Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

The Body of Christ Pt.2

We're going to be taking a special offering this evening. We were going to do it this morning, but we're not going to. Be prayerful concerning that offering we'll be taking this evening for Africa. It has been a long time since we've taken any offerings for Africa. You've been giving consistently in your missions giving, and we praise God for that. Right now we're about, I think, nine thousand dollars in the red in the operation in Africa. As you know, there are a number of things that are going on. Those of you who are going to Africa, that is not your offering. That's a blessing that you get to go. Those of you that are paying your children's way, we encouraged you, remember, to have them pay their own way and to earn their way over. They'll appreciate it to a greater degree. None of those is part of the offering. Those are some privileges.

Let me bring you up to date on a couple of things that are going on, some great things that are taking place. There's a work going on in Kwanjenga, which is one of the suburbs of Nairobi. It's actually a slum area and leads into part of the middle class area of the suburbs there of Nairobi, not too far removed from the Umoja church. It is just true East African slums, things that most of us have never been able to see or be a part of. It's probably one of the closest things that I've seen to India and some of the slums that are there, but people are hungry for God.

Remember the spirit that we are dealing with in Africa. This nation has been so perverted with an Americanized gospel. They've been more TBN-ized than receiving the gospel. It's really tragic that so many have a delusion of what the gospel is. It almost reminds you of the days of Constantine where they see themselves as a Christian nation and Christian people without the true regeneration that is necessary individually in their lives. They see themselves as a special people, a deserving people, of the blessings of God, and they're confused as to why they're not experiencing those. The opportunity to bring them this gospel message that the men have been bringing has brought some great results, and we are excited about that.

Let me just share a couple of excerpts from a note from Tony. It says, "We continue to press forward in the gospel here in Kwanjenga seeking Father's wisdom that the house be built by Him. We finished a four-day crusade in this place and experienced a marvelous outpouring of the Spirit of God. About 150 were gathered consistently listening each night."

Remember what we are doing here. We're not taking the normal approach. Let me give you an idea of what happens in some of these big campaigns in Africa in case you are wondering. Some of you may be aware. How many of you have ever heard of Reinhard Bohnke? Have any of you ever heard of Reinhard Bohnke? He holds some large meetings over there. Another ministry out of Europe is Cecil Stewart Ministries. These men go and hold campaigns and have hundreds of thousands of people show up. Tragically, if you took pictures and had some way of computerizing and scanning them, you would see that they're about the same people every year that show up. What happens is, for instance, as Cecil Stewart went into one area, he spent a million dollars--one million American dollars--in bringing people into these meetings. What they actually do is pay the people to come, feed them, put them up, and have their meeting. It costs a million dollars to gather a hundred thousand people together to have a crusade. Then what you do--and take it in the spirit that it is. I'm not criticizing these men for the sake of criticizing them. I'm trying to give you a feel for what gospel Pauline methodology is versus the wisdom of men. What we do with the wisdom of men is we bring these people in, take a bunch of pictures, put our newsletters together and send them back to Europe and America to show meetings of a hundred thousand people and whatever else is taking place, so that we can raise a million dollars to hire them to come back next year.

Jesus fed them after they sat with nothing for days and heard the gospel. Amen? We do it backwards in our day. We're so promotion-oriented. We're so humanistic in our methodology. We appease ourselves by saying, "Well, every method to get people out to hear the gospel." Are they coming out to hear the gospel, or are they coming out to eat? Everybody likes good music and a good sermon if you have a bent toward the gospel. So realize what it's like and see the difference of Paul just going out standing on a street corner and preaching. That's what we're doing, and it's a lot of hard work. We are contrasting the difference. This is why we're not going into Uganda at this particular time. These men, as this thing began to unfold, wanted to know where all the money was to pay the people to come. I said, "I'll tell you how we'll do it. We'll come. You tell them to come by faith, and if any money shows up, maybe they'll get fed. If none shows up, guess what? You don't eat and neither do we, because I've never charged to preach the gospel, and I've sure never paid to have people come hear it." My ego doesn't need to be stroked by having all those people gathered, because I've preached to the masses around the world and didn't pay anybody to show up as we've labored throughout Korea and India and in these different areas.

It just grieves my heart to see a people moving so contrary to the gospel method. To just go up like Tony is doing, to just set up a loudspeaker in a corner of the slums, just start preaching, and see who shows up: that's faith. That's what it means to "not be ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God unto salvation." Except the Lord build the house, the labor is in vain. We're doing it supernaturally. We're doing it in the Spirit of God. We're doing it the hard way. Some people say it's stupid, but I believe that what the Lord adds nothing can take away. The guy who offers them a bigger meal next week, they don't show up at his house.

He says, "It was a tremendous time. A number also surrendered their hearts to Jesus for the first time, and we had, in our final night, around 25. [This is the blessing right here. Here's a brand new church.] We're running about 60 in the Kwanjenga church. In the last night of the crusade, we had 25 of our people from the Kwanjenga church involved in the outreach. [That's exciting, praise God!] Some of our folks walk one hour with their children after a twelve-hour workday to attend the services. [Then, of course, they have to walk an hour home. We're just seeing where these people are. Here's an exciting thing about the Kwanjenga church too.] Seventy-five percent of our attendance [we have about 60 now that are attending, 75 percent of our attendance] are young men between 20 and 30 years of age. [How many of you girls are starting to feel called to Africa? We realize that an exciting thing is taking place there.] Though the work is much, and we find ourselves raking human waste, filth, trash, and animal dung to the side, what a privilege to lift up the true gospel of our God. We count ourselves privileged to bear the excellency of the glory in these clay vessels. Pray for us that we can remain faithful in this privilege of proclaiming the gospel. By His grace, we shall continue to stand as bold as lions and destroy the work of the devil and snatch from the fire those that are crying out for this great salvation of our God. Pastor, we thank you and the family for the support we have here and the love and care for us. We don't ever want to take these blessings for granted. We are so graciously provided for. We continue to see the good hand of the Lord here in Kwanjenga. The church services, prayer meetings, and evangelistic meetings are showing fruitful times, around 60 in attendance, 20 to 30 out for the midweek service, which none of the other churches have. [The other churches don't have prayer time and midweek services, so it's an exciting thing]. We still have a section of the church building that is only a roof."

They are basically meeting in a shed. This is part of what we're going to be taking the offering for. This was just a shed that they've moved into. Tony told them, "Listen, we're going to build this church [not the shed, the church, but the people] by faith. It's not going to be a white man's church. It's not going to be an American church. We're going to do it by our own faith, and we're going to believe God." They're not used to that! They're used to Americans sending them everything. They've begun to do a good work there. It was just basically a partial roof with some sticks holding it up. He said a rhino could run through it and it probably wouldn't hit a board. He said, "We praise God for the progress that's taking place, the building. We've seen His mighty hand bringing us provision. We still have a section of the church building that's only a roof and just two-by-four framing. This is the area where our children's ministry is, and the rains are hitting us." In fact, I talked to him yesterday. He said that it is cold and wet, and they're believing God to provide some more corrugated metal for them and some way to close the gaps. I think we should be able to be a part of that in seeing those children ministered to. They have been coming out faithfully. Now that they've been faithful for these months, I feel very free to be able to bless as we've been blessed, "committing to faithful men who are able to teach others also," the Scripture says. We're going to be a part. Some of the offering is going to go toward upgrading that building that we have there and a number of things that are going on.

"Also, consequently, we have cooking by the orphans going on behind me in the same room where we're teaching. [That might be a good idea here. We can just have some food going on during the service and cause us to hang out.] In between crusades and the church meetings, we then stay and chip away at this work. We're looking to find used chipboard to finish the outside. [A number of different things are being said.] As an overview, the work is progressing well. We have been so busy that we haven't been able to fix up our own apartment. Finally, we were able to go out and get some living room furniture. We woke up and felt like the room was so cluttered because we were used to just our two plastic lawn chairs. The sofa is quite a novel experience for us." They've had the provision. They've had the money. We gave them all of the money, but he just never got around to going and getting any furniture. He's been preaching. They finally broke down, got a sofa, and now Tony can lie on it with the remote.

A number of good things are in the letter. Let's see, one last note, another one from Kwanjenga. "We are proclaiming to them the cross of Jesus Christ, openly proclaiming that we have not come to entertain or amuse, but to unashamedly preach the gospel of Christ alone, which is the power of God to salvation. Songs, choirs, instruments are what they emphasize, but they do not save souls. Only the power of this gospel message does. We played a few songs on tape and then preached and saw numbers added into the kingdom. [It says that they've had some more added to the fellowship, and at this time they are running about 70. Let's see where it is.] This week we were able to pull all the planks. [Remember that this is the slum, and they're coming up with just small amounts in the offering. They've actually taken all of the planks off. They can't afford nails, so they straighten all the nails out and reuse them. One guy's job is just straightening the nails all day.] We've pulled all the planks off, straightening the nails, and were able to put up one entire wall to the front entrance of the church. Some of the planks that are not able to close the walls, we're going to turn into seats. The children and nursery rooms still need two walls, and we felt the need yesterday as the rains and winds were coming down, as we're in an open field and took the brunt of the force of the rain. We took some of the boards and leaned them against the building, holding them in place with rocks to give shelter for the little children. It reminds me of when I was a kid and we built little forts to hide in. We're forming the children's ministry and looking to emphasize the ministry as you do in Sterling to our children. Karen has been heading up this outreach. The men work without resistance, complaint, week in and week out. They have a type of giving spirit, stamina, and willingness to be about Father's business." That's some of what is going on.

The Umoja church--"Hearts overflowing with joy and goodness in the presence of God. We had our first communion service together, and it was such a blessing. The people didn't want to leave following the service. The service is packed out, people sitting outside the room that we now have. We're running around 170 now on Sunday mornings, 50 to 70 on Wednesday nights, and we've had some tremendous offerings. This month's income in the Umoja church was 800 dollars." That's phenomenal for the work that's going on there and the giving that's taking place. We're excited about the growth there. Tera wrote a message here. "We're excited about the children's ministry. For the past three weeks in Sunday School, we have been teaching from one of Richard's series called Jesus' Final Week. This past Sunday, ten children gave their hearts to Jesus, most of them in the older ages between 7 and 12 years old." A lot of exciting things are taking place in the work. Be prayerful.

We're going to be looking to be a part of that in our giving tonight and excited to see what God is doing. Some of the work that's going to go on in our Kakamega church--those of you that will be going to Kakamega--we're going to be involved in outreach. We're also going to do a little bit of building there and looking forward to that and seeing some of the buildings worked on. I'll share a little more tonight about the Kakamega church. Charles is doing a phenomenal job in pastoring the church there in Kakamega. It continues to be a testimony. Everybody just scratches their head. They've never seen the white man turn a church over to a native totally. As we've given this over totally into Charles' oversight, people say, "We've never seen this. This is unusual." It's all relationships. It's all based upon love and faith. We want you just to continue to pray and to believe God to use that as a testimony to them, so be prayerful. Enough for announcements, exciting things are going on.

Let's turn to Ephesians. We want to continue our study as we've been talking about the knowledge of God. "That I may know Him," Paul said (Philippians 3:10). As we started our study, we said that is one of the most humbling statements that we'll ever hear. Here's the apostle Paul, this man who had the greatest revelation of Jesus of any man that ever walked on the earth--caught up into the heavens, revelations that were beyond our comprehension that would even cause a messenger of Satan to come and buffet him and humble him lest he be exalted, the understanding of Jesus to the point of the apostle saying, "Paul speaks things that are hard to understand" (2 Peter 3:16), a man, as we saw in Philippians, who was so far beyond his contemporaries that they weren't even in the competition in his own self-righteousness, his ability to keep the law perfectly, he said. Then he got a glimpse of his own heart and his own carnality. This one who gave us understanding, that came up with the doctrine that we call "the depravity of man," saw his own worth and that his own righteousness was as filthy rags. He saw that all that he could do in the flesh and under the law was "vanity and vexation," as the Preacher said. "Filthy rags, all that I can achieve in the natural," he said. "I just count it dung and loss that I might win an excellence in Jesus Christ, that He might be all and all." "Before, I boasted in my pursuit of God," Paul said, "and now I boast in God's pursuit of me because we didn't seek Him; He sought us." When we were lost, He sought us. When we were sinners, He was made sin with our sin that we might be made righteous with His righteousness. He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21). "Oh, that I might know Him," Paul said. So many of us are content with our knowledge of God. So many of us think we know Him, and the reason we think we know Him is because we don't know ourselves. The greater understanding we have of our own hearts creates a greater appetite to know Him more. When we see how desperate we are, when we see that we are just dust, when we see that without Him we can do nothing, then in desperation we cry out to know Him in the power of His resurrection, in the fellowship of His sufferings, that we might be made conformable to His death.

As we started the study, we went over to the Ephesians passage. We were looking at the "exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe" (Ephesians 1:19), that same power that He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, the Scripture said. We saw that He was wanting to take that same power that raised Jesus and make it a reality in your life and my life as we function in the body of Christ, as we begin to see His call and His placing of us as individuals into the corporate body of Jesus Christ. We saw in our last session--and this will be the last little bit of our review--that we have to stop thinking of our relationship with Jesus as being exclusively between us and the Lord. We need to see our relationship with Jesus being between His body and the Head of the church, that we don't live to ourselves or die to ourselves. God is not doing things in your life exclusively for you. He is building you up so that you can build the rest of us up.

We saw the desire for the glory of God to be seen in His church, His body, to where men could look on the community of believers and say, "Behold, how they love one another." Jesus said, "When they see this, then they'll believe that Father has sent Me and raised Me from the dead." Very frankly, man is selfish. Man is self-centered; man is I-oriented. To see a body that's emptied of self-will and self-agenda and that sees the highest calling being servant of all, humbling ourselves, seeking others riches and not our own, is the visible evidence of re-creation in the heart of a man, of the finished work of the effectual blood of Jesus on our behalf.

We talked about having to lay aside the desire to have those special visitations to where Jesus would appear to us on the road to Damascus, to lay aside the appetite for the angelic visitations and realize that the way God is going to reveal Himself--we're talking about the knowledge of God--the way that God is primarily going to reveal Himself to you is through that person in the seat next to you as He gives the members of the body "the same care one for another" (1 Corinthians 12:25), the apostle said--as we "provoke one another to love and to good works" (Hebrews 10:24), as we allow in humility iron to sharpen iron (Proverbs 27:17), and as our brothers and sisters love us, bring reproof, rebuke, and instruction into righteousness, "that the man of God may be perfect and thoroughly furnished unto every good work" (2 Timothy 3:17).

You see, it's exciting and spectacular to have Jesus appear to you. It almost gives us special privilege and a way to exalt ourselves as being special and saying, "God appeared to me." It's humbling to receive it at the hands of a brother and sister, isn't it? Yet, it is the humbling process that God is looking for to occur in each of our lives. We saw in the Ephesians passage these words. Let's look at the last few verses of Ephesians, chapter one. "What is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named," the Scripture says (Ephesians 1:19-21).

I want you to see verses 22 and 23. We want to emphasize these as we go over into the Corinthians passage where we were Wednesday night. "[He's] put all things [Think about this, beloved. He's put all things] under his feet." In the exaltation of Jesus, this power that raised Him from the dead, He said, "Listen, I want you to understand. I want you to come to the knowledge of God and understand who you are in Jesus Christ, not you as an individual, but who we are as the church." It gives us individual privileges and individual responsibilities and individual experiences, but God is expressing Himself through His corporate body, the church.

We, as the church, need to understand and believe that everything has been put beneath our feet. We've been given all power and all authority over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means harm us. Do you believe that today? If not, then you need to come to the knowledge of God. If you find yourself just wavering, tossed to and fro, worried and fearful about the economy, fearful about AIDS, fearful about SARS, and fearful about snipers, then you need to come to the knowledge of God. We need to come to that fresh understanding that all things have been put beneath His feet. "Pastor, it's His feet." His feet: the body, the church. You see, we have a privilege. We've been raised up and seated with Him in the heavenlies. We are one with Jesus. We've been made one spirit with Him. As long as our heart is to represent Him, to glorify Him and not ourselves, as long as our desire is to walk in submission to His will not try to inject our will, then all things are possible to he who believes.

As we go on in this study, beloved, I want to see your hearts stirred up. I want us to understand who we are in Jesus Christ, what our privileges are, and what our responsibilities are to represent properly this kingdom to a lost world. What a privilege. What a privilege to go out and represent Him in His power. Until we come to the knowledge of what He's expecting of us, we're going to waffle a little bit and wonder, "Should I really expect those demons to flee when I command them in the name of Jesus?" Yes, if you have come to know Him. The seven sons of Sceva went to cast out that devil. They said, "In the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches, come out!" The devil spoke and said, "We know Jesus. We know Paul. Who are you?" You don't ever want to hear that from a devil. Prepare to run!

I can still remember one time in that insane asylum dealing with a demon-possessed individual. I can remember that voice that would actually, in the natural, send chills up your spine. I remember those demons speaking out of that individual, looking at me through those little beady eyes. I don't think I have ever had a greater compliment in my life, and it came from the devil. You say, "Yeah, and he's the father lies." I think the greatest compliment I have ever had in my life came from the devil as that demon-possessed person looked at me and in that voice said, "We know who you are! We know who you are!" I said, "Yeah, and I know who you are. Come out in the name of Jesus!" See the captives set free.

I've got a question for you this morning. Do you know who you are? You will never know who you are until you come to the knowledge of Him. You'll always think more highly of yourself (Romans 12:3) or you'll think too lowly of yourself ("If I'm not the eye, then I'm not part of the body"). You'll have ambitions and humanistic perceptions, and you'll never realize what's available to you as a member of the body of Christ: the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe. "Exceeding," listen to this verbiage: "the exceeding greatness of His power" to you if you will dare believe it. Do you want to come to that place where you don't have to whimper and whine every time your baby gets sick and run him to the doctor, that you can just lay your hands on him and say, "Be healed in the name of Jesus"? "The exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe." What an inheritance we can give our children!

They'll do with it whatever they want to do, but I can still remember the inheritance that I've left for my kids. As little people growing up, I can remember different incidents. I remember when Star stepped on that glass and cut his foot open. Blood was pouring out the bottom of his foot, and I can remember just reaching down and grabbing that foot and saying, "In the name of Jesus, I command you to stop bleeding." To watch the thing stop and watch him get up and just go off playing. As a child, he falls down and smacks his face on the ground, his tooth dies and turns totally black, and you lay hands on him, and God brings it back to life perfectly white, perfectly whole. As you leave a heritage, as Kimberly took the babies to the dentist the other day and were having them looked at, the dental assistant looked at her and said, "Oh, you have perfect teeth. Did you wear braces?" She said, "No, actually I had a large gap [she could have stuck a nickel between her front teeth], but my dad prayed for me and Jesus closed the gap." They changed the subject, of course. My daughter goes off to college never having even taken as much as an aspirin, goes to Bible college where all the would-be preachers don't go to church. I guess they think they're going to have to put their time in later. Kimberly was able to bring some ministry. I'm talking about the knowledge of God, the commitment in knowing that you are sowing into lives that are going to bear some fruit. I was talking to Amy up at Carlisle, and she said the funny thing about Kimberly--of course, we all know that Kimberly doesn't speak her opinion. She said it was interesting. Here were all of these pastoral majors, and Kimberly was the only one of them that would go to church three times a week. Everybody else said they were "in college." They were "in Bible college" and had "grades" that they were trying to accomplish. One day to all these would-be preachers, Kimberly said, "How in the world are you going to expect your congregation to come to church if you don't go?" If you want to backslide, go to Bible college.

The knowledge of Him, to understand what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward. He has put all things under His feet, the Scripture says, "and gave him to be the head over all things to the church" (Ephesians 1:22). This word "head," the headship of Jesus deals with dominion and union, dominion and union. It's not just His condition of sovereign authority, Lord, Savior, King of Kings, Lord of Lords. His headship is one of dominion, but it's also one of union, to where we have been made one with Him. What is ours is His, and what is His is ours. That's a mind-blower! It's the same as in any marriage, and we read about it here in Ephesians. Paul uses it in the illustration of marriage and the union of Christ and His church, just like that of a man and a wife, a husband and wife. You don't have two separate accounts. It's not "his" and "hers." It's "ours." "Well, it's 'his' and 'hers' in our house. I'll tell you that!" That probably explains why you're having so many problems. You might ought to become one.

Union, we are here representing Him with the full arsenal of His power behind us. Jesus said, "If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father" (John 14:8). Then He said, "I want you to understand something. When you go out and preach this message in My name, those that have seen you have seen Me." Now, if you look at it from the carnal, you are going to get off into all of this squirrelly stuff like dominion theology, like the "name it, claim it/blab it, grab it" group. You're going to miss why this power has been given to us. It's for the glory of God, that men could see the works and glorify our Father which is in heaven.

It's not going to be the Head that affects this. It's going to be the Head through the body that affects the kingdom of God on this earth. Do you want to be used? Do you know Him? Are you an instrument that has been made available to Him? Are you willing to let Him place you, as we see in Corinthians, into this body as it please Him? Are you going to be content with the gifts that He has placed in your life and not always have to be seeking something that is more visible, that you can be the preacher or the singer or someone that is seen? Are you thankful for the privilege of being the big toe in the body of Christ? Big toes are ugly. They usually have calluses on them. They're the things you stub all the time. Try standing up without it, the stability that the big toe lends to the body of Christ. It's not the glamour role, but it is stabilizing. Are you content with how God has called you and how God has gifted you?

Now, look what he says as we finish the review and try to stop lying as to that being the "last" reference. He's put it all under His feet and caused Him to be head over all things to the church, head over all things to the church--the one that guides, empowers, coordinates this body, the church, His body. Beloved, listen to this phrase, and let it get into your hearts this morning. "Gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, [look at this phrase] the fulness of him that filleth all in all" (Ephesians 1:22-23). I was studying that word "filleth" this morning a little bit. The word is interesting, and the Greek is talking about "that which is able to fill to capacity," not only the quantity but the quality, the sufficiency of the filling. In other words, it suffices. The filling is sufficient to the task. It's an enabling. It's an exceeding abundance above everything that we could ask or even think (Ephesians 3:20). It's "if God be for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31). It's the fact that He has "blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3), that He has given us everything that pertains to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). That's pretty good, isn't it? Nothing lacking to make you what you need to be for the glory of God.

Can I ask you a question this morning? Where are we in the production? Where are we in the yielding up of our members as instruments to God's glory? Where are we as earthen vessels, the conduits of God, to where His glory is flowing through us, to where the excellency is of God and not of us? Where are we in our relationship there? Where are we in our prayer, "Here am I; send me?" Where are we in our Gethsemane, "Not my will, but Your will be done?" He has given us everything that it takes to pull it off. He has given us the grace sufficient to die. If we're not crucified with Him, we won't be raised with Him, Romans 6 says, but He has given us the grace to die. He has given us the revelation of Him, which reveals our own hearts to us, and we see how needy we are, how vile we are, and that without Him we can do nothing that is accepted of Him. What are you doing with this knowledge of God? What have you done with the last thing He revealed to you of yourself?

When God revealed to me the condition of my heart, I didn't think I was in as bad a shape as I was. God showed me the condition of my heart. Most of you have seen that the big rig is gone. I sold it last week. It sold in two days. God spoke to me and said, "I'm not pleased with the way this thing's going. It's getting out of order." When I saw it, I did it. He spoke to me on Sunday, and it was sold on Monday. Being the type of person I am, I said, "And that's not all. I'm selling everything: selling every car, every lug nut." God said, "I didn't tell you to do that. What I told you to do was sell that, and I told you to break all of the commitments to all of the other events for the rest of the year. That's what I told you to do." How many of you know why, when I saw that, I just wanted to dump everything? You know what? Abstinence is a lot easier. Abstinence is a lot easier than temperance. He said, "Just do what I told you to do. Return to Bethel when you started all this. Go back to the last time you were sure I spoke to you, and I'll speak to you again."

As I saw the condition that I was in, my heart was broken by the deception to where you think of yourself and you don't really see the condition that you're in. As I was looking at myself through the knowledge of God, it's sickening to see the things that are lawful begin to have power over you. Paul said, "It's all lawful, but I'll not be under the power of any of it." I saw that what had been lawful became a power force of my life, and I didn't think it was until I had to die to it. It was not an easy thing to happen. You want to know part of the motive for wanting to sell everything? It is basically this, "If I can't do it my way, I'm not going to do it all." It's still that same pride factor that has to die. I'm just sharing all that with you to ask you this question: What did you do with the last thing God told you to do as you were coming to the knowledge of God? What have you done with the last thing that He has spoken to you? Yet we pray, "Lord, I want to know You more. Lord, I want You to reveal Yourself." Why? So that You can take His will, the revelation of the knowledge of Himself, and put it up on the supreme court of your analysis as to whether or not you are going to do it? He is the head of the church.

We look at the Scriptures, and we see who the church is and what our role and our responsibility is. We see it as it relates to each one of us as members in particular. Those of us that are involved in five-fold ministry, those of you that are the husbands--the head of your home, the priests of your household--what are you doing with what God has told you to do in raising up a godly seed? Of course, as we go into this, we're going to touch it very lightly this time around. We're not going to bog down, but as we look at the divine order of the home, the head of every woman is the man, and the head of the man is Christ. Men, are you ordering your home under the guidance of the knowledge of God, or are you just doing it in your own wisdom? Do you think you know what is best for your household? You don't know what's best for your house. You do not even know enough to come in out of the rain most of the time! I am not talking about the things that do not count. I am not talking about the fact that you can know how to invest money, and you know how to motivate yourself and others around you. I am talking about eternal things, the things of God, the things that are not going to pass away. Have you gone to God and received the knowledge of His will as to the condition of your wife, the condition of your children, your home and how it fits into the body of Christ to affect the glory of God, or is your home your home? The church is not a bunch of individual homes that come together as a club and meet a couple of times a week. Ephesians says very clearly that we are knit together. We are intertwined. We don't live to ourselves; we don't die to ourselves. When we become part of the body of Christ, we then forfeit our own individual rights, the right to run our house the way we want to. We run it under the headship of Jesus Christ, and we know Him through His church. It's an important thing, beloved, to identify where we are in our pursuit in the knowledge of God. I'm not even going to go to Corinthians. The review took the whole time allotted. Read 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 to study for tonight's teaching.

"Which filleth all and all," the sufficiency of God's presence to affect His will in your life. "It's He that worketh in us to will and to do His good pleasure," Philippians tells us. Now, practically--as we prepare to close for this morning--as we're coming to the knowledge of God, as we're seeking His will, make sure that what you're seeking is contextually in the revelation of these Scriptures that we've been talking about. Realize that seeking His will from the perspective of individual appetite, pursuit, objectives, is to be outside of the realm of receiving revelation from God, because God is not going to speak to you as a specific, independent individual. He will deal with you individually and show you how as an individual you are part of a body joined not just to the head. Some of us say, "Well, praise God, I understand." We all somehow think that we are joined directly to the head, and we're not. You don't see a big toe coming off the head of Jesus. Okay? "What's that growth on your head?" "Oh, that's George. He's special. George, the big toe, and I have a special relationship." "Well, shouldn't he be down there on the foot?" "No, I'm a respecter of persons. See, George is special. George gets to hang out with the head."

"Well, don't we have an individual relationship with Him?" Yes. Individually, He will prepare you to function corporately. You will answer as an individual to your ability to humble yourself, submit to His headship, and walk corporately, cooperatively, in unity with His will, His body, the church. Everything is done in cooperation, in fellowship, with and for the edification of the body. When was the last time you made a decision and threw this into the equation: "When I do this, how will this affect the body? How's this going to affect the body?" We don't live to ourselves; we don't die to ourselves.

Does the head ever give direction to the body without the rest of the body being considered? The head never sends the foot down to the store without the rest of the body. Where's your foot going? "Well, you know, it was made for walking. It was a gifted walker. When it feels like it, it just walks. It believes God spoke to it, and it's walking to the store. God spoke to the foot. Feet can walk." Well, the foot bone is connected to the anklebone, and the anklebone is connected to the leg bone; and the leg bone is connected to the knee bone. Whether you know it or not, you take all of us with you. We don't live or die to ourselves. We'll pick that up in the study tonight, and try to get some practical application.

What I want you to see, beloved, is in verses 22 and 23, that you come to the full understanding, when we address this tonight, that you have been given the capacity to affect His call on your life. You have been given the ability to go beyond your opinion of yourself, and you have also been given the supernatural ability to humble yourself to the will of God. All things that pertain to life and godliness, He has given you all power to affect His purpose. Sometimes that power will be in casting out devils, in healing the sick, and sometimes it will be the power of just being able to stand and be patient under the purging of God and under the chastisement of God. Whatever it is that will ultimately affect godliness in you, He has given us the capacity to receive it in His name.

As we are seeking the presence of God this morning and looking to Him to minister to each one of our hearts, we're going to pray in just a moment. There's a brother that has been brought into our midst here this morning seeking the elders to lay hands on him in the name of Jesus. They brought him from one of the rest home ministries. This man and his wife, people of the kingdom, love God and been serving Him faithfully for years, but that doesn't mean anything. It's not merit; it's grace. We thank God for their faithfulness, but Paul said, "I count all that stuff loss for the excellency of the knowledge of God." It's about Jesus. It's about the glory of God. It's about the promise of God. It's about the prayer of faith. It's about the will of God.

To watch this brother be raised up transcends anything that anybody here in the natural can do, anything that you could work up in the natural to believe. His need transcends all of that. It goes back to the head of the church, Jesus, who promised that we could "lay hands on the sick and that they would recover," that "the prayer of faith would save the sick and the Lord would raise them up." Praise God. Do you believe that? You see, that's His Word to us, so we humble ourselves and say, "You said it, and we believe it; praise God." We will reach out as "the fullness of Him" and appropriate what has been given us and promised us--not because we deserve it, because You've provided it. We just want to thank You, Father. It's exciting to see Him move in our midst.

As Gary comes and plays for us, we're going to take the opportunity to pray for our brother and anyone else that may be facing some type of need in your body that's of magnitude. We all have needs in our bodies, but if you are here this morning and you're in need of a touch of God in your body, we want you to come. We're going to believe God, and we're going to follow the directives of the head of the church. As members in particular, we are going to have the same care one for another. He said we could lay hands on them, and they would recover, praise God. That's the body's job. Our job is lay hands on people. Our job is to pray the prayer of faith. His job as the head is to raise them up.

Are you ready to do your job this morning, to pray the prayer of faith? Can you, in expectation of the love that has been expressed to us of the head of the church, expect it to happen this morning? "The exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe." Don't look to yourself for the faith; look to the Greater One that's in you. Don't ask the question, "What can I do?" Ask the question, "What are You going to do through me?" Jesus, our eyes are upon You. Turn your eyes to Him this morning. Everyone who has that need this morning, just come now as we sing this and stand in the presence of God if you're facing some dire need in your life.

I'd like the pastors and the deacons to come, please. We look to You alone, Lord. You're our delight, Lord. Why not let Him manifest His glory in you this morning? Just reach out and take the free gift, the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe. He told us the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up. In our midst this morning, there are some great needs. There's a great God here to meet all of our needs according to His riches in glory. Each one just now, as we prepare to pray, don't pray looking to the glory of the individual. Don't pray looking for the manifestation of the healing. Pray with this one thing in your heart: "Lord, we want You glorified here this morning. We want Your name exalted. We want the visitation of our God. We want to be aware of Your presence here this morning so that You could be all in all."

If the deacons will begin to pray for those that have come. Pastors, if you'll join me, we're going to lay hands on our brother here. We're going to lay hands on a couple of these other needs that we know are specific needs of gravity this morning. Let's believe God. Just begin to pray right now and begin to glorify Him. Begin to worship Him in the beauty of His holiness. Pastors, come. Let's believe God. According to Your Word, Jesus, be glorified. Be glorified, Lord, in the prayer of faith. Even now, Lord, raise him up, Jesus, that You would be all in all, that men would see the work and glorify our Father. We're careful, Lord. We're careful to make our boast in You. We're careful, Jesus, to know the power of God. We take authority over sickness, and we take authority over principalities and over powers. We resist them in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, and in Your name alone we expect Your glory to manifest, Father. We will praise You. We will praise You. Father, in the name of Jesus, no more, no more. Spirit of depression, spirit of fear, I break your power and I command the healing of this brain, the damage to this brain reversed in Jesus' name. From this morning, you be whole. You will not bow your knee to self-pity, to self-will, but you will be healed in Jesus' name. Oh, Father, we delight in that and we give You the glory. We thank You, Father, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. We thank You, Father, in the name of Jesus. Father, it is because You are gracious and You pity us as a father does his children.

Father, we thank You for that which awaits us in the heavenly treasures, but we ask, Father, that the work that remains would be affected in the name of Jesus and for the glory of God. Finish the work, Father, in Your servant to Your glory, in Jesus' name. Let's sing it again and just rejoice in His goodness and delight in what God has done in each life here this morning, that His glory is being affected. "Blessing and honor, glory and power/Riches and wisdom and strength/Be unto You...." It's unto Him. It's for Your glory, Lord. Oh, we bless You, Jesus. Oh, sing it again. All things have been put beneath His feet. All things are beneath His feet. You bow, devil. You bow, disease. Just give Him His glory this morning. Just lift your hands and worship Him and praise Him for the work that has been done. Those of you that had the hand of God touch you this morning, rejoice in His goodness! Give Him the glory that's due His name this morning. We rejoice in You, Lord.

Before you go, turn to somebody next to you and say, "It's the power that raised Him from the dead." Go in peace; God's love go with you, in Jesus' name.

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