could be, but that doesn't mean that Jesus has written them off.

Not every church is lacking as necessarily one that the candlestick's been removed.

There's been a few.

There's a few churches like that, where the Holy Ghost isn't present, because they're not really following God's Word and God's Spirit.

God's Spirit can't bear witness with what they're saying and what they're doing Like a woke church.

You can forget about a woke church.

The Holy Ghost is not there.

Holy Ghost ain't woke.

Uh-oh, I got off my subject already.

Have you found Second Corinthians?

I mean, you know he's writing this letter to the church and they, they're carnal.

He said you ought to be, you ought to be better than this.

You know, you've got one saying I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos, I'm of this, I'm of that.

And what have you got that you weren't given?

He said, but you come behind and no good gifts.

See, they still had gifts, gifts of the Spirit.

So, uh, he said verse 13,.

We having the same spirit of faith, same as who?

Well, same as as the hall of fame of faith in Hebrews 11, you know, Enok, and and, uh, all the ones that are listed there Abraham, moses, noah, having the same spirit of faith or attitude of faith.

You know, when you've got faith, you've got an attitude.

You're not a marshmallow, you're not a pushover, you're not a ninny.

I mean faith will give you some starch in your britches, it'll give you steel in your back.

Are you with me now?

I'm talking about that spirit of faith, we having it.

We're not going to get it.

We're not trying to get it.

We have it, we having the same spirit of faith as the patriarchs, according as it is written.

I believe.

Therefore, have I spoken?

We also believe and therefore speak.

The spirit of faith always has a confession, it always has a way of speaking.

Now let's skip down to verse 17, and here's kind of the way he was speaking for our light affliction, which is but for a moment.

He could have said man, I tell you, my back is hurting.

I got scar upon scar.

I have 195 stripes.

I've suffered, I've been beaten with rod three times.

I spent a night in the day and then he did go through that to let people know what he'd suffered.

But here's his confession for our light affliction, which is just for a moment.

Worketh in us, worketh in us, it's at work in us.

Hallelujah, a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen.

Well, the things which are seen are temporal or temporary, but the things which are unseen are eternal.

So I want to talk today, briefly, about the vision of faith.

Faith and vision go together.

In fact, you can't have one without the other.

Whatever you continually focus on, we're talking about focusing now.

Focusing on whatever you focus on is what you're going to talk about.

You can locate people by what they're talking about.

Don't talk sickness.

Don't talk lack.

Don't talk trouble.

Get on Facebook and tell everybody about your trouble.

Blabba, blabba, blabba, blabba, blab.

I'm broke.

How about a GoFundMe page?

Come on, we have.

In the same spirit of faith.

We believe.

Therefore, we speak the word believe is not mental and sin it's not mentally agreeing that something is true.

Most Christians mentally agree that the Bible is the word of God, but they don't act like it.

Faith is acting like the Bible is true.

Faith without corresponding action is dead being alone.

We've got to have a corresponding action, of course.

What is that initial corresponding action?

What is what you're talking about, what you're speaking?

That's the initial part, but then there's always more that we've got to do, we've got to act, like the Bible is true.

I mean, you know, if you've got symptoms in your body, you've got to rise up and resist it.

If you're broke, give.

Well, I don't have anything.

Well, yeah, you bound to have something.

Sell something, have a garage sale, sell all that old junk that's piled up in there.

Somebody will buy it.

Yeah, it's amazing what people buy a garage sale.

I go through my neighborhood and it's kind of a nice neighborhood.

I mean it's not River Oaks but it's a nice neighborhood.

People mow their grass and keep their houses up pretty much and they'll have a garage sale.

There's a bunch of junk laying out there on the driveway.

I think who in the world is going to buy that junk?

That is the ugliest chair I've ever seen.

It looks like.

Sometimes, you know you can keep something so long that it becomes stylish.

I wish I had all the old furniture that my mother and dad had back in 1961 when we moved into a brand new house.

It's, you know, it's really.

I mean, you have that man.

It's worth something today.

Now, gladys and I, we have some old early marriage furniture and it wasn't worth anything.

We used to have a gold velvet couch.

It was about 12 foot long.

It was the best couch for naps that you could ever have.

I mean, you just lay on that thing, man, and your feet and your head are not interfered with because it's so long, and we had it for about a hundred years.

I don't know how long we had it.

We had it long enough to where she was comfortable putting her ironing board up and she put the ironing board behind the sofa so she could see the television while she's ironing clothes and she'd take the spray starch and she would starch Jays, whatever his shirt or whatever mine he didn't mess with mine, but anyway Jays and Claire's and the starch would spray on the back of the velvet couch to where it felt like sandpaper.

Back then we did not put that in a rummage sale, we didn't even put it in a garage sale.

It went right straight to the dump.

We dumped it, dump it, dump it.

I'm off my game again.

But look, we see things that are different.

I believe people see things that are different than other people, the patriarchs.

They saw different things.

Enix saw life and not death.

I mean, he got so in love with God he didn't ever want to die.

God said you don't have to Come on up here.

He's still up there, just like you and I.

He's in heaven, blow your mind.

And there's another one up there with him.

Elijah's up there too.

There's two of them.

If you hang around long enough to see them come back, you'll know you missed the rapture.

But anyway, all right.

No, I saw a flood coming.

Nobody else did, nobody, they just.

Everybody else thought it was just going to be just a status quo.

Everything's going to keep on going like it always has.

Nothing's going to be any different.

But no, he prepared an ark for the saving of his family and his whole, his group, and they, they, they escaped.

And so it was.

It was, it was.

It was a long, long, long time, a hundred years, building this ark.

He saw it and he kept on seeing it.

That's faith, people Faith.

People see things that are eternal.

Everybody say I'm a faith person.

Vision of faith.

Abraham saw a future land.

He never got to live in it.

He saw a city whose builder and maker of God not made with hands.

He saw it.

He saw a resurrected son.

God told him to sacrifice Isaac.

Isaac was a son of promise.

He had believed he had he had.

Sarah had believed against all hope and they had that baby when he's a hundred and Sarah is 90.

And God said I want him, I want him, you sacrifice him.

And he saw Abraham risen from the dead.

He didn't see him dead, he saw him after the fact.

He raised that knife, knowing you know well, there's these movies.

Oh, I'm so sorry.

I'm sorry, son, I have to do it.

No, he had faith to believe that he was alive.

He saw through the death and saw his son.

And then he didn't have to do it, he didn't have to kill him.

Glory to God.

You know, people looked at Sarah, saw an old lady.

She saw a womb capable of producing a child.

Oh, hallelujahs, faith.

People see things differently.

Brother Hagin tells a story back when he was in the field ministry, or, you know, he was traveling.

He had been pastor 12 years.

God never called it a pastor.

Isn't that amazing?

I mean, can you imagine the day that the Holy Ghost told him that?

You know, I never called you to pastor.

I allowed you to, but I know that wasn't my what, my plan for your life.

And he pastored 12 years.

I can't imagine pastoring when you're not in the perfect will of God.

But he did it.

He's a good pastor too.

But then he went out on the field ministry and hit.

God told him to teach my people faith.

And so he went out teaching people the precepts of faith, the vision of faith, how to call things that be not as though they were.

It's one of the hardest things for believers to do is to call things that be not as though they were.

How are you doing?

Well, I'll tell you what.

I could be better.

I could be better, man, I'm sick and I've got a runny nose.

Man, I feel terrible this morning.

My back man, I guess it's my age.

My back is real.

No, you say I'm well, thank you.

Well, when you say that you might not feel that way, well, it's lying.

No, it's not lying, it's calling the things that be not as though they were.

I mean, you are what God said you were.

Jesus bore your sicknesses, therefore you don't have them.

By his stripes, you were healed, therefore you are healed, and so it's never wrong to say what God's word says about yourself.

One of the most difficult ways and he had to go against the teeth of all of that tradition, the traditions of men render the word of God in an effect, what Jesus said.

I didn't say it, jesus said it.

I think, about all the traditions in the Catholic church.

When I found out that they were almost all of them were anti biblical, anti word of God, I got out.

I got out of there.

The traditions of men.

I had the Baltimore Cataclysm.

My faith, the Catholic faith, was built on two things God's word and scripture and tradition.

How many of you Catholic remember that?

Scripture and tradition?

Well, you know, scripture's fine, it's not fine.

Traditions are traditions of men, it's not God.

You can't put those in equal terms.

And when I found that out, when I read that verse, it was like the Holy Ghost spoke to me.

He says get out, get over to Lakewood church, get under John Osteen's ministry.

I did, and the rest is history.

Praise God, thank God for life changing things, but the vision of faith.

So brother Hagan is going out preaching these things and he would go into a church.

You know, most of the time he would try to be there two weeks, because it took two weeks, you know, to do a church any good and he would preach most.

You know they'd have a break, I think mid week and another break, you know, but basically day and night, morning and night services for two weeks.

And so maybe let's just say you'd have four, three, let's say you have four services twice at eight services, times two, 15, 16 services in two weeks.

That'll do something for you if you're listening with both ears.

And he would have healing lines.

He would sit up on the platform, people would come up in a single line and you know he just had one line, he didn't have different lines.

If you needed healing or you needed baptism of the Holy Spirit, whatever it was that you needed, you come up in that line.

So the pastor of the church said you know, we've got sister so-and-so here.

She's a wonderful woman of God, she's a pastor and she used to be Presbyterian and she was named by the Presbyterian church in this region as being outstanding Christian and she's just well known and just the top of the top integrity and she got baptized in the Holy Ghost and she's pastoring now and she's baptized in the Holy Ghost and she's got healthy issues and she's been coming and she hasn't been receiving.

She's been coming up in the prayer line and she hadn't received her healing yet.

And people are talking about it and they're saying, well, if sister so-and-so.

Sister bucket mouth can't get her healing.

I don't think either.

Is there any chance that I could get my healing.

It was holding the meeting back.

People were thinking, because sister bucket mouth didn't get healed, I can't get healed because here she is, way up here outstanding, and she's a pastor.

So it was holding the meeting back.

So you know, brother Hagin heard that.

So he continued with his meeting that night and up in the prayer line comes this woman and he realizes who that is coming up in the prayer line.

He recognizes her.

She'd been coming up several times and he just knew by the spirit it was her, the same woman that pastor was talking about.

And he said I put my spiritual antenna up.

That's what I do.

I put my spiritual antenna up in case the Holy Ghost wants to tell me something, he wants to give me a word of knowledge or a word of wisdom, or I wanna see something.

Well, he didn't have anything.

Nothing happened.

So he just, what are you coming up for?

She said I've got pain in my body.

So he laid hands on her in Jesus name and she said no, no, no, it's still there.

I don't have it.

He said, okay, well, pray again.

So he laid hands on her again.

No, no, it's still there.

It's still there, I don't have it, I don't have it.

He said, all right, we'll pray again Three times.

No, no, no.

And so he let her go back.

He said, you know, he thought to himself, you know, three times ought to be enough for anybody.

And one night, no, no, I ain't got it.

Is that faith?

No, no, no.

Faith believes it receives Hands.

They shall lay.

Healed, they shall be, is the literal Greek on Mark 16.

So, you know, the next person up it's.

You know there was a.

There was a fellow there that that was needed help walking.

He had a cane but it wasn't enough.

He had to have people on either side of him to keep him upright.

And that guy got healed.

And while God was healing his lameness, he healed his deafness.

He took out his hearing aids and didn't need hearing aids, amen.

So he got healed.

But this woman didn't get healed.

And so, and then the next person he could tell, the meeting kind of went down.

I think the first, the man that got healed was before the lady.

It was, it was I got it out of order.

So the man that got healed of lameness and deafness was before the lady who said, no, I don't have it.

So the meeting kind of went down when she said that in front of everybody, they all.

No, they forgot about the guy that got able to walk by himself and be able to hear without hearing aids.

And so he said Lord, how do I help the people?

I don't think there's much I can do to help her because she's not right, she's not believing right.

But what about everybody else?

She's affecting everybody else.

What can I do?

He said the Holy Ghost didn't talk to him, didn't say anything, but he just saw how to solve it.

He just saw in a moment of time.

Just see, this is where the Holy Ghost can give you a download.

It happens to me quite often when I'm up here on this platform, I just get a download and I know, and he knew how to take care of it.

So he, he called her back up there and he said ma'am, would you come back up here?

She came back up here and he says when are you gonna believe that you receive your healing?

And she said when I'm healed?

He said well, why in the world would you believe it?

Then you would know it.

Then say that again.

Say that again.

Say she heard something, she was on the edge of something.

You would know it.

Then you wouldn't need to believe it, you would know it.

Say that again.

So he said it again.

And then and this is his words he said she looked at Maystord, batting her eyes like a toad frog in a West Texas hail storm.

I am not gonna believe anything.

My physical senses don't tell me.

Now, what is her faith in Her physical senses?

Her faith is in the physical senses, but that's not where our faith should be.

Our faith should be in the Word of God.

It ought to be what God said, not in what our eyes can see, our ears can hear how we feel.

The just shall live by how they feel.

The just shall live by what it feels like, what it seems like.

He said you know, you can just go sit down, you're gonna have to do without it, just like that.

But let me tell you, everybody in the crowd understood what he was saying, and I mean the meeting was on.

Now he came through the town five years later and the man that got the lame man that was no longer lame and got rid of the hearing aids was now 72 years old.

He was 72 when the miracle happened.

Now he's 77.

He still was healed, he still could hear without hearing aids, he could still walk without anybody helping him.

And she's still sitting there sick and he comes back another five years.

This 10 years, the man is 82, he's still hearing without hearing aids, he's still walking without any help and she's said you know, I'm gonna have to give up my church.

I'm just, I'm so sick, I'm just not able to continue.

And she had to give up her church and there wasn't a thing that Brother Hagin could do.

Why?

Because she wouldn't hear what the Word of God says.

Oh, we're so rich this morning.

We have the Word of God, we have this operating in our lives at some level.

But let me tell you, there's all kinds of levels and we can turn our levels up.

We can get up a little higher than where we've been.

I said we can get higher than where we've been.

Whoo Lord, come on, let's lift our hands right now, hallelujah.

And then Brother Hagin said this.

He said you know, there's an old saying that Smith Wigglesworth used to say.

That's really gotten me through a lot of tough times and I've adopted what he used to say.

He used to say this and, of course, if you've never heard of Smith Wigglesworth, he's known as the apostle of faith.

I lose track of how many people were raised from the dead in this ministry.

One place I read was 19, and the other said 23.

Either one at the whole lot more than I've ever had raised from the dead.

I do know one time the guy was in the casket, had already been embalmed, and he picked him up out of the casket, leaned him against the wall like this, and raised him from the dead.

Now, how many of you know he didn't do it.

He didn't raise him from the dead.

But you hear what I'm saying Amen.

So Smith Wigglesworth, the apostle of faith, used to say this.

He said I'm not moved by what I see, I'm not moved by what I feel, I'm only moved by what I believe, and I believe God's word.

Hallelujah, everybody.

Say that out loud.

Say I'm not moved by what I see, I'm not moved by how I feel, I'm only moved by what I believe, and I believe the God's word.

Say just practice doing that, practice doing that.

When you face something that looks impossible, that's when you need to say that.

You need to say that when the doctor says you've got cancer, stage four.

You know, cancer is a word that will just make your flesh recoil.

It does mine.

That doesn't mean I'm afraid, my flesh can't stand the thought of cancer.

My flesh, my mind hates it.

Of course my spirit hates it too, because it comes from the devil, amen.

But that doesn't mean I'm afraid of it.

It just means that it has a reaction in my flesh that I have to resist that feeling and not adopt that feeling.

When I address that thing it's kind of like a rattlesnake.

You know, I don't know.

I grew up in South Texas and my dad had me working when I was 13.

I mean, I was out there working chopping weeds on the side of the road in Refurio County and I found out after it was all over.

I wondered why they hated me so much, the guys that were on the group of young people.

They were all 14, 16 years old, young teenagers, not even older teenagers, younger teenagers.

I found out after the fact that it was a special program for poor people and we weren't poor, we had a nice house.

There was no need for me to be there.

But my dad lobbied the county commissioner and he put me in there and so they were aggravated that I was in their group and so they didn't like me.

They kind of persecuted me.

I thought they were gonna beat me to a pulp one day because I happen to get the water ahead of them.

The water cooler was a popular place when you're on the side of the road cutting weeds with a yo-yo.

Have you ever swung a yo-yo all day long?

Whish, whish, whish.

Anyway, out there you're gonna every now and then you're gonna get in the way of a rattlesnake.

It happened to me then.

It happened to me the next summer.

After that I worked in the oil patch for a couple of summers after that.

And you know I don't care what you do.

When you hear those rattles you react.

If you're smart, you'll start going like this Go the opposite direction that you're hearing that come from.

That's what I did.

I mean to tell you, man, I come alive when I hear rattlesnake and I'm not in a position to hear rattlesnakes anymore.

Thank God, don't you dare find that rattlesnake.

I could tell they were gonna Google a rattlesnake.

Have it come over the loudspeaker.

Don't you do it.

Don't you do it.

I'm talking about reacting in your flesh at bad news.

We all have that reaction.

You can't hear the word cancer, you can't hear the word diabetes, you can't hear.

Listen when the doctor said oh, mr Griner, you've got a massive blockage, you're gonna have to have open heart surgery, you're gonna have to have triple, maybe quadruple bypass.

I didn't like it, I didn't think it was wonderful, I didn't shout the joy, you know, I had to just hear it and I had that reaction in my mind and in my flesh and within me.

I said praise God, the Holy Ghost is putting me over.

I've been talking to my heart all these years.

It has to obey me and if I have to go through this way of escape in this manner, well, this is where I'll go.

But I'm not trusting in them.

I'm trusting in God.

He's my healer.

It's not wrong to go to the doctor.

It's wrong to trust in the doctor.

It's wrong to put all your eggs in the basket of the tests.

Pray that I get a good report.

No, I'm not gonna pray that I don't have any idea what the test is gonna show.

That's not where my faith is.

My faith is in the word.

The word says you were healed.

Let's stick to the facts.

Let's not try to get our faith attached to a test.

Pray that the pet skin shows that I'm cancer free.

I can't pray that.

I don't know how long it's gonna be from right now till when you have the victory, but it starts when you believe you've received your healing.

That's when it starts and when you start saying, thank God, I've been healed of cancer, hallelujah.

You may not feel like it.

You may be going through chemotherapy, you may be going through radiation, but thank God, I'm healed of cancer.

You don't have to tell the doctor that.

Just tell yourself that Don't try to talk to your doctor.

Say, doctor, you're just lying.

No, don't do that.

He's telling you as best as he knows in the natural.

He's telling you what he sees with his cameras.

He's telling you what his training has shown him in decades of preparation.

He's doing the best he can.

Don't knock him.

But your faith is in God.

Your faith is in this word.

It's not in those treatments.

Is this helping anybody?

Years later, going to A&M, a guy that I grew up with in refurio, he was lived in my same dorm on the third floor.

I was on the second floor and I went to see him and I guess he was studying.

He was animal science major and I guess he was studying a section of herpetology on snakes and he had this big old garbage can regular sized garbage can, a plastic one in his room and I knew that he had this but I forgot it.

He had three rattlesnakes that he had caught and they were living in that garbage can in his room.

I knew it but I forgot it.

And I went knocked on his door and I walked in and those things started rattling.

I mean to tell you I almost dove out the window and then I remembered where they were, but it's still.

It stimulated something.

You know you're going to have these kinds of things.

That doesn't mean one thing.

It doesn't mean that you are doubting.

It doesn't mean that your faith is not active.

It's what do you say about this?

Well, how do you act about this?

Oh, come on.

Glory to God, we having the same attitude.

Elijah, he's sitting on the side of Mount Carmel.

He said you better get your stuff together, let's get out of here, don't let the rain stop you.

I hear the sound of an abundance of rain and all he saw was a cloud the size of a man's hand.

And all of a sudden he starts hearing something else.

Nobody, ever nobody.

There saw anything.

Nobody there heard anything.

But he heard something else.

He saw something else and the Holy Ghost came upon him and he out rang the King's chariot all the way to Jezreel.

That's 20 miles Faith.

People hear and see things differently than other people.

Everybody say I'm, my faith and my vision are 2020.

Glory to God, hallelujah.

Thank you, Jesus.

Well, just a couple of things when we're wind up.

I've gone on and on, but I wanna encourage you today because you have faith.

God says in 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, verse three, that we've all been dealt the measure of faith, every believer.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

The moment you got saved, god gave you enough faith to get saved.

It never went anywhere.

You still have it.

You don't ever have to worry about getting faith.

What you need is a revelation.

What you need is to be able to see what God's word is saying to you.

That's why I tell people to read the Bible every day.

Feed yourself.

We're baptized in all of the negativity that's in this world.

There is no news.

There's just narrative lies, one lie after another.

Every time Biden opens his mouth, you can figure it's a lie.

His lips are moving.

He's lying, and all of them are.

They're all lying.

They're not in them.

So if you're gonna start four o'clock and watch the local news and you're gonna watch the national news and watch the local news from four to six, 30, two and a half hours, you're gonna be baptized in unbelief, you're gonna be baptized in falsehood.

Find out how to just find out what's going on and then leave it alone and get over into the word and start letting the Bible be in your thoughts.

And that's what it is Based on what is being said in the news media and what is in the print and television.

A lot of folks in the church are just convinced that God is through with America, that God is mad at the church, that church has failed and da, da, da, da da.

You know Jesus loves the church and gave himself for it.

That's the truth.

God's not mad at us.

He wants us to change, he wants us to grow, he wants us to step into that place of leadership, kingdom leadership.

The fact of the matter is, when we saw Roe v Wade overturned a few weeks ago, god spoke to me the hand of blessing is returning on America.

Well, I don't see that, pastor.

I mean, look at the interest rate.

They just keep going up and looking yeah, gasoline went down a little bit, but not enough, and rent's going up.

Man Well, look, what are you gonna look at?

Are you gonna listen to what God is saying?

Are you just gonna get baptized and unbelief?

See, I choose to believe that God is not finished with America.

God has got a revival coming for the church.

There's a huge, huge harvest.

I'm harvest minded.

I just confess I'm harvest minded.

I know God didn't bring us this far just to say, oh well, we're gonna fold up our tent.

We're just a few people.

Come to heaven.

The rest of y'all go to hell.

No, that's not the God I serve.

That's not the Bible I read.

Are y'all getting anything out of this?

So, number one if you're gonna have a clear vision of things and see things the way God sees them, number one control your emotions.

Your emotions are totally under your control.

What I see people do is they get all off track because they walk according and make emotional decisions.

They make decisions when they should wait and pray.

I mean anger, anger.

Kept Moses out of the Promised Land.

He got so mad he struck the rock the second time and God said you're not going into the Promised Land.

Oh man, just for that.

It was anger.

He never dealt with his anger from a young man.

He killed the Egyptian in anger.

He never dealt with his anger all of his life and then at the end it cost him.

So if you've got a temper, listen, start working on diffusing that thing.

Grief.

I tell widows when they have just lost their husband or widower when they've just lost their wife, avoid making major decisions.

I know you've got to make some decisions, but avoid making as many as you can until you get your life back to where you know the water can level out.

Have you ever had the weights fall off of one of your tires?

You know your tires have got these little weights so that they balance.

You know, and I used to have this old truck 71 Ford and I hit a pothole and knocked the weights off and I mean the steering was getting a little bit loose and I mean that steering wheel started going like this.

You know it's just.

You know, because the weight got knocked off of the tire.

Well, you know, when you're married and your spouse goes to heaven, you're out of balance for a while.

That's a good time to slow down and gather yourself and get over the shock of it.

And then you know at some, and we don't believe in grief around here.

We people can sorrow, but not as others who have no hope.

But even so, let's cooperate and let's let our faith have a chance to kick in Any kind of an emotion.

You know, keep your emotions under check.

Think about David.

David was a mighty warrior.

I mean, he killed a bear in a line, but with his bare hands.

He's pretty mean motor scooter.

He knew how to kill when necessary.

He was a mighty warrior and he had mighty warriors around him.

And then you know, he came to Ziklag and his two wives are gone, all his stuff is gone, his kids are gone, everybody's wives and kids are gone and everybody had to come apart.

They had a pity party.

They cried until there was no more power to weep and then they said it's all David's fault.

They started thinking about stoning him.

So he had that emotion at first, but then the Bible says he encouraged himself and the Lord is gone.

I mean, whatever kind of emotional thing that you've got, start stirring yourself up in the Holy Ghost, pray much in the Holy Ghost, start speaking God's word, and you're gonna see things start to change.

You're gonna start having a different attitude.

You're gonna see the spirit of faith come upon you again.

Sometimes I'll be looking at television and something will be on there.

It's just so irritating, it's so enraging, so injustice, murder, when a guy's been out of jail three different times and now he's murdered yet again, it makes you just wanna throw things at the television.

And I just turned that on the devil.

I said you know what devil I'm feeling?

I'm feeling dangerous.

I'm feeling dangerous.

See, I just turned it on him.

I'm feeling dangerous.

See, I wanna turn it on the criminal.

I'd love to see that criminal one of these days.

But no, I turned it on the devil Devil.

I'm feeling dangerous.

Where's that?

Well, I just got it off of Chris Kyle when he was a Navy SEAL training, you know, the American Sniper.

He was training as a Navy SEAL under all this pressure, in that cold water in the Pacific, and they're just trying to persecute him, say oh, you're an old man, you're gonna ring that bell.

Get over there, kyle.

Get over there and ring the bell and go home.

We don't need you.

You're too old for this program.

How do you feel?

How do you feel I'm feeling dangerous.

Ever since I saw that in the movie.

I've adopted that as one of my confessions.

I'm feeling dangerous.

Devil, don't mess with me now.

So if you wanna see things clearly, control your emotions and encourage yourself in the Lord, your God, get stirred up in what you have.

Who do you have?

You've got the greater one living on the inside.

He's in there not to hitchhike, he's in there to put you over in every circumstance.

I know this is simple, but people forget.

They forget, and then you know when you're going through trouble and who doesn't Well, always remember?

You're not the only one.

1 Corinthians 10, 13 says there is no temptation, test or trial taking you, but such is common to man.

This is just how mankind is designed.

They're gonna go through trouble.

You're not the only person that ever went through something.

The problem is not going through it, it's getting on the other side.

Don't camp out there, don't live there.

There is no temptation, test or trial taking you, but such is common to man.

But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted, tested or tried above what you're able to bear, but will, with the temptation, test or trial, also make a way of escape that you may be able to bear up under it.

Everybody say way of escape.

So, inquire of the Lord, find out what the way of escape is.

Sometimes it requires action on your part.

Sometimes you have to do something besides speak.

Yes, you do speak, but then there's an additional action that's required.

Find out what it is.

I just read in my Bible the other day, psalm 77.

It says his way is in the sanctuary.

Sometimes coming to church will supply what is that you need to do?

You're in a place of like precious faith, people all around you and people all around you going through different things.

You just don't know it.

They didn't put it on Facebook, they didn't.

You know.

They're not wearing a sandwich board Telling you all about it.

They're not standing on the side of the road.

I'm hungry, please feed me.

And then they go and get in their nice cars, nicer than when you're driving.

They're not telling you amen.

You come in a place like this with people of like precious faith.

There's an atmosphere in here where you can receive information.

When I came into the sanctuary of God, then I understood Psalm 73.

There's something about coming to church.

Don't stay away from church, come to church.

Well, yeah, but I just don't.

I've been kind of ill.

I'm not fit.

Look if you can walk, come to church.

If you can drive, come to church.

I can't count the times that I've been here preaching Sunday morning, sunday night, wednesday night and I didn't feel like it physically.

I mean, I pressed through some things.

There was one period of time where I wasn't sleeping at night.

I had sleep apnea, not because of that condition, but because I had elevated heart rate because of atrial fibrillation and I could not sleep.

It went days and days.

What happens when you are like that?

I'll tell you right now.

It's miserable.

I mean, I would fall asleep and then I'd wake them up and start like that.

I'd nod off and then I'd wake up like that For days and days until I finally faith people.

Sometimes they ought to go to the doctor, but they just keep on the same old thing, thinking they can overcome it.

Sometimes you need to go to the doctor when something like that starts attacking you.

Don't wait.

Find out what it is that you're dealing with.

That might help you.

You might not agree with it, but put it on a shelf.

You might find out it's true and then it can help you later.

Go to church, come to church.

Fellowship around this sanctuary God's presence, and many times he can drop into your spirit what it is that you need to do, hallelujah.

We can't always choose our circumstances, but we can choose to have an attitude of faith.

We can have that bold attitude that we are more than conquerors to him who loved us, and then we will have a corresponding vision of faith.

We'll start seeing the way God sees.

Come on, lift your hands and receive today the vision of faith.

How many of you got some help out of this message, little message today.

Are you glad you were here for it?

Amen, we all need it.

We're living in those last days and we need to be reminded of God's principles.