So then, does He
who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the
works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? (Galatians 3:5)
We are
living in the day of miracles! We
however need to learn how to train our heart to experience the miracles. The above verse teaches us that miracles
occur by the “hearing of faith”. How does our faith
hear?
Well we
quote back, So faith comes from hearing,
and hearing by the word of Christ.
(Romans 10:17)
The
question becomes, how do we hear the Word of Christ or the Word of
Messiah? You see we have made
assumptions when we read or hear the Scriptures. What we rarely do is test our assumptions.
Charles
shared last week about the desert of testing.
In the desert, the Lord gets our attention to humble us and teach us how
to hear His voice:
"All the commandments that I am commanding you today
you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and
possess the land which the LORD swore to give to your forefathers. "You
shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the
wilderness these forty years, that He
might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you
would keep His commandments or not. "He humbled you and let you be
hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers
know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone,
but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.
(Deuteronomy 8:1-3)
The Lord
will do whatever is necessary to bring about humility and repentance, so we may
fulfill our destiny, walking into our inheritance. In the dessert, He taught Israel through
hunger and through heavenly provision in the form of manna to develop an
intimacy with His Spirit. Hunger tunes
our spiritual senses to the flavor of provision. Fasting is about, at least in part an
increase of our sensitivity to God and His Presence or Glory.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness: for they shall be filled.
(Matthew 5:6)
What are
we filled with when we thirst and hunger after righteousness? With Him who is our righteousness.
But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us
wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, (1
Corinthians 1:30)
So the
hunger and thirst is ALL about Him and His Glory! Now why is this important? BECAUSE WITHOUT HIS GLORY, HIS MANIFEST
PRESENCE, we will have a form of godliness without the power! This is the seduction of religion in the last
days!
But realize this, that in the last days difficult times
will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant,
revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable,
malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous,
reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although
they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. (2 Timothy 3:1-5)
We need
the reality of His Glory for our faith to be effective. In order for our “faith” to be effective, we need Him
in our faith! Faith comes by hearing but
hearing comes through Him! This is why
Yeshua emphasized that hearing determines everything. Hearing, sh’ma
is everything! We need to know when He
is in the camp, listen and act!
Turn with
me to Mark 4:14:
"The sower sows the word. "These are the ones who
are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the
word which has been sown in them. "In a similar way these are the ones on
whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy;
and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when
affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall
away. "And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns;
these are the ones who have heard the
word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches,
and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes
unfruitful. "And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good
soil; and they hear the word and accept
it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold." And He was
saying to them, "A lamp is not brought to be put under a basket, is it, or
under a bed? Is it not brought to be put on the lampstand? "For nothing is
hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would
come to light. "If anyone has ears
to hear, let him hear." And He was saying to them, "Take care what
you listen to. By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more
will be given you besides. (Mark 4:14-24)
This is a
teaching on relationship, on hearing.
Our hearts need to know His voice by His Presence. He takes into dessert places in our lives, so
we will be hungry and thirsty for His Presence.
We, like Israel are addicted to garlic and leeks. Our appetite is adjusted to the flavors of the
world. We crave what we have been
eating. Our addictions come from our
experiences. God is bringing us to a
place of new hunger and new thirst! For
Him! He is the true food and the true
drink that we need, but as long as we are eating the junk food of the world we
will live in the junk food results!
Religion without power. We need
to fast and pray for His taste to become our desire!
God has
already built hunger into our being.
There is nothing wring with hunger or thirst or any desire He created us
with. The problem is when we try to
fulfill our desire with tastes from this world.
When we draw neat to Him, then His Glory fills our being and we taste of
His goodness. In this place, we come
into oneness with Him and His Glory is manifested.
Yeshua
was always meeting the desires of people.
He never rebuked their desires.
In fact, He eagerly meet their desires, whether it was food for 5000,
healing for the untouchables, or resurrection for Lazarus. The key was the Glory. So, His final prayer was for us to receive
His Glory! Look at John 17:22
"The glory which You have given Me I have given to
them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that
they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me,
and loved them, even as You have loved Me. "Father, I desire that they
also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My
glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the
world. (John 17:22-24)
The glory
Yeshua is speaking of is His Presence.
He is calling us to receive His Presence, but we only will if we are
hungry and thirsty for Him to make our faith real. Then we will see miracles in our lives. It isn’t by just knowing the
Scriptures that apply but by receiving Him, His Glory into our lives and in
that place of unity, oneness with Him, miracles will occur as we speak them
forth!
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