The Region Beyond

We need a new power from God, the power of the Holy Spirit in us today, as on the Day of Pentecost, but the key which will release that power into our lives now is a new level of faith in Jesus Christ.

In Matthew 17, when Jesus' disciples failed to cast out the demon from the epileptic boy and then asked him why, He rebuked them for their unbelief: 'If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, remove hence to yonder place and it shall remove,' AND AFTER IT DOES, 'nothing will be impossible to you!' (Matthew 17:20).

There is something hidden in this story. Yes, Jesus said in answer to their question, 'If you had faith... you could move mountains.' But the real secret is hidden. We get stuck at the thought that mortal man could move anything bigger than himself. We agonise over the reality of moving that mountain. We call our friends to stand with us in believing prayer because this mountain is proving harder than we thought to move. Then when it happens - that miracle, that financial provision - we become so excited that we drop the real key down the drain in our excitement!

The disciples had missed the opportunity of releasing the greatest power into their lives. Jesus was putting a key in their hands, and if they would only use this key, their lives would never be the same again! There is a region beyond.

We need to realise that God has a power and a glory far greater than anything we have ever seen. Are we, in our spiritual experience, ready to cross the barrier, to move to something so big we could hardly dream about it? How big is God's power? Who was the greatest man in the Bible - Moses, Elijah, Paul, Peter? With all the miracles they saw God perform, did any one of them ever see more than 5% of God's power? How big is our God? Twenty times bigger, a thousand times bigger than what they saw? When I begin to look at how big my God really is, suddenly I want this key - the one Jesus showed His disciples - to open a door into a totally new experience. It is as if all my life I have been looking only at a darkened mirror image of God.

Of all the gifts of God, faith is the greatest, it's the key to the 'normal' Christian life. This gift of faith is greater than you realise. Just read Mark 11:22, 'Yeshua answered and He said to them, "May the faith of God be in you."' (Aramaic Bible.) This gift of faith is God's faith working through you.

Be encouraged as you watch this short teaching extract: The authority to see miracles

What is faith?

The Bible says that without faith it is impossible to please God. If you live by faith and go by faith, that pleases God. What is faith? Faith is one of the most misunderstood words today. We all know the phrase 'people of faith'. - It is used to describe Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists. We need to redefine faith. Faith is trusting God with everything. You trust Him with your life, your healing, with your salvation; you trust Him with your money, with your family; you trust Him when you get out of bed in the morning. You trust Him when you've no food in the house. You trust Him when you've no money to pay the rent. Faith trusts God in extreme circumstances.

When Moses sent out the twelve spies to view the land WHICH GOD HAD PROMISED TO GIVE, they all saw the same things, a land flowing with milk and honey. Green, green grass, corn better than Egypt, fruit so big it had been just a dream when they were captives, rivers and lakes of freshest sweet water, plenty of fish (Galilee is famous - I've eaten its fish, so I know), lovely valleys for the cattle, beautiful mountains (one snow-capped all year round) - literally springs in the valleys and streams in the desert. Far better than the Egypt they had left. It was everything that God had promised and more! Of course they saw the walled cities, soldiers guarding them and the fact that some of the inhabitants were giants. This was not Eden, not an empty land - they would have to fight for their inheritance!

The important fact was that all twelve saw precisely the same things, stood in the same places, had the same God. But when they returned to Moses, their reports differed in certain essentials. All twelve told the Israelites, yes this was THE Promised Land, no disagreement, but the majority (ten against two) said that it was impossible to enter. After they had all excitedly shared the joy that the fulfilment would bring and yes, it was all that God had said and more, the ten said that the difficulties were too great. There was no way that they could defeat the enemies and actually possess the promise! They were looking in human terms, seeing only their own limited resources and accepting failure as the norm. Only two said yes they agreed with everything the ten had said, but because God WAS with them, they could possess the promise now, He would not fail them. They reminded the whole of Israel of all that God had done in the past, how that He was still with them and that in His Name they would win, however hard the fight!

It was God's decision to abide by the majority decision that compelled the whole nation of Israel to wander in a barren wilderness for forty more years before they finally entered. What was the one thing that went wrong? Faith! They didn't trust God in the extremity of their circumstances.

Watch this short teaching on 'What is Faith'

The Gift of Faith

We all accept the need of faith in our lives especially as without it we cannot be saved, but the kind of faith which moves mountains is different. It is a real gift (see the gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12), but also it is demonstrably necessary to those who are called into service. It must be a vital part of our experience if we are to engage in spiritual warfare. The believer who has not yet moved a 'mountain', has not yet begun the real task of the ministry because Jesus went on to say that 'nothing is impossible'.

So often we are limited by our faith and our inability to believe God. How often are we within sight of everything we are desiring, often with earnest prayer and with the clear knowledge that God HAS promised... yet that final step is not taken, we don't go in and possess the land. It occurs in the realms of healing, finance, evangelism and missions, possibly even revival, certainly in most areas of our lives, and especially our service for God.

Believer YOU are so near to the fulfilment in your own life! Why look at the problems which make the fulfilment impossible? Look at Him and then go in and claim the land! Begin to act in the power and authority of your faith. So many times I have had to face the impossible and seen God move in power, and I challenge you to begin to do it yourself!

Listen to today's podcast: FAITH

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Do Exploits!

'EXPLOITS'! Do we as Christians really understand what this means? German and Russian and Danish translations don't put it strongly enough! It's watered down! Daniel, the exiled Jewish refugee in Babylon, is the prophet best known for his end-time prophecies, from the translation of Nebuchadnezzar's Image to the prophetic visions of the works of the devil, and all the demonic things that are going to happen before the end of the age and the return of Christ. While many would debate the complexities of the visions and their time-scale, here, by the Holy Spirit, the man who is talking so much about all this evil, issues a direct challenge to the Church! He says, 'BUT - in these evil days that are coming - the people who KNOW their God won't be weak! They won't be defeated! They'll be on FIRE! And they are going to do EXPLOITS!' Miracles? I don't know what your Bible translation says, but I KNOW what God is saying! EXPLOITS are things other people can't or don't do! If you're going to do an EXPLOIT, it's something that your friends don't do, something that even the Church doesn't do, something that other pastors, other evangelists don't do. It's going to be something bigger, more powerful!

You can't do EXPLOITS unless you KNOW the power your God has! I have such battles with Christians over the question of belief! I have experienced God doing things that were impossible in my own life - so many times - that to me He has become the God of the impossible! From experience I can say, "With God ALL things are possible, everything He does is a miracle!" What kind of a 'God' do you have? The only limitation God has is our belief in His power - He can do ANYTHING we ask and believe He can do!! Mark 11:23-4. My God's power is totally UNLIMITED - because I KNOW who He really is!

Listen to today's podcast: DO EXPLOITS!

Faith moves mountains!

I want you to be the strongest believers anywhere in the world: people with fire, people with power, people who pray, people who will change the world! 

When there is a crisis in our lives our only hope is Christ, our only strategy is prayer. You - we - have to get an answer from God! When Jesus was on the earth, people asked Him direct for what they wanted. - We have to do the same, but through prayer. We have to learn again the power and effectiveness of prayer. We also have to learn how to get an answer to our problems.

Mark 11:22-23 is so revolutionary, so powerful, it will change your life! Jesus said: "Have faith in God!" Did you hear? - Have faith in God! Then He said (v23): "Truly I say to you, whoever you are, look up, see the mountain over there - if you have got faith in God, you will say to that mountain 'be cast down into the sea' and if you don't doubt in your heart but believe that what you say will happen, you shall have whatever you say!" Wow! If you really believe what you say, you will speak - and the mountain will move! Whatever you say, if you speak with faith and authority, and don't doubt, you will be healed, your family will be blessed, your financial burden will move - even if these things are mountains in your life!

Do you want God's blessing, healing deliverance? If you believe what you say, and don't doubt in your heart, you will have the answer you are looking for! Jesus said it! Do you have mountains in your life? Have faith in God! Command them to go! God's in the business of moving mountains! But you must declare (and actually believe, with no doubts), that in the Name of Jesus, they shall be moved!

We've got to begin to understand the positive! Too often we fill our minds with negatives! Speak words of faith and victory - then the mountain will move!


http://davidhathaway.podbean.com/e/faith-moves-mountains-featuring-vinesong/