The Switch Of Faith

Pick our bibles up.

This is our custom around here.

Let's wave them around and make Jesus glad and let's all say this together Say Heavenly Father, I've tuned in to live stream because I'm hungry and thirsty for more.

I have need of growth and nourishment, and the Word of God and the Holy Spirit is providing both of those tonight, so that my faith is growing, my spirit is developing.

In Jesus' name, amen.

And let's turn in our bibles to John, chapter four, and we're gonna read about Jesus here, verse 46, john 4, 46.

So Jesus came again into Canaan of Galilee where he had made the water wine.

And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum.

When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judea and into Galilee, he went unto him and he besought him that he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.

Then said Jesus unto him except you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.

The nobleman saith unto him sir, come down ere or before my child die.

And Jesus said unto him go thy way, thy son liveth.

And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him and he went his way.

And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him saying thy son liveth.

Then inquired he of them the hour when he began to amend, and they said unto him yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him.

So the father knew that it was at the same hour in the which Jesus said unto him thy son liveth.

And himself believed in his whole house.

This is again the second miracle that Jesus did when he was come out of Judea into Galilee, and so tonight I wanted to just share a simple message entitled the switch of faith, the switch of faith.

Faith is a switch that turns on the power of God and, no matter what, we must keep the switch of faith turned on and then we will see the completion of our miracle.

Many expect instant manifestation.

They expect things to just completely change, especially in healing.

Most people are with a half hands laid on with the altar, or even if they go to a great healing crusade, healing meeting, and they're not healed instantly, they just get disappointed and they just begin to say well, I guess I just didn't get it.

Well, I guess I didn't have enough faith, well, I guess, and all of that.

You can't expect instant results at every situation.

Actually, most miracles are gradually manifested, the overwhelming majority of them.

And you know somebody said well, you know, jesus always healed it.

When he healed, he healed people instantly.

Well, here's one of the 19 healing miracles listed in the Bible, 12 of which have a faith, mentioned the faith of the person that was asking.

And this one was not instant.

This was Jesus himself sent the word, but it was not instant.

The ruler's son was at the point of death and what did he do?

He heard about Jesus and he came and he asked Jesus to come all the way down to his house.

It's a pretty good distance there between Capernaum and Canaan.

I don't know, I didn't look up the distance, but it's obviously overnight journey.

And he's asking Jesus to just come all the way to his house and, oh, please come before he dies.

And Jesus, you know, was seemingly indifferent when you read your Bible.

He didn't just jump through hoop.

He said, you know, except you see signs and wonders, you won't believe.

You know he was kind of harsh.

I mean, he didn't really manifest a whole lot of compassion right there.

And if this nobleman is, this is a nobleman, this is a ruler, he's not used to people denying him.

I mean, he's one of these guys that you know.

Hey, over here, you know he could have gotten offended right there on the spot, you know.

But he just said, oh, please come before my child dies.

And of course Jesus didn't have to come Now.

His faith was in him coming.

His faith, you gotta realize this.

Now, this nobleman, this leader, this ruler, his faith was wrapped up in Jesus coming to his house personally and laying his hands, like he did so many other people, laying his hands on his son, his dying son.

He had that faith.

But Jesus said, he said, you know, go your way, your son Liveth.

Now, you know, he had to make a leap of faith right there.

He had to switch from trusting in Jesus' hands coming and actually personally ministering to his son.

And it says that he believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him.

He believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him.

I mean, you know, that's quite a leap.

And so now he just instantly left, he was satisfied, he went his way and he went back.

And of course it obviously was overnight, because when the servants came and said, hey, your son Liveth.

When was it?

Well, it was about yesterday, 7th hour, when the fever left him.

So this is a period of time.

I want you to see this now, talking about the switch of faith, he didn't turn the switch of faith off by getting offended at Jesus.

Well, he won't even come to my house, forget it, he didn't, you know.

He took another step and he kept taking a step and he had must have walked all night.

If my son was in that bad of shape, I don't think I'd have stayed at the motel six, I think I would have kept moving, I think I would have kept walking until I got home.

And so here he is, with every step he kept the faith, the switch of faith, turned on.

He never you know well, it doesn't say that, pastor.

Well, I know, but if he hadn't kept the switch of faith turned on, that miracle would not have manifested.

And so in a little bit we'll talk about how to do that, how to keep that switch of faith turned on.

But right now I want you to see that this Bible miracle was wholly dependent upon this father and the switch of faith being kept on.

And so he said his servants, he asked his servants when was it?

He said in verse 52, he had acquired of them.

Of what hour?

When he began to amend.

See, he didn't get instantly healed.

He began to amend, he began to get better.

What hour was it?

They said, oh, at the seventh hour.

Yesterday, at the seventh hour and that was about the same time Jesus said go your way, your son, live it.

And so he began to amend, he began to get better.

I mean, he didn't get up out of the bed and go play soccer, he didn't go play a pickup game, a basketball.

I mean, he's getting better, he's improving, but he's not completely.

He doesn't have the 100% manifestation.

And that's what I wanna get you to see that we have to.

When we have whatever it is that we're believing for, sometimes we have results that begin to happen and we don't have the final results.

Let's keep the switch of faith kept.

Turn on Amen, don't turn it off and don't let it go off amen.

And so turn on the switch of faith and keep it on.

And I've got one, two, three, three areas.

There's more than that, but these three will suffice for tonight.

Whatever it is that you're facing when you're taking a stand of faith, turn on the switch of faith by turning on the switch of the word.

Notice, he believed the word that was spoken unto him.

I mean we're gonna have to get right down to it.

We need to believe what God said.

Over what circumstances say Turn on the switch of the word I think about in Mark, chapter five, the woman with the issue of blood, when she heard of Jesus, came in the press behind for, she said, and the amplified says for she kept on saying.

So when she heard that Jesus heard about him, she started saying I shall be whole, I shall be whole.

With every step she took on her journey, I shall be whole, I shall be whole.

The only if was if I lash long enough to touch his hymn.

There was several things that she had to overcome in order for that to happen, but her faith was absolutely certain as far as Jesus and what he would do if she could get there.

I shall be whole, she kept on saying.

In Mark 11, 23, we like to quote that Brother Hagin had a whole ministry of preaching on that verse.

And it says whosoever shall say under this mountain, be thou removed, be thou cast into the sea, shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass.

He shall have whatsoever he saith.

And so the word say or some form of say is in that verse three times.

Two times it's the word epos, which simply means to speak or say.

The one in the middle where he says believe those things which he saith, shall come to pass.

That word say, saith, is the Greek word Lego and it means a systematic discourse.

In other words, it means that you say it over and over and in my experience you know close to what is it 34 years of ministry, 27 years of pastoring, full time where people many times stop short, keeping the switch of faith on, is what their confession?

They quit speaking, what they believe.

You've got to say it over and over what you believe in your heart.

If you don't believe it in your heart it won't do any good, but when you believe it in your heart, god told Brother Hagin.

He said my people are not missing it on what they believe.

They believe, right, they miss it on what they're saying and I believe part of that is they miss it on what they don't say often enough.

Sometimes they just say it a time or two and then they let their confession slip.

And so keep saying what you believe in your heart Lego, lego, my ego.

So believe those things which you say, keep on saying them.

Keep the switch of the word turned on.

Secondly, keep the switch of praise turned on.

I mean, what would you do if you had a full manifestation of what it is you're believing for?

Wouldn't you just shout?

Wouldn't you just have a?

Wouldn't you be dancing for joy?

Faith is praise and action.

Faith when we praise ahead of time, before we feel like it, before we see any difference.

That's faith and action.

Right there.

Praise is so important, so integral.

With the switch of faith, anybody can just have a hang dog, poor me, attitude that's.

You know, your accountant says everything.

The devil can read whether you believe in or not just by looking at you.

So in Acts, chapter 16, paul and Silas had gone to Macedonia and then, you know, they were beaten with many stripes and thrown into the inner prison and locked up in stocks.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

And at midnight the Bible says Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises.

And they prayed and sang praises so loud that all the prisoners heard them.

So it was so effective.

Because you know, we need to put the and in there.

When we're believing and we're saying let's and praise, let's not forget to praise God for the answer, even before we see it.

Turn on the switch of praise, turn on the switch of the word.

And the last one is turn on the switch of action.

And I preached on this recently James 2, 20 in the, in the way myth, faith without corresponding action is dead being alone.

And so you know, if we are really have Bible faith and we have to act on the word or another way to say it we need to act like the Bible is true or another way of saying it's.

Act like what you are saying, that you believe in your heart is true.

Act like that's true.

I mean, if you're saying thank God by stripes, I'm here within, act like it's true.

Get out of bed, quit, quit.

Quit acting like you're sick.

Make yourself, get up, amen.

If you're sad, start laughing.

Quit talking about sad things, quit saying sad songs, start lifting your voice and praising God and laugh, laugh at the devil.

If you're broke, give.

So we see.

Well, I don't have anything to give.

Well, sell something and give that, give it.

After that I would tell you to sell, give something away, but do you want multiples of that?

I mean, I know people, you know they don't have any money, so they give things away.

What do you want?

You want to return on a t-shirt?

You want to return on a pair of shoes?

Look, sell something and give the money.

Money is what you need when you're broke, not things.

You need money.

So, so money, well, I don't have it.

One time I remember we were, we were wanting to give into a special offering.

It was seven years of harvest, for the hostain had declared missions.

It was a missions offering and all at that time we could do, we could just tithe and give just a little bit above.

The tithe is all we had the budget for.

We just couldn't, and I'd stretch it out every now and then.

And when I did stretch it out, I mean it was, it was a scramble to make make everything work out financially.

And and it was just.

Jesus said it's more blessed to give than it is to receive, and I proved that out because it was miserable not being able to give over above.

We were givers and we just weren't, didn't have the financial ability to do it.

So someone had given us a car that we didn't particularly need.

It was sitting in the driveway and Gladys didn't drive it.

Nobody drove it, it was sitting in the driveway, we didn't need it.

And so I had a family meeting one time.

I said, look, we could sell that car out there, 83 Buick Skylark, pale yellow.

It was, all you know, kind of dull, it hadn't been ever waxed.

I don't take it as live and but it ran Okay and so I wanted to get their agreement.

You know, yeah, let's sell that and give the offering.

So we sold it for 18.

I mean, I put an ad in the paper and like it sold like in two days 1800 bucks and we turned around and put that whole thing in the offering and it felt so good.

I mean, you know, and really when I look back, that was kind of a turning point.

It was kind of a turning point, I'll tell you, when Jesus said thy son liveth.

It was a turning point.

I mean, the tide of the battle had turned on that young man.

Whatever was wrong with him.

The fever broke and he started getting better.

Well, we didn't have an instant manifestation in our finances, but things started getting better.

Things started heading in a different, positive direction.

Are you with me now Talking about the switch of faith?

This testimony is a little heavy, I guess, but I think it bears talking about, about the switch of action.

You know, god expects us to do our part, and so when we have a partial manifestation, we shouldn't just give up, we shouldn't just stay still, we ought to go forward.

He tells us the testimony of having a healing meeting and a couple brought their little girl and she looked to be, I don't know, eight or 10 years old, old enough to be able to do for herself and be able to talk.

She couldn't talk, she just grunted, she'd point and grunt.

She couldn't eat, she had difficulty swallowing, so her mother would have to pinch off little bits of her food and put it in her mouth and coax her to swallow.

So they brought her up for prayer and Brother Hagin laid hands on her and he said you know, there was no manifestation of anything.

I didn't see any difference, couldn't tell anything about it, couldn't see that she'd received.

And so the couple lived in Beaumont.

So they the meeting was here in Pasadena, actually Pasadena, texas.

So they got in the car and they stopped to get a hamburger on their way home.

And the mom was about to take a hamburger and break off a little piece of it with her finger and reach in the back seat and give their daughter a little tiny bite and over the over the seat, the young lady says give me that.

And she grabbed the hamburger and ate that hamburger, just like normal.

And he said, really, 75% of the miracle had already happened by the time they were in that car headed home.

75%, I mean, she wasn't totally well, she wasn't completely normal, but I mean that was a huge difference right there.

Give me that she hadn't been able to talk.

Give me that, grabbed it with her hand and started eating and swallowed and all the whole thing.

But in the process of time that little girl lost all of her healing, went right back to where she was, because the parents were backslid, they never repented, they never altered their way of life, they never served God and because of that, because of their disobedience, that little girl didn't, didn't have her healing.

Well, pastor, that sounds so harsh, that sounds terrible.

Well, that's just.

That's the thing about being a parent.

I mean God counts parenting very heavy and we have a whole lot to do with our children's failure or success by how we live in front of them, what example we're setting.

And when God does a miracle like that, he expects people to get their lives lined up and get them right.

They had a part to play which they didn't.

They didn't play that part and you know, it reminds me of all the people that the Democrats trying to tell us parents to shut up and don't tell the teachers what we want to see in school, and we don't have any right to tell the teachers how to what to teach our kids.

You know, this testimony right here is a it's not the teacher that's gonna suffer, you know, it's the parents.

If the parents don't stand up for their children, so we ought to stand up for our children in every area.

Amen, and be a good example.

So let's keep the switch of faith turned on and watch God do miracle after miracle.

The switch of faith, come on, let's receive tonight Hallelujah, I pray.

This blessed you, and you know, I know you've heard it before.

And if you have, then it's water, you know, and if you've never heard anything like this before, then it's sea.

Okay, hallelujah.