James 1:22 says, "But be ye
doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own
selves." Read that out loud with me. Together: But be ye doers of the
word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. Why would the Lord tell us about
this unless it's an issue that a lot of people are hearing and
not doing. You can hear but that doesn't
make you a doer. You can hear and hear and hear
and hear and hear and hear; that doesn't mean you've done
anything. I know years ago -- this must've
been ten or fifteen years ago or so, I was in a conference. I wasn't the speaker that night
but just attending. And I looked out and there was a
great crowd of people. I saw some minister friends and
people that I knew and I was just looking around being happy. And the Lord spoke to my heart,
I don't mean I heard an audible voice but inside me, the way
He'll speak to every Christian if you listen. He said to me, "There's a
misconception in your circles," I knew He was talking about
those of us who call ourselves faith people, word of faith
people. I thought, a misconception --
what is that Lord? What is the misconception? Again, not an audible voice but
inside me He spoke to my heart. He said, "That you believe that
if you'll 'get in the word enough' it will solve your
problems and straighten out your life." I thought -- yeah, we pretty
much believe that. He said, "Wrong. It's only the doer of the word
that gets results." And it set me on this course of
thinking that we're on today those years back. I stirred myself up to think
wow, that is that subtle. It's just like the devil, isn't
it, to think we're hearing all this good word, this will
straighten us up and fix our life. No, it won't. The only word that's going to
work in your life is the word you practice. The word you do. The word you implement. Are y'all with me friends? You can hear and hear and hear
and hear and hear and hear, and if you don't do it, what
condition will you wind up in according to that verse? Self deceived. Deceived means you're believing
a lie is true. You believe this is true, but
it's not. You're not pretending it's true,
you believe it's true. You are deceived. And who deceived you? You can't even say the devil
deceived you. Who deceived you? You deceived yourself. And how did you deceive
yourself? By not doing what you heard. Now, the heard here -- the
hearing implies seeing. As we've said before, another
way of saying be a doer of the word is to say walk in the
light. Because you can't walk in the
light you don't see. And people even use the exact
terminology, when they hear something and they get it many
times they'll say, "I see that." They're not talking about
something they're seeing with their physical eyes, I see that. Well, you really do see it. It's spiritual seeing. But when you see it, it's not
just for you to rejoice and say I saw it, and to make some
notes, or tell somebody else that you saw it, the light is
not just to receive, the light is to walk in. We're supposed to do something
with it. In Ezekiel, let me read this to
you again. Ezekiel 33:30 he said, "Son of
man, the children of your people are still are talking against
you by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak
one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray
you, and hear what is the word that comes forth from the Lord." They all want to come and hear
the word. That sounds good, but the rest
of it is not good. "And they come unto you as the
people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear
your words," looks and sounds like a fine church. "But they will not do them." They won't. "For with their mouth they show
much love, but their heart goes after their covetousness." They are self-centered and
self-absorbed and they're not doing the word. Verse thirty-two, "And, lo, you
are unto them as a very lovely song of one that has a pleasant
voice, and can play well on an instrument," they're coming and
listening as though it were entertainment. They're listening like they're
at a concert. There listening and watching
like they were at a play or a movie. "Because this is just for my
benefit to see and hear something." No. It's to do something. We ought to hear something and
we ought see something, but while we're hearing and seeing
we're supposed to be thinking, okay, now how does this change
my life? I need to change, I need to stop
this. I need to start this. I need to do less of this, and
do more of that. I need to change that totally. I need to increase that. And if you hear and hear and
hear and there are never any changes made in your life, you
are a hearer only. You're not a doer. And so you won't have miracles
and you won't get results, and the thing is -- you can be
faithful going to church, and you can have closets full of CDs
and DVDs and books. And you can have them marked up
with four different color highlighters, and books and
books of notes, and thirteen years later still got the same
problem that you had. And you're thinking I wonder
what the problem is? Man, I've been in the word for
thirteen years. That doesn't mean you're a doer. You can know a lot of stuff;
doesn't make you a doer. That's what confuses and annoys
a number of people. Because you'll see people that
have been come to church and they are churchy. I mean the lingo, the look, the
language, as I was saying -- man, they can quote the King
James and three other translations verbatim, and the
Greek definitions, and the Hebrew definitions, and
Chaldean, and Aramaic, and Spurgeon's, and Strong's, and
Vines, and yet they haven't gotten results in this area of
their life for the last fifteen years. And here comes somebody that's
just a rank sinner two months ago, and they come and get a
miracle in that area that they've been struggling with for
all these years. And they think, "Hold on here. Wait just a minute." No, it's not hard to figure out. They just did it; you're still
talking about it. The word works for everybody in
everybody's life. But not just because you put a
Bible under your pillow and sleep on it. Have a roomful of materials. Or you have perfect service
attendance. No, tell me who gets miracles. Tell me, tell me. Who gets results? Only the doer of the word of
God. Go with me if you would to the
Book of Psalms. The Book of Psalms today. Let's talk further about this. We had said that being a doer of
the word can also be described as walking in the light. Walking in the light because the
entrance of His word gives light. And the proper response to light
is not to say glory hallelujah, I see the light. But to what? Walk in the light. Tell me what light is for. Light is not just for seeing, it
is for seeing, but what else is supposed to happen once you see? Light is for walking in, walking
in the light. And in Psalm 89:15, you will see
an initial indicator that a person, yourself or anybody
else, is seeing light. Psalm 89:15 said, "Blessed is
the people that know the joyful sound," somebody say, "The
joyful sound." Say it again, "The joyful
sound." "They shall walk," walk, "O
Lord, in the light of Your countenance." Is there a connection between
walking in the light and the joyful sound? Obviously there is. In Proverbs the thirteenth
chapter, Proverbs 13:9 says, "The light of the righteous,"
does what? "Rejoices." What does the light do? "Rejoices: but the lamp of the
wicked shall be put out." Proverbs 15:30. Get this top phrase here. What does it say? "The light of the eyes," what
does it do? It, "Rejoices the heart: and a
good report," a good report is a joyful sound. And what will it do? It, "Makes," your insides, your,
"bones fat." Fat bones are good. You may not want everything fat,
but you don't want skinny, weak bones. You want fat bones. And there are other things that
are good fat. Fat checking accounts. Fat savings accounts. Fat pocketbooks. Fat has to do with excess,
abundance, blessings. And what makes the bones fat? Good reports. And that's coupled with the
light of the eyes. I want you to say that top
phrase sentence out loud with me a couple of times. Together: The light of the eyes
rejoices the heart. Say that again. Together: The light of the eyes
rejoices the heart. One more time. Together: The light of the eyes
rejoices the heart. When the light comes in, the
heart rejoices. Every time. It's connected. When the light comes into the
eyes and into the Spirit, the heart rejoices every time. Come on now, if you've walked
with the Lord any length of time and you've seen any good thing
out of the word, you know this is true. Didn't it cause you to rejoice? When you thought whoa, I see
that. Oh, whoa, I see that! I hope you haven't been coming
to this church any length of time and can never say that. We should be seeing some things,
right? I mean, if I'm doing my job at
all, you ought be seeing something. And if it is from the Lord, it
makes your heart rejoice. Just makes your heart come up
with joy and go, oh glory to God, glory to God, I see it. I see it. I remember the first time I saw
Galatians 3:13, we've been redeemed from the curse of the
law. I heard somebody preach and I
never heard anything like that my life. And they took us over to
Deuteronomy 28 and talked about the curse of the law. It included being sick, it
included being broke, it included being depressed and
down, and all this other stuff. And that Christ has redeemed us
from all that. I thought, glory to God. I got excited. I got excited. I haven't gotten over it yet. Why? When the light comes, the heart
rejoices. Every time. I know the Lord spoke to me
about -- I had the privilege of working at the healing school
over at Brother Kenneth Hagin's ministry for a number of years. And as a young, inexperienced
minister, people would come and sometimes they tell me their
problem and I would go to quote a Scripture and they'd finish it
for me and tell me two other ones. And one fellow told me -- I
started to quote 1 Peter 2:24 to him. The Bible says, "By His
stripes..." He said, "I know. You were healed." And he said Isaiah 53, and he
quoted that to me and Matthew 8:17. He said, "You know, I was
following Brother Hagin's ministry while your mom was
changing your diapers." And I wanted to say you know so
much, why are you here trying to get help from a young
whippersnapper like me? But I didn't say that. I just smiled and said, Lord, I
need to learn some things. Because I kept thinking these
guys already know this, I need to find something else. What else can I tell them? I tried to find other Scriptures
and tried to find other things. And the Lord got a hold me one
day and again I don't mean I heard a Voice but I heard, "Son,
they don't need to hear anything else. There's enough power in 1 Peter
2:24 to heal everybody of everything and anything that
could ever be. You don't have to find a new
verse." And I thought that's got to be
so, certainly. He said, "This is it. If somebody is upset, if they're
down, if they're depressed, if they're hopeless, and you give
them the word and they remain hopeless after hearing the word,
they don't believe that word. I don't care if they've known it
and quoted it for decades, they don't believe that word." And so listen, if you share the
word with somebody and they look at you and when you get through
they act like they didn't even hear it, and they're still
crying and they're still upset, they don't believe that word. You don't need to find another
Scripture. The problem is not with the
word, the problem is unbelief. Because when you see it, and
when you believe it -- tell me the response every time. Every time it will rejoice your
heart. You'll go glory to God -- by His
stripes I am healed. Glory to God. Well then, that's it. That's it. But if you're going, "Got any
other Scriptures? I know that. I've been knowing that a long
time." Well, just because you know it,
doesn't mean it's light to you and certainly doesn't mean you
believe it, doesn't mean you're doing anything with it. And it's not the hearer only,
it's the doer. Not just seeing the light, but
what else? Walking in the light that you
see. Can you say, praise God? Oh, thank You Lord. Somebody say, thank You Lord. Thank You for the light. Now sometimes people will try to
say this. They'll say, "I got joy in here,
but I just don't show it very much." Uh, sorry wrong answer. It's simply not true. Proverbs 15:13, let me explain
that to you. Proverbs 15:13 tells it like
this. What does it say? "A merry heart," can be
effectively hidden by more reserved types, may not be
detected. Uh uh. A merry heart, "Maketh," makes,
makes, a what? "A cheerful countenance..." Where's your countenance? It's your face. Sometimes the same word is
translated presence, face, countenance. Face. You have enough joy working in
there, it's going to register on your face where we can see it. Every time. "A merry heart makes," makes,
makes, "a cheerful," full of cheer, "countenance..." If you're all deadpan and sad,
it's because there's not enough in here. Not because it's there but
you're just not letting it out. It's not there. It can be there. Needs to be there. If you'll let it be there. People ask us, "Why you y'all
have to get so loud? It seems that sometimes people
are dancing and shouting and waving their hands. Is all that really necessary?" I don't know how necessary it
is, but I know this. You get full enough and it will
come out. And if nothing is coming out,
you're not full enough. Period. That's not my idea. A merry heart, out of the
abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. It comes out and in the
abundance of the merry joyful heart, makes the countenance
cheerful. Cheerful. Cheerful. "But by sorrow of the heart,"
what happens? Man, "The Spirit is broken." That's how you go down and stay
down. A broken Spirit. Friends, sorrow, and grief, and
depression, will take you down and out. You must not yield to it. We were talking earlier about
resisting stuff, right? You must resist it. Don't give place to it. Feelings come to all of us. One of the signs of immaturity
is talking about how you feel. You hear someone talking about,
"I feel this way... Oh, I feel good... I just don't feel that good
today... I felt better yesterday, but I
guess maybe tomorrow I'll feel... And I feel... I feel..." That is being spiritually a
baby. A mature spiritual person
doesn't talk about how you feel; you've learned better. Did y'all not know that? Stop talking about how you feel. It hinders you. It opens the door to problems. "Well, I just feel like they
don't really care about me... I just feel like... I feel like..." Hush. "The just shall walk by..." Faith, not feelings. Faith. Faith. Your feelings will cause you to
be a yo-yo. Do you know that? I don't care who you are. Oh, dear me. If I yielded to every feeling
that came across my emotions or mind or soul -- I probably
wouldn't be talking to you this morning. I could've just said I don't
feel like staying up all night looking at a thousand
Scriptures. I don't feel like... I don't think some of them like
me too much... I just didn't feel comfortable
the way they looked at me... And they wrote me that ugly
letter from TV land and made me feel bad... And I just don't feel like doing
it again... I don't feel -- oh, brother... If you want to be a baby the
rest of your life, then think about, and talk about, and yield
to how you feel. And you'll ruin your
relationships, you'll ruin your family, you'll mess up your
career, you'll destroy your ministry, you'll be sick in your
body, did you hear me? You'll be depressed in your
mind. Who was it -- Brother Lester
Sumrall, I think, made the mistake one time of asking
Brother Wigglesworth how he felt one day. How do you feel? He said he bellowed and said, "I
don't ask Smith Wigglesworth how he feels! I tell him!" There you go. There you go. You don't ask yourself -- it's
asking for trouble to ask yourself how do I feel today. You tell yourself -- you are --
I don't care how you feel, you're forgiven, you're
cleansed, you're the righteousness of God in Christ
no matter how you feel. I don't care how you feel,
greater is He that's in you than he that in the world. You are an overcomer, you're
more than a conqueror. Your faith is the victory that
overcomes the world no matter how you feel. You're healed by His stripes. You're going to live long. You're going to live strong. No matter how I feel. God is bringing me into the best
shape of my life. I'm paying off every debt, I'm
getting in the best shape, no matter how I feel. Because you see a bunch of
unpaid bills, you might have a wrong feeling. Creditors call you, you might
not feel just wonderful when you hang up. And if you meditate on how you
feel, you're going down, you're going down, going down. Come on now friend, a lot of you
already knew this, but you haven't been doing it. You've been yielding to your
stupid feelings. Now come on. Straighten up. Fly right. Grow up. Talk right. I'm not saying this for my
benefit, I'm saying this for your benefit and all the people
that have to live with you. And they all said -- amen. Please. Please stop talking about how
you feel. Whoa, glory! Go with me please, to the Book
of Mark. Didn't intend to say all that,
but here we are. I'm not taking it back, no
matter how I feel. Mark ten. That is how the devil is
defeating millions, isn't he? How they feel. You know better right? And you're going to do better. I said, you're going to do
better. We're talking about walking in
the light you have. You just heard some things. And whether you heard it first
time or the thirtieth time, you know it, you see it, what are
you going to do? Are you going to be a hearer
only and deceive yourself and kid yourself? Or are you going to be a doer of
the word? Being a doer of that word would
mean what? You stop talking and thinking
about how you feel all the time. You just stop it. You act on this word. How many believe the Lord would
give us what we need and if we would do it, it would change our
life? That's what He's doing. Sometime it's not as spectacular
as what people are looking for, but it is the word that you need
it. That was it. What we just got through with
was a word from God for people in this building and people
watching by the Internet. They've been praying, they been
looking, some have even been fasting, here it is. That's it. Quit talking about, quit
thinking about how you feel. That's the word of the Lord. Quit. And if you'll do that and start
talking faith instead of how you feel, friend your life will
change. Your life will change. Glory to God. Just like it's bit and reins can
steer giant horse, just like a little rudder on a ship can turn
that whole big ship even in a storm, you start saying faith
words instead of how you feel, it will turn your life around. That's the Bible, that's James,
isn't it? Mark ten, are you there? Mark ten, we see an example of
the light, and receiving or rejecting the light. In this tenth chapter of Mark,
the rich young ruler came to Jesus. And the Bible said this is how
he came in verse seventeen. Mark 10:17. "And when He was gone forth into
the way, there came one running, and kneeled to Him, and asked
Him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal
life?" He came running to Him. He says, "Good Master, what
should I do to inherit eternal life?" Does He have any light? He must have some light for him
to know this was the thing to be excited about, and Jesus was the
One to come to, right? He has some light. Can you see some excitement
about Him? He's running. I mean, if you don't want to get
somewhere, you go slow. Try to make it take longer, but
He runs to Jesus. He proclaims, "Good Master, I
submit to You," there is an excitement about him, in him,
from the light that he has received. We know from other Scripture
that he has had an interest in the things of God, and in the
word of God, and he's endeavored to do the ten Commandments, and
to live a righteous life, and then he's found out about Jesus,
and he's heard and seen those things. And he is excited that we are
there, we have found -- it's available here to step into
eternal life. And then Jesus asked him about
his comments, and then He said about keeping the commandments,
and the young man said, "I've done that. All these have I observed from
my youth." Verse twenty. Is he still excited? He's thinking, yeah, I've got
that, I've done that. He's thinking man, I'm close. And he was. And the Lord said, "There's one
thing that you lack. You need to go sell everything
that you have, and I want you to distribute it to the poor," read
the rest of the passage, "You shall have treasure in heaven:
and come, take up the cross, and follow Me." He's calling him into the
ministry. Are you listening? "You can come with Me." Remember the rest the guys He
said come follow me, come follow me. That's Peter, John, Matthew,
Thomas. Is Jesus making something
tremendous available to him? Should he have gotten all the
more excited? Should he have said I'll do it,
I'll do it. I'll go right now. And should he have called his
people, if they had cell phones, and said sell this, liquidate
that, I don't care if I lose the money, I have to get out of it
now. And do this, and we're going to
sell the house, and we're going to do this, we're going to
liquidate, and I want you to give it to this charity, and to
that charity. I want you to do it to that. He could've had fun. He could've had fun. Giving away -- I don't know what
he was worth but he had a lot of money. Millions I reckon by today's
standards or more, I don't know. Could he have had fun giving
millions away, feeding people, clothing people, housing people,
getting medical care to people, come on are you listening? Could he have had fun? Is that what he did? No. It's not what he did. What did he do? Read it. Help me out. What did he do? He was what? "He was sad at that saying,"
blessed are the people that know the joyful sound -- they'll walk
in the light of the Lord's countenance. He came glad, he left sad. What happened to him? "He went away grieved," grieved. Should he have been grieved? Did he have to be grieved? He was grieved, "For he had
great possessions." Is that a reason to be grieved
because you have a lot of stuff? No. What's the problem? The problem is the reason Jesus
told him to do this. Because it put the finger on
what was hindering him from going on into the fullness of
the things of God. God is not against money or
against you having stuff. He is against you being
covetous. He is against you putting money
and things ahead of Him. And so He told him to do it. He didn't tell everybody to sell
everything you got and give it 100% of the poor. He never did that. He told him to do that. Remember Zacchaeus the kids sing
about? The wee little man that climbed
up in the Sycamore tree? Well, the Lord told him -- he
must've been excited, climbing trees, wanting to see Jesus. This guy is running, hollering. Do you see excitement? Where is excitement from? The light came from the word, it
excited them. Zacchaeus climbed the tree and
said, "I'm going to see Jesus. There He is, there He is. He's looking at me. Okay." So he's climbing down the tree
and he comes to see Jesus. And Jesus said, "I'm going to
come eat with you today." He's even more excited. Light. Light. Jesus said, "I am the Light of
the world. The one that walks with Me, he
won't walk in darkness. He will have the light of life." So I mean Zacchaeus, he was
excited and even more excited. And they're at the house in the
middle of the meal, and I don't know if Zacchaeus did this
smoothly or what he did, but he piped up and said, "You know,
everything I ever took away from everybody by lying and cheating
and stealing, I'm going to give it back to them four times what
I took away. And I'm going to get half of
what I got to the poor." And Jesus said no, no, no, a
hundred percent. No, He didn't. No, what did He say? "Today salvation is come to this
house." Glory to God. Why? Because of the heart. And do you see Zacchaeus didn't
go away sad like this man. How many think he shouted the
rest of the day? And the next day. And the next day. This is what this young man is
looking for, he's looking for salvation. He's looking for eternal life. Zacchaeus got it. Why? The Lord knew there was no need
to tell him that he had to sell the rest of it because his heart
-- you could see it. He would've done anything the
Lord told him to do. This man wasn't willing. And when he heard what he came
there so hungry and excited to hear, it made him sad. So many times people look for
the word, look for the word, look for the word, and then when
it comes they go, "Oh, oh Lord, oh Lord, oh God, anything You
want me to do... I'll go where you want to go. I'll do what You want to do,
please Lord use me, please, please, please." And then they hear the word of
the Lord and they go, "Oh, there? With them? But I've got... And I'm doing so-and-so... And I won't be through with this
for the next four or five years... And the kids... And this..." And they're sad. He was sad, and he went away
grieved, and let me say it like this -- he left in darkness. Because when you refuse light,
there's nothing left but darkness. I hope you're listening with
your Spirit today. Person after person after person
has heard the word of the Lord whether He just spoke to them by
His Spirit to their Spirit, or He spoke to them through the
Bible the holy word of God, or He spoke to them through another
brother or sister, or through a minister or in a service, or
whatever, and when they heard the word and they saw that they
got excited. They got excited. Sometimes they got so excited. And they knew they were supposed
to do certain things. Remember the light is not just
to see by -- what do you need to see? So you can walk. You need to see so you can walk. So you can do. And they got so excited. But then they didn't do it. There's a danger in not
immediately acting on the word. You give the devil time and
opportunity to talk you out of it. To provide you with reasoning
and excuses and every other thing. God speaks to us all. And He is endeavoring to lead us
into His perfect plan for our life. God is faithful. He does not leave people just
hangling in the dark. Yeah, hangling. Hanging and dangling; I just
invented a new word there. Hangling in the dark, confused
about where to go. The reason people are so
confused, and so sad, and so depressed, is the same reason
this young man was sad and grieved that next week, and that
next month, or that next year, if he didn't change. Now, if that young man never
changed, I don't know if he did or not, but if he never changed,
how many understand he did not have a happy life after this? Because that money did not give
him joy. The next year and the next year,
it did not fulfill him, because his heart was hungry for
spiritual things. Wasn't it? His heart was hungry. And he was called to the
ministry, wasn't he? And the Lord is saying come
right on help Me now, you need to help Me now. You need to get free from all of
that and not have your mind on anything. And how many understand if he
had sown all that and invested all that, would he have gotten a
harvest in this life and in the next? Yes. The Lord is not asking him to
take a vow of poverty. The Lord was going to the cross
just right away. What kind of harvest -- maybe
the Lord called this young man to pastor, or to travel and
itinerate, but the harvest and all those millions that he sowed
into the poor could have come back to him a hundredfold in
fulfilling the worldwide ministry. Couldn't it? So many things and he could've
lived well and had everything they needed. You know how the Lord is. But he was unwilling. And so he just left and he was
sad. It's a dangerous thing not to
walk in the light that you have promptly. You give the devil opportunity
and time to deceive you. Talk you out of it. I was reminded of Brother
Kenneth Hagin Senior, my father the faith, describing how the
Lord supernaturally healed him as a boy. And you can see so clearly in
his narration of it how light came to him and how the devil
endeavor to take it away. In some cases was successful in
taking it away from him. How many remember Jesus talked
about a sower sows the word it was sown in different types the
ground, and the wayside ground, as soon as it was sown,
immediately the fowl came to what? To devour it up. To get it. Before it could ever get in and
get results. The devil does that. That's why it's important when
you get light and you get excited, do it now. Do it. Act on it. Do it. Don't play with it, don't kid
around with it, do it. He said some of the best doctors
in the country had examined him and treated him and given him no
hope. They said nobody in his
condition had ever lived past sixteen years of age in
documented medical history. And when he was about that and a
couple years prior to that, he started getting bed fast and
bound. And he was, by the time he was
sixteen, totally bed fast. He would be in a coma for days
and going just like they said. Incurable blood disease,
deformed heart. He was born prematurely and his
organs to develop right. And so, no hope. And as a boy though, I guess he
said as a Baptist boy reading grandma's Methodist Bible in the
bed, bed fast, sick, no hope. Best doctors in the world said
no hope. He came across Mark 11:24 where
Jesus said, "Verily, verily I say unto you what things so ever
you desire when you pray believe that you receive them and you
shall have them." He said he read that and he
thought, huh? Huh? What? I desire healing. I don't want to die being
sixteen and never having lived. I want to grow up. I want to be married, I want to
have a family, I want to have a life. I don't want to die at sixteen. I desire healing, I desire a
well body. Can I really believe that
receive it and have it? Jesus said it. Red letters, that's my words. He got excited. But he thought I'm just a
teenager, I don't know much about the Bible. I'll get a minister to come and
explain it to me. That can be a mistake. But he didn't know. And so his grandmother asked
this minister to come and see him and never did. And asked another and he never
did, and another. And finally a fellow came. But that particular morning he
had a bad day and his tongue was paralyzed and he couldn't talk. So the guy came and he was
trying to tell him, he was pointing to the Bible and he
wanted to get him to turn to Mark 11:24 and he wanted him to
explain did that verse means what he thought it meant. Let's just stop right here. Did he get some excitement when
he read Mark 11:24? Why did he get some excitement? Light had come in to him and
what did it do to his heart? It caused his heart to rejoice. Is that good? Is that right? That's exactly what you need. When the light comes, faith is
there. Faith comes by hearing and
hearing by the word. And so he said he tried to tell
him but all he could say was-his tongue was paralyzed, he
couldn't get it out. And he said the guy just came
and grabbed his hand and patted it and said -- put on his
professional preacher voice and said, "Just be patient my boy. In a few more days it will all
be over." Put his hand down. Walked over to the living room,
talked to his grandmother and mother about funeral
arrangements for him. He said even though the sun was
shining bright, it was dark in that room. He thought he will just wait to
die. What happened? Come on, listen to me. What had happened to him? He was rejoicing, now he's sad. What happened? This guy came in and told him
something and he let it put the light out. He decided what he got excited
about, he was just excitable. But, he didn't die. And while he's waiting around to
die, he got a little better a day or two and he decided I'll
read the Bible some more. And he came across James 5:14-15
that said, "Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of
the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil
in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the
sick, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he have committed
sins, they shall be forgiven him." He thought whoa, if I could just
find somebody to pray the prayer of faith, it says it right
there. Excitement. Light. He said in retrospect of having
walked with the Lord for fifty or sixty years, whenever he was
telling that, he said he looks back now and it was like a
little bit of light coming through keyhole. But when you've been in pitch
darkness, you glad to see that, aren't you? And it excited him. And he said but, the thought
came to him, "Well, yeah, but if you can pray the prayer of
faith..." I want you to listen carefully
how the devil works. He's not hearing audible voices,
these are thoughts that are coming to his mind while he's
laying on the bed. He's excited, glory to God, if I
could just figure out how to pray the prayer of faith. Or if I could find somebody to
pray the prayer of faith, I can be healed and oh glory to God,
glory to God. And he said these thoughts came
and said, "Well, now the apostles could pray that kind of
prayer. But when the last apostle died
all that ceased." He had heard somebody else
preach that. "And so that's passed away. The Lord did special things to
help establish the church, and the apostles had that kind of
faith. But, you don't, and no preacher
you know does. That's been done away." He said again, the light went
out. He was just sitting there
waiting to die. Are you seeing what we're talking
about here, friends? Light, excitement, rejoicing,
and then what? Sadness, grieving, darkness. He said he was just waited to
die. But, while he was waiting to
die, he didn't die. He thought he'd read some more
in the Scripture and he came across Mark about the woman that
pressed through the crowd with the issue blood, and touched the
edge of his garment. And you know immediately her
issue of blood stopped, and she felt and knew in her body she
was healed of the plague. And Jesus told her, "Daughter,
be of good comfort. Your faith has made you whole." And that phrase just jumped out
to him and he's thinking yeah, but the prayer of faith -- the
last apostle, that's been done away with. He's said a thought came to him
and not an audible voice but inside him said, "Have you ever
heard anybody say faith has been done away with?" He thought no, he never heard
anybody say faith is done away with. He said the voice said, "No, and
you never will, because if it's been done away with, there is no
church, there is no salvation." And he read the phrase and it
said her faith made her whole. He said, "Have you ever heard
anybody say faith been done away with?" Well, no. "Well, if her faith would make
her whole, your faith would make you whole." Oh! He said he got excited again. He thought glory to God, her
faith, her faith. She's not one of the apostles,
her faith made her whole. If her faith would make her
whole -- and he said he got excited. He thought glory to God, I can
be healed, I can be healed. And as he was getting excited,
he said a supernatural thing happened to him. He said to him it was an audible
voice. Of course, he's called to the
prophets ministry, and these kind of things that he got from
the Spirit of God later on, but he said to him it was a voice
that said, "For what is your life? It is even a vapor. It appeareth for a little while,
and then vanisheth away." That's James. A little bit spooky though. And then he said he sitting
there thinking, whoa -- he thought God was talking to him
in an audible voice. He said he sat there so reverent
and then he said the voice came to him again and said -- quoted
from a Scripture and said, "Set your house in order for this day
you shall surely die." He thought -- well, God has told
me I'm going to die. He said the sun was shining
bright outside but inside it was dark. He thought God told him he was
going to die; that's it. Dark. Depressed. Hopeless. No light. But he didn't die that day. And the Lord eventually showed
him other Scriptures about long life and about healing. And he realized even though that
was supernatural, it wasn't God. I wanted to just
give you a few of those, because I think they're such good
examples of how the devil comes to steal. Anytime you get something good
out of the word, and you get light, and you get excited,
he'll immediately come and go, "Well, well, hold on now. Hold on. That's not talking about
financial prosperity. Hold on, hold on. Now, that's not physical
healing. Hold on, that's just for the
Jews. That's just for that first
dispensation." And he gets all theological and
all complicated and all -- listen. If it takes away your light and
takes away your joy, it wasn't God. I don't care how many Scriptures
they misquoted and twisted, the devil quotes Scriptures, you
know that don't you? Certainly he does. No, listen to me. When the Lord speaks to your
heart, even if it's correcting you, it's light. It gives you hope at the end of
the tunnel. Even if you need to make some
changes you can see good things afterwards, it rejoices your
heart. Can you say, praise God? Is there a danger of
procrastination and waiting when you get excited and rejoice
about something the Lord said to you or shown you? What are you doing while you're
waiting. You're giving the enemy the
opportunity to come talk you out of it. He told the story, while I'm
talking about him, of a man -- this wasn't his meeting. I'm getting a couple of them
mixed up now -- anyway. A man was crippled in his legs
and he got healed in this meeting. He wasn't from that particular
kind of church, more traditional church and didn't preach that
and believe in that, but glory to God he hadn't been able to
walk. And he came walking down the
sidewalk and his neighbor just about fell out his chair and
thought what happened to you? He said it was down there at
that wild Pentecostal meeting and that preacher prayed for me
and I can walk. Well, ain't nothing but good
about that. But he went back to his church
where he and his family had gone for generations and the pastor
called him aside and told him that that stuff was of the
devil. All that speaking in tongues,
and all that carrying on, and healing stuff, and miracle
stuff. Yeah, there was some spectacular
stuff happening, but it was the devil. And he wouldn't want to be
healed by the devil. Oh, dear me. The devil isn't healing folks. He's stealing, killing and
destroying. But you know he went back home
and he got to talking with his family about that and he said,
"I don't want anything from the devil." They started talking, "You might
want to lost messing around with this occult devil stuff." And you know it wasn't a matter
of weeks he was paralyzed again. And people say, "He never was
healed." Oh, come on. Give me a break. The guy couldn't walk for all
these years and he's walking down the sidewalk? Something happened to him,
right? No. What happened? His own family, bless their
hearts, and his own preacher put the light out. I said, they put the light out. They came and told him stuff
that wasn't true, and caused him to lose his joy, and reject the
light that had come in and changed his life. Does it matter who you listen
to? Who you give your ear to? Oh, it matters. Oh, it matters. Some things you just need to
hold up a hand and say I don't want to hear that. I don't want to hear that. I'm enjoying this, leave me
alone. Because you may not be as strong
as you think you are when they start reasoning. And there's a whole lot of stuff
you don't understand and you don't know, and it's your
ignorance that can get you in trouble. Ezekiel 13:22 describes this. Ezekiel 13:22. The Lord said to these people,
"With lies you have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom
I have not made sad," He said I didn't make them sad, you made
them sad. How did they make them sad? Telling them lies. Lies. The word, the truth, gives
light. Light gives life. Life quickens and rejoices. Lies darken. And the darkness brings
depression. Can you see this? And depression results in loss
and death. Should you be sad? Should you be grieved? Or should you be excited about
something the Lord showed you. Even if it looks like you can't
see any way, anyhow it could ever happen and come to pass,
should you still be excited about it? That's what faith is all about. That's what faith is all about. You know we talked about Brother
Hagin -- it was still months after that that he was still bed
fast in that condition. But eventually he got to seeing
that's not right that stuff that came to me. Those thoughts. I can be healed. And he did act on Mark 11:24 and
by faith he claimed his healing and pushed his paralyzed legs --
he said they were like chunks of wood that fell and hit the floor
and stood holding on to the bed post saying I'm healed, I'm
healed. Confessing he's healed. He said the power of God hit him
in the top of the head, flowed over his body. He said his hips in his legs
began to sting like a thousand pins because they had been dead. He said it hurt terribly, but it
also felt so good because it was feeling. Oh, hallelujah! And the next thing you know he's
standing there on his own power praising God. And he preached the Gospel for
the next sixty something years. Glory to God! Why? Because he didn't believe the
lies, and he didn't let any unbelieving preachers, or
kinfolk, or devil, or supernatural experience cause
him to lose the light and the joy of what the Lord had shown
him. He didn't just receive it, he
walked in it. Ha ha! And the miracles manifested. You and I are part of it today. Our ministries is a product of
that ministry. Glory to God. And the same thing true in your
life. If you'll walk in the light that
you have, many will be affected by it. Many will be blessed. Your immediate family, your
friends, your coworkers. Because the light shines, and
spreads, and infects others, hallelujah, in a good way. Can you say, praise God? Stand up on your feet everybody. Oh, the Lord is good. He is the Light. He gives us light. Somebody say, thank You for the
light. Say it again, thank You for the
light. Tell me what you should do with
the light. Oh, you should receive it, you
should rejoice in it, and you should immediately, without
delay, put it into practice, the best way you know how. And as you take a step, even
though you don't know much about it, you try to put it in your
life, try to do it, more light will come. He'll take you by the hand,
He'll walk you right through it, He'll lead you right out of your
problem. Right out of darkness into
light. Right out of defeat into
victory. Glory to God. Right out of death, into life. You believe it. Hallelujah. Put your hands up. Close your eyes. Say it out loud, "Thank you, Father God
for the glorious light of the good news of Jesus Christ. Any light You have shown me in
times past that I let be taken away from me. I failed to do it. I let it go. I let others talk me out of it. I waited and waited until I lost
the joy of it, reasoned and rationalized, I ask you to forgive me. I ask You to show it to me again, please, a fresh and aknew. Help me to see it, that I can be excited again. This time by Your grace I purpose to
hold on to it, not let anybody steal it, and be a doer of it by Your grace. Thank You, Lord. Put up your hands. Begin to thank Him and praise Him. Oh, thank you. Thank you.
