‘Ah, Sovereign Lord, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you!' (Jeremiah 32.17, NIV)
In 1994 God told me, ‘Go and evangelise the whole of Siberia!’ Siberia is fifty-two times the size of Great Britain, four times North America! Four hundred team members; one hundred tonnes of equipment; seventeen crusades, each crusade seventeen days; I had to preach in every crusade; we were there for three months. We had no money, people laughed at me, ‘It’s impossible!’ But God told me to go! We went – God gave us the money and He worked the miracles! But too often we fail to go in and possess the land! Faith is only faith when it’s tested. When God says, ‘Do it!’, you must obey Him.
Without the miracle-working Power of the Holy Spirit, the whole project would have failed! Not just the numbers of souls saved, not just the miracles of healing – but miracles of provision of every sort – from the provision of hundreds of thousands of Bibles to give to every new convert at a cost to the ministry of only 6.5 pence per copy – to miracles of transport – planes where there were no planes – every kind of miracle. Every day in Siberia was a miracle from beginning to end.
In one city, because of the Orthodox priest, we could not use the auditorium that night, we had to preach in the street – so we put our loudspeakers in the best place in town – around Lenin’s statue! The priest sent a male witch, a shaman, who called evil spirits to destroy the meeting. He summoned an electric storm – these men have power – and as he came towards me, a great wind followed him and big drops of rain started to fall. I took authority, bound the power of the devil in him – saying ‘My Jesus is Lord and has more Power than you do!’
Suddenly a flash of lightning struck the man, he fell to the ground stunned, then staggered to his feet and ran back down the street – and the rain storm followed him against the wind! I have never seen such a thing in my life before! Jesus has Power over the wind and the rain today, not just in Galilee 2,000 years ago! In that town there’s a good pastor, a strong church, they’re on fire, and they’re training evangelists to win Russia for Christ!
If we want to possess God’s promises in our lives, we must be practical. It takes faith to put the vision into action – prayer to move the mountains – and obedience to receive the Holy Spirit’s power that will enable us to do the job. Leave the questions to Him to solve – do what He says! The Bible says, ‘To obey is better than sacrifice’ (1 Samuel 15.22).
I challenge you to 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! If we really knew our God and had a vision of Him, we would attempt the impossible and take the land! It is only this kind of vision which obeys in faith that will win the unbelieving nations and people, today.
I know from the Bible, nothing is impossible, but in order to receive, there must be a building process, a growing in faith, not giving up – this is when you must fast and pray and believe that God WILL do it! To receive that kind of faith which will work a miracle in your own life, you must be totally convinced: a) that nothing is impossible with your God; b) that He wants to work that miracle in you; c) that you know when!
I was healed from lung cancer twenty years ago, but I was sick for months before I came to the spiritual place with God where the miracle happened – months of spiritual growth, followed by a sudden revelation – an explosion – and in that moment the healing was instantaneous!