Have your Bibles now, turn with me please
to the 11th chapter of the book of
Hebrews, and we're going to continue where we
left off night before last, and it's a
real blessing to get back into this particular
area tonight, and I pray that you'll let
God speak to your heart, and show you
what I'm saying.
Now I'm going to give you the whole
message in one statement, or in a thought
that I think the most profound I've ever
read outside of the Bible.
And that is simply this, if you want
to be successful in this life, find out
what God is doing in relationship to you,
and join him.
Now I've never read or heard of a
statement more profound than that.
If you want to be successful in your
life, right now, find out what God is
doing in relationship to you, and join him.
Now that's what I'm going to preach on
tonight.
Now that's the principle, and I'll spend the
next few minutes doing nothing but developing that
principle.
Now one of the things that I will
answer is, where does faith come from?
Or how do you get faith?
And this is the big question.
Now I have made the statements, I don't
make them anymore, and I'm making this for
your benefit.
This is what I'm going to say now,
for your benefit.
That if I just knew God's will about
a given situation, I could believe him.
If I just knew the will of God
about something, I could believe God.
But I don't make that statement anymore, because
I think it's a little more difficult to
believe God than you think.
Now it shouldn't be, but it is.
In fact the most difficult thing I know
to do is to believe God.
And then I ask the question sometimes, how
stupid can I be, when all I've got
to do is put my confidence, my faith,
my confidence in Jesus, the person of Jesus.
And how in the world can I be
so foolish not to trust him?
But it's still the hardest thing in this
world I know to do, is trust Jesus.
Of course you may be a little different,
but I sort of doubt it.
And so tonight you pray that the Lord
will open each of our eyes, each of
us, open us up and let us see
spiritually what we're saying.
And I pray that tonight he'll do this
for you.
The second verse of the 11th chapter, and
you listen to this with these words, for
by it the elders obtained a good report.
Now that little verse is one of the
most baffling verses in the whole Bible.
For a long time in my own personal
life I thought that the Lord was saying
in that little verse, for by it, and
of course the it is obvious it's talking
about faith, the elders obtained a good report.
And I thought that this verse was saying
by faith the elders lived a life, that's
mentioned, you know, these great saints of God.
It's mentioned here in this chapter and others.
They lived by faith, and because they did
live by faith, they were able to do
great things for God, and God gave them
an A or a B or a C,
you know, a good report.
And this is the way that most people
believe that verse is speaking.
One day I was reading a book by
J.
Gordon, and I ran across his thoughts concerning
this verse, and all at once I realized
that there was something more in this verse
than what King James revealed.
And if even if you have an amplified
New Testament, you get home the night you
read it out amplified, you'll see that there's
something more in this verse, in the original,
than right here.
And of course when you see it in
the whole context it's something else, and this
is what I want you to see tonight.
Now let me give you a human illustration
that will make sense to you humanly, and
that is this, about where faith comes from.
If you walked into this building tonight and
you looked over this auditorium and you could
see that all of these pews were rotten,
all of them now but one, and you
remember that I'm speaking this message in the
context of a message night before last, and
you folk that weren't here, I'm sorry.
So that's just something I can't do, I
wish I could, we don't have time.
But if you walked in this service and
you could see all these pews were rotten
but one, and realizing now that faith is
acting, remember the pew?
And you, you literally, which pew would you
sit on?
Which pew would you place your body in?
Which pew would you go and use?
And let that pew do for you what
it's designed to do.
Now you come in, you look over the
pews, all of them are rotten but one,
which one?
So a preacher, I'm not stupid, I'd take
the one that I could see would hold
me up.
Well obviously in a human sense then your
faith to deposit your body at that pew
came from seeing.
Right?
Now Paul says we do not walk by
sight but we walk by faith.
But he didn't say that faith didn't see.
Now faith is never a leap into the
dark.
It's always a leap into the light.
Jesus didn't say I'll push you, he says
follow me.
And he is the light of the world.
Amen.
Now I didn't say in the light of
understanding, but I'll tell you, because understanding is
of the sense world.
But in the light of truth.
Now this little verse here really brings us
into some beautiful things and I want us
to just pray earnestly that God will open
our hearts and let us see.
You see one of the greatest things that
happens to a person when they get saved,
born again, is they take on a capacity
to know God.
That's the greatest thing that happens to you.
Not that you're going to heaven.
Most people think boy the greatest things happen,
but praise God I'm going to heaven.
No folks the greatest thing that happens to
you when you get saved is you take
on a dimension to live in two worlds.
You see there is a spirit world and
there's a physical world and when you get
born of the spirit you get born again
and you get to live and commune and
fellowship and that's the greatest thing in this
world can happen.
And I'll tell you, you take on a
capacity to know God and that capacity can't
be beat.
And you say well I don't know what
you're talking about.
You ever get born of the spirit of
God you'll know what I'm talking about.
I'm just to proclaim it.
Jesus had a man by the name of
Nicodemus to visit him and he simply said
Nicodemus there you must be born again.
Nicodemus said I don't understand it.
He just proclaimed it.
He said there's two worlds, physical and spiritual.
He said you've been born into the physical
you must be born again to get in.
Told him said if you're going to get
born again you have to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ.
And my friends said of course we could
get in that and it takes a long
time to get out.
But the thing that happens to a person
when they get saved is folks they take
on a capacity to know God.
And that's why I say that about 85
% of your church members have never been
saved.
Because when God moves and God talks and
God and by the way some of the
folk I've heard one or two comments that
I just I'll tell you what you may
have read it but I'll tell you what
you ought to go back and look at
it again.
Real outstanding lady had about five degrees heard
me preach one night on the crucified life
in Memphis Tennessee and she went home.
So she had a little more discreteness about
her and so on and so forth than
most people.
They didn't go around talk she didn't go
around talk about her her misunderstanding.
She went to the Lord and she said
now Lord I just don't understand what that
preacher's saying.
And so when she said Lord I don't
understand what that preacher's saying she had a
Thompson chain reference Bible.
So she looked on the word understanding and
started running the references and the first one
was Job 28 28.
And if I remember correctly it says that
the now I said he said thank you
Lord.
He said the reason I didn't understand that
preacher is I'm full of the devil.
She got down and got right with the
Lord and God gave her a revival and
she was one of the greatest instruments in
that meeting for souls that week.
Now my friends if you do not have
understanding about what I'm talking about it's obvious
that you are Satan has you bound up
as a child of God and you're not
liberated.
Yes sir.
Because I'm not I don't preach to get
you to understand.
I preach that the Holy Ghost may show
you what I'm saying.
I'm not one of these preachers that are
interested in being so simple that a child
can understand what I say.
I think that's stupid.
I'm not more interested in being any more
simple than God was.
Boy this fella said man I want to
make it so plain and simple.
I'm interested in making it plain but not
simple.
So the Holy Spirit has to show you
what I'm talking about tonight.
And I'm trying to get you with me
because I want to take you somewhere.
And you say where?
Out of this world.
Paul said I look not at the things
which are seen but at the things which
are not seen.
Lots of beautiful verse in it.
2nd Corinthians 4 18.
He said I look we look not at
the things which are seen but we are
looking and this is my paraphrase at the
things which are not seen.
You see when a person gets saved by
the grace of God they're made alive to
God and they can literally they know the
voice of God.
They can see God.
They can hear God.
And it's not with these naked eyes and
it's not with these naked ears and it's
not my dear friends with their emotions that
they feel God.
But some way somehow God has the capacity
when a person is born again to speak
to that person and they know it's God.
And people say brother manly how do you
know?
There's either one or two things wrong.
Either you have never been born of the
Spirit and do not have the capacity to
know God.
Or my friend, listen, God is not born
of the Spirit.
He's not born of the Spirit.
It's a strange way of saying something that
God has not spoken.
Because when God speaks to one of his
children, they know it.
They know it.
They really know it.
And how God speaks.
Now what I want to do is just
simply take you out into the spiritual world
for just a moment and show you that
what I'm saying is not so ridiculous because
Paul says we look not at the things
which are seen.
But we look at the things which are
not seen.
And that's the way we have to look
at things which are seen.
Now everybody has their own world and their
own world and their own way of seeing.
The way I see it is that we
look And this is important, because we're living
in a physical sense world, as I mentioned
this morning, and if we say we're living
in a spiritual world too, and we're going
to have to realize that, that the real
truth is the spiritual things that God says
in his word.
And here's the spiritual world, and here's the
physical world, the sense world, to
you, as if God was speaking it on
you.
And this is important.
And a child of God has the capacity
to see some things.
Job said, in Job 42, 5, in the
original, that was a time when I heard
you with a hearing of my ears.
But he said, now, since I've gone through
all I've gone through, he said, I see
you with my spirit.
I believe it was John, wasn't it, out
on the island of Patmos, was in the
spirit on the Lord's day, and I believe
he got such a glimpse of things that
was going to happen that theologians haven't figured
out yet what all he saw.
But he did see something, didn't he?
Amen?
I don't think he saw that with those
natural eyes.
You see, I don't believe your natural man
can stand the glory of God.
The Bible proves that it could not stand
the glory of God.
How could your natural ears hear the voice
of God?
I put very little confidence in these folk
who feel things and see things and hear
things.
My dear friends, when he's God, and yet
I know he can go on and reach
out into the human area and do these
things, but God can speak to the spirit
of man.
He is spirit.
He is truth.
And you go on, and there's another incident
in the Bible I'd like to call to
your attention about an old prophet and a
young prophet in the Old Testament.
And the young prophet walked out one morning
and saw the area covered with a mighty
host that had come to take them captive.
And he came frightened back into the place
where the old prophet was, and the old
prophet said, Lord, in essence, open his eyes,
let the scales fall from his eyes.
And men, they were encamped about on the
clouds, the hills, and everywhere else.
I'm sure John saw that which was not
seen.
I'm sure that Paul, on the day the
Damascus rode, he saw him who was not
seen.
He heard him who was not heard.
That other bunch didn't know what was going
on, did they?
Just Paul.
Now, folks, you say, Preacher, I don't understand.
Well, you get saved or get right.
You'll get with it after a while, one
of the two.
Now you say, what are you talking about?
Well, I'll just be a matter of fact
about it.
Folks, not only does a child of God
have the capacity to hear and see God.
Like, for instance, faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God.
You've read scriptures over a thousand times, and
then one day in a state of dilemma,
a state of desperation, my friends, you've read
the word of God and all at once
you could see it.
All at once it spoke to you.
All at once that verse became real to
you.
Has that ever happened to you?
Only you've read a verse for thousands of
times and God spoke to you.
Not audibly, but you could see it.
It became alive.
It became life to you.
And boy, it just thrilled your heart, changed
your life.
Now this is what I'm talking about.
You see some things that are not seen.
You hear some things that are not heard.
There are some things to be seen that
are not seen.
The Bible says this in Matthew 16, 19,
I'll just share one portion of scripture with
you.
We can take you through many, but this
is real good.
In Romans 16, 19, Jesus said to Peter,
he said, and the rest of them there
with him on the 19th verse.
I will give unto thee the keys of
the kingdom of heaven and whatsoever thou shalt
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,
whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be
loosed in heaven.
Now watch it.
Now the King James says, whatsoever thou shalt
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.
Whatsoever thou shalt loose in earth shall be
loosed in heaven.
That's what the King James says.
But folk, I'll tell you what, I'm not
belittling the King James, but I want you
to know one thing.
That's a long ways from being correct.
I didn't say, now, the Greek interlineal New
Testament, in the same verse, says this, and
I want to read it, and this is
as near, as far as I'm concerned, as
you can get to it.
I will give thee the keys of the
kingdom of the heavens and whatever thou bindest
on the earth, now watch this, shall be
having been bound in the heavens.
Now remember, King James says, whatsoever thou shalt
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.
But this says, and your Amplified says it,
and a number of other translations, says this,
whatever thou bindest on the earth, down here,
down here, shall be having been bound in
the heavens.
Do you remember what I said when I
started out?
If you want to be successful, find out
what God's doing, join Him.
You see that principle?
It's there.
Now watch it.
I'm taking a little more time tonight, hoping,
praying, and that you'll get some understanding.
Now whatsoever thou shalt loose on the earth,
shall be having been loose in the heavens.
Now what's he saying?
Let me give you another illustration to tie
this in.
Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy
will be done, in earth as it is
being done, where?
Oh, there's something up there being done.
You say, what is it, preacher?
The will of God concerning you.
Amen.
There it is, folks, the will of God
in heaven for you in earth.
And Jesus says, pray, that the will of
the Father that's done in heaven may be
done in earth.
Now you couldn't want more than that, could
you?
I don't think you could.
And that's exactly what he's saying in Matthew
16, beginning in the 19th verse, whatsoever you
loose or bind in earth, first, make sure
that it's being bound in heaven.
Whatsoever you loose in earth, make sure that
it's loose in heaven.
Now I know we come up here with
our two-bit plan and get on, but
if they didn't originate in heaven, folks, you
can beg God all you want to, and
you still haven't got a thing.
Jesus is really saying, he said, I'm giving
you the key.
And the key is, you find out what
is the will of God going on in
heaven, and if you look out here, you
see something going rampant, and he said it's
loose down here, and it's contrary to God's
will, God bind it in earth.
And said, if you look out here and
you see something all bound up, and heaven
has set it free and loosed it, he
said, then you loose it in earth as
it's already loosed in heaven.
In other words, you find out what God
is doing and doing it.
Now if you was really on your toes,
like you ought to be, you'd already see
the whole message.
Amen.
Where does faith come from?
From seeing the will of God.
You say, Brother Manley, that's hard.
No, if you have no controversy between you
and God tonight, the very...
My friends, you never go out here and
act in faith until you first know the
mind of God.
I mean, you find out what God says,
and when he speaks, then you can act
on it.
And that doesn't mean that you run through
the Bible and find some verse you can
stand on.
It means you run through the Bible and
the Holy Ghost gives you some verse you
can stand on.
That the Holy Spirit gives you a verse
that reveals the mind of God.
A preacher came to a friend of mine
one time and said, pray for my family,
they might get saved.
So a few days later, the fellow came
back and he...
And God took that one phrase out of
the Old Testament, spoke to his heart, showed
him that not one of his children would
be left in Egypt to die and go
to hell.
Oh, well, what did he do?
Well, that's very simply put right here in
the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews.
Very simply put.
And you say, Brother Manley, it sounds easy.
Well, it's not easy to see the truth.
And you have to get in a certain
condition of worship and repentance and so on
before the truth moves
heaven into earth.
And you say, well, Brother Manley, they were
great...
I'll guarantee you there's some of you men
in this building, I'm not belittling Abraham.
I'm just wanting to show you, my friends,
that there were some men that's not even
mentioned in the 11th chapter and more holy
than Moses.
What about Enoch?
What about a few?
What about Elijah or Elijah?
You never see them mixed up in sin
like you see these other fellows.
But they weren't even mentioned.
Isn't this right?
Now what I'm trying to say is not
justify your sins, but I'm trying to show
you, my friend, that, listen, if you're saved
by the grace of God washed in the
blood of the Lamb, you're qualified to trust
God.
You're qualified to trust God.
In fact, you're obligated to.
Now watch this 13th verse.
These all died back in the 11th chapter
of the book of Hebrews.
These all died, not having received the promises,
but now watch these words, because words are
very significant.
Watch them now.
These all died in faith, not having received
the promises, but now watch it, now hear
me.
Having, what's that next word?
I should have brought my glasses, I'm over
40.
Oh, excuse me.
But having seen them afar off, now watch
what happened when they saw.
They were persuaded of them, they embraced them
in what faith is acting, right?
And the next thing they did, they confessed,
for there's your sequence of faith.
You see, you're persuaded, you embrace, and you
confess, and God performs, right?
That's it right there.
That's the whole scope of a faith walk,
right there.
Faith sees, faith is persuaded, faith embraces, that
means acts, and then what you believe in
your heart, you confess with your, what?
Mouth.
Amen.
That's it.
And what you confess with your mouth, God
performs.
A bunch of them asked Jesus one time,
said, Lord, what about all this faith that
just speaks to a fig tree and it
goes away?
Jesus said, I tell you, you've got faith
that you can say unto this mountain, be
thou renewed whatsoever thou sayest, and doubt not
in thy heart you shall have whatsoever you
say.
Say!
Oh, that's beautiful.
Now listen, let's just give you a couple
of illustrations out of this chapter.
I'll give you a bunch of them, but
there's just a couple to do.
About the 17th verse, Abraham, when he was
tried, offered up Isaac, that he had received
the promises offered up his only begotten son,
of whom it was said that in Isaac
shall thy seed be called.
Now watch this verse, accounting that God was
able to raise him up even from the
dead.
Now, anybody want to read that, the rest
of that verse?
Huh?
Somebody, brother, you got it there?
Yeah.
Read it.
Right.
Revive.
Right, that's a revived standard, and in the
King James it said he saw him, or
he received him in a figure.
Now do you know the story?
Boy, this is some story.
Great, goodness.
Here is God saying to Abraham, after God
gave him that son, after he believed God
after doubting, and God gave him this son,
God said one day, now I want you
to take him up and offer him on
an altar.
Now some people have a little conflict with
God, saying how can God tell a man,
isn't that murderous?
Well, my friend, you're looking at it in
the sense world, not from God's side.
God knew what was going to happen from
the beginning.
God was only putting this man to a
test, he knew what was going to happen.
And God reserves the right to be God,
regardless of what you think.
Amen?
God knew that man wasn't going to have
to kill that little boy.
But my dear friend, he knew one thing,
he was fixed to put his faith to
a test and see whether he would do
it or not.
And God knew the end from the beginning,
so God wasn't worried about the fellow being
guilty of murder.
God was interested in a man being guilty
of obedience to his word.
And when God said to Abraham, offer up
your son, beloved, he was tried.
And in this dilemma, he got so close
to God, folk, that he looked into heaven.
He said, preacher, how do you know?
How do I know?
Well, the Bible says so.
He said that the Bible says so, yes,
in the 8th chapter of the book of
John.
Jesus was out preaching to a bunch of
Jews one day, and they said, we are
of our father Abraham.
He said, yes.
He said, I know if you'd be of
your father Abraham, you'd be doing the works
of Abraham.
He said, I know you.
He said, you're of the devil.
You know what Jesus said?
Jesus said, you're of the father Abraham, rejoice,
boy, listen to that next word, to see
my day.
And you know what the next one says,
the next phrase?
And it says, and he saw it and
was glad of it.
Thousands of years before Jesus Christ was ever
incarnated, Abraham had a problem.
And when he had a problem, he didn't
go to all of these little councils, all
these preachers and their counseling today.
Great Scott, that's the reason why you don't
have any deacons that got backbone like saw
logs.
You got when 15, 16, 17 years ago,
you didn't have a preacher come around about
once a month and preach to them.
And when a man or woman had a
problem, and when they met God, folks that
walked out of there with backbones like saw
logs, revelation, my dear friends, in 30 minutes,
and most of us know that because we
got a library full of books that can
get a state of repentance and desperation before
a holy God, before God, I don't counsel
with people.
You say why?
Because when I leave, what I'll say a
fade away, I tell them to get along
and counsel with the one person who they
ever learned the way into his sanctuary and
know how to fellowship with him.
I got news for you, bless God, it
doesn't make any difference.
Whatever happens, this preacher, the greatest thing that
ever happened to me, brother and sister, was
the fact that I did not consult a
bunch of theologians about what I needed.
And somehow, someway, I missed that whole bit.
I had to stay in the woods with
Jesus until he talked to me.
And I've been so grateful for that all
of my life, you'll just never know.
I've got a secret.
Amen.
And folk, that is, I know the way,
and that's him.
I used to go up to an old
boy and I'd say, man, can't you help
me?
I didn't go to a counselor.
And when he was out there, folk, God
pulled back the curtain.
Not only Jesus Christ, a
famous brother, boy, when he saw Jesus, his
faith became so real and dynamic that he
literally believed that God would bring that boy
from ashes.
You talking about a resurrection?
Well, I'll tell you what, Abraham believed that
God would bring that boy from ashes.
Because for him to sacrifice that boy meant
a knife in his body, drain all the
blood from his body, burn his body to
ashes.
He counted him as a boy, isn't that
something?
Now, what is truth?
What God says or what we think or
feel, what is truth?
And he acted on that truth.
You know what he did?
He said to his...
He went and got his servants and said,
get fire, wood, knife.
What about sacrifice?
He said, God will handle that part.
Amen.
That's what it is.
And when he got to the foot of
the mountain where he was to go up
and offer up that son, you know what
he said to those men that's standing at
the bottom?
He said, you stay here, his servants, with
the animals, and I like this.
And he said, we, he said, we
will be back.
He saw, he was persuaded, he embraced, he
confessed.
Tell you folks, I've never read a chapter
book of Hebrews.
Where did his faith come from?
Huh?
From hearing the voice of God, seeing the
will of God, knowing the mind of God.
Very simple, isn't it?
It's all right there.
Look, look, if you don't think it's there,
just, let's just look at this one.
This one fascinates me.
In the 11th chapter, back there again.
Oh, man, there's so much of this book
fascinates me.
I guess you get tired of hearing me
say that.
But look at this.
It's all right here.
23rd verse.
Read it with me.
By faith Moses, when he was born, was
hid three months of his parents because they,
excuse me, I'm still needing my glasses.
What's that next word?
Oh, they saw something.
He was a proper child, and they were
not afraid of the king's commandment.
Now what's the opposite of fear?
Faith.
What's the opposite of faith?
Fear.
And say, folks, they lost their fear.
You know why, preacher?
They saw something.
What'd they see?
That this boy was a proper child.
You know the dilemma this mother and dad
was in.
Pharaoh had sent out a decree to all
the midwives that when a little male baby
was born, Moses was born.
If it had been your little boy, what
kind of predicament would you have been in?
And I'm sure, folks, they sought God.
And in that experience of seeking God, they
saw he was a proper child.
What does that mean?
They saw who he was.
And when they saw who that little old
fellow was, they didn't have any fear.
Boy, that mom and daddy locked their hearts
in with God.
Amen.
Said, Lord, we seek your glory.
We seek your will.
We know what's going on.
So we'll join you.
And they joined God by faith.
And you're talking about God, folks.
Man, someone said God and one man believing
God is a majority.
God and man together is a majority.
That's right.
Because they, I mean, God even made the
devil his slave in this instance.
Here they put that baby out there in
an old crocodile snake infested.
A queen, a king's daughter came down by
the riverside.
And, folks, she loved that Jew, and that
was a miracle.
Amen.
And then God turned around and made that
Egyptian woman, my friends, hire that baby's own
mama to be the babysitter.
You couldn't beat that.
You don't get paid like that.
And then God made the devil pay the
diaper bill.
The most bill.
Oh, I ain't provided.
Bless God, it's true.
And reared him up and sent him to
the university of hell, and he still came
out glorifying God.
Now, isn't that right there in that portion
of Scripture?
Amen.
How did that happen, folks?
Because there was a mother and dad who
saw something.
Now, if you don't think it's all the
way through there, it's all the way through
there.
I'll just read the other one to you,
and I won't see it.
I'll give it to you.
Twenty-first, 27th verse says, By faith he
forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the
king.
For he endured as, there's that word again,
as seeing him who was invisible.
Where did Moses get such faith?
He looked in.
Amen?
Now, where does faith come from?
Going to the mind of God.
Doesn't have anything to do with feeling.
And, folks, before you can believe God for
something, you have got to know.
And when you know, you know, you know.
There's no doubt about it.
That God has spoken.
Now, don't start looking for him in the
whirlwind.
And the thunder and the lightning and the
storm.
Because he may be in the still, small
voice.
But, folks, when he speaks, you'll know.
He said, you haven't told me a thing,
yes?
I've told you enough that it's necessary for
you to get desperate.
Enough that God will have to speak.
Have you ever studied the life of Elijah
when he prayed?
You know, we say, Lord, boy, if he
went out and saw Israel all in...
And said, I'll tell you my program is
that if you'll just stop...
Folks, is that really what happened?
Have you ever checked it out?
Elijah looked at Israel, and she was in
sin, and he was desperate.
And he loved God, and he was God's
man.
And no doubt, if you check his life
out, he was walking with God.
And I'll put it in a way that
I pray that you can't misunderstand it.
One day, God said, Elijah, I got some
plans.
I want to take you up and let
you see the water department.
He pulled back the curtain and showed Elijah
that it was his plan for it not
to rain for three years.
Elijah said, I see it.
I'm persuaded of it.
I'll act on it, and I'll go out
and confess it's not going to rain for
three years and six months.
And he said, if you do, I'll do
it.
And brother, that man confessed that it wouldn't
rain for three years and six months.
And God zipped up heaven.
He moved heaven into earth.
James Stewart's mother, James A.
Stewart, from Scotland, walked in one day and
said, James, here's your new Bible.
He said, you won't be needing these football
charts anymore.
James said, what are you talking about?
She said, well, James, you're saved.
He said, saved?
He said, mother, I'm not saved.
You know how some folks talk backwards.
He said, I'm going to go to hell
and play football.
And he loved soccer football, and he was
quite outstanding when he was just 14 years
old.
And he said, I'm not saved.
She said, oh, yes, James.
He said, here's your Bible, and I'll take
these charts down.
You're saved.
He said, oh, no, I'm going to go
to hell and play football.
She went down to the church and said,
you can quit praying for James and just
start praising God.
That's another type of prayer.
Said, he's saved.
She went to the youth director and said,
sir, Dr.
Stewart tells the story.
I've had him tell it to me personally.
I've been going down the road in a
car because I wanted to make sure I
had it right.
I didn't thrill him.
He said that he walked around on the
streets of Glasgow, Scotland for two weeks.
And he said, folk would walk up to
him and say, praise God, James.
We've heard man, you've been saved.
That's my fanatical mother.
He said, I'm going to go to hell
and play football.
He said, I'm not saved.
And he said, every day somebody come up
and say, praise God, James.
We've heard you've been saved.
And one day while playing soccer football, he
said, the spirit of God just literally slayed
him.
And he said, he fell down in the
middle of that field and said, Lord, save
me.
And said right there, he put his trust
in Jesus.
And he said, the Lord saved him.
And said, man, he got out of that
place as fast as he could get out.
Just really excited.
And said, he ran in the house just
screaming out, mama, mama, mama, I've been saved,
I've been saved, I've been saved.
And she said, shh, James.
She said, son, I've been telling you for
two weeks.
By it, the elders obtained a good report.
You know what they're really saying?
They're really saying, folk, that when they had
trouble, they looked into heaven and got the
report.
And when they got it, they were persuaded
of it.
They embraced it.
They confessed it.
And God performed it.
I don't know, folk.
How in the world we can expect God
to ever send us revival?
Going off in these prayer meetings, begging God
to do something.
When we ought to be praying, God, do
something here.
Get me in such a shape that I
can find out what you want to do.
Join.
It'll take all the confusion out of your
life.
Dilemma, everything else.
Find out what God's doing and join.
You said, preacher, that's not in the Bible.
A little old preacher stepped out on the
deck of a ship one night when all
hope was gone.
Well, one morning.
And the Bible says all hope was gone.
And this little old fella stood up when
all hope was gone and said, be of
good cheer.
Boy, what a, what a discord that must
have been.
Amen?
Well, they were ready to die.
They'd given up hope.
And this little old fella stepped out and
said, be of good cheer.
Isn't that stupid?
He said, everything's going to be lost but
your lives.
Not a one of you is going to
die.
Say, folk, where'd he get that?
Somebody came by last night.
That's the Bible.
Check it out.
Last chapter's book of Acts.
You'll find it.
No wonder he had faith when that snake
bit him.
Amen?
Why should he be worried about a little
old snake that bit him?
When God said, your destination's wrong, God said
that you better believe.
And you get upset not at a snake
bite, just at a look at the devil.
You get upset.
He bit Paul, he didn't get upset.
You know why, folks?
He got the report.
Now, he was headed to Rome.
Amen?
When I was two and a half years
old, I was dying with a problem.
My mother tells me.
She never told me until years, years after
I started preaching.
And she said, she called the doctors out,
and it was 18 miles in the country.
And they checked me over and said, well,
Mrs. Beasley said he'll die.
In two and a half hours, he'll die.
They said this fever is going around his
head, and said he'll die.
And said it'll be over forever.
And they told her the truth, as far
as they were concerned.
And my mother slipped out the back door,
went out underneath an old tree, and got
on her face.
She knew nothing about this message.
She didn't know anything about it, theologically.
But she went out there and had a
little talk with Jesus.
And the Lord, she said, showed her out
there that night, that I was just simply
born to preach.
And that's all.
She said, didn't even say anything about you
living.
Said that you were born to preach.
And she said, that's all I need.
Because I knew you couldn't preach dead.
And my mother's quiet, unemotional.
Almost angelic, but not emotional, folks.
Very quiet.
Never reared in anything but just the quietest,
calmest, deadest atmosphere of a Methodist and Baptist
church.
But folks, she got a little report out
there that night.
She came back in, and she said, doctors,
she said, you can go home.
They said, well, Ms. Beasley, don't you want
us to stay?
It won't be long now.
She said, oh, no.
Said, you don't need to stay.
Said, well, it might be good if we
were here when he passed away.
She said, oh, no.
Said, he's not going to die.
She said, God said he was born to
preach, and he won't preach dead.
And folks, I think the obvious is obvious.
I'm not dead.
But this is what I've been saying to
you.
Where'd she get her faith from?
She looked in.
She heard God.
She saw God.
God spoke to her heart.
Simply gave her a witness in her spirit
that he was born to preach.
She didn't even have a promise from the
word, but somehow God spoke to her heart.
She knew it was God.
And yet many times, like myself, when I
was dying a couple years back, a year
and a half ago, and I knew I
was going to die, I said, Lord, do
you have anything to say to me?
And I said it last night, but I'll
repeat it just to solidify the whole message.
And I slipped out of bed, and my
friend God said, Thou shall see thy children
as children.
And see, I got the report.
And after that, for six solid months, I
went down, down, down, down, down, down.
Nearer, nearer, nearer death.
But I had the report that it was
all all right.
And what I'm saying to you tonight, this
message is the key to faith.
It's the key to success.
It's the key to walking with God.
Find out what God is doing, and join
him.
And folk, if you have any kind of
problem tonight, you are not taking advantage of
your birthrights until you know what's going on.
Because God wants to show you.
He said in Isaiah, Command ye me of
things to come.
He said, Command it.
Amen?
And if you think this is a foolish
message, beloved, poor old brother Noah, when he
looked in, he got so much, he even
got the dimensions of the ark.
He knew what he was going to build
before he built what he built.
Amen?
And Moab, Abraham, it said he went out,
not knowing whether, but folk, I've got news
for you, he sure knew where he was
going.
He said he did?
Yeah.
He saw a city.
Amen?
And he said he saw the streets, the
light.
He just didn't know the path on the
way.
Right.
But folk, he knew where he was going.
He saw it all.
Well, you see, your little desires and wishes
and wants, you just can't act in faith
because of something you might like, something you'd
like to see God do.
You first find out what God's will is.
It's not a leap into the dark.
It's a leap.
May the Lord bless you.
You're dismissed.