The Case For Miracles 2

Pick up your bibles, let's just wave them around, make Jesus glad and the devil mad.

And let's say this together say, heavenly Father, I'm at the right place at the right time, with the right people, and I have ears to hear what the Spirit is telling me.

I'm listening for myself for the Word of God to water the seeds that are already in there and to plant new seeds that will bring forth a crop in Jesus' name.

All right, let's look at Acts chapter six and Acts chapter eight.

We will continue what we started last week on the case for miracles, or we could say why miracles are not optional.

Acts chapter six, verse eight.

And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.

And who were the people that he did?

Among Jewish people, the same people that crucified the Lord.

He did great wonders, mega-wonders and miracles among the people.

And then in Acts eight, we look at verse five.

Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them, and the people, with one accord, gave heed into those things which Philip spoke, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did, for unclean spirits crying with loud voice came out of many that were possessed with them and many taken with palsies and that were lame, were healed.

And so last week we answered the question why are miracles so important?

And the second question was why are miracles so hard to find in the modern church?

And so we know what the definition of a miracle is.

I gave that to you last week, but I wanna remind you it's an event contrary to the established constitution and course of things, a deviation from the known laws of nature, a supernatural event.

So we answered the question why, and I made the case the first reason that we need miracles is it proves that Jesus is alive and he is the same yesterday, today and forever.

I mean, without miracles, all we have is an argument, all we have is a debate.

Listen, we're not gonna get the job done, we're not gonna populate heaven with a debate.

We're gonna have to have evidence, and God furnishes the evidence with His Word, doesn't he?

He confirms His Word with signs and wonders and miracles.

And so the second thing is that believers, or I could say the church, but sometimes when we say the church, people think preachers or they think famous people.

No, the believers, everybody say I'm a believer.

See, the body of Christ is a man.

We have corporate power and we have individual.

That song is so powerful because it reminds us hey, we've been given authority, we've been given power.

When we open our mouth, miracles come tumbling out.

Amen, I like that song.

And so believers are God's representatives on the earth.

Jesus isn't here, but we are.

The head is up there but the body's down here.

And then the third important reason that we need miracles is miracles give hope to those on whom the world has given up.

Praise God, I just like little Ezra.

You know that was a terrible report, a tough report, but you know, right early in that day, with that diagnosis and the prognosis, and they felt peace about going forward with treatments.

And the treatments are terrible, they're tough or hard, and you know, and he's gone through it and got one more year to go through, but you know, the basis of it is faith in God, faith in the Word of God.

We don't look to the doctors, we don't look to the treatment to give us the answers.

Are you with me now?

So miracles are not optional.

And then we answered the question why are they so hard to find?

First reason there's a little teaching or understanding of the Word, and so if you don't have that you don't have faith.

You gotta have faith.

You gotta have an atmosphere of faith for miracles to occur.

Jesus, on hometown, they were offended to him.

They said, who does he think he is?

I mean, you know, we know him, we know he's the son of the carpenter he drew up in our town.

I mean, who does he think he is?

And they knew that there were other people that had miracles, but they didn't receive anything except a few minor ailments.

Jesus, could there do no mighty work?

Why?

Because of their lack of an atmosphere.

They had no atmosphere for miracles to occur.

So if you're a preacher or a pastor that went to cemetery I mean seminary that taught you that miracles passed away, what are you gonna do when you have your own flock?

Are you gonna tell them miracles?

No, you're gonna tell them miracles passed away.

You can't teach what you don't know, any more than you can come back from where you ain't been.

And it just seems like in the modern church that people have torn big pages out of their Bible and listen.

We need to teach and preach the Word of God.

It'll produce.

I said it'll produce.

And so then you don't have the teaching and the understanding of the Word.

So there's little faith for the atmosphere to occur and then there's little place for the Holy Spirit to move.

I mean, most churches have got their checklist.

They've got this, gotta happen, that, gotta happen, this, gotta happen that.

Well, we have a list of things that we wanna see done today.

I've got a little pulpit memo to remind me of a few things that we need to talk about.

But if I don't get to that and the Holy Ghost takes the service off, I'm not gonna lose any sleep over it.

The Holy Ghost knows.

I always tell him you've got freedom to do whatever.

You can interrupt anything I'm saying at any time Praise God.

Well, you don't have that.

Most places the Holy Spirit can't get a foot in the door.

Oh well, we've got too many people that are new.

They wouldn't understand.

Well, you know what I didn't understand, but I liked it.

I mean, the first time the Holy Ghost broke out at Lakewood Church, man, I tell you I liked every bit of it.

I didn't offend me.

I wasn't looking for a door to leave, praise God.

And so we talked about how those two things quench not the spirit of God First, thessalonians five and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, which is Ephesians, chapter four.

And so the spirit can be either quenched that is, cold water thrown on his plan or grieved, made sad, in other words, not honor.

And when not honoring the Holy Spirit, not letting him have his way.

And that can happen not only from the pulpit, it can happen right out there, it can happen right in the congregation, when we don't have the right attitude, when we come to church skeptical, when we come to church all weighed down.

Listen, we ought to come to church not to get filled up.

We ought to come to church to share what God's already given us.

See, when we raise our science a little higher.

Now, I know some of us do need to get to church, oh God, if I can just get to church, well, that's fine.

But if everybody was like that, see, we've got to have somebody that it's got somebody something to contribute.

And I don't mean that you're gonna preach, I don't mean that you're gonna stand up even and necessarily give a prophecy, but your faith is active and contributes to the atmosphere.

And so we talked about that last week.

We talked about that we have to have faith and fire for miracles to occur.

And how important they were.

You know that little formula God gave me years ago love plus unity, equal miracles.

Miracles, boy, I tell you we've got to have them.

So part two today I wanted to look at Acts, chapter three.

We talked, we proved last week that it wasn't just the apostles that had the ability to work miracles.

We found Stephen and Philip, and they both were basically in the ministry of helps.

They were ushers, but they were full of faith in the Holy Ghost.

That's what they had to do in order to get involved.

Here at Glorious Way Church, we look for people that are full of faith in the Holy Ghost and have wisdom.

Amen, and if you can check those three things off, then you can do almost anything here at the church.

But we're looking for people that are sold out to God.

All right, acts, chapter three.

And this is Peter preaching, and it's right after the man at the gate beautiful, let me just remind you.

You know, peter and John went up at the hour of prayer to the temple.

What were they gonna do?

They were gonna have a Jewish prayer meeting and they're wanting to hang around Jews.

That was their vision is to try to get Jews safe.

These are the same people that crucified the Lord, and so they're on their way, but I can just imagine they were praying.

You know, god, use us any way you want to.

Lord, we don't have anything in a box, we're just and we're out there in the marketplace.

We're just strolling through life, whatever you wanna do, and sure enough, on the way they've encountered this beggar.

He's registered with a temple you had, and he qualified.

If you wanted to give alms, he was qualified to receive your alms and you would check the box.

That was part of their obligation under Judaism.

Under the law was to give alms to poor people.

He was poor, he was registered, he was proven to be worthy of your alms and you, if you gave him that, you, you qualified and you were obedient to the law.

And they saw him, they knew why he was there and they fastened their eyes upon him.

See, they looked through his outward and looked into the inward.

See, that's the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit alerted them.

See, let's be open to our watching who we're encountering in our everyday life.

It may be your neighbor, it may be somebody you work with, it may be a total stranger, but I'm telling you, let's be alert to what the Holy Ghost wants to do.

And so, instead of being in a hurry, they told them in, peter said silver and gold.

I don't have any silver and gold for you.

That's not what I'm.

Why I'm asked you to look at it.

You know, look on us.

He said, look on us.

And he thought he was going to get his alms.

You know, no, I don't have any silver and gold.

But such as I have, give I thee in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

See, there's another Jesus being preached right now.

There's a false gospel they're doctrine of demons out there being preached right now.

Hey, he was very specific.

Wasn't just Jesus down on the court?

No, jesus Christ of Nazareth.

In that name I rise up and walk.

And he grabbed him.

I mean, he didn't wait for him to get up, he grabbed him and jerked him up and the Bible says immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength and he went walking and leaping and praising God into the temple and a whole crowd of Jewish people saw it and they came running up wondering.

You know, you talk about signs and wonders.

I'd made everybody wonder because everybody knew who he was.

Everybody had probably given him alms at one point or another.

He's probably making a pretty good gig for him.

Actually, some of these guys sitting on the corner, you know, and you're giving them money.

I mean, they drive off in a nice car and go to a three bedroom, two bath house.

They're making a pretty good living begging.

And so these group of people came up and so there was an occasion.

Then remember what I said about Raymond T Richie.

You know healing as God's dinner bell, ding-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling.

I mean God rang the dinner bell and all those Jews come and run up wondering.

And Peter didn't sit around and think I wonder why they're looking here.

No, he started preaching.

Why don't you?

What are you looking on us?

By our power holding this, this man stands before you.

Be it known unto you.

He began to preach.

I said he began to preach to that group of people that were coming to see the miracle of healing.

And so in verse 19, here he said repent.

Ye.

Therefore See, I mean modern.

You hardly hear the word repent.

What does repent mean?

It means turn around.

It means you know you're headed to hell.

Repent means turn around and come toward heaven.

You've got to turn around.

You can't keep going the way you're going.

You can't keep doing what you've been doing and go to heaven.

You've got to repent and believe and God changes you from the inside out.

We've all experienced that.

Most of us have experienced that, I know I did and so he said repent ye, therefore, and be converted.

See, you're changed into another substance.

The Bible says if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature, a new species of being that never before existed.

Converted See, I'm an engineer by by by by by God.

I'm an engineer by by God.

I'm an engineer by by God.

Converted, see, I'm an engineer by by education.

So I know.

Converted I mean water.

You know, ice is, is a solid.

It can be converted to a liquid with heat.

You convert ice into water with heat and then you can keep adding the heat and pretty soon water turns into steam.

It goes from a solid to a liquid, to a gas.

It totally different properties, totally different.

It acts differently.

And yet it was made out of the same.

See, that's exactly.

I got the fire of the Holy Ghost on me.

It changed my entire life.

I'm a new man, I'm a new person.

I don't like to hang around people that I grew up with because they still think that I'm the same.

No, that guy died.

He evaporated, was turned into another person.

Oh yeah, my flesh is still the same.

My brain has got some memory of that.

But I'm new.

Amen, repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing everybody say times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive or retain until the times of restitution.

Everybody say times of restitution Of all things which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

And then, in chapter four, it says here that among that group verse four, how be it?

Many of them which heard the word believed, and the number of the men was about 5,000.

So 5,000 men, jewish men, got saved.

Now, if you believe they were by themselves, that's 5,000, but I believe they had wives and kids, probably 20,000 people.

God say at the preaching after this miracle, this miracle, god rang the dinner bell, peter took advantage of the timing of the moment and he began to preach and those people that heard the word were saved, they were converted, their sins were blotted out and there was a time of revival and a time of restitution or a time of refreshing.

The Bible says in the King James, times of refreshing and times of restitution came while they were there.

And so in chapter four it tells us how many people got saved.

It's a multitude.

And then so the Sadducees and the rulers of the temple, and all of that, the priests.

They were jealous, they didn't like it, so they got together and in verse 13, now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and they perceived that they were unlearned in the ignorant men maybe they're not trained in the temple, they're not their fishermen, they're not really of the status of the priest or the rulers of the temple, but they were unlearned in ignorant men.

They marveled and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus.

Would people know that about you?

Would they know that about me, that we've been with Jesus?

I tell you, when you're with Jesus, there's something different about you.

There's a boldness at song this morning confidence.

There's a confidence.

There's a boldness that comes when you hang out with Jesus.

And Jesus people, glory to God.

And they took note in verse 14, and beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.

They wanted to real bad, they wanted to discount the whole thing, but they couldn't.

But when they had commanded them to go aside of the council, they conferred among themselves, or whispering oh boy, what are we gonna do now?

All these preachers, these fishermen, look at that, look at what they're doing.

There's 20,000 of our people that they've gotten.

Oh, what are we gonna do?

What should we do to these men?

For indeed, a notable miracle has been done by them and it's manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.

Oh, we want to, but we can't.

This is what the world needs.

We need notable miracles.

If you think the church can get its job done and bring in this end time harvest without miracles and I'm talking about notable miracles.

What's a notable miracle?

Widely known and undisputed, cannot be disputed.

Everybody knows the before and the after.

That's what we're looking for, that's what we're believing for.

Are you willing to provide an atmosphere for such miracles to happen?

See, it really gets back to you and to me.

We have to provide the atmosphere.

And so he was preaching on this opportunity of the notable miracle, and he and John, as I said, they were fully yielded to the Holy Ghost, and Peter called this supernatural event a time of refreshing Chyros moment.

Chyros is the Greek word.

The Hebrew word for appointed time is moed.

That was all.

The feast days were moeds.

They were appointed feast days.

You know, you had the Rosh Hashanah, you had the feast of trumpets, you had all of these different feast days.

Those were appointed times.

God did things on appointed times and so this was an appointed time of refreshing.

And the word refreshing there it means revival.

How many of you pray for revival?

Well, this is an example of what happens in revival.

Notable miracles happen.

I mean no miracles, no revival.

Forget about revival.

There's no revival.

Another meaning of it is recovery of breath.

It would.

You could use the word starvel.

Something like this happened.

See, recovery, breath start.

That's one idea of it.

I mean they wondered the.

Can you imagine that crowd when that man got up and started walking and leaping and praising God?

Somebody that was 40 years old, had been out there for decades begging and all of a sudden he's walking and leaping and praising God.

Can you imagine?

Most of them went, went out to see Oral Roberts in 2005 with 11 of Gladys and I and 10, it was 12 of us all together, our children and other staff members and went out to interview Oral Roberts in his home in Newport Beach, california, and he prophesied over this church.

He said he said, john, there are going to be people coming to your church and they're going to be startled with the Holy Ghost.

That's going to be Well.

We've had a few startling moments.

We've had a few notable miracles.

I think about a little girl.

She didn't come to this church, neither did her mother, but her grandmother came here and they were very concerned.

She's 10 years old and she was born with a heart defect and had a, I think, a hole, and it was.

They knew that as she grew and her body grew and her heart grew, that they were going to have to do open heart surgery for her to live.

And she began to have some difficulty.

You can imagine when your heart that messed up, your blood's not pumping right, she has no energy.

So her grandmother had her here one day during the week because she was volunteering, and she told us about it and I said well, gladys and I just lay hands on her right now, it wasn't even during the service, just late we laid hands on her in Jesus' name.

And so the next week they had to go and take her for a battery of tests that they had to run in preparation for this surgery.

And the surgery was high risk.

It was just pretty, I mean, it was.

You can't live without the surgery, but with the surgery you might not survive the surgery.

It was tough in this Houston.

Houston, we've got the best of the best here.

And so they ran the tests and the daughter and the grandmother.

The grandmother came here, the daughter did, but they were just believing they just really just need, wanting this miracle, and they were expecting the doctor to say she doesn't need surgery.

But the doctor said well, I know what y'all were expecting, but we're going to have to do the surgery.

I can't see everything I see on the diagnostic, you know, says that she's got to have the surgery.

They were so disappointed but they the grandmother knew and heard me preach enough not to release.

She said I'm just going to keep trusting God.

I'm going to keep trusting God.

I'm going to keep trusting God.

She's going to get this thing fixed One way or the other.

We're just going to believe, you know, and they were trying to micromanage it.

They were trying to say she wasn't going to have the surgery.

You know, we don't have to.

We don't tell God how to fix people, he knows how to fix people.

But anyway, so they went the morning of the surgery the doctor said now I'm going to send the nurse out about every hour.

It's going to take seven, eight, maybe nine hours of surgery to get this done.

And we don't know when we get in.

We don't know everything.

We can't diagnostics one thing but really doing it's another, and I'll send a nurse out every hour and let you know.

About 45 minutes went by and here comes the doctor and of course at first they were.

They thought, oh my God, Did, it did.

But they looked at his face and he wasn't sad, so they knew she was not dead.

But he comes out and says well, I don't know how to explain this, but something told me to run one more test Before surgery, and what it was was a transesophageal electrocardia or echocardiogram.

And so you swallow this probe.

I've had one of those, believe it or not.

You swallow this probe and it gives you a picture of the backside of your heart which is not available in any other diagnostic test but that one.

And he wanted to see a better picture of the backside of her heart, to see and combine and to find out where this hole exactly was, what it looked like when the heart was beating and all of that.

And he said when I did that probe, I went down in there and there was no hole in her heart.

When she recovers from being under the anesthesia she can go home.

She never had to have surgery.

The last time I saw her she was 16 years old and having a normal teenage high school experience.

Oh, I'm telling you notable miracles.

She had a sheaf of papers five inches thick that said from the time she was born until she's 10, she must have surgery.

And God said no, she doesn't have to have it.

Oh, come on, let's shout a little bit.

Praise God.

Talk about startled that doctor and that team of nurses.

Glory to God who.

Times of refreshing.

Think about mouth to mouth resuscitation.

I mean something about revival.

I here's a.

Here's a better, I think better than all these others is this definition of revival.

Revival is the in rush of the Holy Ghost into a body that threatens to become a corpse.

I think that fits the church right now.

The church needs revival.

There's no hope of having any kind of end time, gathering and harvest time without the church getting on fire, without the church rising up.

We're the church.

You're going to wait for somebody up northeast and forget about it.

Let's, let's rise up right here in Houston.

Praise God.

You know fire spreads.

You get a fire over here and pretty soon some fire starts to take.

Yeah, I don't mind some wildfire, let's have some wildfire.

Praise God.

Well, pastor, I don't mind the Holy Ghost, I just don't want any wildfire.

You don't have anything you don't have.

You don't even have a cold Nothing.

Your woods wet, buddy, give me some wildfire.

At least we'll have some fire.

Glory to God.

You can always correct it down the road.

Come on, let's lift our hands right.

Thank God, the in rush of the Holy Ghost, the in rush of the Holy Ghost.

So Peter is preaching, and then he says he says he has another thing he said and he shall send Jesus Christ, whom before was preached, unto you, whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution Of all things which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

So you know he's speaking language that they can understand, because they do know what the prophets said that there's coming a resurrection.

All the Jews believed in the resurrection of the dead.

They believed that they were going to get new bodies and that they were going to.

You know, they believed in the resurrection from the dead, and so that's what he thought.

They probably thought he was talking about, but really he was talking about more specifically what was happening right then to them.

He said he'll send Jesus Christ.

And so the spirit of God is taking a place of Christ, he's.

You know.

Jesus said I'm a comforter and I'm going to send you another comforter.

I have to go, but the father will send another comforter in my name or to take my place.

So we talk about asking Jesus into our heart.

Does Jesus himself come in?

No, the Holy Spirit comes in.

Are you with me now?

So at the hearing of the gospel, jesus Christ was sent into that group of Jews, 5,000 men.

Because they what they believed in their heart the gospel, the good news.

They made a commitment to repent and they believed.

And then the end, I'm telling, the Holy Ghost came in and restored.

See, a restitution, the time of restitution, a chiroce moment, an appointed time.

You know you don't go to the doctor, just drop by.

Yeah, I'm here to see the doctor today.

Would you have appointment?

No, I just was in the area.

No, you're not going to see the doctor without an appointment.

God does things with appointed times.

He does things, he arranges.

Certain things happen, don't you know?

He arranged that whole meeting and anointed Peter and John to take care of that lame man in front of all those Jews.

They're all going to the temple in the hour of prayer.

Wouldn't it be great to have that many people come to prayer.

They must have had something going on in the temple Attract that many people.

And so so this notable miracle.

I wanted you to see what the what restitution means.

Now, restitution means to restore something that is lame, strained or dislocated to proper health and alignment.

Okay, listen again to, to rest or the.

The time of restitution is to restore something that is lame, strained or dislocated to proper health and alignment.

Now, the miracle of that lame man is an absolute picture of restitution.

Was he lame, was he weak?

Was he dislocated in some former fashion?

And yet so the the spirit of God, through this healing power, instantly in Restitution, occurred.

But then that wasn't the only thing about that lame man.

Because he's one of the group that heard the gospel, he got saved, he was born again, and so that which was lame, strand and dislocated, got put back in order.

The Jews were supposed to have Salvation through Jesus Christ.

That was their Messiah.

They missed their day of visitation.

God had mercy on them and brought them another chance.

Brought him and gave him another.

Gave him another chance.

He gave him another chance.

See, I grew up with religion, I didn't have a relationship, but thank God, god gave me another chance, oh, rebecca, to see that it can be a cop Restitution, time of restitution To restore something that is lame, strained or dislocated to proper health and alignment.

The whole rated cop.

20,000 people plus were saved because of one Notable miracle and the appointed time of restitution associated with it.

Come on, let's just lift our hands.

Probera, I said to the kitty out the bottom soul.

Rebecca Taylor cut the home.

Shebri Dickie said to the tip of the condom.

So I'm pretty cake a city.

Well, I tell you, honey, come with me please.

Sheppra, tis the kitty like I.

I'm gonna do this because I see myself doing it in the name of Jesus.

Time of restitution, an appointed time of that which is lame, strained or dislocated is restored, restored, in the name of Jesus.

In the name of Jesus, I rebuke this trouble in the back and in the hip.

In the name of Jesus, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I Decree and declare Prosa de Vettiga, I'll net cash Bracetoria.

This yield to this yield, this yield, it's alright, it's alright.

See, she's so careful all the time she's falling out on how many times hit flat on her back on a hard concrete?

Or We've got marble in our bathroom Fell out of the tub, flat on her back, slammed down on the concrete.

She ought to be paralyzed, she ought to be.

Yeah, and I'm talking about natural seed.

Miracle is a is a deviation of the natural course of things.

Well, why doesn't she have?

Why hadn't?

Well, she's been trusting God.

But see, what I've learned in experience is that, you know, our faith can bring forth a gift of the Spirit like this.

Our faith, see, we're not.

We're not waiting to have a gift of the Spirit to get here.

She'd been claiming her healing for six years.

Six years ago, she fell and broke her hip and ever since then, there's been one thing after another, after another, after another after another.

Help her up now.

Please Praise God, come on with me, come on with me with Lord.

We just thank you.

Right now.

There's no more hesitancy.

There's no carefulness now, no fear of falling.

Lord, I think you restore her sense of balance.

I thank you that you restore her gate, her ability to walk Straight and upright with no weakness, and her hip, no weakness.

And her feet or legs no dizziness.

In the name of Jesus has been banished.

We thank you, father, that this is the day, this is the appointed time of, of Restitution.

That which was lame, strain or dislocated, that which was, has been restored.

It's been restored.

Restoration has come.

Restoration has come.

Restoration has come.

Restoration has come.

Hallelujah, come on, let's praise him.

Restoration has come.

Glory to God.

Three weeks ago she had four big injections up one side of her back, hot needle to burn the nerves.

Well, we just do whatever you can do to feel better.

Pain management says well, we can burn this nerve, but it you know it'll about nine months to a year.

It'll grow back.

It's kind of like a.

Have you ever Found a lizard and the tail knocks off?

With the tail grows back.

It's amazing what God's designed.

And so this nerve grew back in six months and she said well, I thought there was gonna last nine months.

To you she, he said we're in such good health.

Your nerves grew, grew back a lot faster than one.

Do you smoke?

No, we don't smoke.

Do you then?

You know all these things?

No, we don't do.

Well, that's, your nerves grow back.

It's gonna take more, but you know it's painful, because that hot needle is hot enough to burn a nerve into, so all the tissue around it On one side.

Then Tuesday, this past Tuesday, she had four shots up this side of her spine.

See, we're doing what we can do to resist this condition, but sometimes a Holy Ghost shows up, like today, and I believe today is just today.

Now You're gonna miss it if you expect instant, because sometimes they're not instant.

Sometimes it's recovery, and she'll have a part to play, to take what she got today.

Come on, let's lift our hands right now.

Praise God.

Brother Travis, come on up, put your Bible down, praise God.

Thank you, lord.

Time of restitution.

That which is lame, that which is strange, that which is dislocated, is restored.

In the name of Jesus, I lay my hands on his back.

I rebuked this trouble that's giving him such pain and such Discomfort.

In the name of Jesus, lord, you see how dedicated he is to what he does.

Still on fire for you at 82, right, 83, 83 years old, still going full strength, full steam, for Jesus.

God, there's many, many, many people have their eyes on this man.

This miracle is one that will affect lots of people, including him.

God, I thank you for it right now, in the name of Jesus.

And then just lift your hands up.

Let me just keep your feet planted.

Let me just turn you a little bit here.

Just turn you just a little bit.

I'm gonna be real gentle.

The name of Jesus and the name of Jesus.

There's a power of God.

I see you're just radiating the heat.

He is so tender-hearted, he just receives.

All right.

I want you to bend over and touch your toes now, take another shot.

Glory to God, amen.

Come on, let's praise him, hallelujah.

We're in a time of refreshing and restitution.

You have an appointment with a miracle and we all you know.

I know some of you need miracles, but some of you gonna give miracles out.

I'm impressed by what it says about Stephen.

He did, he did miracles, he mega wonders it.

He did wonders and and miracles among the people and Philip.

They gave he to what he said seeing and hearing the miracles which he did see.

The Bible is not politically correct.

I've heard preacher just just slob.

Oh, it wasn't me.

It wasn't me, it was the Lord.

Well, we know that.

Why don't you just go?

We know that you can't heal a fleas knee, but the anointing on your life can heal Anything.

That Jesus healed to.

He said the works that I do, yet Shall you do Also in greater works, and quit being so fake.

And so you know it wouldn't be.

Oh, but come on, give Jesus his do.

But let's be bold.

The person you're ministering to has their eyes on you.

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

So what?

Let's look at restitution.

It's an appointed time of restitution, restitution listen to this one reconstruction, reconstitution.

What do you do with an old, dried up sponge?

Will it clean the countertop?

No, you've got to take that sponge and Punch it down into hot soap and water, you know?

And and squeeze it and and get it full of hot soap, and then you can clean, man, I mean clean everything in sight.

You reconstituted that spot.

I mean God wants to shake out the status quo.

He wants to take, he wants to take out this hard-hearted business and gets you saturated with the Holy Ghost.

That's restitution, readjusting, rearranging, reconstruction, reordering, reorienting, reshuffling, retooling.

How about some of those words that I think about our 16 brand new members.

See, god is doing that in your life right now.

You're I mean, you've got things that God has given you and you're a blessing, but God's gonna.

He's kind of shuffling the dominoes little bit.

I mean he's reshuffling, he's reconstituting, he's reorienting.

Come on, lift your hands and receive that.

Praise God, bottom line, status quo is shaking out.

God can't use the status quo.

He told the church in Laodicea.

He said I would that you be hot or cold, but because you're lukewarm, I'm gonna spew you out of my mouth what's lukewarm.

They had an opportunity to be hot and chose not to be.

Oh well, I can't be that extreme.

Really, that's just too embarrassing.

I don't think I could ever.

I'm gonna have to be.

You know just, I'm gonna melt on the sidelines.

Nobody's gonna know.

See, that's lukewarm.

You might be saved, but nobody knows it.

See, that's not gonna work right now.

We've got to have hot, hot Christians, people that are on fire for God.

Praise God.

Our job is to establish an atmosphere for miracles.

So I got four quick things.

I know I've been going a while, but we've got all the time, don't we?

The Holy Ghost interrupted Why'd you do all that.

I saw myself do it.

When I see myself doing something, I just learned to just do it.

Not try to figure it out, just do it.

I've seen myself, over all these years, close 40 years.

They have 40 years of being saved.

I've seen myself do all kinds of things and when I followed through doing what I saw myself do, I've seen some of the most amazing miracles.

And not when I felt so holy, not when I felt so powerful.

In fact, some of the greatest miracles are when I would just I mean in the natural I would need somebody to pray for me.

But see, I've come to lean on Him.

Amen, he's in there Whether I feel good or whether I feel otherwise.

Amen.

So be willing.

I've got four things if you're willing.

The first two have to do with fire versus complacency.

God's want to shake out the complacency and let's get the fire burning.

Paul told Timothy stir up the gift which was given you.

It's like stirring a fire.

You got to stir the embers up and get them flaming up.

So the first one is be willing to approach, draw near to God in worship, draw near to each other.

See, we talked about the importance of the local church, it's vertical and horizontal.

Bible says in James 4, draw near to God and He'll draw near to you.

Draw near to each other, and that too I mean.

You're going to get encouraged, you're going to get strengthened.

We need to form relationships in the church.

The church has got to be one.

We've got to have love and unity.

How can be unified with somebody you don't even know?

So it takes effort.

I said it takes effort, and so be willing to approach God.

And then the second one is we willing to adjust, to adjust?

More light shows us what and how to change and grow.

We go from faith to faith and from glory to glory and from strength to strength.

I hear Christians say this well, I just repented.

Well, I just had to repent.

We're using that word because the repent means a sinner repents.

Christians don't need to repent.

What do you say?

I thought?

I thought well, you just got a religious idea of repentance is walking toward hell and then turning around and walking to heaven.

Is it?

If you're a Christian, you're not walking toward hell anymore?

You already repented.

You may have sinned, you may have done something that you're ashamed of.

Quickly confess it.

Ask God to forgive you.

Oh Lord, I missed it.

I'm sorry.

Well, I guess I just need to have anger management.

No, you just need to take authority over your emotions.

You're letting your emotions get away with you.

You don't need a class, you just need to get your flesh under control of you.

You are a spirit.

Amen.

Do more praying in other tongues.

Amen.

We ought to all be praying in other tongues.

And somebody said well, I haven't received that.

Well, you will, don't worry about it, we're gonna.

That's on the list.

Praise God, so adjust.

The more closer you get to God, he shows you little things that you need to make an adjustment.

It's not repentance, it's just let some of these things fall off of you.

Paul said I lay aside the sin and the weights, the weights and the sin that so easily beset you.

Some things that you need to adjust are not sin, they're just things that are not profitable anymore for you to do me.

Maybe you've got all these other things, other commitments that are competing with God's best.

You know good is the enemy of best.

Let some of those things begin to fall off by the spirit of God.

Let the Holy Spirit show them to you.

Make an adjustment.

See there again fire versus complacency.

Then two more.

You approach, you adjust Number three appropriate the promises of God.

You know Mark 11, 24, I believe I've received when I pray.

See, faith works by saying, or it works by praying.

Appropriate by faith what belongs to you.

Second Corinthians, five, seven.

We walk by faith and not by what seems like, what it looks like, what it feels like, what it sounds like.

We walk by faith, not by senses, not by sight.

So we can claim what belongs to us, even if it doesn't right now, doesn't seem to exist right now.

But if you claim it, you're appropriating it by faith.

And now, as you thank God for that thing that you're appropriated, it's gonna come your way and you will have it.

Are you with me now?

So learn to appropriate the promises of God.

See, faith versus unbelief these last two we can doubt.

All the time.

We can beg God.

A lot of us have a habit of begging God.

Depending on where you went to church before, they might not have ever taught you how to pray in faith.

And so, oh God, help me.

Oh God, oh See, that's just begging God.

You don't have to beg God.

You're his son, you're his daughter.

He's already giving you everything that pertains unto life and Godliness through the knowledge of Jesus, through the knowledge of his father.

Amen, so appropriated.

And the last one is act to act.

See, faith is an act.

It's not just mentally agreeing to believe as an action verb.

You know, the book of Acts is written because the apostles and others acted.

They didn't just have the theory, they didn't just have a concept of how it ought to be.

No, they went out and made it happen.

I mean, think about Philip, think about Stephen.

I mean they went out there and they did what they heard in church and it worked.

I did what I heard my pastor talk about and it worked.

I mean people started getting healed.

I remember the first time they asked me to share a little bit at a full gospel business men's meeting.

I hadn't been saved but a few months and they said John, get up here and share just a little of your testimony.

And I didn't have time to prepare, I just off the cuff.

And then I just had people come up for prayer.

And this lady came up for prayer, you know, and she had back trouble and she said I've had several surgeries and I just feel so terrible.

I just couldn't hardly sit through the meeting and I mean I laid my hands on either side of her face, just like this, in front of all this big meeting there, about 150 people.

I put my hand.

I was nervous.

I mean I thought, what am I doing?

I've never done anything like that.

Put my hand on each side of her head.

I mean she started doing the St Vitus dance whatever that is, I don't know.

She started wiggling and dancing and twirling and I mean she was instantly healed, fell down in a heap.

Nobody caught her.

We didn't have catchers at the thing.

You know.

Praise God, are you with me now?

Act, act on the Word of God.

Believe is an action verb.

I mean the notable miracle occurred because Peter and John acted, and so then you have faith versus unbelief.

So when you have fire and faith, then you have the atmosphere for miracles, the case for miracles.

Does that help you today?

Lift your hands and receive.

Praise God, thank God for miracles, thank God for signs and wonders.

Thank you, lord, that we are living in a time where these are increasing.

In the name of Jesus.