July 26, 2009
Morning Worship
Text: Philippians 3:12-20
Subject: Part Six in the Seven Steps to Receive God’s Miracle
Title: Crossing Over into the Supernatural
Hasn’t God been good in our services? It is so wonderful to see the church moving forward in the things of God and what He wants to do in the church instead of what we think is right. One of the evidences of change that I see in the church is the large number of you who have shown up on Wednesday evenings for our evangelism class. You know that God has called you to be a witness and now you are loading up your arsenal with words and techniques and hunger and compassion to take the word of God out into a lost and dying world.
Another evidence is seen during the worship service or the song service with the way people are responding to God. I believe we are entering into a new level of worship and an excitement for the operation of the gifts of the Spirit and the things of the Spirit of God.
Finally, we see the evidence of what God is doing in the church by your willingness to step out in faith to receive the things that God has already promised you. You have accepted all the works that God has done for you and now you are receiving blessings, healing, provision, spiritual gifts like never before. The response to the altar calls has taken on a new dynamic because of the great expectancy in the church.
Today I want you to see that God has never intended for this kind of revival fire to be short term. He has asked us to occupy till He returns. So from now until the rapture of the church we are to maintain and even exceed where we are now in the Lord. We have gone from accepting the things that God has promised and stepping out in faith to receive them, to crossing over into the spirit realm in order to stay connected to what the Holy Spirit wants for your life.
And that is where I want to take you today. To step out in faith and receive the things of God in your life is one thing, but to cross over into the spirit realm and continue to walk in the Spirit is something more.
In ancient Greece the Olympic games had one race that was different than all the others. In this race it wasn’t the one who finished first who won. It was the one who finished with his torch still lit.
That is God’s desire for the church today – to finish the race with the torch of faith still blazing, so that we may continue to walk in the Spirit and in all the promises that our God has given us.
I. CROSSING OVER TO WHAT IS YOURS. You’ve taken that all important first step into the supernatural. You are in agreement with the scriptures about what God wants to do in your life. As a matter of fact you understand that in God’s time it is already done. He is not going to do anything more to save, heal, provide for, or bless you than what He has already done. It was all accomplished at the cross. Yet Paul says, 12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect… Maybe there is something that you have been asking God for in your life for some time and yet you have not received it. It does not mean that it has not happened yet. In truth, it already has happened in the spirit realm and now God is waiting to pour it out into your natural man or your physical body. Mark 11:22-24, 22“Have£ faith in God,” Jesus answered. 23“I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. 24Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. You may not see the physical results of it yet but it is there and it is yours nonetheless. How can you do that? I mean, how can you have faith in something even though you have not seen the physical manifestation of it yet? First of all, isn’t that what faith is? Hebrews 11:1, Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Do you see heaven right now? Does that make it any less real? How do you know it’s real? By faith! Second, faith begins in the heart or spirit of a man. The mind is the origin of doubt and not faith. If you have to wait until it makes sense you probably will never receive God’s promise in your life. Third, even though we don’t see all the evidence right now Paul tells us these things about heaven. 1) In Ephesians 1:3, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ… It doesn’t take a degree in theology to understand what it is that God has blessed us with in the heavenly realms. #1 is eternal life. But it goes beyond that. When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray He said, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” So the things that are experienced in heaven are intended to translate over into the natural for believers. Salvation is for eternal life but so many of God’s other promises are intended for you on earth. 2) 1 Timothy 4:8, …godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. So Paul can now say in Philippians 3:12, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. How do you do that? By accepting God’s word by faith! Did you ever stop to think why we don’t receive as much from God as He would have us receive? Is it because we have convinced ourselves that it is just for eternity that Jesus died, rose again and ascended into heaven? 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. You see, Paul understood that the promises were already his, and now he was willing to set aside a life that was under the control of the god of this world and to move into a new life of power and expectancy – a life in the Spirit that he could walk in continually. Paul had crossed over into the spirit realm.
II. HOLDING FIRM TO WHAT IS YOURS 15All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. Back in verse 10 Paul said something that should really make you think. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death… One of the meanings of the word translated “know” is “to be aware of”. So Paul is saying, I want to be aware of the power of Jesus’ resurrection in my life. I want to know that spiritual power is for me through that baptism in the Holy Spirit and through that power, which is the same power that was at work in the life of Jesus, I can hold on to the miracles that God wants to pour out into my life. Ephesians 3:20-21, 20Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Now go back to Philippians 3:15. Who is it that Paul is reminding that they should remember what God has in store for them? It is for the mature! And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. God has not hidden His promises from you. He has not concealed His word from you but is continually revealing it to you by revelation through the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 2:9-10, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”10but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. At what point are we willing to cross over into what God has already done in the spirit realm and then hold on till we receive it in the natural? You know there are companies in the world that invest large sums of money in searching for lost treasure. They send ships with the latest equipment out to see to try and find sunken treasure. They have never seen it but they know that it is there somewhere so they keep looking and waiting till the see the proof of it. Paul says that Christians should be the same way. Verse 16, 16Only let us live up to what we have already attained. Hebrews 11:6 says, 6And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. In that verse I want you to focus on one word – believe. That word refers to a constant faith, an ongoing relationship with God and if so, then it must also be an ongoing faith in His word and all His promises and the signs and wonders and miracles that He has told us would follow all who believe. It is not a faith that comes and goes but one that we can hold on to without wavering because we know that the one who promised is true!
III. MOVING FORWARD IN WHAT IS YOURS. 17Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. There are people in the church who have that kind of faith – the kind where they are continually expecting God to do something in their lives. You who don’t have that kind of faith should keep your eyes on those who do and use them as an encouragement for you to receive God’s promises and walk in the Spirit. Paul never stopped expecting the power of God to be displayed in his life. 1 Corinthians 2:4, My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power… Romans 15:17-19, 17Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. 18I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done—19by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit. Paul continually moved forward in his life knowing that God was always able to deliver him from the power of the enemy. 18For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. Do you see the compassion that Paul had for those who were being blinded by the god of this age? But, he says, regardless of how good those people appear to be (and they are good Christian people) do not be influenced by their understanding, or lack of understanding, concerning what God wants to do in the church today. The enemy is powerless over you. You have been given authority over him and over all his demons, unless you give them a foothold through unbelief. 20But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. Paul walked through his life on earth with eternity in mind. Yet he fully understood that his faith and his understanding of what God desired for his life had carried him through and it was the faith for the here and now that would get him through to eternity.
Do you understand that God has a miracle for you? Do you understand that once you have received a miracle you have crossed over into the realm of the supernatural that begins in the spirit realm? As we strive more and more to walk in the Spirit and live according to the Spirit, we will become conduits for spiritual activity among your friends and family. Once you begin to realize what God wants to do then you will begin to see that He is not going to do anything on this earth outside of His church. You are the vessel that He has set apart to carry out the miraculous. It is you that He is waiting upon to cry out in prayer, step out in faith, and hold out in hope.
When Paul said, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” he was speaking of the natural man. 1 Corinthians 2:14, 14The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. But you are not that man. You have the Spirit of God and as is the case for many of you, the overflowing of the Spirit, so that you can understand. You can walk in the Spirit realm and hold on to those miracles that are just waiting to manifest themselves in your life. God is revealing His very nature, His desires for your life, His power and His love for you to those who will seek His face and call out to Him. Jeremiah 33:3, ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’
God is calling us to the place where we can expect Him to move by His Spirit in our lives while we look to the eastern sky waiting for His return.
We have crossed over into the supernatural.
Open your hearts to the things God has promised you, and hold tight.
