Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Living in the Miraculous Pt.2

Continue to be in prayer for the work going on in Africa--a lot of great things. Tony's coming back from that well deserved rest, so continue to hold him up in prayer. Forbe's leaving in a couple of days, heading out a week from tomorrow. So, be prayerful as Forbe and Ruth begin to head over and lift up Tony's hands in Eldoret--a lot of great things that are going on. Kakamega's experiencing a great move and Robert's going to be getting married there in the Kakamega church before long. So that's exciting. The new land, we signed the contract. We should be closing on the new property in Eldoret in about 45 days. The rental agreement has been signed. So we're moving into the new facilities; doubling our space there. Lot of great things that are going on so just continue to be prayerful. Pray for all the folks that are gone. We have a boatload of people out of town. One more week until school starts. I know some of you will be taking this next week off as many have been gone these couple of weeks, and then school starts back on the eleventh, so we're looking forward to all of the good things that are ahead.

Let's turn back to the book of Acts where we were this morning. Some of you have already come into town that were out of town over this last week or so, taking some of the vacation time. Just a quick review of where we've been, as you know, we've been dealing out of Revelation, looking at the seven churches of Revelation and identifying who and where we are as it relates to this hour. And we saw that as a fellowship we really fit the mold of the church of Ephesus, a church that is sound in its doctrine, that gives the right place to the Word of God, yet that church of Ephesus had lost its first love. And so, we stirred our hearts and asked ourselves the question, "Where are we in relationship to that first love?" The excitement of having experienced regeneration, knowing what it means to be set free from sin when you were a new believer, has any of that waned? The apostle Paul said, "Stir up that gift that's in you with the laying on of hands" (1 Timothy 1:6). So we talked about that.

We looked at the church of Laodicea, and we surely don't want to allow any lukewarmness into our midst. He said, "I would that you'd be hot or cold but lukewarmness," he said, "I'll spew you from my mouth." We're not lukewarm as it comes to our fervency, our worship, our study and our doctrine. But we saw that lukewarmness is a very real thing in the church in our country because of the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches and the lusts of other things. The church in Laodicea trusted in its strength and its riches and we have to guard our hearts against that. Through this study, we came into this morning's service and said, "Now let's really identify who we are and who we are supposed to be." And of course, we have to address the fact that there is no "first century church" and "twenty-first century church." People always talk about, "Well, you know the first century church..." There isn't a first century church and a twenty-first century church. There's only the church. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is the Head of the same body, the church. And the fact that we've advanced technologically, the fact that there's been twenty-one centuries now of the mercy and grace of God shown to mankind, doesn't change who we are. We're the church. And the Bible said, "On this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." The church is to be a force that's breaking down the gates of hell and setting the captives free. That's our task as we occupy until the master comes. He said, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel." He said, "I will go before you and I will follow after you and I will confirm the words you speak with signs following." We're the church.

What does that make us today? Well, the political entities will say that the church is a political force, and we see all of the involvement of the church today in politics. That's not who the church is. We're not to be involved in political issues of the day. The church is not a humanitarian organization. For years now, the church in America has been taken up with the social gospel, and if you ask people what the church is today, their first thought will be Catholicism. Their second thought will be that we're the people that hand out clothes to the naked people and give food to the hungry people. That's not what the church is. That's not who we are. Oh, we do those things periodically, but if you answer even that issue biblically, most people will raise one eyebrow and look at you kind of strange, because our first commitment is to the household of faith. Amen? We don't give the children's bread to dogs. Say that today in society and people will really raise an eyebrow. "You mean you're calling the poor and the hungry and the halt and the maim dogs?" I'm just repeating what Jesus said. And those people who are the dogs realize they're dogs and will come and say, "True, Master, but even the dogs eat from the crumbs that fall from the table" (Matthew 15:27). That shows who you're going to minister to. Amen? Not the ones that rise up in arrogance and say, "How dare you call me a dog!" I don't know about you, but when I was a sinner I knew I was a dog. And I'll tell you what. I'm thankful for the crumbs that fell off the table and infused my heart with the truth of the gospel and set me free from the power of sin. I didn't approach the church with arrogance. When I walked into the church I knew I was needy. I knew I was lost. Oh, I was prideful; I've shared my testimony with you so many times. I had all the natural haughtiness but I knew inside I was lost and I needed the love of God, but not until I heard the gospel. I don't even know why I went to church the day that I got saved. I wasn't there seeking God. He was seeking me, praise God! He supernaturally drew me to that place and disarmed me and redeemed me. I heard the gospel and it set me free. And I'm not ashamed of that gospel and we're not going to change it because of the social pressures of our day because the gospel is the power of God to salvation.

Who are we? We're the church. We're the proclaimers of the good news that Jesus died with our sins. He who knew no sin was made sin with our sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. What's the gospel? Jesus died and was buried and raised again the third day. Praise God! And if Christ be not raised, you are yet in your sin. Jesus has been raised from the dead. He's ascended back to the right hand of God the Father. He ever lives to make intercession. And He's coming again real soon, praise God, to receive us to Himself. That's the simple message that we have to bring. You don't have to make it difficult to reach the intellects. You don't need to dilute it to reach the scoffers. It's the power of God to salvation. Amen? So, we just go out and speak the things that we've seen and heard, as we saw this morning in the book of Acts. Who are we? We're the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, the invincible church. And so, we saw in Acts 1 this morning that the Lord said, in Acts, Chapter 1, verse 8, "[But] ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me..." Go to Jerusalem, tarry, wait for the power from on high. They went. The Holy Spirit came, filled the place where they were gathered. Acts 2:4, "And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." They poured out into the streets, began to proclaim the gospel and declared to them, "This same Jesus who you crucified, God has raised from the dead" (Acts 2:22-24). Praise God! And the church was birthed and [the] power of God was seen. And they stood in awe that these men of Galilee, these fishermen spoke with power and authority. Then we saw that they were beaten and told to no longer speak in this name. And they counted it a privilege to be beaten for the name of Jesus and what did they do? They went right back into the temple and began to proclaim the gospel as the angel of the Lord made provision for them.

So, we were talking this morning about the need to live in the supernatural. The church of Jesus Christ has its existence in the realm of the supernatural. That's the only way we're going to be victorious. Our weapons aren't carnal, they're mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, the Scripture says (2 Corinthians 10:4). And yet the pressure's continually upon us to take up natural weapons: get involved in politics, get involved in economics, or get involved in psychology. And I want to encourage you this evening to get involved in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and receive the power from on high and become invincible.

So, let's go back to where we left off in this morning's session. As we were studying the Scriptures, we began to look at the church and we saw that the book of Acts continues today. There's only one church. There's no place where it ended. So, we asked ourselves, "If the first century operated this way, why should the twenty-first century operate any differently when Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever?" So, if the promises haven't changed, if the doctrine hasn't changed, then what's changed? The only thing that's changed is our environment. And the fact of the matter is, whether we want to believe it or not, our minds have been vexed by the philosophy of the day and by the prosperity, the ease in which we live in this nation. And the fact of the matter is, we don't need miracles any more. We don't need the supernatural more because everything we could want is taken care of by man. And we talked about all of the scientific, technological advances. We talked about nanotechnology today and how that's going to affect us. We talked about all of the microbiology and the fact that they said they've discovered the aging gene. And they've stood and boldly proclaimed that they will make man live forever any day now. And we asked a very real question. If they came up with a solution and could naturally cause you to live forever, how would that affect your citizenship in the kingdom of God? If God allows that, and I would be surprised--I'm not going to say what God's going to do, but I'd be surprised if God would allow that. If God intervened and confounded man at the Tower of Babel when they said, "We'll build a temple to heaven!" And God looked down and said, "Look what they're doing. Nothing's impossible to them. I'm going to have to go down and confound them." And that's when He came and He caused a separation. He caused different languages. They could no longer communicate. They could no longer be in unity. They were dispersed around the earth. So what have we done? We've become bilingual, trilingual. We created technology to where I can type in English and the guy can read it over here in Chinese, and the world has become one again. And God's being mocked again, and man says, "We no longer need You!" And the church meets and we sing our songs of the greatness of God, but we live so often for the greatness of men. We studied in all seven of those churches in the book of Revelation and one phrase was common: "Let him that has ears hear what the Spirit is saying to the church." What's He trying to say to us? "Prepare yourselves. I'm coming back." What's He saying to us? "Prepare yourselves to become proper representatives of Myself and My kingdom." And so we pray as twenty-first century Americans, "Give us this day our daily bread" and we have more bread than we know what to do with.

So, we've talked about how can we, in the midst of all of our prosperity and all of this technology, trust God? Discipline ourselves to look to Him first when it's so easy to pop a pill, to swipe a card, to take all of the false equity out of our homes. Let me tell you something; it isn't worth what you think it is. This is a lie. It's a delusion. And a lot of people are going to find out the hard way. I said delusion: an illusion that deluded people are believing. We are looking at this world that God has put us in. We're not here by mistake. God's ordered our steps at this time in history because He has confidence in His church, in the power of His gospel, and we're a people that if we'll humble ourselves, are invincible. If we'll seek the kingdom, all that we have need of will be added to us. But we must continue to be that peculiar people, that royal priesthood that shows forth the praises of Him that's called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. Who are we? Who is the church? We're this separate entity. We are the kingdom of God. We are the kingdom of light that's at war with the kingdom of darkness. God did not call us to coexist with this world. He called us to take over. Now, not as Catholicism has propagated, not a political takeover. When I say take over, I'm not talking about taking over politics or economics. I'm talking about taking over the heavenlies. Who reigns in the heavenlies where the real war is going on? He's called for us to take over in this battle in the spiritual realm to where we can cast out devils; heal the sick. Are we? Where's the church? How are we any different than anybody else? Why would anybody see us any different than the Muslims, than the Buddhists? Where is the power of the resurrected Jesus? That's what made the church unique. No other religion says what we say. "Our leader died, was buried, was raised again, is King of Kings, and is Lord of Lords. There is no other name under heaven whereby men can be saved. And He's given us power to go into all the world and proclaim a gospel that will be confirmed with signs following." Mark 16:17-18, "And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name [In My name they shall--and He talks about the fact that we shall] cast out devils; [we] shall speak with new tongues;...[we] shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." What are some of the other "shalls"? We're a people that shall pray the prayer of faith. We're a people that believe that nothing's impossible as we represent this kingdom. So, when we read what the church really is, as we continue through these first 12 chapters of the book of Acts, we have to ask ourselves a question: "Is this who we are?" And if not, why not? What's changed? The Word hasn't changed. What's changed is our environment. What's changed is our belief system. These signs shall follow them that believe.

We saw this morning in the birth of the church, that they poured out into the streets and began to proclaim this message in Chapter 2, verse 38, "...Repent, [and] be baptized...in the name of Jesus Christ...receive the [promise] of the Holy Ghost." And they did. And then they gathered again the next day and the Scripture says that they worshiped the Lord and continued in steadfastness and in fellowship, verse 42, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. Is that what the church is doing today? There's more social events than there are steadfast gatherings in the Apostles' doctrine, the breaking of bread, prayer. "And fear came upon every soul: [verse 43,] and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles." You see the miraculous was normative living for them. And so we asked the question this morning, we said, "Was it because it was their only alternative?" And our answer to that was, "Yes, it was." Well, that's what makes it so hard here in America. It's not our only alternative. They had to believe God or die. We get to go to doctors. We get to go to the bank. We have political rights so people can't oppress us, except for homeowner groups. Did you hear what the Supreme Court just ruled on? Do you know the Supreme Court just ruled that this county, this government can come in and take all of our land around here because, if they felt it could generate more tax base and we're not using it for that, and we're not paying taxes on it, so now they have the right, according to the Supreme Court of the United States, to come in here and take our property. Just last week they ruled on it. If your family, for 300 years, owned this property out here in horse country area or whatever it was, and they decided that they wanted it and they're going to put a mall in, that thing's going to be a mall. It doesn't matter that your family's owned it for 300 years. That just passed.

Why am I saying that? What am I sharing with you? What are we going to trust in? What are we believing? Who are we? The church. "Well, we have alternatives. We have rights, bless God!" They're eroding very rapidly. The oppression that came in the first century is coming in the twenty-first century in this nation, the land of the free and the home of the brave. (Or as Ted Turner says, the Braves. He's one of the major proponents.) What are we trusting in? And so, as we're searching our hearts, if they lived this way because they had no alternative, why don't we do away with all the alternatives. How? Choose this day who you're going to serve. Amen? Now we're going to get into--as we continue in this study, we're going to get into all of the abuses. I know what's going through some of your minds. I know the abuses better than you do. I've been around for a long time, unfortunately or fortunately, whichever way you want to look at it. The first thing we see people wanting to do is, "We'll okay, bless God, no more doctors." And so tonight you're going to go home and your little baby is going to get sick and a fever raging and whatever, and you're going to say, "We're just going to believe God." Why don't you start with you? Don't practice on your baby. Why don't you get your faith down on you and get it working so that you can lay hands on the sick and see them recover, praise God! So that you can rebuke those fevers and watch them dissipate. Oh, how many times I've seen it over the years as I've prayed for my little babies and watched God heal them. And then we'll talk about the times when they're not healed, how many times I've prayed and seen them not healed. And it doesn't change the Word of God. And it doesn't change who we seek first. And should you somewhere along the line seek alternative help, what are you trusting in? And those become the real issues of life. That's where we're really living. And the thing I want us to do as a fellowship is to begin to search our hearts and not just become presumptuous or just extremely approach things to where you're not prepared yet. But I'm wanting us to become honest with ourselves and ask ourselves the question: "Are we believing God on a daily basis to move supernaturally in our lives? Are we believing for God to be the source and not man, and not natural means?' And if not, let's admit it and do something about it.

This church here was one that moved in the power of God, and signs and wonders were done by the hands of the apostles. And as we began to go through this thing, we talked about the great miracle, not only of the proclamation and the thousands that were saved on the day of Pentecost, but Peter and them were going up to the temple to pray. The lame man was there begging. Peter stopped and looked at him. Now, here's a key to all of this that we need to get a hold of. This is going to be the key point that I want to get home to us tonight. And we're going to see it with Peter's miracle here at the gate and we're going to see it with his imprisonment in Chapter 12, I think it is. I want you to see something. Peter walked by this guy no telling how many times. And the guy was sitting there, had been there for years. There's no telling how many times Peter passed this guy. And all of the sudden, he's walking and he stops. You see, we're not telling you to go out and grab every person on the street and try to cast a devil out of them, or go into the hospital and try to lay hands on every sick person. We're encouraging you to become sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit, to know when God wants to show Himself mighty in your life as a testimony to Himself. Because it's presumptuous to think that we can just go out and do whatever we want and represent the power of God. We're not God, but we are the church. "...And these signs shall follow them that believe [in My name]; In My name they shall..." (Mark 16:17). Now listen. That doesn't mean you can take His name like a magic wand and go out and do what you want. In My name you shall; acknowledging My Lordship you shall... Now, let me put it clearer for you. "When I tell you to do it, do it!" How's that? So, here's Peter and he's walking by and he looks and all of a sudden the Holy Spirit prompts him and goes, "Today's the day!" "Alms for the poor?" And Peter looks at that guy and says, "Silver and gold have I none, but what I have I'm going to give to you. In the name of Jesus of Nazareth rise up and walk." And he takes that man by the hand and jerks him up. And power comes into his legs and this man who was crippled from his mother's womb begins to leap and dance and praise God (Acts 3:1-8). Sensitive, always ready to hear, always ready to be used, prepared--are we prepared when the Lord speaks? Or is the best we can do is give him a card and say, "Here, go see this guy. He's a specialist. He'll create a real good wheelchair for you."

Are we listening? Are we living in the expectation that at any moment God wants to use you to glorify Himself? Are we prepared or are we so weighted down with the cares of this world, the thoughts? Is your mind reeling with all the work that you have to do tomorrow and are you burdened with all of the dreams that have not been yet fulfilled in your life? Are you all worn out with trying to get ready for retirement? Christians can't retire! What are you going to do if you retire? "Well, if I can get to that place where I can retire then, praise God, I'm going to use all of my time witnessing and ministering for the Lord." Then why don't you do it while you're working? Amen? Right now you're getting paid to do it. A guy's paying you to come down there and share Jesus. And while you're doing it, of course, you've got to do what you're getting paid for too, or you're not a good representative of the kingdom. Retirement isn't moving up to a cabin somewhere and becoming a recluse. We're the salt of the world. We're the light of the world. If you retire, you've just got to be full-time doing, and now it's on your dime. Not too many "amens!" on that, but listen, who are we? We're the church. We're the salt of the earth. We're the light of the world. Who are we? We're under mandate to go into all the world and proclaim this gospel. That's who we are. We're the people that walk through the temple, and prompted of the Holy Ghost, represent His name in power and authority. "What I have I give to you. In the name of Jesus of Nazareth whom God has raised from the dead, rise and walk."

The religious people said, "We've got to put a stop to this. We can't have this stuff. Call them up here. Tell them they can't be doing this." And they threatened them and they beat them and they sent them away. And they just rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for Jesus' name. And they went right back and started doing it again. And we talked about how that relates to where we are in our society today. We're told we can't talk about Jesus in the public schools. We were told that we can't talk about Jesus on the job. You can't promote religion on the job. "I can't help but speak the things that I've seen and heard" (Acts 4:20). "Yeah, but if I get bold and I'm sharing the Lord down there I can get fired." That just means the Lord wants you to go minister somewhere else. "Yeah, but I'm only two years from retirement." You don't get to retire. "I want to retire!" No, you don't get to retire. "Who said?" The Lord said. Now, you can stop working a secular job, but you don't get to retire, because the definition of retirement is, "I get to do whatever I want." You don't get to do what you want. You're a Christian. You do what God tells you. Amen? And you say, "If the Lord wills, today I will go and do such and such." Isn't that what the Bible teaches us? See, retirement is an American thought process that's says "I can consume everything upon self." Christians don't get to retire. We're slaves. We're not our own. We're bought with a price. The church.

I'm a little bit sidetracked here. Let me see what we can do to catch up with where we were this morning--The power of God, and the church moving in that power, and we moved into Chapter 5, and Ananias and Sapphira and the judgments of God, and they're smitten dead for lying to the Holy Ghost. And the people gathered together again and were filled with the Holy Spirit and then the Scripture says that they gathered daily in the temple, verse 42 of the fifth chapter, "...and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ." Then we read in verse 8 of the sixth chapter, "And Stephen [was a man], full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people." Some hard questions [are] coming up as we find out who we are [as] the church. Stephen, a man full of faith and power--does this mean that we're never going to be persecuted, never experience what would be seen in the natural eyes as defeat? No, in fact if you look at the life of Jesus, the natural mind kind of sees Him dying and that was the end of this thing. But that wasn't the end of the story, was it? For if Satan had known, he wouldn't have crucified the Lord of Glory. Satan thought he was doing a good job when he snuffed Stephen and all it did was raise up a Paul. Amen? Living in the supernatural, we don't see things from the natural perspective. When the Stephens and all of those who have gone before us are martyred, those [that] died in the first century, those that along the Via Dolorosa were experiencing persecution: the human torches of Nero's time, the cries of the [Roman] Colosseum, the church living in the supernatural, counting it a privilege to suffer for His name's sake. What ever happened to those people? There're some of them here tonight. There're a lot of us here tonight. And I thank God for it and I count it a privilege to be a part and I want to finish this thing successfully myself. And I have no guarantee outside of dying daily. The only guarantee I have of finishing this race successfully is to take up a daily cross and die. And if I don't die to self on a daily basis, then I'll die the second death. Every one of us [is] called to make this choice to die to self, to live for the glory of God, by the power of God.

Now, let me get where I was going for tonight. As we're studying through this and we see the persecution of Stephen and the death of Stephen and the resurrection power of God being expressed as Jesus calls the apostle Paul on the Damascus road, the church is being strengthened by a new leader. In the midst of all of this, I want to point out this one aspect tonight, because I'm going to be gone for a couple of weeks here starting Wednesday, and then we'll hopefully pick back up on this when we get back in town. Turn to the twelfth chapter of Acts, and there's a point that I want to get to here. I'm skipping over a couple of good parts that we'll possibly be able to refer back to, but here's the point I'm wanting us to see tonight, [a] key point. Don't go out and try to make things happen. Be prepared for God to cause things to happen in your life. Be ready when God is going to cause you to become an instrument of His glory. It may take a lifetime of preparation to be used once, see? Don't think you're going to go out and every day experience something spectacular. You're not. Most of your life is going to be mundane. But it only takes one road to Damascus experience. It only takes one gate Beautiful experience and a lifetime of preparing to be used; an insulating of ourselves from the world's methods. I want you to see how this thing works and how life in the supernatural works. You see Peter--we saw [in] this morning's session, the anointing; the power of God was on him as he's proclaiming the Word, that even as he walked through the streets, his shadow would fall on individuals, and God would heal those people, as Stephen was, and yet Stephen is killed. He's martyred. And now Peter's in prison. And they killed James the brother of John with the sword, Chapter 12 tells us. "And [when they] saw [that the people were delighted by that they took] Peter also. [Chapter 12, verse 4,] and [they] delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people." [Look at verse 5. [And protest was made for Peter at the Capital without ceasing. And phone calls were made. And Christian senators were awakened by Dr. James Dobson. Threatening letters {sent stating} that, "You'll never be elected from the conservative block in this state, if you don't do something."] "...but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. [Now] Herod [was going to bring] him forth, the same night Peter was [wringing his hands saying, "Why me?" Oh no! Peter was] sleeping..." Can you trust God? Living in the supernatural is being able to sleep when everyone else around you is wringing their hands. Living in the supernatural is a life passive, ceasing from our own labors, Hebrews tells us, laboring to enter into the rest of ceasing from your own works (Hebrews 4:10-11). You see, life in the supernatural believes that the steps of the good man are ordered by God. Life in the supernatural believes that no weapon is formed against [us] that can prosper. Life in the supernatural trusts in the sovereignty of God. Now, not in a passivity of, "Well, whatever God wants to do." The church prayed without ceasing, "Lord, deliver Peter." You see, faith isn't passive in that it does nothing. Faith is passive in that it does nothing of our own strength, but takes up the weapons of God. Prayer made without ceasing.

Peter's sleeping. An angel of the Lord comes. Now, here's the second jailbreak. We saw the first one earlier. You remember that? We saw the jailbreak when they were let out of prison and went back down and began to preach and rejoice in the goodness of God. So, now we're going to see another jailbreak. I'm talking about jailbreaks not because, necessarily, that any of us are going to be going to jail anytime soon, hopefully. But, I want you to see twice now, believers being put in prison. I want you to see it for what it is, the restraining force of secular, of civil authority, of the world's system, and how the world's system is trying to oppress the gospel. Always has. Always will. They're taking more and more license in our nation now. A government that was formed for the purpose of allowing us to worship God has replaced God, and the patriots of our day worship the vehicle and government instead of the God that ordained it. We have people that will die for this country and won't live for God. I'm thankful for this country, but we need to see if for what it is and where it is now. And the document that says--I'm going to have to go back and read this, "We the People [of the United States], in Order to form a more perfect Union, [to] establish Justice, [to] insure domestic Tranquility, [to] provide for the common defense, [to] promote the general Welfare..." (U.S. Constitution: Preamble). It's no longer about "We the People", it's: "we the government; to promote a bigger government; for the good of the government." Not a common defense of the people, a defense of the government; we've got to preserve the government. The original document was to preserve the people. That's why the Second Amendment said you could carry a gun--to protect yourself against the government. Guess who's won? No, I'm not getting off on politics tonight. The point that I'm making is, I want you to see these imprisonments as the system's oppressing of the gospel, and how God supernaturally makes a way. Amen? And it's not through their system, because it's for the glory of God. And when it's done by man, man receives the glory.

So, here he is sleeping--let's finish with this because we want to take a few minutes at the Lord's Table and give Him His honor and worship--he's sleeping. The angel comes. This is so cool, verse 7, "...and a light shined in the prison: and he [smites] Peter on the side, [says, get] up quickly." And it must have startled him because, you know, and this is one thing that's cool about it, if you're going to move in faith, don't think. You're brain will slow you down. The angel comes and says, "Arise!" And he jumped up. "And his chains fell off from his hands." If he had time to think about it he would have asked the question, "Well, how am I supposed to get out of these chains?" As he arose, the chains fell off of him. "And the angel said unto him, Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. ...Cast thy garment about thee..." Here we go. Get your Visa card. Get your stupid cell phone and make reservations. Call ahead. Call OnStar. And now he's going. In verse 9, it says he thought he was seeing a vision. "This can't be real." I want you to see something. You can move in faith and not even believe what's going on. Amen? "Lord I believe, help my unbelief. But something's happening. God's doing something. What do you think He's doing? I don't have a clue, but this isn't normal. Wonder if this could be an answer to prayer? Prayer is being made for me without ceasing."

The story goes on. Look at it. He thought he saw a vision, verse 9. "When they [came] past the first and the second ward, they came unto the iron gate...;" [This is cool. He's going right past all these guards. Nobody's checking him out] "...opened to them of his own accord:" I love this stuff, man! This would make a good movie. "Yeah, but this is the twenty-first century." So what! Angels can't get through ADT? What's changed? "You mean we've become so educated that we don't believe in angels anymore? We don't believe in demons anymore? Oh, yeah, we do doctrinally, but I mean, you know." I want to tell you something. You're protected by angels more every day than you're aware of it. If there weren't angels I guarantee you one of those ladies in a mini van, on a cell phone, putting her makeup on, would have got you by now. He's given His angels charge over us, praise God, lest we dash our foot against a stone. And so the Scripture says, verse 10, "[that the gate opened] ...of his own accord: and they went out, and passed on through one street; and forthwith the angel departed from him [disappeared]. And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety, that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod..."--confirming His Word with signs following. Now I know. When's the last time you've experienced something like this that you can say, "Now I know? Oh, I believe, but now I know. Yea, my doctrine says I believe, but now I know." These signs shall follow them that believe in My name. In My name they shall...

The people that are back are praying, "Jesus! Lord! Set Peter free! Lord, set him free! Oh, God! We're believing You. We're thanking you that Peter's free!" [There's a] knock at the door. "It's Peter!" "No, it's not." [There's another] knock at the door. You know he's looking over his shoulder. What a testimony! What did Peter do? All he did was walk in what God provided for him. But you see, it was natural, it was common. This is a man who had denied the Lord but became full of the Holy Ghost and boldly stood and proclaimed the resurrection of Jesus and thousands were saved. This is the man whose shadow fell upon the sick and caused them to be healed. This is a man that took the hand of the lame and said, "In the name of Jesus rise up and walk." He had his failures. He had his successes. But in his failure he learned to no longer trust in himself. "Though everybody else forsake You, don't worry, Peter will never let you down. You can count on me." And a little girl backed him off and he denied the Lord. Jesus looked on him. Peter wept and ran. And when Jesus was raised, he said, "Go tell the disciples and Peter that I am risen." Peter met him that day on Galilee and He said, "Feed my sheep." And it changed his life. He went from independence and self-assurance to a man of humility that said, "Whatever God wants, I'll do it. I'm willing to be a fool for Jesus." And with that attitude you can see the supernatural you can see the miraculous. And he didn't try to go make anything happen, but he was ready to let God use him at any moment for His own purposes.

Father, we thank You for Your presence tonight, and we want to represent you properly in our generation, and in a day when the church has become a social organization, a political power, an economical power, we want to boldly proclaim the name of Jesus and say, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord..." (Zechariah 4:6). We want to be a peculiar people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. We don't want to be distracted by men's methods and by the pseudo-church's definition of success. But we want to proclaim, without shame, the great name that's above every name, the name by which all can be saved and no other. Make it real, Father. Deliver our minds from all of the vexation of the glory of man. Cleanse our minds from looking to the natural first and then running to you when all hope is lost. "The miracle workers, the gods of the world can't do anything; maybe You can, Lord." Let us come to You first. Not a last resort, the first resort, that You would receive the glory, that You would be our first love, that You would possess our hearts. That's our desire, Father, and we just ask it in Jesus' name. Make it real to us and we'll be careful to give You the praise.

Let's stand before the Lord tonight. As Gary plays for us, the brethren will come, we're just going to worship the Lord here and honor Him, as we recognize His death and His resurrection, as we sit at the Lord's Table. I see that we do have a few visitors. If you're a believer, if you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you don't have to be a member of this fellowship, you're welcome to partake. If you don't know Him as Lord and Savior, don't partake of this communion. The Apostle Paul said if you partake unworthily, you can eat and drink to yourself damnation and for that reason many are sick and some even dead (1 Corinthians 11:27-30). This isn't a game. This is recognizing the power of God, the Lordship of Jesus Christ. If you know that you're bought with His blood and you're no longer your own, then we want you to take this cup and rejoice in God's free gift. If you recognize His body broken for your wholeness, then we want you to take this bread and receive it with thanksgiving. As we sing this, just worship Him. Hold the emblems. We'll all take at one time and just fellowship in His goodness. Let's sing it together, "Change My Heart, Oh God."

Oh, thank You, Jesus, You're so good. Oh, thank You, Jesus. Want to be like You. Yes, Lord. Hallelujah, Hallelujah! It's our heart's desire. Glory to God! Just take a moment as we're worshiping Him and just close yourself in with Him. Let Him speak to your heart.

We want to be like You, Lord. We want to represent You properly. Lord, we want to stop stealing Your glory and giving it to men. Make us as Jehoshaphat where we say, "Lord, we don't know what to do, but our eyes are upon You." I'm not even going to try to figure it out. I just want to know what You want me to do. I'll do what you want, Lord. I'm not going to look at all the options. I've only got one option: what's the will of God? What will bring You the most glory? Oh, Lord, move in our lives. The fullness of the Holy Spirit that empowers us to live beyond ourselves, to hope against hope, to call things that are not as though they are, bring us to that walk in the spirit, Lord. Bring us into that place where we don't just pray, but we commune with God. Our hearts are transformed and our expectation is Your Word to manifest Itself. Not just to pray, but to pray in faith and receive these things done for Your glory, to call it done before we see it, to walk in it, to boast in it, live in it when nobody else can see it as we follow Him Who's invisible. You're so good to us, Lord.

We hold these emblems, and by receiving them tonight we're saying we believe that God has raised Jesus from the dead. And if that is our belief then, along with that goes the understanding that nothing is impossible to he that believes that, and the responsibility to represent His resurrected power in all that we do and all that we proclaim.

Father, as we partake of these emblems tonight in faith, let us receive a new refreshing of Your Spirit, that we would go forth in power proclaiming the good news and declaring that by His name, and faith in His name, you can be saved, and you can be healed, boldly sharing all that we have seen and heard, bowing no knee but to Jesus, having freely received, Father, we freely give. And with thanksgiving, [we] receive by faith Your broken body and shed blood that's made us a new creation, sons of God, heirs and joint heirs with Christ Jesus, ambassadors of an invincible kingdom, proclaiming that to whosoever will, they may come. Equip us, send us, and confirm Your Word, we ask in Jesus' name; and to celebrate that, we receive these gifts, the blood and body of the Lord, with thanksgiving, in Jesus' name.

Let's partake together, the body and the blood of the Lord. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah! Glory to God! Thank You, Jesus! Yes, you had to drink that in faith. As we prepare to honor Him in this song, who are we? What is the church? How will we be known in this generation? Let's not seek power and position through politics and economics, but let's seek to humble ourselves that God might be exalted. Let's not seek to put on a show of signs and wonders, and produce a carnival and call it a revival, but let's just care for the needs that are around us and touch the hurting and cast out devils and heal the sick. Let's just do it naturally. Let's naturally live in the realm of the supernatural and let Him be all in all. Let's sing it together. "Show Me Your Face, Lord." Hallelujah! Sing it one more time, just worship Him. That's all you need, just a glimpse of Him tonight. You'll never be the same. Hallelujah, Hallelujah! We just want to see You, Lord. If I can just see Your face. Hallelujah!

Before you go, look to somebody next to you and say, "It's natural to live in the supernatural." Amen! Go in peace. God's love go with you.

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