We began some weeks ago on a
series we're calling Exceeding Growing Faith. We've gone into some detail
about faith, hindrances to faith, and why faith is little,
but we don't want - we saw examples of no faith, little
faith and great faith. Which one do you want? Does everybody have great faith? No. Well, how are you going to have
great faith when a lot of folks don't? I'm glad you want to know
because that's exactly what we're going to get into. Go with me please to Romans the
fourth chapter, Romans four. Let's look at our main texts on
this. Romans 4:19, talking about
Abraham who is held up as a premier example of faith in the
Word of God. Abraham had and has, he's alive
today just not down here, great faith. Amazing faith. And we are by faith in Jesus, we
are the children of Abraham. It said, "Being not weak in
faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about
an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's
womb," it lets us know he was not weak in faith. So you can be weak in faith. "He staggered not at the promise
of God," he considered not the contradictions in his body and
Sarah's body to what God said, and therefore he staggered not. Now the word "stagger" could
also be translated "waver." He didn't waver, didn't stagger,
because he didn't consider the things that contradicted God. He staggered not at the promise
of God, "Through unbelief; but was," what? "Strong in faith," strong in
faith. Now an interesting thing here,
if you look up these words, it could be translated he "waxed
strong" in faith. He waxed strong. And that indicates progression,
doesn't it? Strong, stronger, stronger,
stronger, strongest. Right? Waxed strong means he kept
getting stronger. Your faith is dynamic, it's
active. It's not at the same place all
the time. You can be strong in faith in an
area years ago, and over a period of time become weak in
faith in that same area. You can be weak in faith in an
area, might call it your weakest area, but over a period of time
it can become the area where your faith is the strongest in. But it doesn't just stay at the
same place. Each day it's moving one way or
the other. And it has to do - why is that? Well, we're going to get into
that in more and more detail, but it has to do with the basic
things of what you feed and what you exercise. If you feed your faith and you
exercise it, it will increase, it will grow, it will get
stronger. If you starve your faith, if you
feed your fears, if you feed your worries, then faith will
fade and fear will get stronger. Whatever you feed gets stronger. It said he was strong in faith,
"Giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded," why would you
say fully persuaded? Because you can be partially -
remember the king said when Paul was testifying, he said, "Almost
you persuade me to be a Christian." He said, "I wish you were almost
and altogether." So there's people, bless their
hearts, it's sad - they are almost persuaded to go to
church, almost persuaded to read their Bible and pray some, but
they're just not completely convinced. Because they won't let
themselves be convinced. Faith is a choice. Believing is a choice. You hear sometimes people use
the incorrect phrase. They'll say, "I'm sorry, I just
can't believe that." That's an untrue statement. I don't care who made it. There is no such thing as you
can't leave something. By very nature of what faith is
- faith is not based on anything you see, or anything you feel,
or even understanding, it's just a choice. So instead of saying, "I can't
believe it," it would be accurate to say, "I choose not
to believe that." Maybe you're telling somebody
something and they look at you and go, "I just can't believe
that." They're saying, I hear you
talking and I see you, but I don't believe you. I choose not. Well, you could choose to
believe. We need to doubt the devil and
believe God. Right? There are a lot of things that
come your way, you need to doubt it. You need to go, "No, I don't
believe that." Well, where your body is
concerned, dear me. If I believed every feeling I
ever had. You know, I mentioned this, some
of you I'm sure weren't here for that but it's been a year or two
ago. There was a history of severe
heart problems in my family, the men in my family. And my granddad had terrible
heart problems from the time he was middle-aged, and had to have
open heart surgery at all that kind of stuff. And my dad had heart attacks,
and he actually left early with this. And I'm a believer, I know about
faith, I know about being redeemed, and yet, I had
symptoms as early as fifteen years ago. I had heart symptoms - sometimes
something would just hit me and then I would feel things and I
with think - and I would cast it down. What do you do? Well, after a while of that,
sometimes it was alarming. I mean, it was alarming stuff,
really distracting. And of course, I fly. I'm in the plane. At that time I was in the plane
by myself a lot of times. And of course, you have people
in the back, folks are depending on you and all that kind of
thing. And I felt impressed to go get
some oh, what do they call them when they put that stuff in your
veins, and they put you through that big scanning machine and
they can see everything in your heart. So I did, and the Lord helped us
to get with this really good doctor, one of the top in his
field. And so they did and they looked
at my heart inside and out, and they put all that stuff in
there. And he came back out - of course
the enemy is telling me, "Yeah, you got problems, you got
problems, you got problems." And I didn't accept it. I got no reason to believe that. Somebody said, "You have
symptoms." Symptoms can lie. Now if I need to deal with
something, I'll deal with it, but I'm not going to believe a
bad thing just because of a feeling. Come on, are y'all with me or
not? This is important. This is important. Over the years I've had all
kinds of stuff like this and I know you have too. It's just the nature of where we
live. It's the nature of our bodies. And bless some people's hearts,
if they have a feeling or a symptom, to them, that's the
truth. And they will pursue it until
they prove it's as bad as they thought it might be. Not realizing it's a
self-fulfilling prophecy. How do you know it was that bad
until you accepted it? You don't know. We get through the test and
everything the doctor comes in, he's looking at it. He says, "Now, how old are you?" I guess at that time I was
fifty-five. And he said, "You have the heart
of a sixteen-year-old. I don't remember when I have
seen any better." Well, what are all these
symptoms? Come on, do you see that? I'm not making these things up. These things were alarming. What's all these symptoms? The enemy is doing his best to
cut the ministry off. And to put fear in me because
it's close to me what happened to my dad, what happened to my
granddad - come on, can you see this? That's close to my thinking and
my experience, and he will work on you to get fear and you. And then if you will receive the
fear and start believing it and start saying it, your fears will
come on you. He has a right. But, I don't know what happened. Either God touched my heart - it
looks like He did, elsewise, why would it be that good? That's better than normal,
right? So at some point God did
something to my heart so that the DNA problems from previous
generations no longer applied. But the enemy is trying to get
me to believe some bad stuff to contradict what God had done for
me. He's a sorry, low down, he's a
sorry, low down rascal. But, it's our fault if we let
him convince us of these fears and embrace things and believe
things. You just need to be led about
what you do with this kind of thing. But, do not believe just based
on a feeling. Just based on a symptom. We've marveled in the churches
at the reports that will come in. People say, "Did you hear what
happened to so-and-so? They're dead." They died? Who said? Sometimes people, they get so
upset. We've learned over the years
which is - if you see us, you may wonder why I respond. We'll look at you like,
"Really?" Why? Because we don't believe it. I don't believe a bad thing
until I know the truth about it. And even then, I'm ready to
believe God to make a miracle. Is that right? To change it. But I'm not just going to go,
oh, it's terrible. Oh, it's terrible. Come to find out they're not
dead. And people say, "They had an
accident... They had their arm cut off..." Come to find out they had to get
stitches in a finger. I'm not exaggerating. You hear this kind of stuff. That's how the enemy is. He is a fear pusher. He is a fear pusher. And he always exaggerates and
lies and blows it out - and every kind of little feeling you
have - what is that? "Oh, it's a terminal disease. You have three weeks to live." If you go no, no, that's not it. "It's this. It's that." He keeps backing up to whatever
you will accept. And if you accept it and you
believe it and you start saying it and you start dreading it,
you are in trouble. But even if there was a problem,
if you won't accept that it has to be that way, God can do a
miracle. I'm convinced He did a miracle
in my heart. I don't know when, I don't even
know when or where. But it sure was a happy day. It was a good report to get
confirmation. But then I thought, all those
dumb symptoms. You dumb devil. Get out of here! I'm going to live. I'm going to run my race. I'm going to finish my entire
course. "With long life He will satisfy
me and show me His salvation." That's the last verse in Psalm
ninety-one. And all the previous verses go
with it. You know why He made it to long
life? Because the arrow that flew by
day didn't get him. The pestilence that wasted at
noontime didn't get him. You see what we're talking
about? The disease, the accidents, the
violence, didn't get him. He made it through all of that
and got old. When the Bible calls you old,
you old. Old! "With long life He will satisfy
me and show me His salvation." And you don't have to be weak
and decrepit. You don't have to be. You don't have to lose your
mental faculties. Or your memory. People say, "Well yeah, it's DNA
and it's this." No honey, you're a child of God. You're not limited to that. God can do things beyond that. He can do things and wants to. If you read in Deuteronomy
twenty-eight, you will find that problems of the mind are part of
the curse of the law. And if you read in Galatians
three, you will see that we have been redeemed from the curse of
the law. Is it true or not? It's true. We haven't been given the spirit
of fear. And the spirit of fear is
connected to this stuff. You get afraid, you're not going
to be yourself, you get afraid you're going to lose your mental
faculties and your memory. You get afraid, you start
drawing it to you. You pull it to you like a
magnet. I want everybody in the house,
everybody in Branson, everybody watching online, I want you to
release some faith right now. You're not playing. Everybody awake? Say it out loud: "According to
Deuteronomy twenty-eight problems in the brain, problems
in the mind are part of the curse of the law. According to Galatians three,
Christ has redeemed me from the curse of the law. He didn't give me the spirit of
fear. But I have the Spirit of power,
and love, and a sound, healthy mind." Hallelujah. I want you to declare something. Now this won't make any
difference with you if every time you have a symptom you
panic over it and you get in fear and start talking over it. I've seen people, bless their
hearts, they forgot something and they said, "Look, I'm
slipping. I'm losing things." I've seen eighteen-year-olds
forget the same thing. Don't fall for these tricks. So you forgot something, big
deal. Join the club. Doesn't mean you are losing your
mental faculties. Now, your mind is spiritual. It's not physical. Your brain is not your mind. If your body was buried and
decomposed, you would still have your mind. Your mind is spiritual. It's part of your eternal being. It does not age and wear out. Now here's the marvelous thing
about it. There is no limit to what your
mind can understand and learn. People try to equate the mind
with the brain. The mind is not the brain. People feel like, "I think I
have every cell full of something. I can't learn anymore." That's just dumb. The brain is simply the physical
organ that the mind can express itself through in the physical
realm, in this life. And if need be - your brain is a
physical organ like your kidneys, like your heart, like
your lungs. It can be healed. Now your mind, that's spiritual. You need something for that, the
Word of God fixes that. Right? Faith fixes that. Joy and peace fix that. Love fixes that. And if there were some issues
with your brain, you know how quickly God can touch your
little brain? You know how quickly the light
of God can just go over your little brain cell? Next thing you know it's just
new cells there. Problem solved. "All things are possible to him
that believes." Or her that believes. I wanted you to say that other
parts so that you can say this. Based on what we just said,
based on the Word of God, I want you to say this out loud, I want
you to say it strong. Say: "In Jesus' name I will
never lose my mind. I will never. My mind will be strong my entire
life." I had an aunt who was ninety
something years old the last time we talked with her, she's
gone home to be with the Lord now. She could tell you the entire
family tree. She could tell you this is
so-and-so's kids, and when they were born, and who their parents
were. I'm talking about the entire
family tree, with dates. In her nineties. Don't tell me you have to get
fuzzy. People accept stuff they
shouldn't accept. They believe stuff they
shouldn't believe. I'm well convinced if I would
have grabbed my chest and said, I'm not going to make it, I'm
not going to make it. Like daddy, like grandpa, I'm
glad I had few years here. I wouldn't. I might not even be here right
now. But if there was something, God
fixed it. Glory to God. Heart of a sixteen-year-old. Man, y'all may get tired looking
at me, who knows how long I may be around. Well, the same needs to be said
about you. You have the same God, the same
Healer, you have the same Holy Spirit in you, you have been
redeemed from the same stuff. Do not accept feelings,
symptoms, reports. Don't just accept it and go,
"That's how it has to be." Not how it has to be. All things are possible with
God, and all things are possible to him or her that believes. And you are a believer. You are a believer. Thank You Lord. And none of that is in my notes
anywhere. So, let's go to the next part
here. Go with me, if you would, over
to - let's see. Go to Matthew eight, for time's
sake. In the Scripture we see, like
we've already noticed, faith can be little or faith can be
strong. Weak or strong, little or great. And we've talked quite a bit
about what causes faith to be little and what hinders. I want us to begin to get into
what causes it to be great. Are you ready for that? Because you told me you don't
want to be in that other category anyway. You want to be in this one, so
we're going to talk about your category. Big faith, great faith category. And we see two examples in the
Gospel accounts where Jesus called people's faith "great." And the reason they are there is
to teach us about what great faith is and how it comes, how
it works. So we're going to get into these
and believe God to open our eyes to see it like we have prayed. In Matthew eight, go there
please to the eighth verse and we'll begin to back up a little
bit. We're talking about the
centurion who was a Roman soldier, a leader. You might call him an officer. And he received a great miracle
from the Lord. Let's back up to verse five. "Jesus was entered into
Capernaum," when He was, "there came to Him a centurion,"
everybody say: "Centurion." They were occupied by the
Romans. The Romans had conquered the
known world. And one of the big reasons was
because of their military. They had developed a military
that was unequaled in those days because of their strategies,
because of their cohesion; they conquered Army after Army after
Army. And this is not just a foot
soldier, he's a centurion. He's over perhaps a hundred
soldiers. And you didn't get that by being
a bad soldier. So he proved himself on the
battlefield with valor and courage. Our guys have it challenging
today, but some of it has become remote today. I'm not underestimating it, it's
challenging, but in those days you had to look a man in the eye
while you plunged a sword through him. And he's trying to do the same
thing to you. You didn't even shoot at each
other from across the way. This is up close and personal. No doubt he's been injured, no
doubt what has happened, but he is successful in the greatest
military in the world, at least in some measure. And now he's reaching out to
Jesus. There came a centurion,
"Beseeching him," we see right here the beginning of great
faith. Great faith respects God. I want you to say that out loud:
"Great faith respects God." Respects Him, respects His Word,
respects His Spirit, respects His church, His ministers, His
people. You show me somebody with strong
faith, I'll show you someone that respects God. You can't separate the two. Now, we have a big problem in
our society with lack of respect. We have multiple generations
that have grown up without it. We've got parents, children,
that don't know respect and honor because their parents
didn't demonstrate it or teach it to them. They didn't demonstrate it
because their parents didn't demonstrate it to them. And some things have been lost. Actually, we're reaping the
results of the rebellion of the fifties and sixties, where
everything was counted common, and granted, some folks in
authority were making some mistakes, but that doesn't
justify discounting and disrespecting authority. According to Romans, to do so is
to disrespect God Himself. But this man is an occupier of
Jesus and His people. He could've come, he could've
sent soldiers to bring Jesus to him. Can you see this? He could've demanded what he
wanted out of Him, or arrested Him, probably killed Him. But, this man has faith, as
we're going to see. Which is why he's in the Book. And faith doesn't try to force,
faith isn't rude, rebellious, disrespectful. Faith shows honor. So he comes beseeching Him. Beseeching is asking, not
telling. Beseeching - even a plea you
could say. Verse six he said, "Lord," Lord? Lord - he didn't have to call
Him Lord. He has to refer to Caesar in
some ways, his commanding officer is over him in some
ways, but this traveling Preacher? This is why he's in the Book. Lord, "My servant lies at home
sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus said, I will come and
heal him." Wow. Did you know Jesus never said I
won't heal? He never said it's not God's
will. He never said it's not time. Never. And yet entire doctrines are
built like this. "It's not always God's will." Where is the scripture? Show us one time Jesus ever told
- or any of the apostles and disciples ever said, this is not
the will of God. In order for something to be
Scriptural, you need something for it. Scripture. There ought to be at least one
where He said no, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I wish I could help you, but
it's not God's time for you. And He's working something out
in your life, and it's just not his will. You cannot find that in the New
Testament. You can't find it. And yet millions of Christians
believe that more than they believe the Word. That's what He also said, "Your
traditions have made the Word of God of none effect." He always said, "I will." I will. Lord, if it's your will. He said, "I will." Here's a man, he doesn't know. He's not a rabbi. He's not a disciple. He's a rough, scarred, order
barking centurion. He's a man who has seen blood
and mud and guts - the ugly side of life. But, he has respect. He shows honor. Oh, if you honor him - is Jesus
honoring this man when He immediately without any further
information says, "I'll come. Let's go." Oh, thank You Lord. Somebody say: "Respect." I had the privilege of
ministering in healing school at Brother Kenneth Hagin's ministry
for a number of years, and it was interesting dealing with
healing every day, dealing with people that needed healing every
day. You saw some of these things. Who got help, who didn't. Who responded well and quickly
and who didn't. I know there was a person came
up one time. After the service, I had spoken. And they had a list of stuff,
and they said, "I just got here," it was Monday, the
healing school. Healing school went Monday
through Friday and next week it would start again. And they said, "These are the
things that you need to do for me to help me to get healed." And I mean, they had - it looked
like there was twenty-five things on there, and I was
supposed to do a certain amount of praying, and a certain amount
of fasting, a certain amount of time spent with them personally
one-on-one, and all this stuff. And I said, "Well, no." They said, "No?" I said, "No. I'm not going to do that." They said, "Well... I came here to get help." And then went on to tell me how
that they were a partner with Brother Hagin's ministry, and
they knew things about faith when my mom was still changing
my diaper. Because I was a lot younger back
then too. My first thought was, if you
know so much about faith, what are you doing here trying
to get help? But I didn't say that. What are we seeing? Total disrespect. And I didn't have anything to
give them. I'm searching my heart how to
help them, and there's nothing there. "Because God resists the proud
but gives grace to the humble." You don't come to Him telling
Him what to do. Now, I'm not the Lord, but in
that situation, I represented Him. And the Lord said you received
those whom I send, you receive Me. If you don't receive them, you
don't receive Him. He's very big on delegation. And people imagine that they
have all this respect and honor for God but they treat people
also rudely and crudely and disrespectfully, the truth is,
your respect for God is shown in your respect and people. If it's not there with people,
it's not there with God, no matter what you imagine it to
be. Eventually they stayed there a
while, thank God, it made them mad and they stomped off. But after a while they began to
see some things, and their hearts began to change. And they got some help. But there's been some other
places - I've traveled for decades now and some places you
go to, the meetings are a lot better than other places. And why is that? I've been to some places where
they forgot Phyllis and I were coming. And this was before we had our
own plane, which is one reason we have our own plane and we get
our transportation and that kind of thing. But we were left sitting in the
airport of a major city for hours. I guess it was three or four
hours. And there were some shady
looking characters around there. When everybody left after the
flights were done, we thought, this is not a good place for us
to be. And we didn't know where to go. Supernaturally, through the word
of knowledge, we found them. We didn't have their current
information - of course, that was our fault. Anyway, they were like, "Oh
yeah, yeah, that's right. Sorry." And the meetings were hard
because there was no preparation spiritually. You could see that because there
wasn't a preparation naturally. And there wasn't a respect. And you could feel it with the
ministers and the people. They were like, "We've heard
some of the best, who are you? Wow us." Well, you can't when there's
that lack of respect. The utterance won't be there,
the anointing won't be there, because it's not just lack of
respect for people, it's lack of respect for God. The God Who called the people,
Who anointed the people, Who sent the people. If you don't receive whom He
sends, you don't receive Him. This is nowhere more true than
Jesus Himself. The Father has sent Jesus. If you don't receive Him, you
disrespect God. And this is true down the line. Then there's other places you
could tell when you get there, they are respectful. I'm not talking about making a
big deal out of a man or flesh, making a big deal out of the
Word. Making a big deal out of the
Holy Spirit, out of the anointing. About ministry. And there's places I've been, I
haven't been on the ground for fifteen minutes and because of
the respect, God starts giving me things. Start getting revelation, start
getting direction, start getting even gifts of the Spirit. Strong faith is inseparable from
great respect. And if you didn't grow up in it,
don't despair, you can learn. You can learn when to be quiet,
you can learn how to respond, you can learn how to show
deference. How many want to learn about the
honor of God and honor Him and honor His things? You can't develop great faith
without this. They go hand-in-hand. So anyway, this centurion humbly
requests from the Master, calling Him Lord. And Jesus honors him by saying,
"Let's go. We'll do it. I will come and heal him." Is Jesus the same yesterday
today and forever? Does He still say the same
thing? Is He no respecter of persons? Will He do for one what He will
do for another? If you will do what they did. Yes, if you will do what He did. Verse eight, "The centurion
answered and said, Lord," again, Lord, "I am not worthy that You
should come under my roof," he's not a religious man, may not be
a temple going man, I don't know. He's going no Lord, You don't
even need to come. "But speak the Word only," this
is respect for Jesus and this respect for His Word. Speak the Word only - and we'll
see what happens? We hope? No. "My servant shall be healed." Now his servant, he just got
through saying is in bad shape. Grievously tormented. This man is in terrible pain. He's in a bad way physically. I guess near death. And yet, he is confident he will
be fine. He will be healed. You don't need to come to my
house, you don't need to travel. "Speak the Word only." Somebody say: "Speak the Word
only." What is this? This is respect. This is respect for Jesus, this
is respect for His place. His spiritual place. He didn't know He was the Son of
God. But he had heard about what He
had been doing, obviously had come across some people who had
been healed or delivered or something and God gave him
enough understanding to realize this is a holy Man, this is a
Prophet of God. This is a Man of God. He couldn't have known He was
the Son of God, but he knew these things, or he believed
these things. And so, he respects Him. He calls Him Lord. He might've could've gotten in
trouble militarily for calling a Jewish Person Lord. Because these emperors set
themselves up sometimes as living gods. You're only supposed to worship
them. But, he risked it, whatever it
was. And he said, "Speak the Word
only." Verse nine, "For," and he
explains why he feels this way. "I am a man under authority,
having soldiers under me," what he's saying is I have commanders
over me and I have people under me in rank and authority. "And I say to this man, Go,
and," what happens? He says, "Well, I'm busy right
now." No honey, this is the Roman
military we're talking about. You don't give excuses, you
don't explain anything, you don't ask questions, you get it
in gear. You move. I say go, what happens? "He goes," I say, "Come, and he
comes," I tell, "my servant," this would include the sick one,
"Do this," what happens? "He does it." We live in a world that despises
this. "I ain't nobody slave. Nobody orders me around, tells
me what to do." That's right. Including God. And it's a big problem. A big problem. We're supposed to even endure
hardness as good soldiers. We're supposed to have a
mentality of endurance, like a soldier would. So much of the Army of God is
sad. Uniform unbuttoned. Shoes not shined. Weapon belt unbuckled. "I need to be healed Lord." "By My stripes you are healed." "I know it says that, but I
hurt, and this, and that, and I just don't feel like it... And I tried, but I can't..." Sloppy, no respect for
authority. Friends, we need to be dressed,
breastplate of righteousness. The helmet of salvation. Loins gird with truth. Feet shod with the preparation
of the Gospel of peace. Sword of the Spirit, shield of
faith. Permission to be healed, Sir! He says, "You are healed." Thank You, Sir! That's it. That's it. That's it. Oh, somebody say: "That's it." That's it. If that's not it, the faith is
not there because the respect is not there. The respect is not there. He said, I tell my soldier go,
and buddy, he gets going. I tell him come, and he doesn't
mess around, he's coming. I tell my servant do this, and
he does that, and not something else. "When Jesus heard it, He
marvelled," now you don't read this all the time. Jesus did what? Marveled. He did what? Marvelled. How do you express that? Jesus looks around and He goes,
my, my, my! Now boys, that's what I've been
talking about. That's some real faith. He uses it as an opportunity to
teach His Own staff. Here's one of the most
surprising things. Often times you won't find great
faith where you think you would. And you will find it in places
you don't think you would. You wouldn't pick a rough
soldier, order barking sergeant, as somebody that Jesus would
marvel over their faith. Hadn't been to Bible school, is
not a reverend, can't read the ancient languages. And yet, Jesus marveled. He said, "To them that
followed," that's His bunch and that's everybody there that day,
He said, "Verily I say to you, I have not found so great faith,
not in Israel." This guy is a Roman soldier. The Israelite folks hate him. Are you going to tell me we have
a Roman soldier got more faith than all the disciples? Than the rabbis? All Israel. Not in Israel. Haven't found them in Israel. This is amazing. I said, this is amazing. Phew. Great faith. The word is "megas." Megas. It means "big, " it means big or
"of great level," "high level." It's big faith. Strong faith. High faith. Verse eleven, "I say to you,
That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit
down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of
heaven." Folks you wouldn't think. "But the children of the kingdom
shall be cast out," people that should have been in, "there
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus said to the centurion, Go
your way," does the centurion know what to do? He just got an order. What do you think he's going to
do? He is going to hook them, is
that right? Go your way, "And," just like,
"you have believed, so be it done unto thee." I believe the centurion probably
smiled from ear to hear, that's the Word He wanted to hear. He wanted to hear the command. He wanted to hear the order. Oh, hallelujah! Can you see the respect? Can you see the honor? Can you see the submission? Can you see the readiness to
obey no matter what you understand or don't understand? This is great faith. And anybody can have it. Hallelujah. Anybody can have it that's
willing to be like this and operate like this. Go your way. I believe the centurion came to
attention. Go your way. He braced. Go your way, as you have
believed, so be it. There must've been a thank You
Sir somewhere in it. Thank You Sir. And then he got himself headed
out. And what happened? Come on, what happened? What happened? Yeah, but he's about dead. If you would've diagnosed his
case, who knows what would've been wrong with him. How long it would've been that
way. He's in bad, bad shape. And now what? "His servant was healed in the
selfsame hour." The same hour they had this
conversation and the command came forth. Somebody say, "Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God." Do you want this kind of faith? Can you have this kind of faith? It's within your reach, it's
within my reach. Stand on your feet everybody. Oh, glory to God. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. I'm stirred up about this, how
about you? If the Lord never changes, and
He doesn't, and He is no respecter of persons, and He
isn't, that means He would say the same thing about you. How many would like the master
to remark about you? That's good faith. That's great. Maybe He would use the word
"megas." Megas faith. Hallelujah. Would that bless you? Not only would it bless you, it
opens up for what you desire to come to pass. It opens up for God's power to
be able to be manifested, to accomplish. He said, "As you have believed,
that's how it's going to be done to you." Hallelujah. Close your eyes and just lift up
your heart towards the Lord. Tell the Father, say, "Father, I
believe. Teach me about great faith. Teach me about honor, about
submission, about respect for You, for Your Word. About obedience, acting on your
Word with full persuasion. No hesitation. No doubt. Thank You Lord, hallelujah,
I trust You." Oh, praise God. Thank You, Father.
