Calling Those Things That Are Not
July 10, 2016
Valley Grove Assembly of God
Genesis 12:1-7
Genesis 13:14-18
The promises
Genesis 15:1-6 he believed
Genesis 17:1-5 change of name
24 years went by
Introduction: God had many things planned for Abram a long time before it ever happened. He laid out the plan and Abram took some steps to do what God wanted him to do—he started out, he built altars at various places, he believed God up to a point because in Chapter 15 he asked, “How shall I KNOW? What will you give me seeing I go childless? The things God had promised still hadn’t materialized and 24 years had gone by nd he and Sarah were getting older and older. Abram was already 99, and it didn’t look like all of this was going to work out, but as God continued to talk things over with him, it says that he believed God. Romans 4:3 says “and Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness.” What seemed to make the biggest difference was when God changed his name from Abram to Abraham meaning the father of many nations have I made thee. Abraham knew the importance of names back at that time. And what they signified but in the middle of his believing he had a mixture of being overwhelmed with this news because both he and Sarah LAUGHED AT THE THINGS WHICH GOD SAID. –THE UTTER IMPOSSIBILITY. How in the world could this be? Then they said, “No we didn’t laugh.” Sometimes we think these Bible characters believed immediately when God told them something, but they struggled just like we do. Abraham had the PROMISES in the spiritual realm 24 years earlier but it had not happened yet in the physical realm. How does he get it from the promise into the here and now? It says in Genesis 21:5 Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born. Another verse says in Genesis 18:14, Is anything too hard for the Lord? We know that as time went by Abraham and Sarah learned how to walk in God’s promises and see them unfold in the
here and now.
Abraham received the promises in the spiritual realm before he saw them in the natural realm. They were good promises but he didn’t have the sheep in the pen or the cattle in the fields. He didn’t see the promised son. He couldn’t pick him up.
Most of you have heard Abraham mentioned in the New Testament in Romans 4:17 where it says, “he called those things that ‘BE NOT’ as though they WERE.” He had the promise but it was way out there somewhere. He hadn’t received it yet in the natural. The verse in Romans tells us that he CALLED it so. He CALLED it already done. I am CALLING it AS IF it were already done.
There is another verse that goes right along with this one. I Corinthians 1:28 says, ‘and things which are not, to bring to nought (to nothing) things that are. What does that mean?
To Abraham there were some things in place that he didn’t want to be there. What does he do about that? It says “to bring to nought”—What he is saying is “to REPLACE those things he didn’t want. Where there is an empty field, he will now see sheep and cattle. Where Sarah was childless there would be baby Isaac.
“To bring to nought”—to change the current situation—to replace it with the promise.
STORY: One time Walter and I went to Texas to a Kenneth Copeland motorcycle rally. I stepped out of the motor home and twisted my ankle. I thought I had sprained my ankle but it hurt for weeks and I finally went to have it x-rayed to see if I had chipped a bone. Nothing wrong with it, but it still hurt. I was working at the Christian school and every Thursday they prayed for one of the teachers and that day was my turn. I sat on a chair in the middle of the room and they laid hands on my ankle. When they got done praying it still hurt. Usually around 10:00 my ankle would really be hurting. I finished the day and didn’t think any more about it and then that night it dawned on me that there was no pain and to this day the pain has been completely gone. The pain was “brought to nought,” replaced with healing.
There are a lot of promises in the Bible that God intends for us but we don’t grab ahold of them either because we think they are not for us, we doubt, think it is impossible, think it might not be God’s will or some other reason. There are all kinds of healing scriptures that we don’t take ahold of. People say, Whatever will be will be.” That is about as good as nothing to say that.
“I am the Lord that healeth thee”
“By his stripes ye are healed.”
“Who forgives all your sins nd heals all your diseases”
When I had colon cancer there was a particular verse that I latched on to and said all the time. “I will not die but live and will declare the works of the Lord” (Psalm 118:17).
We have not only promises for healing but for provision. We have to find these promises that apply to our specific situation and make them our verses. Philippians 4:19, “But my God shall supply ALL your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Do you believe that? Or do you say, “Oh, I’ll never have anything. Never have a good job.” “Give and it shall be given to you, good measure, pressed down, and shaken together and running over shall men give unto your bosom, for with the same measure that ye meet will be measured unto you” (Luke 6:38).
How do we get the scriptures to work for us? We have to activate our faith. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen.” Faith puts the substance to a promise on healing or finances or a job. Faith activated calls those things that BE NOT into being or REPLACES what needs to be replaced.
How do you get your faith activated? Faith is activated by SPEAKING. Mark 11:22-23 says, “Have faith in God. For verily I say until you that whosoever shall SAY unto this mountain (problem) be thou removed and be cast into sea and shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe that those things shall come to pass he shall have whatsoever he saith.”
I think you do better when you SAY it out loud—not silently in your head.
What do we say? Do we pray begging God to do something? Why do we have to beg for something He has already given us? II Peter 1:3 says, “God has given all things that pertains to life and godliness.” When sickness is all over you, you don’t call it. People will say, “My diabetes, my fibromyalgia, my something else. You don’t want to make a friend of your sickness and disease. You call forth what you don’t have. Abraham called those things which BE NOT as though they were. He had the promise already in the spiritual realm that God had proclaimed to him. God said, “Abraham I have made you the father of many nations—not I’m gonna’ do this for you [maybe] one of these days.” The things that are not seen will overtake things that are seen. It might not be instantaneous. When I was growing up in the Assembly of God church we had healing lines at the end of a service where we would go up and be prayed for but if we didn’t get healed instantly, we didn’t think we got anything so we would say, “Guess I didn’t get anything.” Rather than expecting it still to happen. We often cancelled out the work that had begun.
“He which hath begun a good work in you will complete it unto the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6). If something began when you were prayed for, what do you expect to happen? Something, nothing, don’t know, don’t have the slightest idea?
Abraham called the promise effective.
How can we call things forth when we are prayed for? By speaking out in faith.
Thank God I’m recovering. I call my body well. I am calling my body well. I am calling my finances improved. It is already an accomplished fact in the realm of the spiritual. It was for Abraham 24 years before it happened in the natural realm. If he could have gotten his believing straightened out, he would have had it long before then. I am calling for what I don’t yet have in my body or in whatever else I need. II Cor. 4:13 says, “I believed and therefore have I spoke.” You believe and say it—speak it with words and that puts you in agreement with what God says. That activates your faith.
What do I say when I open my mouth to speak? What does God’s word say about it?
By his stripes I am healed.
I m the Lord that healeth you.
So…I am calling forth what God sys about me.
Thank God I am recovering.” It’s your job to watch your self talk after you have been prayed for. I call forth healing and health into y body. I call forth finances to pay any bill I have to pay. My God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
substance to a promise on healing or finances or a job. Faith activated calls those things that BE NOT into being or REPLACES what needs to be replaced.
How do you get your faith activated? Faith is activated by SPEAKING. Mark 11:22-23 says, “Have faith in God. For verily I say until you that whosoever shall SAY unto this mountain (problem) be thou removed and be cast into sea and shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe that those things shall come to pass he shall have whatsoever he saith.”
I think you do better when you SAY it out loud—not silently in your head.
What do we say? Do we pray begging God to do something? Why do we have to beg for something He has already given us? II Peter 1:3 says, “God has given all things that pertains to life and godliness.” When sickness is all over you, you don’t call it. People will say, “My diabetes, my fibromyalgia, my something else. You don’t want to make a friend of your sickness and disease. You call forth what you don’t have. Abraham called those things which BE NOT as though they were. He had the promise already in the spiritual realm that God had proclaimed to him. God said, “Abraham I have made you the father of many nations—not I’m gonna’ do this for you [maybe] one of these days.” The things that are not seen will overtake things that are seen. It might not be instantaneous. When I was growing up in the Assembly of God church we had healing lines at the end of a service where we would go up and be prayed for but if we didn’t get healed instantly, we didn’t think we got anything so we would say, “Guess I didn’t get anything.” Rather than expecting it still to happen. We often cancelled out the work that had begun.
“He which hath begun a good work in you will complete it unto the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6). If something began when you were prayed for, what do you expect to happen? Something, nothing, don’t know, don’t have the slightest idea?
Abraham called the promise effective.
How can we call things forth when we are prayed for? By speaking out in faith.
Thank God I’m recovering. I call my body well. I am calling my body well. I am calling my finances improved. It is already an accomplished fact in the realm of the spiritual. It was for Abraham 24 years before it happened in the natural realm. If he could have gotten his believing straightened out, he would have had it long before then. I am calling for what I don’t yet have in my body or in whatever else I need. II Cor. 4:13 says, “I believed and therefore have I spoke.” You believe and say it—speak it with words and that puts you in agreement with what God says. That activates your faith.
What do I say when I open my mouth to speak? What does God’s word say about it?
By his stripes I am healed.
I m the Lord that healeth you.
So…I am calling forth what God sys about me.
Thank God I am recovering.” It’s your job to watch your self talk after you have been prayed for. I call forth healing and health into y body. I call forth finances to pay any bill I have to pay. My God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Closing Prayer: Lord I count those things that be not as though they already were. I call them forth now. Thank you Jesus. Amen.
