Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Spiritual Foundations Pt.3

Let's turn to Hebrews 11. We'll pick up where we left off on our study on "Spiritual Foundations," the building of that substrata that won't be shaken. Wind and waves begin to blow, and the storms of life come and beat vehemently upon us, and we're not even shaken. Can you say "Praise God" for that? You see, that's the hope that we have in Him. He said, "I'll never leave you, nor forsake you. I'll not leave you comfortless." He has declared to us that our faith is the victory.

As we study this aspect of biblical faith (the true foundation that our lives are built on), it brings that assurance and that hope in the time of adversity. It also brings about the awareness that all that we face in this life is preparatory for the eternal. So, we don't get caught up in the temporal things. Whether they be blessings or whether they be trials, they're going to pass. Only the character and the Christ-likeness that is built in us will last. He is working in our lives, and faith is that virtue that causes us to be able to endure through the preparation and the purification process. Faith is necessary for you and I to mature. Count it all joy when you fall into different temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience. Let it "have its perfect work, that you might be made mature, complete, perfect, entire, wanting nothing," the Scripture says. We realize that faith is that virtue, that ability in us to grasp hold of the eternal and let it be more real than the temporal that we're experiencing (whether it be adversity or blessing) because it's all building of character in our lives.

We went to the definition of faith here in Hebrews 11 ("Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen"), and we've gone over this two or three times now, building our understanding of this biblical definition. The thing that we've been emphasizing is the fact that this faith that comes from the promise of God is, in fact, the evidence, the proof. The proof isn't in the manifestation, or as they say, "in the pudding." No. The proof is in the recipe. The proof is in the reality that if it's done this way, it will produce good pudding. We realize, then, that there are the promises of God that we rest in. We don't have to see it; we don't have to taste it. We know that every promise of God in Christ Jesus is yea and amen to the glory of God.

It's important that we rest in those promises and not get caught up in the world's wisdom, that we realize that substrata, that substance, that these promises provide for you and me are what makes us different from the world. "Peace I give unto you, not as the world gives," the Master said. It's a peace that passes all understanding that keeps our hearts and our minds through Christ Jesus. When everybody else around us is fainting and failing, the man and woman of faith stands. When everybody says it's impossible, like father Abraham we hope against hope. We're not taken up with the latest verdict.

We've talked about the false doctrines that you can fall into also. We're not talking about mind science, or positive thinking. We're not talking about Christian Science principles. We're talking about true biblical faith that causes us to hope, not in the promise in and of itself, but in the Promiser, the Source of all life and strength and peace.

We were talking about father Abraham this morning, as he was going into the process of learning how to walk in faith. We talked very much in detail about the fact that it wasn't something that happened instantaneously. Don't expect that in your life. The Word of God becomes rhema and, bless God, you come out of this thing one hundred percent successful. The next thing you know, you're walking on water, calling fire out of heaven, raising the dead, and never ever looking back. I want to tell you something. You can have the Word of God alive in your heart and still deny the Master. You can have the Word of God alive in your heart and doubt, and say, "Unless I can put my finger in the print, I will not believe!" There are different areas of faith at work within us; and if we rest, we'll come into that perfect and complete faith that we can only have after our faith has been tried. Most of us want faith without trials. You can't have it. Most of us want faith that never fails. It will never be experienced in that way. Your faith is a process that's working based upon your diligent pursuit. He's the rewarder of those that diligently seek Him.

We saw the word "diligence" was a process. It wasn't just how zealous we were; but it had to do with the intensity of the value that we were putting upon the great promises of God, how earnest we were in our pursuit. We saw that diligence also had to do with the fact that we were a people that were hastily seeking Him; early, the Scripture says, or seeking the Lord first in any given situation.

We were looking at father Abraham and trying to find ourselves this morning. We'll finish the review with this. We were remembering Abraham's life, the call that was upon him. We saw that the Hebrew account said that Abraham went out. He obeyed and went out, not knowing where he went. There is nothing in Hebrews 11 about Lot, is there? We finished this morning rejoicing in the fact that God is only going to put to our account the victory that we win once our faith has been established in Him. God's declaration of you and me is the same that it is of Abraham, beloved; and you need to rejoice in it tonight. God is saying about you, "He staggered not at the promises of God. He was fully persuaded that what I promised, I was able to perform." Yet we're stumbling through life worse than Abraham. God keeps declaring our victory and our righteousness, because He sees us in Jesus. Can you say "Praise God" for that? That's where our victory is; that's the faith that we have. Our faith is not in our successes; it's in the success of the finished work of Jesus. Once you come to rest in that, you're moving in biblical faith. The fact of the matter is, most of us here are not there yet. Most of us here are still fighting, just like Abraham, with that faith in our faith, faith in our ability, trying to add to God's promises all of our efforts to help it along a little bit.

We're going to talk a little bit tonight about allowing that faith to be matured in the midst of trials--the trials being when things aren't manifesting the way that we thought, when we seem to be experiencing adverse circumstances. "It seems like I'm about to lose the promise." In the case of Abraham, not only about to lose the promise, how about God asking you to offer up the promise? It's one thing to think, "The devil is trying to steal the promise." It's another thing for God to say, "I want it back." As we look at that aspect of the growth in Abraham's life, see if you can find out where you are in this process.

We saw that the first thing that happened with Abraham was the natural fear that's in all of our lives. God says, "I want you to come out of your country. I'm going to make you a mighty nation, and I want you to forsake everything." He forsook everything but what? A Lot. It was probably the same reason that you and I would want to hold on to something familiar. We want to be in familiar surroundings. We want somebody that we can trust in. "Here is somebody that's family, and somebody I can trust in." Beloved, Father is wanting us to be able to come into that place where we wholly trust in Him alone. Abraham is growing in that. Now remember, Hebrews 11 doesn't say anything about Lot. Hebrews 11 doesn't say anything about the manipulation and the lie in the land of Egypt concerning Sarah: "Tell them you're my sister." But God began to prosper him, and we saw him being very prosperous. We see the victory over the kings. We see his declaration concerning the king of Sodom, that it wouldn't be said that any man had made Abraham rich. This began to be the fruit of his ability to trust God as he and Lot prospered side by side. Then the strife came between them, and he finally realized that with God as his inheritance, he didn't need the natural perception of prosperity, and ease, and gain. Wherever God was, the treasure was. Lot went into the plain, into the Garden of Eden, and Abraham stayed out in the presence of God.

We saw the process evolving in his life and that in all of those years, though God prospered him, He wasn't fulfilling the promise in his life. Many of us here are mistaking our prosperity and our ease for character and as confirmation that we are in the will of God, when we are in fact being drawn into the will of God. God's hand is on us and we are prospering, but we're not where He wants us yet. We saw this morning that as soon as Lot was separated from him, what was the very next thing that happened? God appeared to him, spoke to him, and clarified the vision. I wonder how many things we're holding onto that are keeping the vision from being clarified into the next realm? I wonder how many things in our lives are causing us to be a little antsy, where there seems to be in some areas a double-mindedness, and the Word isn't quite as clear as it used to be? I wonder what it is that we're holding onto that is hindering the revelation?

We saw, then, that as Lot was separated from him, God appeared and spoke to Abraham again. Let's go back to Genesis. We'll pick up where we left off this morning. The Lord appeared to him again at that time and reaffirmed the promise (chapter 13, verse 14). "And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes." "I want you to check out what I'm going to give you; and I want you to walk the length and the breadth of it." He did, and he began to see and know the presence of God. He divested himself of all of the interests of Sodom, as this chapter ended in verse 23. It'll not be said that the world made Abraham rich. It's very interesting, though, that he said, "But I will take what is coming to me. I will take what it cost me to provide these services." "After these things [the divesting again of the world's wisdom and enticement in chapter 15] the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision." He began to see that this great promise that was before him, Abraham was saying, "How is this thing going to be? There is no heir." Abraham tried to make Eliezer an heir; and Abraham tried to make Ishmael an heir. The more Abraham tried to help God out, the more confusing things became.

Finally, we saw as we left off this morning--and this is where we unhooked--the promise was to be fulfilled entirely in the realm of the miraculous. "Now, I want you to hear me clearly, Abraham." I want you to see that the more he was walking free from the world, and his own natural ideas of presuming what God was going to do, God began to clarify the vision. He made it real to him that it was going to be a child that came from his own loins and that Sarah would bear. We finished this morning with Abraham's statement (chapter 17, verse 18), "Oh that Ishmael might live before You!" He couldn't grasp it. He could grasp the fact that God was going to bless him. He couldn't understand the process.

Most of us here don't have any trouble believing that God wants to prosper us. We quote different verses about the blessing and the provision of God, that it's His good pleasure to give us the kingdom, that we're going to be a people that are blessed coming in and going out, that everything we touch prospers, and every place we put our foot is given unto us. We thank God for the great blessing that says an enemy will come against us in one way and flee from us in seven. Then when it comes down to the reality of a faith that has to stand based upon this promise and not the tangible senses, we take that which we helped God with (that we manipulated the promise so that this could fit into it) and say, "Oh that Ishmael might live before You!" Can I ask you a question tonight? How many of you are still holding onto promises that God gave you, that you've added an Ishmael to? You still stand and will not come to grips with the fact that it's not what God said if it's your interpretation. You're still trying to force it--wrapped up in the promise, "God said out of my loins. Ishmael is out of my loins." Yes, but you got a little ahead of the program.

As Abraham is coming to grips with this, and God is putting the pressure through clear revelation, and saying, "You got ahead of Me now. You've got to understand it's going to be from you and from Sarah." I think it's interesting. Listen, this is one of the great things that we can learn in this study. As long as Abraham had life in himself, he could believe for a miracle in Sarah, but when his ability was gone, he began to cry, "Oh, that Ishmael...that which I've produced in my strength.... Surely there's nothing God can do without me!" Then he does something that we made reference to this morning. God said, "No," verse 19, "Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt shall call his name Isaac [laughter]." As this promise began to be made real to Abraham and to Sarah, they both had the exact same response, didn't they? They laughed. Sarah denied it; God called her on it. I believe the name Isaac was given to this child for the very purpose that we stated this morning: to keep fresh always in the heart of Abraham, "I laughed at God; but is anything impossible for the Lord?"

Look down at verse 14 of the eighteenth chapter, and see if this isn't it. After Sarah laughed, after she was reproved, the messenger said, "Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old?" Underline verse 14 and get it into your heart: "Is anything too hard for the LORD?" Thank God for this young man Isaac, and thank God for those memorials in our lives that we can look back to and say, "Look, I laughed at God, and He provided the promise anyway." Isaac was a constant reminder to Abraham that you can't do it in your own strength. Now, we know that; but how many of you, knowing that, still revert to trying to do it in your own strength? We get ourselves into areas where we're not comfortable. The next thing you know, we're going back to our old ways of manipulating, and trying through our own abilities and strength to force these things to happen. Then we end up with the Ishmaels of life.

Keep your reference here in Genesis 18, and turn back to Hebrews 4. I want to show you this principle very clearly that I'm talking about in the fourth chapter of Hebrews, as we answer the question, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" Maybe we can say it a different way: "How much help does God need from you?" We begin to draw upon the principle of the promise being effected in the life of Israel as they're walking into the Promised Land. The admonition comes in chapter 3, verse 12, "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief." Interesting word, this word "unbelief." It really means "an unpersuadableness." Doubting is one thing. Doubting is just, "I don't know." Unbelief is, "You can't persuade me that that's possible. I refuse to accept God's perception in this situation." It says here that the children of Israel had "an evil heart of unbelief," and it says they were "hardened through the deceitfulness of sin," or the seduction of Egypt, of the world. It continues to cloud our minds, and so many of us continue to still look to those paths that we were walking in prior to our regeneration.

The apostle says, "Today,[ verse 15] if you will His voice, harden not your hearts." Oh, beloved, listen to this. Every time you reject the promise of God, your heart gets hardened. Every time God calls you to walk in the Spirit, and you step back (deciding one more time to do things your way), your heart begins to harden again to the revelation of God. You see, the one thing about Abraham that is so important to our walking in victory is this. He made some mistakes; but every time God confronted him, he was broken. He was a man like David that knew how to repent. He was a man that was able to deal with those areas in his life and walk into the next realm of revelation and obedience. Tragically, the majority of Israelites weren't, and they were continually being hardened in their hearts. "So we see, [the Scripture tells us in verse 19 of the third chapter,] that they could not enter in [into the promise] because of unbelief."

Then he begins to make it personal. He says, "Here is an example we can learn from Israel. They never really understood or believed that I meant good for them. They were convinced that they were brought out here to die, that I was going to forsake them. They could only believe upon the momentary miracles of drinking water from the rock and seeing the manna provided. They never came to know My heart. They never came to believe that I intended good for them all the days of their life." "Let us therefore fear, [verse 1 says,] lest a promise being left us of entering into rest, any of you should seem to come short of it."

We're talking about walking in faith. The thing that we need to understand is this: faith and rest are synonymous. Faith and rest are synonymous. Faith works. We rest, or cease from our own abilities and our own ideas, in the midst of faith working. This is what Hebrews 4 is speaking toward. It's the process that was going on in Abraham's life right then. The greatest trial for Abraham wasn't going to be the birth of Isaac; it was going to be the offering up of Isaac later on, the promise of God having to be re-offered as he ceased from his own labors.

Look what he goes on to say. "For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith." We can say another word here: "faith." He makes it very clear to us that God was wanting them to move into a realm of dependence. We've talked a lot about that in the last year or so, a dependence on God. The reason is, of course, that we've been living in an environment that is breeding independence. We live in a nation that glorifies independence. We even have a whole day we call "Independence Day." The rugged individualism, the pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps, this pride in our own ability. God is wanting to humble us so that we could become as little children, depending upon Him for our daily bread, and saying, "Lord, I don't know how to go out, and I don't know how to come in. I can't do this." The problem is when Abraham was strong, he continually got himself involved in the process. God couldn't come on the scene until he was dead.

I don't know about you, but the hardest obstacle that I always have to overcome in anything that God is calling me to do is self ( that perception that I might have; my understanding, as limited as it might be. What we need is the ability to step back and understand that after all of the different years that we've seen the hand of God, He is possibly going to do it a different way this time. So what I need to do is move out of the way and hear specifically what God is wanting to do at this moment in my life, or in this particular mission that He might have me on. Too many of us are still running with the initial call: "Come out from among your countrymen, and I'll make you a great nation." We're still running on that. There is a lot more to be learned. When God called you out (when He saved you, brought you out from your countrymen, and made you a new creature) I want you to understand there is a lot more to be learned after that. Thank God for salvation, but we're learning lordship. We're still in a process of dying and trying to understand what it means to cast our care daily upon Him, really and truly believing that He cares for us. The process goes on in our lives as it did in father Abraham's.

The nation Israel was having to learn this same process. So He says, "Listen, here is the principle that I want you all to learn. If you'll understand that My promise to you is to do good all the days of your life, if you truly believe that, and you can rest in where you find yourself at this moment, I'll give you some further illumination."

Now look, if you would, down here at verse 6 of this fourth chapter. "Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein [to the rest], and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief...To day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts." Don't presume that you already know what God is going to say. Don't presume that you already have a full understanding of this course that you're on. "Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!" You need to put your hand over your mouth unless God has spoken.

He says to us, in verse 9, "there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God." Oh, what a place that rest is. I'm sure that you've all known it at one time or another. I think every one of us is jealous to continue in it as you read the life of our Lord, and that absolute peace that He walked in, and the assurance of who He was. "I know that when I pray, My Father hears Me. You can't take My life; I have to lay it down." What an assurance He walked in. What a peace of knowing who He was as the Son of God. Father is wanting that to be a reality in your life and in mine. He says there is a rest that you can enter only, according to verse 10, when you have ceased from your own works. If you study the life of Abraham, you will see that it is a whole process of God trying to get him to cease from his own works.

And now, finally, his body is dead. It's one thing to stand up as preacher, cheerleader, and whatever else, and encourage everybody else to believe. But it's interesting when it's your body that's dead, isn't it? What do you do in the times when you've been emptied of all of your own ability and strength? What do you do in those times? My mind goes back to Hebrews 11. You see the absolute inability to provide for your children as they're being slain in your midst, or as you're dressed in animals' skins and hiding in caves, while some are being sawn asunder. We delight and rejoice in the first part of Hebrews 11, where they were delivered from the lions' mouths, fires were quenched, and we come through without even a smell of smoke upon our garments. Thank God for it. That's what we saw in the beginning of our study we should be believing for. But what I want to talk about in tonight's session is this. What are you going to do when all of your ability is gone and the circumstances don't seem to be changing? There is a rest for the people of God.

You read the testimonies of some who have been there. I don't know about you, but as I read about some of the different martyrs and many of these of the past, you almost become jealous. I can't think of anything worse than being burned alive. Can you? That just really doesn't sound inviting. Getting sawed doesn't sound good either. We're not talking about chain saws [Pastor makes sound of motorized chain saw]. We're talking [Pastor makes sound of manual saw going back and forth.] "Oh, ah, oh! A little more to the right! Oh yeah, that got it!" All of these things are beyond our imagination. Yet, beloved, His grace is sufficient. You read of those who stood in the flames and never lost their joy and their testimony of the goodness of God. If you're truthful and not presumptuous like Peter, you're probably saying, "I don't know if I could do that or not." It's a process, beloved, of coming into that place of His grace being provided based upon necessity. The reason you don't have that assurance right now is because you're not in that position of needing it right now. But are you proving yourself faithful today? That's what Abraham's life is all about. This is what the next verse is all about.

Look at verse 11. "Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest." The labor is not for bringing about the provision. The labor is disciplining ourselves to stop trying to bring about the provision. God is wanting you and I to labor, study, or to be obedient in those things that He's called us to do, to enter into the rest. Now, when I talk about "rest" and I talk about "faith," I want you to see these as synonymous in our study. When I talk about "rest" and I talk about "faith" in our study this evening, I want you to see this: it's ceasing from your own works, from your own labors. It's keeping Hagar out of the tent. It's not telling the lie when you're in Egypt to try to protect your own skin. It's the ability to absolutely rely on the Holy Spirit's ordering of your steps and your course, and to look to Him and not the arm of the flesh. As we go on in the study, we're looking to begin to stir our hearts up in being able to walk in this arena of faith to where we can expect the miraculous, and we can expect the devils to tremble, and we can expect to lay hands upon the sick and see them recover. If we don't deal with these principles, you're going to find yourself trying to work these things, instead of resting in the promise of God and allowing Him to bring about His own glory in the ministries that you're involved in. It's a very subtle thing. It's important for us to understand these foundational principles.

Now, what he tells us in verse 12--and we'll be unhooking here in just a minute so we can spend some time at the Lord's table--is that rest can only come from one place. Romans tells us where faith comes from: Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. That rest comes from the Word of God. The Word of God is alive, powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword. It is able to divide asunder between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, It is the discerner of the--this is critical in being able to realize the importance of the Word as it pertains to faith--thoughts and intents. The problem is, most of us don't know our own hearts. The Scripture says how can we? Only the Word is able to make that distinction for us. I'm sure that Abraham and Sarah's hearts were right when they solicited Hagar, but I wonder if that's what the Word was telling them to do? If we're going to base our performance or our decisions upon our perception without the revelation of the Word of God, we're going to find ourselves wavering, tossed to and fro, and unstable in all of our ways, the Scripture says. It's natural to man; it's in us. Independence is the original sin. We want to do things our way. We want to help. "I understand this. I can do this." God is wanting to bring us into that childlike faith of absolute dependence upon Him in every area, to where we quickly, diligently seek Him and say, "I don't know how to do this, Father." Can you say tonight that you walk into every situation with that kind of humility? "Lord, I need Your help. I don't know how to do this. I don't know how to be a parent. I don't know how to be a pastor. I don't know how to bring them this care that they need at this particular time. Without You, I can do nothing." That is faith.

Most people seem to think that faith is, "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me." We ask ourselves the question: "Before we make any decisions (decisions of ministry--before I lay hands on this sick person, before I attempt to cast out this devil), is the Word of God alive in me? Is it sharp and powerful? Are the thoughts and intentions of my heart well known? Do I know why I'm out doing what I'm doing? Thank God for the outreach and the ministry that is been going on. But, beloved, we have to know why we're doing it. We have to understand where the ability comes from. It can't be just because we have a home fellowship group assigned to go out and minister. It was a blessing as I saw a number of you up here, one of the groups up here Saturday. I got to talk to one who went out witnessing, and they were rejoicing in the opportunity and how God had actually sustained them physically. They weren't going to come because of pain in their body. They said, "I'm not going to let that hinder me." They said the whole time they were on the street ministering, there was no pain. As soon as they got back, it started hurting again. Maybe they should have stayed out ministering! We realize that God--the rhema, the fresh understanding and revelation, going in this thy power, "Have not I sent you?"--has got to be the source. If God has not initiated it, it's not being done in faith. If God is not sustaining it, it's not being done in faith. There is this false understanding that God will initiate something, and He kind of lets us carry it out. God not only initiates our paths, but He sustains us and gives us sufficient grace to finish the course.

As we finish up for this evening's session, study, labor, be diligent, be a doer of the Word that you might enter into that rest. I like one of the statements over in Hebrews 11 where it's talking about the different things that faith produced. Keep your finger here in chapter 4, and look over at 11 real quickly. Then we'll be back at 4. It starts going through, in verse 33, a number of the great miraculous things that happened. "Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness...stopped the mouths of lions, Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: And others had trial of cruel mockings, and scourgings." The trying of your faith works patience; let it have its perfect work that you might be made perfect and entire. Others had trials. These had victories. Others had trials and scourging, "bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, and tormented." This next statement is parenthetical; but, beloved, it is so true. "(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and mountains, and in dens, and caves of the earth."

Here is the faith God wants us to walk in, beloved. "And these all, having obtained a good report..." All of them--the guys that got delivered, and the guys that got eaten. They all obtained a good report, the same report that all these other guys got in chapter 11. Abraham's report card--Abraham got an "A"; but when we read his life story, it doesn't look like it, does it? "And these all, having obtained a good report [How?] through faith, received not the promise." "You mean no matter what great victory I have in this life, I haven't received the promise?" Not the fullness of it. That's why we made the statement we did this morning. Don't delight in the manifestation; delight in the Person, because that's what we're striving to achieve--to be in His presence, to overcome as He's overcome, that we might be seated with Him on His throne.

The testimony says that they got a good report, but never received the fullness of the promise. It's still being worked in you and me. Now, notice in that list, that I read everything but one. Did you notice that? Did anybody catch that as we were reading through? "By faith they received promises" is the one I skipped over (in verse 33, so you don't spend a lot of time looking for it). It's interesting what the Spirit of God is saying to us in this. The principle is this: to he that has shall more be given. This is what the whole process of Abraham's life was, beloved. He got a promise; he obeyed to a certain degree; God purified him in the process (matured him). Through the trial (once the maturation process was finished), he got a clarification through another promise--promises that were affecting the overall promise that was made. For you and me, it's going to be the same process. It's a process of learning obedience through the things that we endure. It's a process of being tried that we might be matured into the very image of Jesus.

Every time that we gain some revelation, the very next temptation that we're going to have to face is self-involvement. Let's learn it right now. This is why we've taken the time we have this evening, the principle we're trying to learn. God gives us a promise; He is wanting us to move in faith. The first temptation that we're going to experience is, "God has given me a promise. He said go into all the world and preach the gospel. Here I go!" You need to go. If you're going in faith, you're going with ears to hear, not a preconceived notion. "Bless God, I just read a book by Smith Wigglesworth, so I'm going to go around and hit people, or kick them, or something." Or, "I just read a book by Kathryn Kuhlman, and I'm going to hold mass rallies." The general declaration of "Go into all the world" is followed by specific guidance; and the course will be clarified through trials. You're going to go out. You're going to have some obstacles. Then you have to say, "Okay, Father, what is it You're trying to show me here?" The first thing will be, "You're trusting in your own strength. You thought you knew what I wanted you to do. All I told you was to go." "Well, if I'm going to go, I've got to do something!" Yes, you do what you know to do. Here's something that some of you are going to struggle with: the majority of the time, the first thing you do will be incomplete. I chose that word carefully. I didn't want to say "wrong." Read the Scriptures and show me somebody who got it right the first time and got it right every time.

Why are we going through all this trouble? Because I believe that Father is ordering the steps of many of us here to go out and begin to share our faith, and begin to believe for the miraculous, and to see signs and wonders. But the first and the great temptation that we're going to face is this perception that we know what we're doing, and you don't. If you can continue in the same humility and dependence that you first stepped out in, you're going to know the greater power of God--greater than you could have ever expected. But when we read the Scriptures--and here's the fallacy that many of us have, and I want to end with this--and we immediately begin to put ourselves in this same arena with Elijah and Paul, we're moving in a misconception of how the kingdom operates. Thank God that He does give us insight into the lives and the humanity of each of these great men of God, or we'd really be discouraged. Aren't you glad that all that you know about Elijah is not just that the fire was called down and the miracles that were wrought at his hand? I'm so thankful that I see the humanity. Faith doesn't think of itself more highly than it ought to think.

Father, we thank You for the Word of God tonight. We realize that faith, then, is not a misperception of who we are and what our abilities are, but it's an awareness of who we are (how weak, and how frail, and how dependent we are), and the understanding that You want to do great things through us. We come, and we offer ourselves up as vessels, and we ask that You would be glorified in us. We perceive ourselves tonight as the clay drain tiles, the earthen vessels, so that the glory and the excellency might be of God and not of us. We begin to obey, and then there begins to be a little bit of self-righteousness. We have a success in one area or one aspect of ministry, and we seem to think that everybody that's not involved in that is missing God. We begin to judge others' commitments and spirituality.

See it for what it is, beloved. It's the Lord ministering severally as He wills. "Doesn't He want us to go into all the world and preach the gospel?" Yes, that is the admonition to His church. But it's not to you as an individual to go into all the world. You'll find out that the majority of Christians are only to go into their world, not all of it. Maybe you misunderstood. You see, if every individual reached their world, the world would be reached. The dependence, the rest, can only be known by laboring, studying, by being diligent to do what we know to do today. Then you will receive more promises. There will be a greater illumination. With every new promise and revelation comes a greater understanding of the need to cease from your own works, the need of absolute dependence.

Father, make that real to us, that we could pray as Jesus did, "If it's possible...but nevertheless not My will, Thy will be done." Amen.

Let's stand before the Lord tonight. If the brethren will come, we're going to take this time and fellowship at the Lord's table. Fully persuaded. That's what this cup is all about. Are you fully persuaded that it's finished? You've been redeemed; you've been washed in the blood; you're clean and pronounced righteous. Have you ceased from your own labors so that you could enjoy that righteousness of Christ, or are you still trying to be holy, still trying to get accepted? The broken body--the fact that He bore our sins on His body on the tree. When the Master said, "As often as you eat and drink, do it in remembrance of Me," He is speaking of this rest. When you eat this tonight, can you say, "I've ceased from my own labors"? My righteousness is as filthy rags. There is not one thing I can do to be accepted but believe by the grace, by the faith that You've imparted to me, because You sought me; I didn't seek You. I believe that a righteous, holy God has been appeased by a sinless sacrifice and that I stand here before Him whole, unable to do anything in myself that would please God, unable to do anything that would initiate this faith, and unable to do anything that would finish it. Jesus is the author and the finisher. Real faith has nothing to do with you. Real faith has nothing to do with you. It didn't make the promise, and it won't effect the promise. You're only involved by making it applicable to you. You see, the promises will be fulfilled. The promises are to the church; the promises are to the Seed. I want to tell you something, beloved. It's fulfilled in Jesus. You may never see a person healed; you may never see a miracle wrought; and every one of those promises has already been fulfilled. It's only when we see it finished universally that we become greater candidates for experiencing it personally. We see it done, and therefore we appropriate it.

The patriarchs didn't receive the fullness of the promise because they were waiting for that finished work of Jesus. The work is complete now, and we and they have become one, the great cloud of witnesses that together give testimony of the greatness of our God. But it's finished, beloved; there is nothing we can add to it. In that righteousness we stand, believing for all the promises of God--the peace, the joy, the strength, the healing, the deliverance, the grace. It's all available to us; it's here.

Father, we're so thankful. You said, "It's finished," and because of that, our sins are forgiven. The redemption and the price paid for the wholeness of our bodies has been paid in full. We stand here with the purest, truest faith that says, "Without this being done, I am helpless, and I am hopeless without God. But because of this free gift, I stand free. I've been given a bold access. I am declared an heir and a joint heir, and my faith in that is the victory;" and so we partake, and we eat this bread and partake of this cup with the understanding that nothing can be added to it, and we declare it done on our behalf. We declare ourselves sons of God. We declare ourselves free from sin's power. We now agree with what You've said about us and thank You for the finished work in Jesus' name, Amen.

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