When we go before the Almighty God in prayer, when we go and stand before the Almighty God in prayer, we need to know that He has the authority over everything, every situation. He has the authority over the wind and the wave. He has the authority over sickness. He has the authority over demonic spirits. He has the authority over your finances. He has the authority over your job. He has authority over every human being in this world. He can do anything. If we have that resolved in our hearts that God can do anything, then when we come to the Lord, we know, “When I ask my Father, He will give it to me.” That confidence that we have in God, when we enter into His presence, with that confidence saying, “Lord, I am coming to You because I know that You are here.”
When we close our eyes we should be able to see God in front of us. It’s not like, I am closing my eyes and I am saying, “Lord, I don’t where You are”, and cry and cry and cry and cry and say, “Lord, I don’t know if You can hear, I don’t know if You can see. Lord, I don’t even know if You can feel what I feel. I am the only person going through this. Lord, I don’t know. I don’t feel like reading. I don’t feel like praying. Lord, I am not going to listen to Your message. I am not going to do anything. What is the use in following Jesus? I might as well go back to where I was before.” That is Satan. That comes from Satan but we know who God is.
Two things: 1) His power (2) His character.
We need to know the power of God. If you are not sure how powerful God is, or how powerful Jesus Christ is, read the Bible. Just reading the gospels will show you that He is the Lord of resurrection and life. He has the power over the wind and the waves. He has the power over death. And Jesus can bring a dead person back to life and we have seen that more than once in the Bible. So, basically, He can do anything. And if you read the Old Testament, God made the sun to stand still. So, God can do anything. God can do anything for His children. He will stop the sun, He will stop the moon. He can stop anything. But, we need to know who God is. God is there. His character is the same. He doesn’t change. We need to know who God is.
The third thing I want to say is, that God is good. God is all-powerful. The goodness of God is the character of God. And God is all-powerful, that talks about his power. The third thing is: that God is holy. We cannot come to the Lord, expecting something from the Lord, if our heart is unrighteous. If we have sin in our hearts, God can do it once to show His glory. But, if it is a repeated pattern that we see, we harbor sin in our hearts, we harbor adultery in our hearts, we harbor hate in our hearts, we harbor vengeance in our hearts. If we keep lying continuously and if we steal a little bit here, some of the office papers, office pens and office pencils and whatever it is. And do some wrong calculations in our tax returns and lie and take a little bit of change from work and whatever it is, whatever you do. If you say you are a child of God, you have no business touching that which does not belong to you. That includes somebody else’s wife also. So, when it comes to dealing truthfully in the presence of the Lord, God will look at it. Just like God sees, God’s eyes run to and fro throughout the earth, to see whose hearts are loyal to Him.(I Chronicles 16:9) God’s ears are listening attentively to the cry of the righteous, to the voice of the righteous. (Psalm 34:15) So, if you and I become righteous by the blood of Jesus, and if we are righteous by walking in that righteous path, cleansing ourselves continuously with the blood of Jesus and living a righteous life, then we are bound to receive that which we ask of the Lord. We go into God’s presence and say, “Lord”...it’s like a child coming to me and saying, my daughter coming to me and saying, “Mommy, I am hungry.” I never say, “Ok, be quiet. You don’t need food. Go and sit down in the corner.” We don’t say that. We never do that. But if a child is hungry, we say, “Ok, I am going to give you food.” If the child comes and says, “Mommy, my socks is ripped or my shirt is torn.” We don’t say, “It’s ok, who cares how your clothes are. You can just have that.” We never say that. How much more our Heavenly Father! When we say, “Lord, I need this. Lord, I need this.” When we come and tell the Lord knowing that He is right in front of us.
Now, like I said this applies to a child of God, it applies to a child who is not in rebellion with the Lord. When we come and ask the Lord saying, “Lord, I need this, Daddy, I need this.” What does Daddy do? What will He do when He hears that. He is going to say, “Oh! My child, you need that, I am going to give it to you”, provided He knows we don’t ask things that we shouldn’t be asking. So, we see right before that, in that same chapter where that leper, he came and he said, “Lord, if it’s Your will, please heal me.” (Mathew 8:2) And the Lord said, “It is my will, be thou cleansed.”(Mathew 8:3) And God healed him. It’s like my daughter coming and asking me, “Mommy, if it is your will, give me some food.” We know the will of a mother or a father is to feed the children and God’s will for us, we and our lives is to give good things. Every good and perfect thing comes from the Father of lights (James 1:17)
And whatever we need, we can go boldly into the presence of the Lord, if you are walking with the Lord to say, “Lord, give it to me. Lord, I need this. Lord, I need this.” Even if our job is difficult, we can go and ask the Lord, “Lord, make this burden light.” God is able to do that. We don’t have to think, “Oh, I am trying to ask God for an easy way out. I don’t want to ask.” We don’t want to feel that way. God can do it. God can make the burden light. And if the Lord says, “I am going to take you through this, but I am going to give you the grace to take this burden, and to show My supernatural power through this”, God will do that too. So, God answers the prayer, whatever we ask according to His will, according to His will, and that is the best thing that we can receive from the Lord.
And God is good and His Word says, “Whatever we ask when we ask in faith, He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or imagine.” (Ephesians 3:20) So, if we ask for 5 dollars, God never gives 5 dollars, He never gives 6 dollars, He never gives 7 dollars. God gives much more, more than we can ask or imagine; that is our Daddy. That is our Heavenly Father. And we can give that Name to God. He is a God who gives more than we ask or imagine. That is His character. And when we ask for help, it says even in the Bible, in Psalms, it says, “You asked me for life, and He gave extended life.” God gave abundant life. (Psalm 21:4) And God is the God who gives in abundance. So, He never measures. God never measures. And we see this all the time when we do something for somebody; say you give $50 for somebody’s birthday. A lot of times you can see, the next time when the birthday comes around, you know for us, we will get something in that range of $50. You know, you give $100, they’ll say, “Oh, they gave $100, we have to give $100” you know, something. And it’s an obligation and they want to make it even. But God is never like that. God surpasses, He gives us more than we ask or imagine. That is our Heavenly Father. And no bank in this world can match God’s account, God’s bank in heaven.
So trust God, when we go to the Lord, we need to know:
1) The power and authority that God has
2) The character of God. God is compassionate.
He is all-loving and He is all-caring. And He sees and He feels what we go through. He is not some God who stays somewhere and He says, “Ok, I want you to toughen up. Cry some more, cry some more, I want you to see you cry until you stop crying and you get tough inside.” God is never like that. God says, “You come to me.” God knows how to grow us. God knows how to strengthen us. God gives us strength. He never takes us through a path where we cannot walk. He gives us that strength. It’s like us with our children, if we are going to take them hiking, we never tell them, “Ok, walk bare feet, so your feet, that will get that callous while it bleeds. So, walk with me.” We never take them like that! We make sure they wear proper boots, proper clothes, and whatever cream they need. Whatever we need to put, we make sure they are safe and we take them with us. How much more our Heavenly Father!
“In this world,” (in our spiritual life), God says, “We will have tribulation.” But God says, “Cheer up, I have overcome this world.”(John 16:33) That means He is with us and He is giving us the strength and the grace and the equipment, everything we need through the Holy Spirit to walk the path that He has called us to walk. And that’s why; we are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ because He has actually set the trail. God has actually set the trail. He walked before us. And He is walking with us. It’s not that, He said, “Ok, I’ve walked before you and now you walk by yourself. I am God, so I was able to walk and now you have to somehow crawl and fall and somehow get hurt and bruise and end up in heaven.” No! God is such a good God. He walked before us and He is walking with us. Every step of the way Jesus Christ is walking with us. He is holding our hands and He is walking with us.
If we believe that, we will see that in our day-to-day lives, how He is holding us. How He is walking with us. When we say, “Father, I am not able to walk anymore.” God at that minute, gives us grace. When we say, “Lord, I need grace, I need grace.” When we say, “Lord, my feet are hurting, help me, give me grace.” The Lord is so good and so faithful to give grace and He will strengthen those feet and He will cause you to keep moving forward. God never says, “Ok, you are not able to walk. Go sit down for some time, lose time.” No. God gives that grace. If need be, He will carry us on His shoulder and He’ll walk. So we don’t lose time. With God, we will keep making progress. We will keep going from faith to faith, glory to glory, strength to strength. That is our Jesus Christ!
So, let’s read that passage one more time. And may this word just go deep into our hearts: The character of Jesus Christ; and the authority of Jesus Christ, the authority that He has over everything, everything. That means, when we come to the Lord, we really believe that He has the power to deal with our circumstances right now. And God can do it. If He is waiting, that means, He has a purpose. Jesus had the power to heal Lazarus, didn’t He? He had the power to heal Lazarus, but He delayed. He got the news. So, just like that, sometimes we go and pray, you know, we pray, we ask the Lord, “Lord, heal my son. Lord, he is being tormented. Heal my son.” You know what? Jesus knows. He cares. He listens. He is not a heartless God. He doesn't say, “Ok, suffer some more.”
But, when God works all things together for good, when He says, “This is going to be for greater glory for Me to resurrect that Lazarus out of the dead”, the Lord will wait. So, God’s timing is there. And the Lord will wait. At that time, it can be painful for us. When we have to go through pain, we really go through pain. So, we don’t automatically become numb to feelings. We don’t become numb to our circumstances because we are walking with God. We are humans and we feel pain. But the glorious thing is, like apostle Paul says, “No matter what happens, we don’t despair. No matter what happens, we are not crushed. No matter what happens, we don’t go under.” It is like this: This is how the Lord showed me: Our problems and our circumstances can try to push us down the water. But we, with the grace of God, resist that and we are always up, our head will always be above the water. We never go under. That is because of the supernatural grace of God. If He takes us through the waters, the waters will not go over us. God is bound to keep that water down and give us that grace to resist that and to come above it. And we come rising up, rising out, rising out to breathe that supernatural breath and air of God, and that is what will strengthen us to keep us going forward.
So may the Lord bless us and may the Lord continue to speak to us, as we read this passage one more time. Let’s read Mathew Chapter 8:19 [New International Version]
19. When Jesus heard this, He was astonished.
Let’s go back and read what he said. Verse 8
8. The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.
9. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
So remember from now on, whatever the circumstances, Jesus has the power over the circumstance. That means He can speak to your sickness. He can speak to your circumstance. He can speak to your boss. He can speak to the king. He can speak to servants. He can speak to anyone. He can speak to the wind and the wave. He can speak to the traffic. He can speak to anything. God is a God who has control over everything. So, when we say, “Lord, just say a word.” That’s all I need! That’s what we are going to pray for tonight. As we close, let us say, “Lord, say a word.” Why don’t we believe the Lord, and ask the Lord now and say, “Lord, say a word to my circumstance. That’s what the Lord wanted me to speak on tonight. And that’s the title of the message, “Lord, say a word.”
Why don’t we close our eyes and say, “Lord, say a word to my circumstance. Jesus, say a word. Lord, say a word. Lord, if You say a word everything will change. Oh God, say a word.” Hallelujah! Praise You, praise You, praise You, praise You Holy Spirit, We praise You, Lord, praise you, praise You. I ask You, Father, water this word, water this word, water this word. Lord may Your people never forget, never forget Oh God, never forget Oh God, never forget Oh God, never forget how powerful You are! Never forget that You have the authority over every sickness Oh God. Never forget, You have the authority over every demon, Oh God. Never forget that You have the authority over the wind and the wave, Oh God. Never forget that you have the authority, Oh Father, over nature. Lord, You have the authority over snow. Lord, You have the authority over the storm. You have the authority over the rain. You have the authority over the earthquakes. Lord, You have the authority over our jobs. Lord, You have the authority over everything, Oh God. You have the authority over every law and everything, Oh God. We praise, we praise you, praise, praise You. Lord, You have the authority, Lord, over our supervisors. You have the authority Lord over our boss. You have the authority over people who interview us. Lord, You have the authority over our professors. You have the authority over every man who is above us, Oh God. We praise You, we praise You, praise You, praise You, praise You. Help us, Lord, to always have this in our mind, and not to fret Lord. Not to fret at any time, Lord, like an unbeliever. Lord, like a person who does not know You. Jesus, cause us, Oh Father, to know You, Jesus. To know You, to know You, to know You. Hallelujah! Praise You, praise You, praise You, Hallelujah! Praise You, praise you. Lord, You have the power, You have the power. You have the power.
Amen! And the Lord Jesus Christ is the only One who has all the power, all the authority in the universe. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Dear friends, in every situation, every circumstance that you are facing, God is overall. Please remember that. And as you trust the Lord, as you trust His Word, the Word of His power, like the centurion, the Lord will do miracles for you, great wonders. Shall we pray?
Oh Father, be with the precious souls where they are, even this night. Father, this day bless them. Father, may Your lovingkindness be poured out upon them. Help them, Lord, to please You by believing You and trusting in You, with their whole lives; believing Your Word and standing upon it. Thank You, Father, for making great provision for Your children, that we may feast with Your Holy Word as our food to strengthen our spirits, our inner man, that we may glorify you even on the earth and in heaven for all eternity. We thank You, Oh Father, for being so close to us. In Jesus’ Precious Name, Amen!
