In my 50 years of ministry, I have
witnessed the Lord's power to raise the dead.
Who could be more dead than a drug
addict or alcoholic walking on the streets and
living on the streets?
I've seen the dead, some of you have
been raised from the dead.
You're right now, we have Lazarus's all over
this house.
God's taken all the bandages off of you
and now you're able to move and shout
and praise His name.
Wake up, oh sleeper, rise from the dead.
You see, our eyes have seen things that
God has prepared for us that the Jew
couldn't see.
He said, Paul the Apostle said, I have
not seen, ear has not heard the things
that God has prepared, the good things.
But the Holy Spirit has revealed them unto
us.
We have a greater light, greater promises.
There is a darkness that is of this
world, but that's not the darkness Jesus is
talking about.
He's talking about the darkness that comes on
His children who don't believe Him.
Who will not walk in the gospel that
they've received.
Who will not appropriate the promises that have
been offered through covenants.
Wake up, oh sleeper, rise from the dead.
There is a darkness that falls upon those
Christians who will not mix the word they
hear with faith and appropriate it in their
daily lives.
Wake up, oh sleeper, rise from the dead
and Christ will shine.
He said that the Holy Ghost abides in
us.
Your body, my body is the temple of
the Holy Ghost.
We hear that from the pulpit.
We believe that passively.
We believe it as a doctrine.
But here is where darkness can come in.
When we don't really believe, fully commit ourselves
to the truth that we have heard.
That the Holy Ghost in me will do
what God sent Him to do.
And then when lust arises, and you try
to fight it in your own power, and
you won't commit it until the Holy Ghost
abides in you.
You said, I've tried that and it doesn't
work.
Folks, it is faith alone that the Holy
Ghost in you will do against the devil
and every lust that God sent Him to
do.
That the Holy Ghost comes to work in
you.
Darkness comes when you say, I have to
fight this by my own strength and my
own power.
And you do not rest and trust in
the power of the Holy Ghost in you.
You're saying, God sent the Holy Ghost, God
ties me, He lives here, but He's silent.
He's sleeping.
It's the call of God a liar.
The Lord doesn't show any pity for those
who have doubts and unbelief.
He has no pity whatsoever.
He expects us to walk in the light
that we've received, mix faith with, and lay
hold of it and comprehend it.
So there's a deep darkness that comes upon
those who focus on their weaknesses and inabilities.
I'm speaking of Christians who complain how stupid
and how inadequate they are.
Well, things are going to get a little
quiet now.
Do you remember the ten spies that brought
back an evil report?
They said, yes, it is a land flooded
with milk and honey, it's filled with wonderful
fruit, but there are giants there in the
walled up cities.
We are not able to go up.
They're stronger than us.
We compared ourselves to these giants and we
appeared as grasshoppers.
Now, you won't find them accusing God.
There's nowhere here that they say, well, God
is not able.
They don't accuse God.
They know better than that.
So they say, we are not able.
We are inadequate.
We don't have the power.
We don't have the ability.
This is not humility.
This is an affront to every promise in
the book.
When you put yourself down, you're not putting
yourself down.
You're putting down the almighty God who has
revealed himself as the one who gives you
strength in your weaknesses and makes you strong
when you have no strength.
You make God a liar.
And I look around and I see God
blessing everybody else.
And I see them growing.
And I see the gifts of people around
me.
I have no gifts.
I have nothing.
And we keep putting ourselves down, comparing ourselves
to other people, saying, I'll never measure up.
Folks, that is a sin against God.
That's sin against the light.
And that brings darkness.
Oh, that brings darkness to the soul.
Terrible, terrible darkness.
The scripture says, I can do all things
through Christ who strengthens me.
Hallelujah.
He says, who will believe me?
When will you ever come to the point
in your life that you'll believe me?
Now, I know there are scriptures racing through
your mind right now that says, well, Paul
said, I will most rather glory in my
infirmities that the power of Christ may rest
in me.
I take pleasure in infirmities.
But he was not speaking.
He was speaking only of physical infirmity.
He was talking about his thorn in the
flesh.
He was not talking about what we're talking
about here right now.
This constant deprecation of our flesh, this constant
saying that I can't do anything.
I have no talents.
I have nothing.
Oh, yes, you do.
You have the great anointing of the Holy
Ghost, because you could have been saved without
that anointing.
We have the idea that when we don't
trust God that, well, I'm the only one
that hurts.
Nobody around me is getting hurt.
I'm not wounding anybody.
I just miss the blessings.
Not so.
You anger God.
Anger.
With whom was he grieved 40 years?
Was it not with them that had sinned,
his carcasses fell to wilderness?
To whom swore he that they should not
enter into his rest, but to them that
believed not?
So we see they could not enter in
because adultery, fornication, unbelief.
They could not enter in because of unbelief.
So it's not just a matter of you
missing a blessing.
It's a matter of provoking God to anger.
Where there is unconditional faith in God's promises,
there's complete rest.
Rest is the evidence of faith.
You say, well, I have no unbelief in
me.
Then why do you get so upset and
disturbed when things go wrong?
You say, there's no unbelief in me.
Then why do you keep fearing that you're
going to fall?
Why do you have such restlessness in you?
Why are you afraid of the future, afraid
of losing your job, afraid that God's not
going to provide for you?
That's unbelief.
But, hear me please, if you're not willing
to deal with sin, if you're not willing
to fully commit your life to confidence, full
confidence and trust in Him, then forget the
miracles.
If that's your focus, if the miracle is
your focus, that's the wrong focus.
It's Jesus, the miracle worker.
Listen to me please, those who have come
forward especially.
Scripture says without faith, it's impossible to please
God.
So, what that says to me, that's where
I start.
I have to start there, I have to
deal with this issue of faith.
Do I believe that God means what He
says?
Do I believe that God said that my
body is a temple of the Holy Ghost?
Do I believe that He's the one who
overcomes the temptations of my flesh as I
just trust Him and yield to Him?
Do I believe that He's going to keep
me from falling as He promised He would?
Do I believe the covenant promises that He
will put the fear of God in me
and I won't have to work it up
or invent it?
Do I believe that He will keep me
from falling and present me faultless before His
presence with exceeding great joy?
Do I believe that?
Do I believe that if I confess my
sins, He's faithful and just?
Do I believe that if any man sins,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the Risen.
Do I believe this?
Do I receive it?
And will I walk in that light?
Without faith it's impossible, so all of our
prayers, all of our works, all of the
good things we do for God are in
vain if we do not believe that He,
without faith it's impossible to please Him.
And they that come to Him must believe
that He is, that He is what?
That He is God Almighty.
And He is a what?
A rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
And down into the plain, when kingdoms all
crumble, this one remains.
A faithful man, with our fathers we
proclaim.