The Word Of Faith

Well, it's my pleasure to introduce to you Dr Raphael, a Reverend Doctor.

Well, raphael Cruz, and I'm telling you, I've gotten to talk with him behind the scenes.

We've eaten some meals together, haven't we?

And he's always stirring up my faith and, just as a church, he's deposited quite a large amount of revelation, knowledge, amen, and just what he shared, I believe, two times ago about covenant we're still chewing on that, amen.

That was just life changing.

It's church changing, and you welcome, brother Cruz.

Amen, thank you, my brother, praise God.

So glad you're here.

It is so great to be here.

Praise be seated.

You know, I'm always blessed when I am here and I couldn't wait to come back and share with you.

But before I start doing that, you need to remember we're in the middle of a primary.

How many of you have voted?

Let me see your hands.

Well, I see a lot of hands that didn't come up.

Let me tell you, the primary is much more important than the general.

It is in the primary where you can be sure, you can make sure that the most conservative, the one that most aligns with the Word of God, is our candidate and that you don't have to go to the general holding your nose to vote for the lesser of two evils.

So make sure you vote, make sure you get all your relatives, all your friends, all your neighbors to vote and vote for men and women that uphold the principles of the Word of God.

If we do that, america will again be that shining city on a hill to the glory of God.

Well, I want to start by telling you a parable, and this is a story about the little baby eagle.

And this little baby eagle was up on a mountain very high, on a nest, and one morning the mother eagle went out flying and the little baby eagle was walking around the edge of the nest and tripped and fell all the way down to the valley.

And it got up kind of stumbling and ran across a bunch of turkeys, a mother turkey and a bunch of baby turkeys.

And so the mother turkey adopted the little baby eagle and every day they would go out into the woods scratching the ground, looking for acorns and eating acorns.

And let me tell you, this little baby eagle hated acorns.

Let me tell you something when you're an eagle you will never be satisfied with acorns.

But this little baby eagle so much wanted to be a good little turkey that it would go out into the field and say I love acorns, I like acorns, I love acorns, while it scratched the ground looking for acorns.

Well, one morning they were ready to go out and as they were walking out, that little baby turkey baby eagle looked up and saw some eagle soaring up high and something kind of swelled up in its little chest.

And the little turkey said those are eagles.

Run, because if they see us they're gonna kill us.

But that little baby eagle felt something.

So the next morning they're out and here's the little baby eagle I love acorns, I like acorns, I love acorns All distracted thinking about what saw the day before, and it got lost in the woods and it came in front of a wise owl.

And this owl said who are you?

And well, I'm a turkey.

No, said the wise owl, you're an eagle.

No, no, no, no, no, no, I'm a turkey.

No, said the wise owl, you're an eagle and I am going to teach you to fly.

So every day that little baby eagle would go before the wise owl, step on a stone and exercise his wings.

One morning that little baby eagle came toward the owl was and the owl said today is your day.

And it walked that owl up to the edge of a precipice.

The eagle looked down.

It was very deep.

That little eagle looked up and saw all the eagles flying up high and looked down again, looked up again and finally said I'm going to do it.

And it just moved back and started running as fast as it could and it jumped into the precipice and that eagle was dropping like a rock and flapping his wings as fast as it could and dropping like a rock and flapping his wings and dropping like a rock and flapping his wings and finally decided to just relax and let the wind take her and spread his wings.

And a gust of air picked up that little baby eagle and began to soar higher and higher and higher.

Let me ask you a question Aren't you tired of eating acorns?

God did not make you to eat acorns, like the turkey, but to soar like the eagles.

Let me tell you something about eagles.

Eagles fly so high that they fly above the storms where the sun always shines.

And perhaps almost.

You are going through some storms in your life today and God wants you to soar above those storms where the sun always shines, so expect to have those storms removed today.

I want to talk to you today about the word of faith, but before I do that, I want you to pay close attention to three verses of Scripture out of this book, and they are John, chapter 1, verses 1, 2, and 14.

John 1:1

And the Bible says and the word, it says, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the way word was God, the same was in the beginning.

It says so Jesus and the word are one and the same.

How does John chapter 1, let's look at John chapter 1,.

John 1 · chapter mention John 1 · chapter mention

John chapter 1, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God.

John 1 · chapter mention

The same was in the beginning with God.

And verse 14,.

And the word became flesh and dwell among us and we beheld his glory, the glorious of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Those three verses tells us that Jesus and the Bible are one and the same.

The Bible is Jesus speaking to you.

That means you can believe every word of it.

Okay, I want to talk to you about the results of believing every word of you.

Romans 5, 17,.

One of my favorite verses of Scripture.

As a matter of fact, I preach on that verse of Scripture last time I was here talking about identity.

45, one man's offense.

Who is that man?

Adam Sin entered the world Much more, much more.

Those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life.

That means reigning over all your circumstances, right here, right now, through the one Christ Jesus.

You know twice in, actually three times, you say it first in Ephesians 2-8, and most of us came to Christ praying.

Ephesians 2-8 and 9.

For by grace are you saved, through faith.

The book of Romans, chapter 4, I consider the greatest chapter on faith.

Romans 4 · chapter mention

If you really understand chapter 4 of Romans, you're going to understand what faith is all about.

And in verse 16 of Romans, chapter 4, and in verse 2 of chapter 5, it says basically the same thing it is of grace that it may be by.

Romans 4 · chapter mention

It is of faith that it may be by grace.

It is of faith that it may be by grace.

So you have access through faith to the grace.

And here is the bottom line Faith is the key that opens a door to God's grace.

The grace is infinite.

God's grace is infinite.

The word that is used in the Hebrew is a word chesed, which means unconditional, covenant love.

Grace is what God gives you that you don't deserve.

It's not because you deserve it, it's in spite of the fact that you do not deserve it and it is all ready for you.

And the question is how do you access it?

You only access it one way through faith.

The Bible says without faith it is impossible to please God.

Romans 8.32 says but he that spared not his own son and delivered him up for us, how will not freely, freely, give us all things?

Every good thing comes from him.

Now we look at the definition of faith in Hebrews 11.1.

It says that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

So, number one, it says that faith is substance and number two, it says that faith is evidence.

But I want to focus on the beginning of things hoped for.

Many people, including many Christians, have no idea what hope is.

Hope is not wishful thinking.

Biblical hope is a strong, confident expectation that what God said it is so.

You know, you hear this thing.

Well, god said it and I believe it.

Whether you believe it or not, god said it, it is so, and if you want to get in on it, you got to believe it.

So faith is the key, and hope is.

You know that, you know that.

You know that what that word says is true, amen.

So let's go back to Romans, chapter 4, and let me put it in context.

Romans 4 · chapter mention

Abraham is now 99 years old, sarah is 89 years old and she'd been bearing all her life, and God just told him by this time next year, sarah will have your son and through him I'm gonna bless you throughout the world and multitudes will come out of it.

And so the first thing that he says in Romans 417 is calling those things that be, not as though they were.

God said it and it is so, whether you see it or not See.

The problem is, we have heard so much in the world.

You got to see it to believe it.

You got to see it to believe it.

God says the opposite.

You got to believe it to see it, you have to believe it to see it.

And so you got to look at what's already a reality in heaven.

You know something Every promise in this book is already a reality in heaven.

It's already done.

What did Jesus say at the cross?

It is finished, it is finished.

So you got to call those things which you do not see as though they were.

And then we look at the next verse, verse 18, abraham who, against hope, believed in hope.

Against hope, because it was a hopeless situation in the natural.

I mean, the man is 99 years old, the wife is 89 and she could never have a child anyway.

So if you look at it at the natural, you're going to throw in the towel.

But he, against the lack of hope, against the total, absolute absence of natural hope, he believed in supernatural hope.

He believed in that confident expectation that he may become the father of many nations.

Look at what he says next.

According to that which was spoken, god said it.

So I don't care what the flesh looks like, I don't care what the circumstances, god said it and I'm going to believe it.

Go to the next verse.

And being not weak in faith.

Being not weak in faith.

You remember back in Romans I mean in Genesis, chapter 15, when God made the original promise to Abraham?

Genesis 15 · chapter mention

Abraham at the time, and in verse 6 says in Abraham believe God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness.

So now he's just strong in the faith.

He considered not See.

The problem is we waste too much time considering the circumstances.

Those are excuses.

Those are excuses as to why this can't happen.

He considers not his own body, now dead I mean, he's 99 years old and or the deadness of Sarah's womb.

I mean it looks hopeless.

But he's not looking at the natural.

He's staggered not at the promise of God.

Let me tell you we so many times are guilty of staggering at the promise of God.

Well, God can't do this.

I mean, this is stage four cancer.

You know, I just saw somebody not just healed of stage four cancers, healed of stage four pancreatic cancer, which is the most aggressive of them all.

And this woman the doctors weren't giving her for six weeks to live and she's free of cancer.

That's God, that's God almighty.

You stagger not at the promise of God through unbelief, but he was strong in faith, giving glory to God.

He's able.

He's able Verse 21,.

God is able to be fully persuaded.

And being fully persuaded, man, that's the key.

If I could just get you to catch one thing he said you got to be fully persuaded that what he promised he was also able to perform.

That's the key.

You got to be fully persuaded.

God said it and it is so.

I don't care what the circumstances look like, you have to believe it to receive it.

You know and I'll tell you what.

Let me just put a paraphrase here.

Or or a paedos we always I mean, I come across so many Christians, but they always want to give God escape door.

They don't want to embarrass God.

So they pray.

Well, god, if it be your will, heal me.

You know what that is.

That's a prayer of unbelief.

That's a prayer of unbelief and God will not answer that prayer.

When you know the will of God, if you pray, if it be thy will, that's a prayer of unbelief and it will not be answered.

But you need to know God's will and that's why you need to know this book from cover to cover.

This is God's will.

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.

And then the other excuse that I hear so often well, I just don't have any faith.

Look at Romans 12.3.

It says that he gave to every man and every woman the measure of faith.

It doesn't say a measure of faith, it says the measure of faith.

That means we all got the same amount.

The problem is what are you doing with what you got?

Are you exercising it?

You know how do you grow muscles.

You exercise right, you pump weights, you do whatever you have to do.

How do you grow faith?

You exercise, you put it to use and maybe you have to take baby steps and you pray for a little baby that has one degree of fever and the fever comes out and that strengthens your faith.

But you know you have to activate it.

You have to activate it.

The word of God says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

You got to be immersed in the word.

You got to be immersed in the word.

Let me tell you a pastor friend of mine in Brownsville, missouri, a few years ago he compiled a list of 101 healing scriptures.

I took those scriptures and I rewrote them as a personal declaration from me to God.

Praise God, I walk in the divine health, but I declare those 101 scriptures daily, daily, seven days a week, because that's what God said and I believe it and I'm walking in it.

And I also take communion daily.

If you were here when I thought about blood covenant, you know that communion is not a ritual, it's not a sacrament, it is a covenant meal and when you take communion as a covenant meal, it takes a totally different meaning.

So we have to be immersed in the word of God, we have to meditate in it and actually meditating.

Actually, in the Hebrew the word is a word for murmuring, but I like to say this is the way I like to describe meditating.

Meditating is like a cow.

You know, a cow has several stomachs.

So a cow choose the cod and choose and choose and choose and then swallows it and then regurgitates it and choose on it some more, and then swallows it and regurgitates it and choose on it some more.

That's what we need to do with the word of God, and you got to chew on it and chew on it and chew on it until you get all the juices, and I'll tell you what.

It's inexhaustible, the amount of revelation you can get from the word.

And then you can get to the point where you can visualize your victory and the victory is already yours.

And then you can, with faith, call those things which you do not as though they were, because you already seen them done, hallelujah.

Now let's go to Mark 11.

Mark, chapter 11, and let me put it in context.

Mark 11 · chapter mention

Here is Jesus walking with his disciples and the Scripture says that he sees a far-off victory.

And it's very interesting because Jesus is walking to see if the victory has figs.

Now that's a little bit ludicrous.

You don't think Jesus knew whether they were figs or not.

Jesus is trying to teach a lesson to the disciples.

So he walks to this fig tree and finds no figs in the fig tree and he curses the fig tree and then they go on to Jerusalem and the next morning they're coming back.

And that's where we pick up the story, when the disciples are coming back and they see these three and they say look, the fig tree that you curse has dried up.

Look at the next three words, those three words that are having green Dried up from the roots.

Now let me tell you two things about what that from the roots means.

Number one it means it ain't never coming back.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

If the roots are dead, the whole tree is going to be dead.

But let me tell you the second thing that it means and you need to know this, because someone prays for you, for healing, and you are believing in the healing, and after the prayer you don't see anything different.

And what does the devil do Immediately?

You see, it didn't work.

God didn't answer the prayer.

Don't waste your time.

God didn't come through.

How do you know that?

It didn't dry up in the roots and it's going to take a little time for it to be manifested in the rest of the tree.

You know, if you go to John 10, 10, and we are guilty of only quoting the second half of the verse where Jesus said I'm come that you may have life and you may have it more abundantly.

But the front half of the verse is what I call the ministry of the devil, and most Christians quoted this way the thief comes not but to kill, steal and destroy.

That's not what it says.

It says the thief comes not, but to steal, kill and destroy.

You know, the most important of those three words is steal, because the enemy comes to steal the water of God from you.

Look at Mark, chapter 4, the parable of the sword.

Mark 4 · chapter mention

What is the first soil Is seed that fall by the wayside and the birds of the air come and take it.

And Jesus explained who the birds of the air are.

It's Satan and its demons.

They steal the word, and if Satan can steal the word, he can kill you and destroy you.

And this is what happens.

When the healing has taken place but it's still not manifested, the devil immediately comes to steal the word, to steal the promise, and you begin to say, oh, nothing happened.

God doesn't want me here, it's not the will of God to be here.

Well, that's not even scripture.

And you allow the enemy to steal the word.

So, anyway.

So next verse, jesus says to them have faith in God.

And actually, if you look at the Greek, it says have the faith of God, have the same faith that God has.

I mean, you need to believe it to see it.

And then Jesus said and I want you to pay close attention for verily, I say unto you that whosoever, whosoever.

I remember an old hymnal, whosoever surely meneth me.

Any of you ever sang that song?

Whosoever, surely?

It's a very old song.

I don't expect any of the young people to have heard it, but I'll tell you it's a great song.

Whosoever surely meneth me.

You know John 3.16.

Whosoever believeth in him shall have eternal life.

Whosoever covers all of us that, whosoever shall say on the line that word, say unto this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea.

Let me tell you, it's about time you talk to your mountain.

The problem is you're letting the mountain talk to you and you're listening to the mountain and you're allowing the mountain to squash you.

I mean, and so here is this woman with stage 4 cancer and the devil is saying the mountain said you're gonna die.

You're gonna die and you have a choice who are you gonna believe?

Are you gonna believe the mountain or are you gonna believe the word of God?

So you need to speak to your mountain.

Don't let the mountain speak to you, because all the mountain's gonna speak to you is death.

Speak to the mountain.

Let me tell you how powerful, powerful words are Proverbs 29, 18.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue.

You can speak death and you can speak life.

And I don't think it's coincidental that they put death first, because natural tendency is to always speak negatively.

It's only the new creation, when the Holy Spirit is controlling you, that you can speak positively.

Your words have life.

Make sure what comes out of your mouth is life and not death.

Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt, you gotta be fully persuaded.

Doubt is not being fully persuaded, but if you shall have no doubt but believe that those things which you said here's a word, say again shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever.

He says.

That's a third time.

So in one verse, jesus mentioned three times the word say.

Do you believe that he's trying to tell us something?

That it is very important what we confess or what we profess, what comes out of our mouths determines the outcome.

Let's look at the next verse.

Therefore, I say unto you what things soever you desire when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them.

You gotta be fully persuaded.

I'm gonna get this word in your heart.

You got to be fully persuaded.

Study those five verses, or six verses from Romans 4, 16 to Romans 4, 21.

And just see yourself doing that.

You have to be fully persuaded.

God said it and it is so, and that's what will come out of my mouth, and I will declare it, and declare it, and declare it, and declare it, and continue to declare it, and eternal life will come out of your mouth, blessings will come out of your mouth, healing will come out of your mouth, hallelujah.

You need to visualize the promise as yours, I mean, and then you speak it, believing totally.

I'm gonna repeat it again you got to be fully persuaded, fully persuaded.

Say it with me, fully persuaded.

Hallelujah, there's the victory.

Let me tell you, if you're fully persuaded, you're gonna walk out of here healed.

This morning, let's go to Mark, chapter five, and everybody's familiar with this.

We're gonna talk about Jairus and we're gonna talk about the woman with the issue of blood, and it is not coincidental again that both these stories are intertwined.

God is trying to strengthen our faith, and so he gives us two different stories intertwined.

Let's look at the first one and behold, there comes one of the rulers of the synagogue, jairus by name, and when he saw him, he fell at his feet.

Now you got to realize that, ruler of the synagogue, they were totally opposed to Jesus.

I mean, jesus came to upset the upper heart.

The people that most came against Jesus were the religious leaders, and this man is the leader of the synagogue.

You know, if you've been to Capernaum, the house that they call the house of Peter, I believe was the house of Jesus because it's a pretty big house and Peter only lived with his wife and his mother-in-law.

Well, I guess to live with your mother-in-law you need a big house so she can be in the other end of the house.

But I believe that that was the house of Jesus and it's only about a hundred yards from the synagogue.

I mean, the synagogue is right over there.

So Jairus knew who Jesus was because there was a lot of commotion at Jesus' house.

And so all of a sudden he comes to him, he falls at his feet and he says he besought him greatly.

I mean he's now begging.

Saying again comes out of his mouth my little daughter lies at the point of death.

I pray thee, please come and lay your hands on her that she may be healed.

And now look at fully persuaded, and she shall leave.

That's the confession that came out of his mouth and he's a religious leader.

But he became fully persuaded Now.

He probably became fully persuaded because, being at the synagogue close to Jesus' house, he probably saw all kinds of people being healed and even though it was against his religious dogma, he became fully persuaded by what he saw.

And you know, sometimes a mountain or a big storm has a way of opening our eyes.

You know I mean so many people that their idea about God is don't call me, I call you.

But I know Jairus.

He's had a really difficult situation.

His daughter is dying, his daughter is dying and he's seeing these Jesus healing people left and right.

Now is he going to believe his religious dogma?

He could care less at this point.

He wants to see his daughter healed and so he makes a declaration.

He says, he says out of his mouth if you come, she will live, if you touch her she will live.

No information about, about, about it.

So he's fully persuaded and you know what does it say?

Jesus went with him.

You know, when you call on Jesus, he's not going to say well, call me Saturday.

I'm too busy this week, but you know I got more important things to do.

You don't bother me.

You know you remember the story of Elijah up in the mountain?

And here are the, the prophets of Baal, trying to call upon Baal and Elijah, poking fun at them.

And I said well, maybe Baal has asleep.

You need to scream louder, maybe maybe he's taking a nap.

God doesn't take naps.

No, no, no, you call upon him, he will answer.

And so it says Jesus went with him.

And there were people all around.

I mean, he's just surrounded by people and when you call upon Jesus he's right there.

He never leaves.

You Said I will never leave you, I will never forsake you, I will never forsake you.

And now this second woman comes into the picture, says, a certain woman who had an issue of blood for 12 years.

Now this woman is out on the streets to meet Jesus.

Now, if you understand the law, the old covenant, a woman with an issue of blood could not be out on the streets.

The penalty for that that would be stoning to death.

Now she's locked up, she's shut in for 12 years.

For 12 years she's had an issue of blood.

So for 12 years she's been shut in and I imagine she had people visit her and people tell her about Jesus and she heard all kinds of stories about Jesus healing people.

I mean, this is cavernum.

She lives right there in cavernum too, and even though it would be death if some of the religious leaders find her, she doesn't care why, because she's fully persuaded.

She's fully persuaded.

So she had suffered many things of many physicians and had spent all that she had, I mean from MRIs to these, to these other.

She just I don't think they had MRIs in the time of Jesus, but think about the cost of the MRI she just spent all her money 12 years paying doctors and she's not getting better.

Actually, she's getting worse.

So when she heard of Jesus, when she heard of Jesus, she became fully persuaded and she came in the press behind.

That means not only coming out, coming out in the midst of a multitude and near all these people pressing against her, and she's pushing through.

I gotta get there, I gotta get out of the way.

I gotta get there.

Get out of the way, I gotta get there.

Nothing is gonna stop you to get to Jesus, because Jesus has the words of eternal life.

Jesus has the healing hand and I need it.

And she touched his garment, for she said, she said she spoke the word of faith Even before she got to Jesus, she said if I may, but touch his clothes, I shall be whole, I will be healed, I will be complete.

She declared it before she saw it.

Remember what I told you a little while ago you gotta believe it to see it, you gotta be what's the word?

Fully persuaded.

And straight away, immediately, the fountain of her blood was dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.

I mean, you'll know it when God touches you, you'll know it.

Hallelujah, hallelujah.

And Jesus immediately, knowing in himself that virtue.

I mean he saw, he felt the power flowing out of him, healing power flowing out of him.

And see Jesus look around to see who was it that touched me, who touched my clothes?

Now, you know, you got to read between the lines.

You don't think he knows who touched your clothes.

You see, he is ministering to others, even with the very word.

And his disciples said to him you know everybody's pushing it.

And you say who touched you?

I mean there are people pushing left and right and everywhere.

And he said and he looked around to see who had done this thing.

And the woman fearing and trembling.

And I'll tell you we get so much confusion and misunderstanding about that word fear.

You hear about fear of God.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom.

That does not mean you're afraid of God.

He's your father.

It's a matter of fact.

Read Romans 8.

You call him Abba, you call him daddy.

He's not somebody to be afraid of.

It means wow.

It is so overwhelming that you're in awe.

It's reverential awe.

It's just wow.

It's just like seeing the burning bush.

So don't think that fear means you're scared.

You're scared of God and certainly you don't need to be scared of the devil.

The devil is scared of you.

So she fell down and told him everything.

And look what Jesus said Daughter, your faith has made you whole.

Not the face of Jesus.

He said your faith has made you whole.

See, she exercised her faith and she was not only fully persuaded, but she said it.

You've got to declare it Because whatsoever you say that you shall have, your faith has made you whole.

Go in peace and be whole of the plague.

Now that word whole is much more than healed.

Whole means you're complete.

Nothing missing, nothing lacking You're whole.

Now let's go back to the other story.

And here comes this guy.

He says there came from the ruler of the synagogues, certain, which said thy daughter is dead.

Why troubles thou the master any longer?

You know Jesus had already said when he said if you touch her she will be well.

And here come these people saying you know she's dead, don't bother the master any longer.

And here comes the messenger of death.

The question is what are you going to do?

That's a much more important question.

Suppose you were in that circumstance, what would you do?

Who are you going to believe?

I mean, it's like this woman with stage 4 cancer and the doctor says you're going to die in 6 weeks.

Well, you're going to believe the doctor, you're going to believe God and praise God.

Jairus didn't open his mouth.

Jairus sometimes opened mouth, changed foot.

He didn't respond.

And as soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he said to Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue be not afraid, only believe, be fully persuaded, only believe.

So now he goes.

He said let's go, come on, come on, let's go.

And so you've got to realize that the enemy is going to use fear to steal your faith, to steal the word.

But remember that Jesus says I have come, that you may have life and you may have it more abundantly.

That's life to the fullest.

God wants you to live life to the fullest in His presence.

In His presence there is fullness of joy, delights forevermore at His right hand, it says in Psalm 1611.

And so he come to the house of the ruler of the synagogue and you know he says why do you?

I mean because they're all wailing and you know just screaming.

And he said what do you have all this commotion?

The damn soul is not dead but sleepeth.

And the scripture says that everybody loved him to scorn and he put them all out.

I mean, I don't want the unbelief around me when I'm going to be ministering faith.

And he took the damn soul by the hand and he said Talita, come here.

Said I say unto you, arise.

And straight away the damn soul arise, arose.

I tell you what God is ruler of all and the king of the universe.

If you know, jesus is in your heart.

So you need to decide.

Who are you going to believe.

If you look at Matthew, chapter eight, verses 16 and 17, it says that when it was dark, they brought to Jesus many that were demon possessed and with His word he cast out the demons Again.

What did he do?

He spoke the word and cast out the demons and healed all that were sick.

How many, all All that were sick.

Verse 17, that I may be fulfilled while I was spoken by the prophet Isaiah saying himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.

He's quoting Isaiah 53.

Four.

And then Isaiah 53, five says for he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.

The chastisement for our peace, for our well-being, for our wholeness was upon Him and with His stripes we are healed.

We are healed Present tense.

And behold.

Let me tell you what Jesus told his disciples in Matthew, chapter 10.

Matthew 10 · chapter mention

He is saying to them as you go, preach, saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

And then look what he says to these disciples heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils freely.

You have received, freely give Now.

That is a pretty big order, but that's what he's telling each and every one of us.

You know something?

I'm going to tell you a story.

I was the last time in Israel.

I was at Caesarea Philippi, and Caesarea Philippi was the most idolatrous city in the time of Jesus.

It was a city where they sacrificed babies to the devil.

They threw them down a deep pit which they called the gates of hell.

This is the place where Jesus asked the disciples whom do you say that I am?

And Peter said thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Peter.

And Jesus said Peter, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father, who is in heaven and upon this rock.

Not Peter, but the declaration of Peter thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

And that word that he used, I will build my church.

That's the word ecclesia in the Greek.

And if you ask a hundred Christians, including pastors, what does that word ecclesia mean?

Probably all of them means.

Well, it means the called out ones, and that's not incorrect.

But that was not the meaning of that word 2000 years ago when Jesus spoke it.

The word ecclesia in that Hellenistic society meant the rulers, the leaders of the city, the ones who made all the decisions, the ones who led everyone else.

And when you realize that's what God is called us to be, you understand that when he said and the gates of hell shall not prevail, that's not a defensive statement, that's an offensive statement.

We storm the gates of hell.

We kick down the gates of hell and we take authority over the enemy, and that's what God is calling you and I to do.

He says, he that believes in me, the works that I do and shall he do an even greater works because I go to the Father.

See, god has given us a Holy Spirit that we can operate in His power.

If you look at Matthew, chapter 18, 28, 28, 18.

Matthew 18 · chapter mention

Matthew 28, 18, it says that all power or all authority in heaven and in earth has been given unto me.

That's Jesus speaking.

And Jesus says all power or all authority in heaven and in earth has been given unto me.

What are the first three words in verse 19?

Go ye, therefore, go ye.

So, in other words, jesus is saying because all power and authority has been given unto me, unto Jesus, therefore, you go.

You know what that is.

That's a delegation of authority.

Jesus has delegated His authority to you and I to come and go in the name of Jesus and do great exploits and tell devils get out of here, and tell sickness and disease get out of here.

Hallelujah.

I believe Pastor Grainer preached on this verse a couple of weeks ago.

Isn't that right, james, when Peter, and he's coming with John.

And here's this beggar at the porch of the temple, and Peter said hey, silver and gold I don't have, but what I have I give unto you In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Rise up and walk In the name.

Remember what we just talked about the transfer of authority.

You know something, you have that authority.

You can do the same thing because you have what Peter had Put it to use.

This is the confidence.

This is 1 John 5.

This is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

This is his will.

If you find the promise here, that's his will.

His word is his will.

This is why you need to know the word.

And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desire of him.

See the word.

His word is his will.

This is why you need to know the word.

Second Peter, first Peter 2.24.

And he says that by whose stripes you wear healed?

Well, if you wear healed, you are healed.

I mean, isaiah 53 puts it in the present tense, he puts it in the past.

It's all done.

It's all done.

Let me just read one more scripture and we will pray.

And this scripture Matthew 18, 19, is what's called the prayer of agreement.

And Jesus said again I say unto you that if two of you, two of you, shall agree on earth as touching anything that they will ask, it shall be done for them of my father, which is in heaven.

This is all he said.

Two of us.

I'll tell you in a minute and I'll tell you.

You got to realize, if you know Jesus, the spirit of God is living in you and all these promises are you.

And I'll tell you what.

If you don't know Jesus, this is a good time for you to take, and take this time to surrender your life to Jesus.

Let's just take a pause.

Everybody with their eyes closed, please, and I'm going to ask you if you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, or if you're not sure you don't know and you would like to pray.

Nobody's looking, all the eyes are closed.

Please, raise your hand and I'm going to pray a prayer and I want all of us to pray it and you can open your eyes.

Thank you, father, that you love me so much that you send your son, jesus Christ, to go to a cross and take upon himself all of my sins, and all my sins were judged in Jesus, and Jesus went through death, the grave and hell to pay for all of my sins, and the proof that the payment was complete was that you raised him from the dead on the third day.

I now confess Jesus Christ as my Lord and my Savior.

Take my life, jesus, and use it for your glory in Jesus' name, amen.

Well, on the authority of the word of God, if you have prayed that prayer, you have been translated, according to the Apostle Peter, from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God's dear son.

And Galatians 3.29 says that if you are in Christ, if you have surrendered your life to Christ, you are the seed of Abraham and heir according to the promise, and so all these promises of God are for you.

Let me tell you, you may be facing a big storm in your life.

You may have some big mountains in your life.

James, would you come forward please?

And your wife and you may have some big mountains in your life.

Well, it's time to cast down mountains into the sea.

It's time to see the sick heal.