Power Belongeth Unto God
Sunday December 03, 2000
I truly want to thank the Lord this morning, and I want to continue speaking this morning about Prayer and that Power that Prayer will bring into our lives.
My mind go’s to God’s word to the apostle Paul this morning when Paul was dealing with that thorn in his flesh.
And after all that’s where we have the trouble, is in the flesh.
And all of us are going to have to admit that Paul was saved and sanctified, but he still had trouble in the flesh.
He would like to get rid of it just like you and I would like to get rid of it, but we will never get rid of it until this mortal puts on immortality.
The grace of God is sufficient, and in that scripture God said to Paul, My grace is sufficient for you and then He let us know what His grace is.
For My strength is made perfect in weakness.
The grace of God is Christ’s strength!
When we begin to talk about and to think about the strength of Christ, I believe that it will cause us to open our eye’s just a little.
We will begin to look at things in just a little different light.
We’ll get rid of a lot of excuses, when we begin moving and living by the strength of Christ, and certainly He wants to give it to each and every one of us.
I know that we talked a lot last week about Faith and Prayer but it is something that is needed by us all, and needed in a special way.
I am here to tell you that what we all need today is that unity with God.
That which comes from prayer and a prayerful attitude and a closeness that can only come from that kind of an attitude.
If we will just believe the Word of God and obey it, there will be an end to a lot of the problems that we have in our lives today.
This Word of God was given to produce experiences in the hearts and lives of men and women where we could live Godly, right in this present world.
You show me people living Godly, and I’ll show you people that’s not having any trouble with one another.
This word of god will produce more, right in the ranks that calls itself Christendom, it will produce more than we are seeing produced.
And that is what all of us need to be striving for in our spiritual lives.
We should all want to see people that love God enough, to live according to His word.
Do you know if I could just get all of you, to pray the way that God has ordained for us to do, we could watch the church grow the way that God wants it to grow!
We could watch souls being saved, and see great works done, giving furtherance to god’s kingdom right here on earth.
There is nothing that the devil hates worse than to see god’s people getting down to praying the way that they need to.
And like one old time church of God preacher said, and I quote.
We need to pray until we pray!
If you will think about that statement just a little it will come to you very quickly.
That to pray until we pray, simply means to get right down to business with God.
To get your life straight with Him, and make sure that you know that beyond a shadow of a doubt you know that your life is pure and Holy in His sight.
And that you have done everything that you know to do to keep your power line open to God!
Friends if there is any sin in your lives, God won’t hear your prayers, He can’t, it is impossible for Him to hear you when you have sin in your lives.
I know that it might sound terrible that such a kind and loving God would not hear your prayers in your time of need, but He can’t.
You see it’s like I have told you several times before, God turned His back on His own Son when Jesus was hanging on the cross and all of the sins of the world were cast upon Him.
God cannot and He will not.
If He couldn’t do it for Jesus, then my friend, He certainly isn’t going to do it for one of us!
God loves each and every one of us the same but He will not tolerate sin!
Let’s just stop right here and say a short prayer and while I pray out loud I would like for all of you to bow your heads, and close your eye’s, and pray silently along with me.
Listen to the words and try to feel the words and bring God a little closer into your lives!
Let Him know this morning that more than anything else in the world, right now this very minute, you want Him in your lives.
You want Him in your life more than anything that you can even begin to think about.
And if you never have before, when we pray this morning ask Him to come into your hearts and ask for Him to forgive you of your sins, and tell Him that you want to live for Him.
And that you are truly sorry for the way that you have been living, and that with His strength you will live for Him.
Now let’s bow our heads and as I pray let God know that each and every one in this room wants to have God first and foremost in our lives.
Heavenly Father, as we come to you this morning in prayer we want to first of all ask you to, like it says in the 139th Psalm to Search me, O God, and know my heart:
Try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Oh God, we want for you to search our hearts and cleanse us and make us Pure and Holy in your sight, we want to know this morning that you hear our prayers, that our power line is still intact.
We want nothing more than to be pleasing in your sight, and then we want to thank you this morning, for the privilege to serve you.
We thank you for the privilege of the little bit of understanding that you have given us from your word.
Lord we all want to obey your word, and live by your word, and we want to share your word, with others.
Help us this morning in Jesus name to set forth these simple truths in such a manner, Lord, that it will move upon these people.
So move this morning that none of us will be the same when we leave this building.
And God, in the name of Jesus, I want to ask you this morning to rebuke satan, send him out of our lives this morning that we may allow room for the Holy Spirit to come into our lives, in Jesus Name. AMAN
Now, if you will, Let’s turn in our Bibles to Psalm 62:11
11 God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God.
Why, you might say did God have to speak twice!
Well let’s turn to Job 33:14 and you will be able to see why,
14 For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.
And as the scripture say’s, Power belongeth unto God!
Not only once and not only twice, but how many countless time have we heard this and yet we still fail to obey God?
This morning we need to see that the Holy Spirit is back of all power no matter what we may think.
He is the power of God!
There is just one power, in all of the earth and that power belongs to God, and if you think for just one minuet that god is not all powerful, you are already in trouble!
Now if we will just look at this for just a minute we will see that, this power is the Holy Spirit.
Let’s turn in the New Testament to Romans 8:16-17
16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Now what is this telling us, that Power belongs to God and so do we!
We are heirs of that power, we are heirs of everything that belongs to God, and we are joint-heirs with Christ.
Let’s look in Ephesians 2:4-6
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, ( meaning, by grace ye are saved;)
6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
Friends God wants the church to be lifted in the same powerful position that He stood in when He was here on the earth!
Now everyone agrees that Power Belongs to God, but when we begin to talk in terms of bringing it down for your and my disposal,
For us to use in our lives, people begin to wither.
But friends we want you to see this morning that the Bible makes very plain, ( last week we proved to you, that God is a prayer hearing, and a prayer answering God.)
And now we want to go on just a little farther and get you to see that all that belongs to God, You can have for the asking!
Now you might ask, how can we have it?
That’s easy, we are all heirs, it belongs to us.
Thank God thru the perfection of God’s great plan of salvation, we become heirs of it.
Jesus in teaching the law, of the Kingdom in Matthew the 7th chapter, and beginning with the 7th verse, a very familiar scripture, but we are going to use it here in this text to lay a foundation for what we are talking about this morning,
Matthew 7:7-11
7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
Now we need to see here this morning that God was talking to His children.
Not to sinners, a lot of people read that scripture and then blame God when they don’t get their prayers answered!
Now we need to make clear once again, that you must first seek God’s face, let’s read, Matthew 6:33
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
This is the first and foremost thing that needs to happen in our lives!
Just like it says in the scripture Jesus is talking to children of God, and when we the children of God ask, we will have.
Have what? Have the things that you ask for!
Let’s go on to James 4:2
2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
I want you to see the poverty and the powerlessness, of far too many Christians this morning.
We find this explanation in James 4:2 you have not, because you ask not.
Now we could ask the question, why do I make such poor progress in my Christian life?
You have not, because you ask not!
Then us preachers we could say, why is there so little fruit in my ministry?
You have not, because you ask not!
Or another question, why is there so little power manifested in my life in service unto God?
You have not, because you ask not!
I want you to see this morning that God has provided.
God has provided for a life of power and a work of power for everyone of His children.
He won’t own powerless children.
God has made the provision, and told us to ask, and we would receive.
Now we know in Luke, it says, He will give good things to them that ask.
You can go over into the other Gospels and He tells you that He will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask.
The point that I want you to get, is, that God has provided for a life of power and a work of power, on the part of every child of His.
He has put His own infinite power at everyone’s disposal.
He has proclaimed, over and over again in a great variety of ways through the scripture, ask and you shall receive.
Now we will have to say this morning that many have taken God at His word and found that it is true.
If you will go back and look in the book of Acts you will find that there were men of tremendous power.
Do you know where they got it? They actually believed the Bible!
They actually believed what Jesus told them.
And because they believed it they asked for it and they got it!
If you will read Acts you will see a people that had power in there lives, and power in there works.
I know that a lot of people will say that it was different back then, and you bet it was.
The people of that time had real opposition against them, opposition that would make our troubles look like child’s play.
We think that we are living in a terrible time, but put our opposition and our persecution up against that of the people in the morning time church, and you would think that we were playing, and in too many cases that’s what we are doing!
Yet in the face of all of that, God gave them a power.
A power that made them able to inch forward in every circumstance and the church grew, multiplied, and prevailed in the midst of it.
Let me tell you they didn’t make any bones about telling people what brought it to pass.
The thing that brought it to pass, was that influx of power that God had promised them and gave them and was a living reality in there lives.
Let’s read in Acts 2:47
47 Praising God, and having Favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
And we read over in acts 4:4 that some of them raised up but it said,
4 Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.
And over in the 5th chapter Acts 5:14
14 And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.)
Someone might say, what caused that?
Well I am very interested in what caused that.
Let me tell you this morning that when Jesus said, that He built a church that the gates of hell could not prevail against, He did just that.
Now we might be down in the closing days of time.
We may be living in a modern Sodom and Gomorrah, if you want to call it that.
But let me tell you my friend, that Jesus Christ still has a church that no power, that the devil can come up with can withstand her or slow down her forward progress if she holds her faith in God’s eternal word.
We need to sell out as God wants us to sell out and live for Him!
We need to let the power of God take a hold of our experience!
We need to be sure and keep the faith and let the faith keep us.
Thank God friends, all opposition can do, is to just be a good opportunity for the power of God to manifest it’s self when opposition comes against us.
Thank God this morning God’s word is true!
Someone might ask, what was the secret of this power working?
Let’s look over in Acts the 6th chapter.
You might hear people say, that they had unity, there were no problems there.
Well if you will study the book of Acts, and you will see that every kind of problem that we face today, they had there, because they were dealing with the same kind of human beings we deal with today.
And where ever there are human beings, there’s going to be problems of a human nature, that’s got to be taken care of.
You know you can read right on down thru the 5th chapter, where they kept adding to the Lord and in chapter 6, we read
Acts 6:1-4
And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring (you see here that they had it, but were too affected, by our opposition) of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.
2 Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables.
3 Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. (now I want you to notice in verse 4, here was the number one secret of the morning church’s power)
4 But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.
Do you realize today that the devil has got the ministry busy at just about everything else, but prayer and ministry of the word.
I know that it will shock you, but there isn’t a thing in the Bible that tells you that a preacher ought to marry you.
There isn’t a thing in the Bible that tells you that a preacher ought to preach a funeral.
In fact the Bible said not to preach a funeral.
No where in the Bible does it say for the minister to do visitation.
I can prove to you that the church does the visitation!
What’s going on today?
The preacher’s got such a program marrying here, marrying there, and over here holding this sick persons hand while he dies, and we wonder why the church isn’t getting anywhere.
And the preacher runs all week, visitation, this program, that program, taking care of this and taking care of that, and with a wore out mind he try’s to get in somewhere for an hour and a half and get a hold of God and get some real food to feed you.
Now whether you want to take it or not, it doesn’t make any difference.
The morning time preachers gave themselves wholly to prayer and ministering the word.
You might say I don’t think that is necessary today.
That’s what I am preaching these messages against!
This is exactly where we have got ourselves in trouble to day!
We have come up with our own ideas, our own ways, and we have gotten off of the track, and we pray and we sing send the power down, He’s already sent it down.
He has already done what He said He would do!
But you are not going to lay hold of it if you don’t measure up to that word!
And another thing that you need to understand is, that
Jesus is a divine disturber, if you don’t measure up to the word of God, He, will disturb you.
If you will read Revelation the 3rd chapter you will find that He is disturbing the church.
She is setting at a lukewarm condition, a calm 72 degrees, neither hot or neither cold, just fully satisfied rich and increased with goods.
Everything’s fine, don’t bother us, but here comes God pounding on the door, Hey!
Your not rich, your poor!
Your not clothed, your naked!
You can’t see, you are blind!
If you will let me I’ll anoint your eye’s now.
I am telling you this morning, that power belongs to God!
The pope can’t give it to you, the preacher can’t give it to you, the priest can’t give it to you.
Power belongs to God!
He wants to give it to each and everyone of you but you will only get it as you measure up to His plan for mankind.
When you detour from that your powerless!
We must give ourselves continually to prayer, and the ministry of the word!
Let’s face it, a preacher today is one of the least thought of persons on the face of the globe, because there’s been such a failure in the ministry.
And because my friend, the thought of ministry, ought to be one of the gifts that every young person in the church today would covet and want to do, they don’t even want to think about it!
The thought of the ministry has been so run down, that our young people today say anything Lord, but don’t call me to preach.
The least desiring gifts that God could give, when it’s the highest calling that God can call a person to.
The greatest privilege that God could ever lets a man or woman step into, to be called the minister of His divine word.
Come on, we have got to the place that God’s word doesn’t mean too much, it doesn’t have to much value!
Too many times a preacher spends very little time getting the word, and then when it is proclaimed, the saints take it just about as lightly and receiving it, as he did getting it.
And then they do just about what they want to about it.
Then here we go again wondering what happened!
I want to bring you back to the place where you see this word of God that we have, is the most powerful thing that God ever let loose on this earth.
Here we have the power to save men!
The power to save homes! The power to save cities and nations!
It is the most powerful thing that was ever loosed in the hearts and minds of mankind!
And look at how we abuse it!
I say that if we ever need to spend time with, and pray over, and spend plenty of time studying with, it’s the preparing of a message from God’s eternal word.
I say that the value of the message needs to arise in the pulpit and not stop there but it also needs to arise in the pew.
We as preachers first of all need to spend time in prayer before God for the ministry of the word.
So that we can know and have a divine authority to speak in, so that people will be convinced that were preaching God’s word and it’s not just a message from us.
When God blesses my sermon you will receive it that way, and friend let me tell you that when you receive in that way, you will be receiving it as a message of power!
A power that’s able to do things!
So I repeat that much of the power of that morning time church laid in the ministry, because they gave themselves continually to prayer!
I know that is not the way that most preachers preach today.
They sugar coat, and they compromise.
They will have quick little sermons that they have memorized for years and make you think that if you are in church every Sunday that everything will be all right.
But friend I am wasting my time and yours if I preach that way.
If I try to make you think that everything will be all right if you will just go to church, then I am not doing you justice as a minister of the word of God!
Like I said last week and other times before it’s not the fact that you go to church, it’s do you have the church in you!
Do you have God in your hearts?
If you do not have that desire to change your ways and to ask God into your hearts, and to have a burning desire in your hearts to want to live for Him then you are wasting your time!
And by that I mean, that the day will come when you are going to die.
And all of us are going to do that.
And you will think that you are going to heaven, and that is not going to happen.
Friends let me tell you this morning that the way is straight and narrow and few there will be that find it.
This mamsby pamsby way of living has got to stop we have got to get serious if we are ever going to make it to heaven!
We need to make the decision while we still can that we want to live for God!
To serve Him! To witness for Him!
To give daily study time to His word and to continue in prayer always.
Let’s go right back to God’s eternal word the secret of power.
That secret was my friend, that they continued in prayer and ministry of the word.
As we continue to read we find that the rank and file
of the church and the secret of their power is found in
Acts 2:42-43
42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. (and when they continued faithful in that,)
43 And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
I am here to tell you this morning that it will bring it back today, there’s too much carelessness among the church, and that’s why the world doesn’t fear!
You are not going to pray fear down on the world, if fears ever brought back on the world it will be bought on the world thru the church!
We will never bring fear back on the soul’s out in the soul world until you and I get a little more steadfast.
Continued steadfast, friends the preachers spent there time in prayer and ministering the word and what did the church do?
They continued steadfast in the teachings of the apostles doctrine and prayer and fellowship.
Continued steadfast in fellowship, the fellowship of the church meant more to them, than visiting aunt sally, having a picnic with the children.
Come on were not steadfast enough, the church suffers too much through nice weather.
Do you know why the world doesn’t believe that you love the Lord with all of your heart?
Because you don’t put Him first!
Do you know why the world doesn’t fear God?
Because you don’t fear Him!
Why?
You over step His word, it tells you not to neglect the assembling of yourselves together, but you do it anyway!
You never give it a second thought, you are shedding a influence that’s taken the fear of God right off the world.
The first thing that comes out of the mouth of most people when you ask them why they weren’t in church this morning is,
Oh I was out too late last night, or it’s the only time that I can sleep, or this or that or something else anything but going to church!
And like I have said many times before, the only time that most people can give any of their time to God is when they are in need!
When they need something from Him, but any other time forget it!
Once again I say that you cannot use God!
It just won’t happen!
I repeat again my friends, the ministry gave themselves continually, continually to prayer and to teaching the word!
And then the disciples, the followers of the church, they continued, continually, steadfast, in the apostles doctrine and fellowship, and in prayers, and in breaking of bread, and fear came on every soul, that was around.
We have got power this morning, to bring fear back on the world, but you don’t really want to.
Oh we pray for God to bring back some old fashioned God fearing ness back on the people, but we don’t really mean it.
Because if we really meant it we would understand that the only way it will come back on the people is through you and I!
See we want God to send it some other way, but He isn’t going to do it.
If fear ever comes back on every soul around, it will come, because God’s people, get back to an old fashioned measuring up, to God’s word and let God’s word take the rightful place in there heart and life.
And then they are not off and on with it, but they continue steadfast.
You show me any group of people that gets steadfast in the doctrine, steadfast in the fellowship, and I’ll show you a group of people that begins to affect the world around them!
People will begin to open up there eye’s, there’s a people that believe what they are preaching, there’s a people that are really serving God!
But the devil wants us to be short of that today.
He will let you come here with a bible, he will let you teach a lot of scripture, he will let you hook them together, use illustrations and preach messages.
He will let you do all of that, he will let you gather together and listen to the message, he won’t stop that, it’s going on, it’s growing, there are church’s popping up on every street corner, and what’s happening?
The world is growing worse and worse.
It is proving to us that the devil doesn’t care how much of that go’s on, the thing that he doesn’t want you to do, is to be steadfast, get right down to business of being steadfast.
Why?
When we are steadfast, holding right on to God’s word, and live a life of prayer, we step over to a power that he can’t handle.
We step over into a power that he can’t oppose to the place of stopping us.
We are out of his control!
We have stepped into a power that Jesus said he give us!
That we would have power over every power of the enemy!
And that’s the power of the Holy Spirit!
Thank God through the Holy Spirit we have power over every power of the enemy.
So the ministry, they spent there time continually in prayer and the ministry of the word, and the saints, they continued steadfast in the apostles doctrine and fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer.
Friends the more that they called on God, the more He revealed Himself.
Every time that they got together and had a prayer meeting, the place that they were in got shook.
And when that place got shook the whole city got shook.
God over and over and over this morning tells us in His word to ask Him.
Other places He said prove Me in seed.
I know that I might be hitting a sour note to some of you, but it’s a sour note of truth. God help us.
We try to fix up our own way of doing things and then we ask God to bless them, but He won’t do it, like I told you earlier, you cannot use God, it just won’t happen!
As we go on let’s read in the, Psalm 50:14-15
14 Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:
15 And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
And the over in Isaiah the 40th chapter a very familiar scripture, you have read it many times, Isaiah 40:28-31
28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? ( we have people saying today that God is dead, but He hasn’t even gotten tired, now let’s go on, ) there is no searching of his understanding.
(that just means according to Ecclesiastes 11 and 5 that you can’t search out God’s understanding, you can go to all of the college’s on the face of the earth, and reach the highest apex, and still be ignorant to the understanding of the things of God.
You can’t get it by searching, thank God it’s a revelation, it’s a gift, He freely gives us, and let’s read on
29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increased strength.
(do you understand what the prophet Isaiah is asking, he wants to know why we don’t have power, we have all heard it but none of us have it, you say how do I know this, well if you had power it would show in your lives, now let’s read on)
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: ( now what is he telling us here?
He is telling us that this strength and might that is given us, is not human but this power only comes from God!
Not even the young have it, this power comes from God!
I don’t know if any of you have ever heard it in other churches, but I have, you hear the old people say Oh if I was only younger, I could do things for God.
Well God never called Moses until he was 80.
He figured that he was just getting in good shape to go.
AMAN,
Now you might say, what are you talking about?
I am telling you that you have to throw all of your excuse’s out.
The young people are not getting settled down and steadfast because they are too young, and the old can’t do it because they are too old, and the middle aged are too busy raising their family.
Now the prophet makes it plain that when it comes to walking with God.
When it comes to walking a powerful and Godly life, there’s not a young man with all of the strength that he’s got can do it, he will fall on his face.
There’s not a strong man living that can walk strong enough and high enough and long enough to please God!
Everyone of them will come up short.
But no matter how young you are or how old you are if you will wait upon the Lord, He will renew your strength, thank God where you can walk like God wants you to walk, and be what God wants you to be.
This power belongs to God, and He is the only One that can give it to us.
He wants us to have it. Who gets it?
Everybody that waits upon the Lord, and let’s read on )
31 But they (after He let us know that human strength has got nothing to do with it.
They all failed.
Did you ever see anybody humanly try to walk with God, and live for God?
Just change there mind I am going to do different, it only takes just a few hours and they are on there face, right down in the mud again.
Why?
Human strength is out of the question, this thing of living Godly and righteously, human strength don’t enter into it we can’t make it on human strength.
None of us can, excuses and self can’t do it, it takes the strength that can come only from God.
You cannot stop smoking on your own!
You cannot stop drinking on your own!
You cannot stop living a life of sin on your own!
It is not humanly possible!
Now let’s go on and finish the rest of verse 31)
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Friends we have just got to forget this morning this thing of human strength and start relying on the power that comes from God!
See Paul learned just what I am preaching here, he had to learn it the same as us, do you know what he said in Second Corinthians the 12th chapter?
When I am weak, then is when I am the strongest.
See that’s different than us today, when we are weak we are weak, but the weaker that we are, if we are sold out to God, the stronger God manifests Himself in us.
So you see our weakness is not an excuse, it’s an opportunity.
Lets throw the excuses out the window this morning, and get right down to the place of believing God’s word as it is.
Power belongs to God, our text is this morning and He’s ordained to give you and I that power.
And Isaiah is bringing us to the point this morning of realizing.
He let us know that we can’t search it out, it doesn’t come by wisdom.
How many people set around and think that they cannot be more powerful for God because they don’t have the education that they think they need to work for God?
They say that they will never be able to have the understanding that others have, friends there is no searching for this understanding, it’s a gift from God!
If you will come to God in your weakness and your frailness, He will give you this understanding and His power will belong to you!
Let’s go to Psalm 40:1
1 I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
Now let’s just back up to the 39th psalm and see what he done before he started waiting.
Psalm 39:12-13
12 Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.
13 O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.
You have got to do all that you can do, and you have got to ask the Lord to come into your heart, and to give you strength and to give you power and then wait upon the Lord and He will do the rest!
Let’s go back one more time to Isaiah 40:31
31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; (how does waiting on the Lord renew our strength?
Some might say, well many different scriptures come to mind, and I would just like to hook right in with that, that this renewal has to take place daily.
Right here is a lesson that too many people don’t realize, it tells us in
2 Corinthians 4:16
16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
You might say, How is that inward man renewed, day by day?
By that daily contact with God!
Were talking about renewing our strength.
There is too many Christians today that’s weaker today than they used to be.
I hear people say all of the time that they used to be able to speak right out for God and to ask people to come to church, but what has happened?
The secret of your loss is found right here in these scriptures that were talking about this morning.
We have to have that daily renewal with God, that asking Him for forgiveness of anything, mistakes that we might make, that constant praying spirit, that we need to posses.
You need to daily get into prayer with God and pour your heart out to Him and keep that communion with Him the way that pleases Him and have His Spirit bear a fresh witness with your spirit, that you are His child!
Friend that will give you strength right there!
There is something about that daily walking and talking with God that nothing else can compare to.
That little talk with Jesus, that getting a hold of God and having the freshness of God telling us that He is our strength and our redeemer.
And then He tells us not to forget that He fight’s our battles.
We don’t need to fight, there isn’t a thing in the Bible that tells us to fight.
He said to put on the whole armor of God, but after you get it on what did He tell you to do?
After you get it on He didn’t tell you to fight He said to STAND!
Why?
God from the Old Testament all the way to the New, said I’ll fight your battles for you, you don’t need to do any fighting, you do need to be in the battle, but you don’t fight.
God just had you put on the armor so that you wouldn’t get hurt!
He will fight your battles, I say my friend that we get our strength renewed in prayer!
If people could see where prayer fits into the life of a Christian we wouldn’t be forcing ourselves to pray, and making ourselves to pray!
The whole attitude of looking at it is wrong.
This is why He said ask, do you know why?
God won’t force feed, if you are to ever get any strength from Him you have got to ask, ask, ask, ask, and all you have to do to get weak, is to go along and not ask.
The law of God is, that you ask! And you will receive!
To realize God’s presence in the press of things brings strength.
How does this renewed strength reveal it’s self, first of all it detaches and lifts us up.
He said they that wait upon the Lord shall renew there strength and they will mount up with wings as eagles.
Friend that spending time with God detaches and lifts us up!
We think of the eagle as he soars aloft, far above the ground, the Word of God lets us know that we will mount up with wings as eagles.
Where?
In the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, see there is no way to get up to those heavenly places but with eagle wings.
Rev. 4:7 tells you this, you can’t walk up there, you can’t there with a ladder, no way to get there but with eagle wings.
The power of God’s word and Spirit as you spend time in prayer will lift you up.
And I say it with all kindness, I am much troubled about division among God’s people, and I want you to see this.
My friends, we never will see some things healed until we can get the individuals that claim to be the church of god up to a higher position.
They are living too low!
If the church will come down on her knees do more waiting on God, till God moves and gives them individually this eagle kind of experience.
This lifted up experience.
Do you know when things look like mountains to me?
When I am not high enough with my experience with God.
See I know exactly what Jesus meant about having enough faith to move a mountain.
Faith as a grain of mustard seed, will remove a mountain.
But the kind of faith that some people have now, faith like a mountain couldn’t move a mustard seed.
Come on we get hung up on little things, we get thrown for a loss!
You hear people say it’s such a little thing, nobody should have had trouble with this, but it got me down, a mustard seed around your neck, and you can’t get up!
Now when do things look big to me?
When I get down spiritually!
I take a look and there’s mountains all around me, and then that’s when I get down on my knees and pour my heart out to God, and it won’t be long until I will look up and all of the mountains will be gone!
When you get up high enough big things look mighty little, and do you know what if you will go up just a little higher you won’t even be able to see them!
Praise God, if you will just get your heart right with Him and let Him into your life, those mountains in your life will go away.
You have got to have that mounting up experience with God in your life and then you will be filled with that power that can only come from God!
God didn’t say that you might have an experience.
He said that if you will believe in Him, you will have that experience!
Ask and He will give you what you ask for!
You will not only get that experience, but you will not grow weary, you will not faint!
You will go forward with a steadfast ability like you have never had before.
This power that belongs to God belongs to all of us and it is ours for the asking.
Only the devil is keeping you from getting this power.
Only the devil is standing in your way, with his feeble temptations, of a better life.
Only the devil is trying to stop you from getting this power that God wants us to have.
You who have not yet accepted God into your life, 100%, and are still toying with the idea, come on ahead and give your heart to Him this morning.
End this year out right!
Do it now while God is still knocking at your hearts door!
Don’t let the devil defeat you.
Tell him to get out of your way.
Tell him that this is the day that I am getting you out of my life forever.
This is the day that I am going to fly like an eagle.
This is the day that I am going to fly higher than my problems.
This is the day that the Lord hath made, and He made it for my new life!
Let’s bow our heads one more time
