This message is one of the Times Square
Church Pulpit Series.
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Square Church in Manhattan, New York City.
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If you'll turn to Mark Chapter 16 in
the New Testament, I'm going to speak this
morning on the signs of active faith.
Signs of active faith.
Let's pray together.
Father, I thank you, God, for the anointing
of the Holy Spirit.
I thank you, Lord, that your kingdom has
come.
Jesus, you are here.
Your truth is here to set every man
free.
God, I thank you for what you're going
to accomplish this day.
I ask you, Lord, for a quickening of
my mind and spirit, my heart.
Lord, that I may stand strictly as an
oracle of God.
I ask for the grace to be removed
out of the way of this message.
Lord, that you would infuse me with your
life.
And, God, that you would speak through me.
And I would ask for grace on all
the hearers to hear this word as coming
from the very heart of God.
Father, you gave it to me.
I give it back to you.
All I ask is that your kingdom advance
in the hearts of your people.
Jesus Christ, be glorified.
Be king and Lord of all.
Let your will be done this day.
I ask it, believing in your mighty name.
Mark Chapter 16, beginning at verse 15.
And he said unto them, Go ye into
all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature.
And he that believeth and is baptized shall
be saved.
But he that believeth not shall be damned.
And these signs shall follow them that believe.
In my name shall they cast out devils.
They shall speak with new tongues.
They shall take up serpents.
And if they drink any deadly thing, it
shall not hurt them.
They shall lay hands on the sick and
they shall recover.
So then after the Lord had spoken unto
them, he was received up into heaven and
sat on the right hand of God.
And they went forth and preached everywhere, the
Lord working with them, confirming the word with
signs following.
Amen.
Now, Mark ascribes these words as the direct
words of Jesus Christ.
Their red letter in my Bible, they should
be in yours as well.
It means that Christ himself spoke these words.
The Scripture tells us that Jesus Christ went
back to heaven after he had died and
satisfied the wrath of God on all who
have sinned against the righteousness of God and
that those who would trust in Christ could
be assured now of a place in heaven,
could be assured of their salvation.
Jesus went back to heaven and sat down
at the right hand of all authority and
all power.
The work was finished.
He said it conclusively on the cross on
Calvary.
When he said it is finished, it means
the reign of terror and sin and evil
is over.
It is finished.
Everyone who wants to come to Christ can
be free.
I have now a church that are going
to go out into all the world.
I'm going to be with this church.
He said in the Gospel of Matthew, Lo,
he said, I'm with you always.
All power is given unto me and I'm
with you always, even unto the end of
the world.
And he said, you're going to go and
you're going to, in effect, go into all
the world and my life is going to
be infused into my own creation.
Those that have been created in the image
of God and who trust in Jesus Christ,
who believe that he died for their sins,
who are baptized, of course, that's a typology,
in a sense, of those who identify with
the death of Christ.
The saying is Christ died to the acclaims
and the accolades of this world.
He died to everything that the devil and
the flesh had to offer him and subsequently
obeyed the will of his father.
And on the third day he was raised
up in newness of life.
And those that are baptized are making this
identification with Christ.
I am dead to the things of the
world, like the Apostle Paul said.
The things that the world has to offer
have nothing in me and I have nothing
in them.
Their hearts are now attached to another kingdom.
There's another set of rules that begin to
guide their lives, another source and infusion of
God's life in them that begins to guide
them and to make them into new creations
in Christ Jesus.
And Jesus said these signs are going to
follow those that believe.
Now, beloved, most assuredly, some people over the
centuries have taken all or portions of these
scriptures in Mark chapter 16 and moved with
them into deep errors of faith and practice.
Peter says in 2 Peter 3.16, he
said, They take things which are hard to
be understood, and which they that are unlearned
and unstable rest.
Or in other words, they make them so
distorted as they do the other scriptures unto
their own destruction.
And we have seen and even have in
existence today searches claiming to be filled with
the fullness of Christ who have literal snakes
in their services.
And they pick them up and they play
with snakes and think that this is a
sign that they're walking in the power of
God.
But it's nothing more than an absolute deep
and very terrifying delusion.
The spiritual delusion has come on them.
There are others who reportedly over the years
have come and made concoctions of deadly things
and tried to drink them as some kind
of an evidence that they have the supernatural
life within them only to become sick and
in some cases obviously have died.
And others who are sheltered in the confines
of hidden religious practice to the exclusion mostly
to those who need it.
They focus on casting devils out of each
other.
There are churches in the charismatic Pentecostal realm
and other realms in the kingdom of Christ
today who come in and spend their whole
time just casting devils out of one another.
Another disillusion of disobedience.
They play church with the gift of tongues.
Now, before I even attempt to move into
these scriptures, I want to tell you that
I am in agreement with the traditional teachings
of the Pentecostal church about these issues.
I'm not going to reiterate them.
I do believe in the baptism of the
Holy Spirit.
I do believe in speaking with other tongues
as the Spirit gives utterance.
But by the grace of God, I would
like today to take these signs just a
little bit deeper than sometimes what they seem
to be on the surface.
And churches today, they play with the gift
of tongues.
There is a reason why the spiritual giftings
are given to the body of Jesus Christ.
But they come in and their whole focus
is on manifestations as they see it and
again to the exclusion of where it is
really needed and the intent that it was
given to the church in the first place.
And there are other places where they lay
hands on the sick in their midst and
follow this by accusing people of having no
faith or hidden sin because most of them
are not healed.
And there are churches like that all over
the world.
And I know there are people in this
sanctuary today and even involved in ministry have
had such experiences, gone in where there is
the focus on these issues.
And simply, they are simply powerless and ultimately
in most places decide after long practice to
discontinue even preaching on these scriptures and say
they are controversial.
And others, because they can't explain them, say,
well, they don't really belong in the Bible.
They shouldn't have been and weren't in the
original manuscripts.
They were added later.
And all such like confusion because they fail
to understand what these signs are.
What do they truly mean?
What is the depth of them?
Why were they given to the church?
And what is the context in which they
are supposed to be lived?
And this power of Christ is to be
manifested through and among His people.
Now, you cannot preach this.
You cannot preach Mark chapter 16 verses 17
and 18 outside of the context of verse
15.
And it starts with the words, Go into
all the world.
Here is the very reason why these signs
were given.
Now, these signs are just an evidence of
Christ being in His church.
He's called me and He's called you to
go.
And, beloved, disobedience always brings delusion.
These two are bedfellows.
And I find in a great deal of
the church world that I have at least
experienced in the years that I've known Christ,
there is no desire to go.
It's not even in the collective consciousness in
some fellowships anymore.
It's all about what God can do for
me, how God can better my life, how
He can cause me to achieve my destiny
of greatness as I have come to view
myself.
And they come into the house of God
and are in absolute disobedience.
There's nothing in the heart that would ever
want these people to go into all the
world.
And you cannot preach these gifts or signs
out of this context.
These things are really not for those who
are disobedient to God.
These signs that follow are for those who
are yielded to the commission of Christ.
And, yes, they may not all head off
onto the foreign mission field, but every time
they walk out of the house of God,
they consider themselves commissioned to the loss, the
dying and the hurting of this world who
are without God.
They consider it a holy commission.
Every time they walk out the doors, I'm
now going into all the world.
I'm now obeying Christ.
I'm going to do what God told me
to do.
I'm going to ask for the Holy Spirit
to make me spiritually sensitive to needs that
are all around me.
I'm going to ask God to touch people
through my life.
I'm going to ask him for his kingdom
to come every day.
I'm going to say, oh God, lead me,
guide me, use me, glorify yourself through my
life.
And I'm not putting up barriers.
I'm not putting limitations between where I am
today and where God could potentially want me
to be.
My prayer has to be, thy kingdom come,
thy will be done in me as it
is in heaven.
Lord, I'm here now and I'm going to
be used of you now where I live,
where I am, to the fullest extent of
how you lead me and guide me.
But in the future, should you send me
somewhere throughout the world, no matter where it
is, God, I will obey you.
And I ask for great grace to hear
your voice and great grace to begin to
follow you.
And the Lord says, when you begin to
do this, these signs are going to follow
those who believe.
Who believe?
It's so key.
Who believe that I'm able to keep them?
Who believe that there's a higher calling than
living for oneself?
Who believe that those who are true disciples
of Christ have taken up their cross and
they're taking it up daily and they're beginning
to follow the will of God as he
is beginning to outline that pattern and pathway
that he has for each one of them.
These signs.
Now, beloved, when God calls us to go,
he calls us in weakness.
And he intends that by his strength we
are going to be successful.
He doesn't call us because we know a
specific culture.
He doesn't call us because we have specific
talents in the natural man.
I'm talking apart from that which God gives
to us.
He doesn't call us for any of these
reasons.
The apostle Paul makes it very conclusive when
he says to the Corinthian church, he says,
consider now your calling.
Look around you, not many mighty, not many
noble, not many wise, not many strong among
you.
But God has called the foolish of the
world and God has called the weak and
the off-scouring and those things that are
nothing to bring to naught or to nothing
those things that are.
Those things, in other words, that attempt to
exist independent of the wisdom and life of
God.
God says, here's how I work.
I take the nobodies and nothings of this
world who are rich in faith.
I take those who are poor, perhaps in
the earth's resources or poor because of their
heritage.
Whatever they were infused with as they were
being raised in whatever context or society.
And I take them and it doesn't matter
where they come from.
It doesn't matter what they have or don't
have.
God says, I take the willing heart.
I take those who believe that I'm God
and I'm able to change them.
And I begin to infuse them with life.
I begin to call them and they begin
to follow me.
And through them I'm glorified.
No flesh is glorified in the presence of
fallen man.
They stand and they know who they are.
They know where they've come from.
They know what they have been without God.
You see, Scripture is interpreted by Scripture.
And whenever we read Scripture, it's really good
to know the whole Bible.
God never comes out and just says something
that's right out of left field and has
no precedent in the Scripture.
I want to look just for a moment
this morning at Moses as a type of
man who is called to go.
He's called in his weakness just like you
and I are.
Remember the commission is go into all the
world.
Preach the gospel.
Now, he didn't say go into the world
and make a nuisance of yourself.
He didn't say go into the world and
just stand on a street corner and blather
into the universe of spiritual things.
No, he said you're to go and you
are to find a people who are on
bondage.
And you are to proclaim the kingdom of
God as you know it, as it's been
revealed in your heart.
As you have believed, as you have followed,
you're to proclaim this kingdom.
And the Lord says, I'll be with you.
And these signs are going to follow the
preaching of the Word of God.
I'm going to do certain things in the
lives of those that you preach to.
Oh, beloved, I'm more convinced of this than
I've ever been in my life.
I'm more convinced now of the spiritual authority
that God wants to give those who are
truly yielded to Him.
An authority to cast down imaginations and powers
of darkness and to see people by the
thousands released out of prisons of all types
of bondage and foolishness.
Exodus chapter 4, please, if you'll go there
with me.
Exodus chapter 4.
Now, God calls Moses.
And remember one of the signs that Jesus
said in Mark.
He said they're going to speak with new
tongues.
He calls them in weakness.
And he says, I'm sending you to a
people who are crying out to me.
This is always the call of the church.
If it were not so, beloved, then God
would be well advised to take us all
home to heaven today.
But there are people crying out all over
the world.
It may not be an audible cry on
the street corner, but it's an issue of
the heart.
They're crying out.
They're looking for meaning.
They're looking for the reason of life.
They're looking for, why am I created?
What is it about?
Surely, God, there's got to be more than
this that's in my life.
How do I get out of here?
How do I escape all of this captivity
now that sin and the devil and the
world has inflicted on me?
And the Lord heard the cry.
And when he heard the cry, he commissioned
a man.
And that's what it's about.
That's what the church is about.
That's what my life is about.
I'm commissioned of God because people are crying
for truth.
I'm commissioned as a Christian, let alone leave
pastoring a church out of it.
Just as a Christian, I'm commissioned of God
to be sensitive, to hear the cry.
And as he leads me to begin to
move, and he promises me that his kingdom
will come with me.
In Moses, in Exodus chapter 4 and verse
10, Moses said to the Lord, Oh, my
Lord, I am not eloquent.
Neither heretofore, that means before nor since, thou
hast spoken unto thy servant, but I'm slow
of speech and of a slow tongue.
And the Lord said to him, now, you
understand the context.
Moses said, I don't have the tongue that
is necessary to do this work.
You're calling me to stand before people.
You're calling me to stand before kings.
And I don't have the tongue.
I didn't have it before, and I don't
have it now.
I've heard your voice, but oh God, I
haven't got the ability.
And the Lord said to him, verse 11,
who has made man's mouth?
Or who makes the dumb, or the deaf,
or the seeing, or the blind?
Have not I the Lord?
Now therefore go, and I will be with
thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt
say.
One of the signs that will follow those
who believe, he says, I will be with
your mouth.
You will speak with new tongues.
The word new in the Greek New Testament
means a renewed tongue, or a consecrated tongue.
A consecrated tongue means a tongue that is
set apart for the purposes of God.
That means there cannot be mixture in your
life, and there's got to be a desire.
Oh, beloved, would be to God that everyone
in this house would turn their television off
once and for all.
Would be to God we would put down
the counsel of the foolish, and stop listening
to the scorners, and all the idiocy of
a society that is spiraling into darkness.
Would be to God, as His people, we
would become separate to the purposes of God,
and consecrate our hearts, and our lives, and
our tongues to God's purpose.
God says, I'll be with the mouth of
those who have a consecrated tongue.
That when they speak, it's not for self
-glory.
When they speak, they have no secondary agenda.
Their agenda is Jesus, your kingdom, come, your
will be done.
Jesus, come, and speak through me.
Come, oh God, and do what you've called
your church to do through my life.
It means not only consecrated, but renewed.
It means given life, quickened, enlivened by the
presence of God.
The word tongues in the Greek New Testament
means a foreign or strange language, which one
has not learned, but yet is enabled to
speak, as a result of the supernatural intervention
of the Holy Spirit.
It's a language, a language I've not learned,
but I'm enabled to speak it by the
supernatural intervention of the Holy Spirit.
Now, in the book of Acts chapter 2,
the Bible says this fearful and confused, many
of them people, gathered in an upper room
in obedience to God, and the Spirit of
God came upon them.
And they came out into the open.
And as they walked out into the open,
the Bible says that there were Parthians, and
Medes, and people from Mesopotamia, and other parts
throughout the world who were gathered in Jerusalem
for religious purposes at that particular time.
And they said, we hear these people speaking
in our languages the wonderful works of God.
We hear them speaking.
Now, they were not aware, these are not
languages they had learned, but they were languages
that were known to that generation.
And they were speaking in those languages.
And so people from other parts of the
world heard them speaking, and heard them speaking
a specific thing.
The word is megalios in the Greek.
It means great works or miracles that are
contemplated as outcomings of the greatness of God's
power and glory.
Amazing.
Here are 120 fearful people now empowered by
the Spirit of God.
They're standing out in the public forum as
it is, and they are speaking of great
things that God is going to do.
Perhaps not only in themselves, but in others
that they're about to preach the gospel to.
There's a prophetic flow as it is.
An understanding, a supernatural understanding perhaps, in that
very moment of the things that they have
learned, that have been taught to them.
There's nothing that has not already been revealed
in the Scriptures, but now they're speaking with
authority.
They're standing out in the public marketplace, and
they're making this declaration.
They're empowered, they're enabled.
They're speaking with new tongues.
David, the psalmist in Psalm 40 verse 3,
called it a new song.
He said, I waited patiently for the Lord,
and I cried to Him, and He heard
my voice.
He lifted me up out of a horrible
pit, and set me on a rock, and
established my goings, and He has put a
new song in my mouth.
And He said, many shall see it, and
fear, and shall trust in the Lord.
A new song.
They shall speak with new tongues.
David said, He took me out of a
horrible pit, and put a new song.
A song of praise to my God.
A song of trust in everything God has
ever spoken to me.
And he said, people will see me speaking
with this new song.
And they will look, and they will say,
only by the power of God could this
man be standing.
Only by the power of God could he
be singing this song, in such a difficult
time.
And many shall see it, and they shall
fear, and they shall trust in the Lord.
I think of the mighty men that came
out of that cave, as they saw this
man, who should be bitter and confused, who
had been betrayed.
But he's speaking in another voice than all
of society around him.
He's speaking in a different...
He's singing a different song, and men begin
to hear it.
And they fear, and they trust in God,
and they come out of that cave to
break through the ranks of the enemy, to
get a drink of water out of a
well in Bethlehem.
Another comes out and holds the sword, becomes
a mighty man with the sword, and fights
for so long that his hand has to
be pried off of that sword.
Mighty, mighty men of God came out of
that place, when they heard a man who
was empowered with a new song, a different
voice.
He was able to speak with new tongues.
He was given a new heart.
The Scripture says in Ezekiel, that I will
give those that are called, I will give
them a new mind and a new heart.
And beloved, we know conclusively from the Scripture
that the heart and the mind are inherently,
as it is connected to what we speak.
As a man thinks in his heart, that's
what he is.
His speech will betray him.
He may profess to be a Christian, but
if in his heart is mixture, his speech
will give him away eventually.
And he says, there's a new tongue that
is given.
I give a new heart, I give a
new spirit.
And with that new heart and new spirit
comes the ability to speak with another tongue.
Now, I'm not in disagreement with the traditional
teaching of ecstatic utterance or speaking in unknown
languages.
As I said in the beginning, I'm believing
that God by His grace will help us
to take this just a little step deeper.
You may come from an area in New
York City where to say I forgive is
a foreign language.
You may come from a background where to
say I love you has been unheard.
You've never learned it.
And all of a sudden, God comes into
your life.
You come home.
I saw on Friday night an altar full
of young people so desperate for God, so
desperate for truth, so disadvantaged by all of
society that has imposed on them and all
of life has given them.
But I see a young people touched by
the Spirit of God.
There were many, many tears at this altar
going home and saying I forgive.
I forgive is a foreign language in some
of your homes.
Where you've come from, among your families where
deep roots of vengeance and desire for retribution
are common.
Nobody forgives.
Everybody holds a grudge.
And all of a sudden, you walk in
the house and just like on the day
of Pentecost, you walk in saying, Mom, Dad,
my brother, my sister, husband, wife, children, I
forgive you.
Everything that you've ever done to me.
Every wrong you've ever done to my heart,
I forgive you.
And the people look just like they did
on the day of Pentecost and they're dumbfounded.
They say, this is a wonderful work.
How could this have happened?
He's never learned this.
This has to be supernatural intervention.
Beloved, it has to be supernatural intervention that
allows you and I to say the words
I forgive or I love when all we've
ever known is hate or all we've ever
been raised under is criticism and antagonism and
negativity and words that are sent to discourage
and crush.
And so many are living this kind of
a life and to be able to come
home into your community and say, I love
you now because the love of God is
in me.
It is a foreign language, as foreign as
the languages were on the day of Pentecost.
To go to those who are falling and
to those who are disadvantaged and to be
able to see something of God and to
say, I see God's hand on your life
is a foreign language to so many.
Not just to be a recipient of God's
grace, but to become a channel of that
grace in our generation.
To walk out to the downtrodden, the oppressed,
to be sensitive to the spirit.
And when we see that flicker of hope,
that flicker of longing for God to be
able to say conclusively to that person, I
see God's touch on your life.
I see something in the future.
I see God doing something.
I never now, I ask God for the
grace to never judge a man anymore by
his present circumstance.
Especially someone who professes Christ.
If I see somebody struggling, my prayer now
is, God, I want to see the end
of that man's life.
I don't want to see where he is
now, I want to see where you're taking
him.
And I'm going to agree with you.
I'm not going to agree with him.
I'm not going to agree with anybody around
him.
You're going to speak to my heart, I'm
going to confess it the way you say
it's going to end.
I'm going to talk the way you talk.
I'm going to speak a new language.
I'm not going to walk around with my
head hanging down, worried about all my struggles
and failures and all my trials and difficulties
in my life.
God, you're going to tell me the end.
And I'm going to speak the end as
you do.
A new language.
Hallelujah.
I thank God for it.
It's a language of faith.
It's a language that will allow you to
walk through the most difficult trial of your
life and say, it is well with my
soul.
It is well.
How are things going?
Fine.
It is well.
I know the end from the beginning.
Before I even start, I know the end.
Hallelujah.
These signs will follow those who believe.
Jesus says in Mark, they will take up
serpents.
When Moses was called in chapter 4 and
verse 1, Moses answered and said, But behold,
they'll not believe me.
They'll not hearken to my voice, for they
will say, The Lord has not appeared to
thee.
And the Lord said to him, What is
it in your hand?
And he said, A rod.
He said, Cast it on the ground.
And he cast it on the ground, and
it became a serpent.
And Moses fled from before it.
And the Lord said to Moses, Put forth
now thine hand, and take it by the
tail.
And he put forth his hand and caught
it, and it became a rod.
A rod in his hand.
You see, I believe what the Scripture is
saying in the Gospel of Mark.
When you look at Moses' call, and Moses
was fearful.
And the Lord says, Well, what have you
got in your hand?
He says, I've got a rod.
A type, a symbol.
It became a symbol of faith and the
promises of God and the keeping power of
God.
Later on, you remember when the Israelites were
being pursued by the Egyptians, and they came
to that place of impossibility.
God said to Moses, Lift up the rod
that is in your hand.
Don't look to me.
Lift up the rod.
Don't bellyache.
Don't cry out to me.
I've given you a word.
And you hold up that rod as a
type of faith.
But before it could become a type of
faith, God had to show him something.
He said, cast it on the ground and
it became a serpent.
Which represents to me everything that Moses was
afraid of.
Because the Bible says he began to flee
before it.
You see, the Lord will give courage to
those who are His.
There'll be an absence of fear.
The Bible says, perfect love casts out fear.
The love of God will cause us to
go where no one else can go who
doesn't know God.
And the serpent will be there.
The fear of physical harm or lack of
provision or any other type of failure.
And Moses fled from before the serpent.
But the Lord spoke these words to Moses.
He said, Now reach down, pick it up
by the tail.
You see, when God speaks, it's interesting.
If I read it correctly, a serpent does
not flee from anybody.
A serpent stands and fights.
But as God has spoken, the devil is
already heading the other way.
He's already trying to get away because God's
hand is on this man.
God's hand is on you.
If God is speaking to you, His hand
is on you.
You don't have to be afraid.
You don't have to be afraid of your
lack.
You don't have to be afraid of provision
for the future.
You don't have to be afraid that God
will not be with you or He sends
you to go.
You don't have to be afraid because if
God has spoken into your life, the moment
you turn to face your fear, you're going
to find it's already going in the other
direction.
And God says to Moses, Reach down and
pick it up by the tail because it's
already fleeing.
Grab the devil before he can get away
from you and come back again.
He grabs the serpent by the tail and
it becomes a staff of faith in his
hand.
Hallelujah!
The devil's going to come against you with
everything he's got.
When Moses came at later time into the
court of Pharaoh, Pharaoh called together all his
wise men, his astrologers, all his sorcerers, all
his magicians.
And the Scripture says every man cast down
his staff and they all became serpents.
And this is the devil trying to infuse
you with fear and cause you to believe
from every side that you'll never be successful
in the commission that God has placed on
your life.
But by faith in God, Moses had Aaron
throw that rod down.
It became a serpent.
And it's swollen up, faith in God, swollen
up all the lies of the devil.
Swollen them up.
There's no weapon formed against you that can
prosper.
There's no angel.
There's no devil.
There's nothing can come against you and stop
the will of God for your life.
Nothing can stop what God is doing.
Scripture says they will cast out devils in
Mark chapter 16.
Exodus chapter 6, verse 6.
He says, Wherefore say to the children of
Israel, I am the Lord and I will
bring you out from under the burden of
the Egyptians.
I will rid you out of their bondage.
I will redeem you with a stretched out
arm and with great judgments.
And I will take you to Me for
a people.
And I will be to you a God.
You shall know that I am the Lord
your God which brings you out from under
the burdens of the Egyptians.
And I will bring you into the land
concerning to which I did swear to give
it to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.
And I will give it you for a
heritage.
I am the Lord.
They shall cast out devils.
The word in the original text for devils
means deities.
It means devils and it also means false
gods.
I will cast out those who have reigned
over you.
I will cast them out.
I will draw them down from their seat
of power and from their seat of authority.
Paul says to the Corinthian church, let me
just read it to you.
2 Corinthians chapter 10 verses 4 and 5.
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal,
but mighty through God to the pulling down
of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high
thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of
God and bringing into captivity every thought to
the obedience of Christ.
As you go, as we go throughout the
world, Jesus Himself says to the Apostle Paul,
I will use your life.
There will be a sign that follows your
ministry.
You will have the power to cast down
imaginations.
The word is logismos in the Greek and
it means considerations or intentions which are hostile
to the gospel.
I'll give you a weaponry.
I'll give you a wisdom that your enemies
cannot resist.
I will put words in your mouth.
As a matter of fact, to part of
His discipleship, He said, they're going to draw
you before kings and rulers.
Don't worry what you're going to say.
I'm going to give you the words at
the very moment that you need them.
I'm going to put the words in your
mouth and you're going to have the authority
to cast down these imaginations and every high
thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of
God.
Jesus said in Mark, They shall drink any
deadly thing and it shall not hurt them.
Exodus, again with me, chapter 15.
As the children of Israel progressed through their
wilderness journey to the promised land, in Exodus
chapter 15, verses 25, the people came to
a place where the water was bitter and
they couldn't drink it.
And they murmured against Moses and said, What
shall we drink?
Now the bitterness has an inclusive meaning of
also it can be poisonous.
And he cried to the Lord in verse
25, this is Moses, and the Lord showed
him a tree which when he had cast
it into the waters, the waters were made
sweet.
And he made for them a statute and
an ordinance and there he proved them.
And he said, If thou will diligently hearken
to the voice of the Lord thy God
and will do that which is right in
his sight and will give ear to his
commandments and keep all his statutes, I will
put none of these diseases upon thee which
I brought upon the Egyptians for I am
the Lord that healeth thee.
Now Revelation chapter 12 tells us that one
of the tactics of the enemy is to
send a flood out of the devil's mouth
himself to carry away those who are associated
with Jesus Christ.
A flood of false theology.
And beloved, we're living in an hour where
there is a flood right out of the
devil's mouth.
I'm not talking about pornography.
I'm not talking about all these issues that
are part of fallen society.
I'm talking about a flood that is sent
to captivate the church of Jesus Christ herself.
A flood of false theology has come into
the house of God.
Foolishness that espouses itself as doctrine of Jesus
Christ.
I think also a flood of bitter words.
The devil will come against the choicest servants
of God with bitter words, bitter accusations.
Bitter things that are intended to bring up
issues of the past and to wound and
to cause you to believe that the commission
of Christ will never be fulfilled in your
life.
Sometimes either by stealth or by force these
things try to invade your spirit and mind.
But God said to Moses, there's a tree,
and if you'll put this tree in the
midst of all the water.
In other words, if the tree and all
that it commands being the cross of Jesus
Christ is central in your heart and your
theology.
None of the false theology, none of the
bitter words will have any effect over you.
You can drink any deadly thing and it
will not hurt you.
It will get into your spirit.
Yes, you will ingest it which means you
will understand it.
It will go into your heart and perhaps
find a place in your mind.
And false theology sometimes can be very appealing.
It really appeals to the natural man.
It can appeal to the flesh.
It can appeal to the wrong identity that
is sometimes wanting always to rise within the
hearts of God's people.
But he says, if you'll put the tree
in the middle of the water, even if
the devil sends a flood against you, and
you might even embrace it for a season,
but it will not kill you.
It will not poison you.
Because in your heart you're saying, no, this
doesn't line up.
This doesn't line up with the commission of
Jesus Christ.
It doesn't line up with the cross of
Christ.
It doesn't fit the character of God.
It doesn't fit the call of God on
my life.
False theology or bitter words cannot stop you.
They will not stop you.
Because our identity and our direction is now
all in Jesus Christ.
The power of God will carry you and
keep you.
And lastly, Jesus says through Mark, they shall
lay hands on the sick and they shall
recover.
And the word sick here means those who
are in a bad state of health.
They're morally weak.
It also means to strengthen.
In Exodus chapter 15, you don't have to
turn there, children of Israel complained at the
bitter waters.
In Exodus chapter 16, they complained about a
lack of provision for their lives.
In Exodus chapter 16, when God sent the
manna, they went out and collected more than
they should, and they disobeyed God because of
deep-set unbelief that was still very resident
in many of their hearts.
Exodus chapter 17, they tempted the Lord in
a time of thirst, and they said, is
the Lord among us or not?
Now into this scene of people who are
still physically weak or sick, they're still morally
weak.
Into this scene comes Amalek, and Amalek is
the very first.
This is not a battle that the children
of Israel selected.
Amalek came against the children of Israel.
Israel didn't go against Amalek.
It was initiated by Amalek.
Amalek, Numbers 24 20, is described by Balaam,
the false prophet.
He was the first of the nations, but
his end shall be utter destruction.
Amalek was the first of the nations.
This is how Balaam describes Amalek and the
descendants of Amalek.
In other words, it is that which first
occupies the place of the new Christian's promise
and says you shall not come here.
You will not inherit the promises because you're
weak.
You'll not inherit the promises because you don't
trust God.
You'll not inherit the promises because you're still
morally deficient.
And this is Amalek.
And the Lord said in Exodus 17, 16
he swore, he said I will have war
with Amalek from generation to generation.
That's what made Saul's sin so grievous when
the Holy Spirit said to Saul, go and
smite Amalek.
God says I've sworn I'm going to have
war with Amalek.
I'm going to have war with those issues
that occupy the hearts of new believers in
Jesus Christ.
Those things that were the first in the
land and says we'll not give place to
you.
We'll not give place.
You're not coming in and you're not occupying.
We've been here forever.
We were the first and we're staying.
And Amalek will come very fast and swiftly
against the new Christian.
Amalek will try to steal that word.
I saw an altar on Friday night that
became so real.
Here's young people crying out.
Many have never heard of God.
They've never heard of Jesus Christ.
They've never understood salvation.
But finally they've heard something and it seems
so unbelievable.
They reach out for it.
I saw young people trying to be taught
but a breaking came on them.
And you see them begin to shake and
weep as they're reaching out.
But as they reach out and Amalek is
there.
And Amalek says, no, I was here first.
Your lack of education, I was here first.
Your self-image, I was here first.
All the words that were spoken over your
life.
How are you going to be?
Nobody, nothing.
You'll never amount to anything.
You'll never accomplish.
I was here first.
And these words immediately come back with full
fury to steal the seed out of the
heart.
The seed of life that's been planted in
the hearts of these young ones who've come
out of such tribulation and are now believing
that it's possible to be saved and to
have a new life and a purpose because
of Jesus Christ.
And God gave Moses a specific instruction.
And Moses said to Joshua in Exodus 17
.9 Choose us out men and go and
fight with Amalek.
Tomorrow I will stand on the top of
the hill with the rod of God in
my hand.
So Joshua did as Moses had said to
him and fought with Amalek.
And Moses and Aaron and Hur went up
to the top of the hill and it
came to pass when Moses held up his
hand that Israel prevailed and when he let
down his hand, Amalek prevailed.
Now it means to stretch out one's hand
towards those in a bad state of health
and morally weak and to strengthen them.
I do believe the signs that follow true
believers, it can be a one-time prayer.
We believe that here at Times Square Church.
Those that are physically afflicted, they come, we
lay hands on them, anoint them with oil,
believing that God will heal them.
And I do believe that.
These signs will follow those that believe that
they will lay hands on the sick and
they shall recover.
I believe it also has other truth in
it.
It can also be a Jericho Road experience.
As I shared last week where we see
a man wounded or person wounded and bleeding
on the side of the road and it's
just simply insufficient in their condition to reach
down and say, God bless you, touch you,
heal you, and just keep on walking.
No, it's a situation where our hands now
become that the conduit in a sense that
represent our lives where the oil of God
is now poured out from us into this
one person or this small group of people,
whatever it happens to be, just infusing them
with that life, upholding them, blessing them, praying
for them, meeting their need as God enables
us to do it.
But it can also be a spiritual authority
which I believe follows them that believe.
Friday night I saw Pastor Patrick exercising this
spiritual authority at this altar.
I saw him stretch out his hand to
God and then I saw him stretch out
his hand to the young people who are
at this altar who are locked in a
battle for life and purpose saying to them
by faith that God has infused in his
heart, it shall be well with you.
It shall be well with you.
The Bible says these signs shall follow.
Those who are co-laborers with Christ, who
sit with him in heavenly places, who understand
the greatness of his love and power, they
can stretch out their hands to God and
they can stand stretching out their hands of
love to those that are weak morally, to
those that are yet deficient in their walk
with God, to those who still need to
be strengthened.
And they can say with spiritual authority, it
shall be well with you.
I'm raising my hands to God and I'm
believing.
I'm believing God that you're going to win
the victory.
You're not able yet to pray for yourself.
I think of these people out fighting with
Amalek.
They don't have any spiritual authority yet.
They're not able to fight.
But Moses stood up on a hill, a
type of a man who's walking in the
power of God.
Jesus said these signs shall follow those who
believe.
And he sees this morally deficient people, but
he raises up his hands to God.
These signs shall follow those who believe.
They shall lay hands on the sick and
they shall recover.
And he reaches out to God and as
he prays for them, the power of God
comes upon them and they are enabled by
the spirit of God to win a victory
because of the power of intercession over their
lives.
They're enabled to win the victory.
We saw that in Jamaica so powerfully.
Of people gripped in fear, of people who
know nothing but violence, of people under the
bondage of the occult for generations.
And we saw it break in a night
as children of God lifted their hands to
heaven and began to cry out and then
began to prophesy to these people.
We saw this infusion of life and faith
come into their hearts.
These signs shall follow those who believe.
Those who make the choice to go.
Those who say, God, use my life for
your glory.
Take me, O God.
Take me, Lord.
God, don't let me live a selfish, powerless,
religiously deluded life.
God, don't let me ever be found in
a house where they play games with the
giftings of God and engage in foolishness because
of the disobedience that's in the hearts of
the people.
Oh, God, put me in a place where
there are people who are willing to go
to the ends of the earth and give
their life for the purpose of Christ.
That's the house I want to be in.
That's the people I want to fellowship with.
That's the journey I want my life to
go on.
For the rest of my days, I want
to be with people who have this type
of heart.
And God says these signs will follow those
that believe.
I will be with them even to the
end of the earth.
They'll cast out devils.
They'll speak with new tongues.
They'll take up serpents.
They'll not be in bondage to fear.
If they drink any deadly thing, it'll not
hurt them.
They will lay hands on the sick and
they shall recover by the grace and power
of God.
Hallelujah!
I believe with all my heart that it's
time for the name of Jesus to be
lifted up again.
It's time for the name of Jesus to
be reckoned with.
It's time.
It's time for a people to say, My
God, whatever it takes, use my life.
My God, use me.
My God, touch me.
My God, empower me.
My God, I believe you.
I believe you.
These signs will follow them who believe.
I believe you.
I believe you, Lord.
You don't need anything I have.
You only want my heart.
You only want me to come to you
with a heart of faith and you'll supply
all of my needs.
Everything I need to glorify you, God, you'll
give it to me.
I believe that the greatest privilege I'm given
on this side of eternity is to obey
you, to walk with you, to see your
power being manifested in the lives and hearts
of people who are falling into the trap
of the devil all over the world, beginning
in my house and my neighborhood and all
through my city and state and country and
all into the world.
I believe that I'm given a call to
go to the whole world and preach the
gospel of Jesus Christ.
I will start on Broadway in 51st with
the first soul, God, that you point out
to me.
I will start and I'm believing these signs
are going to follow.
I believe my fear will not overwhelm me.
I believe you're going to give me a
new tongue.
You're going to give me words to speak,
O God, that can only come from the
Spirit of Almighty God.
I believe you're going to give me authority.
I believe if some deadly thing has spoken
to me in the spiritual realm or even
from the people I'm speaking to, it's not
going to poison me.
It's not going to kill me.
It's not going to stop me.
I believe I'll lay hands on them and
they will recover because I'm going to touch
them with the tenderness and power and passion
of Almighty God in Jesus Christ.
I believe it with all my heart.
I hate mediocrity in the name of Jesus
Christ.
I despise it with everything in my heart.
I hate stupid games in the house of
God.
We are called to be deliverers.
Our message is if you're lost in sin,
Christ will save you.
If you're powerless, Christ will empower you.
If you're wounded, Christ will heal you.
If you're afraid of the future, Christ will
give you faith.
If you're oppressed by the devil, Christ will
set you free!
Hallelujah!
O God, baptize us with your love!
Hallelujah!
Everything, everything you've heard this morning is for
you.
It's not for somebody else.
It's for you.
The freedom starts at home.
The victory starts in here.
The spiritual authority comes because we have lived
it.
We're a free people.
We've known what it's like to be weak
and in bondage, gripped by lies, but we're
free.
And we can stand before the darkest places
of the world.
And Jesus said, these signs will follow you.
Hallelujah!
Church of the living God, rise up.
Rise up.
I want us to sing, I have decided
to follow Jesus.
Whatever you're letting stop you, you must allow
the Holy Spirit to set you free.
You have to have these personal experiences with
God.
You see, Moses didn't believe in the issue
of speech.
And he brought with him one of the
biggest problems that stayed with his life and
ministry, his brother Aaron.
Because of unbelief.
He was saddled with a man who ended
up making a calf for the people.
Yes, you can still go into ministry, but
if there's areas of unbelief in your heart
about your own ability, you see, this is
what my message is about today.
If there's areas of unbelief about your own
ability, or may I say it this way,
if there's areas of unbelief about God's ability
to do it in you, you will end
up out there limping, professing freedom, but not
free.
Professing faith, but not believing.
And the name of Jesus will not be
fully honored through you.
It takes something in the heart that says,
God, I'm coming in my weakness, I'm coming
in my insufficiency, and I thank you God
with all my heart, it's not about me.
It's about you.
There are thousands out there, and I have
less than five loaves and two fishes in
this body.
But God, what I have, I'm bringing it
and I'm believing that you're going to multiply
it.
I'm believing that your life is going to
become mine.
And I'm asking you for the courage to
obey you, and to follow you.
Wherever you lead me, to whomever you cause
me to speak, I'm asking you for the
courage.
Don't let the world around me associate the
name of Jesus that I love with powerlessness
in my own life.
That's got to be the cry of your
heart.
They may curse him, but he has to
be reckoned with.
I pray God that this become the testimony
of Times Square Church.
We are called for a time as such
as this.
And do not think that you will escape
by hiding in your house.
We are called for this time.
We're going to sing a simple song.
I've decided to follow Jesus.
If the Holy Spirit is drawing you, I
want to ask you to come join with
me at this altar, and those in the
annex, you can stand, please, between the screens.
And we're going to pray together.
And we're going to believe God for miracles.
We're going to believe God.
These signs will follow those who believe.
Let's stand together.
Balcony, you can go to either aisle, make
your way to this altar.
Main sanctuaries, if you'd step out, come forward.
We're going to pray together.
And we're going to believe God.
Hallelujah.
We felt a very special presence of the
Lord all the service today because he's been
drawing us.
And today you're coming to this altar, and
by coming here, you're saying I'm not going
to be in bondage any longer.
Whether it's a besetting sin, if you're lost
in your sin, you can know for sure
the moment you open your heart and ask
for forgiveness that Jesus said, I will forgive
you, I will accept you.
You'll become mine.
I'll come and make my dwelling with you.
You'll become a new creation.
A new person.
It will not be you trying to be
religious, it will be my life in you
changing you.
You will know it's me because the change
will be supernatural.
You'll move in agreement with what I speak
to you and I will make your life
a new life.
But for those who are at this altar
today, you're saying I'm not going to be
restricted anymore by the limitations that life and
the devil and everything around has tried to
put on me.
I'm going to go.
I'm going to go in obedience and I'm
going to go consecrated.
Which means you're making the choice today to
say I'm going to turn off everything that
robs my mind of Jesus Christ.
Turn it off.
I can't tell you what to do.
You have to ask the Holy Spirit.
He'll show you very clearly.
Turn it off.
If you're listening to something that doesn't glorify
God, turn it off.
Turn it off.
Get away from it.
Get your mind in this book.
God says I'm going to send you and
I'm going to be with you always, even
to the end of the world.
I'll be with you.
Now some at this altar, I prophesy to
you today, you're going to end up in
other places, other countries.
It may not be overnight.
It may take a while, but the Lord
will guide you.
You don't have to try to figure it
out.
You just walk with Him in obedience.
You love Him with all your heart.
You begin to serve Him where you are
in truth, and He will guide you.
He will lead you.
Pray with me now.
Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for calling me
to be a co-laborer with you going
into all the world to bring the gospel
to every person.
I thank you.
You didn't call me because I'm strong.
You knew I was weak, yet you loved
me and you called me.
I've heard wonderful truths and by faith I'm
taking the staff of courage and trust in
your promises to me into my heart and
into my hands.
And I'm believing that you're going to use
my life from this day forward for your
glory.
I believe that your life and your signs
will flow with me and through me as
living proof that you are God to a
needy generation.
I pray only one prayer.
Jesus, let your presence and your name be
glorified in my life.
Let every sinner have to take notice because
of your life in me that there is
a God.
His name is Jesus Christ.
God, I believe it.
I receive it and by your grace beginning
now I will live it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Now, don't take it lightly.
Don't take what you've done today lightly because
God took you at your word today.
You walk with me.
You believe.
These signs will follow you.
I'll change you.
I'll use you for my glory.
This is the conclusion of the message.