Matthew 8:16-17 tells us that Jesus healed all that were sick, to fulfil that which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying, ‘Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.’
Is sickness part of the cross we must carry
Isn’t sickness part of the cross we must carry? The cross that Jesus carried was not sickness but rejection, torture and death. The cross He asked us to carry is not sickness, but the persecution, hardship, rejection and even death that follow being His disciples and preaching His Gospel (Matthew 10:38; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; 14:27).
Doubt is one of the devil's biggest weapons
How do recognise God? How to find Him?
How do you recognise God? How do you find Him? What is the evidence of God’s existence in the Bible? It’s the fact that He’s a God of miracles, who answers prayer, when it takes a miracle! This is the reality! This is the God we’re looking for: a God who answers all who call on Him, by miracles, by signs, by wonders. This is the evidence! Take the miraculous out and you destroy the reality of who God is. You make Him no different to men!
We have a covenant relationship with God
Search for God where you are
We’ve got to search for God and find Him right where we are! If you think my life as an evangelist is easy, I can disillusion you! Some people say they want to be like me, but if they knew the truth, they wouldn’t want to! When I had the lung cancer I had a very busy schedule – don’t ask me how much I fasted, how much I prayed. When you know you have only a short time to live, you learn how to pray!
God in the middle of the crisis
If you want to meet with God, you don’t have to wait until you have done this or that. I would never have become an evangelist, never seen a miracle of healing if God had waited until I was perfect before He answered my prayers. I call on God, He deals with me where I am. That’s why I was healed, not because I was ‘holy’. What God looks at is the deep desire of your heart.
Seek God in the midst of your problems
Finding God in difficulties
Forgiveness (Part 2)
If you want forgiveness, we have to forgive those who have sinned against us; amongst the 20,000 in the stadium, there were the former members of the secret police who persecuted you and your family. God is speaking, and this is what He says, ‘If you want forgiveness, you must forgive, even the police.’ Suddenly, there was a stillness, and the power of God came down.
Forgiveness (Part 1)
The Holy Spirit brings conviction and deliverance
My father said that it is not just preaching which brings people to repentance. He said you’ve not yet received the Holy Spirit; he told me, the Bible says Jesus taught His disciples the first lesson in evangelism when He said, “When the Holy Spirit is come, He (not you, David), He, will convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgement.” My father said, you need the Holy Spirit.
You need the Holy Spirit
My father said that it is not just preaching which brings people to repentance. He said you’ve not yet received the Holy Spirit; he told me, the Bible says Jesus taught His disciples the first lesson in evangelism when He said, “When the Holy Spirit is come, He (not you, David), He, will convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgement.” My father said, you need the Holy Spirit!
We have a big God!
Possess the promises of God. So many believers are without power because they don’t understand the promises and power of God to those who believe. Don’t just take ‘spiritual’ blessings – take the land, possess what you need in the material realm as well. When Israel went in, it meant war, a spiritual fight, but it also meant that they could have the milk and the honey, all their material needs supplied.
There is no limit to what God can do
Act with faith
Put your faith in God
It is easy for us as believers to read and hear about the stories in the Bible without personally identifying with them. But if God did these things in the past, why not believe for them today? Some Christians would dismiss miracles like speaking in tongues and healing by saying either that these were in the past, or that they were ‘dispensational’, that they can only happen at certain times! The real truth is that they do not want these things to happen, it would disturb the religious ‘order’ of their lives!
The promises of God are for us today
A new kind of faith
Everything in the Bible can happen today! Don’t limit God. I want to challenge you to a new kind of faith. We are commanded to go in and possess all the blessings which God has promised. Get into the Word of God, search for and mark every promise that you want in your life in red – then every promise you don’t want, cross it out – no, NO!! I want you to have the faith to go and take them ALL! I hear Christians saying I can’t – but my Bible says I can do all things through Christ.
Emphasise the positive
God has given us so many promises, it is not presumptuous to accept them by faith, then go and take them. Too many sit and wait, asking, and never receiving. I remember as a boy the time when I wanted to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The old believers said, ‘Wait, we must have waiting meetings.’ But I am impatient and soon became tired of waiting. I said, ‘Easter is coming, I will go to London to one of the big conventions and not return until I receive.’ With that positive attitude I went – and received.