A Prophetic Vision is so important. I’m DRIVEN by a vision. DRIVEN by the vision God has showed me. My whole ministry, Eurovision, is literally a vision of Europe won for Christ! As Christians we talk a lot about revival – but I want to show you from Proverbs 29.18 that, without a clear vision, we won’t see revival. Revival begins from God as a manifestation of the Holy Spirit – but it usually comes because of someone’s vision in prayer. The whole of my life, right from the beginning, has been motivated by the vision God gave me of what He was going to do. And He has fulfilled everything! Prophecy is when God puts something in your spirit, and which you speak out, and it will happen in years to come. Vision is when God gives you a clear vision of what He and you can do together – and you have to go out and do it! Somebody has to get out there and fulfil the vision, fulfil the prophecy. This is the challenge of Proverbs 29.18, where there is no vision, the people will perish! Get a vision, act on it and God will be with you!
Faith under pressure is more precious than gold
I want to show you from three different authors – Paul in Hebrews, then James and Peter – what faith is. A faith that doesn’t give in, that doesn’t buckle under pressure. We need a faith that doesn’t bend, a faith that is constant and reliable – even when it goes through the ultimate test! God is consistent and stable. Our faith has to be anchored in that – in the stability, in the consistency of believing and knowing God! Somehow we have to understand and accept THIS challenge in the day in which we live in NOW! Whether it’s through sickness, or through persecution, or through whatever is happening in your life – through it all we have to realise that holding onto God by faith is the way into the Kingdom!
Command the mountain to move
According to the Will of God, Part 1, (Romans 8)
I want to talk to you on a subject which is very dear to my heart and encourage you to pray, based on a very strong and powerful experience in my life from Romans 8.
In 1964, as many of you know, I was diagnosed with throat cancer. I had refused ALL medical treatment. Yes, I had had the X-rays and the camera down my throat, many different tests, and every one of them confirmed that I had throat cancer. But I determined to pray my way through, in part because I was pastor of a church which had been founded on my evangelism and the miracles that took place in that evangelism. The miracles were recorded in the local newspaper – blind eyes, deaf ears opened, cripples healed! So I determined, NO medical treatment, I’ll fast and I’ll pray and God will heal me!
The Fire of God through prayer
Do you want to see the Fire of God? An answer to prayer? Through prayer, call for and expect an answer to the specifics of your problem. Whoever you are. We have to re-examine prayer. If we today would pray like Solomon, with such Authority and such Power so that the Glory of God would come down! I urge you to read the entirety of Solomon’s prayer in 2 Chronicles 6&7 - it is one of the greatest examples of intercession in the Bible; there is so much we can learn here.
Pray from your heart with faith
To me, the most powerful prayers that I’ve read in the Bible are in the Old Testament. As Solomon kneels on that altar in 2 Chronicles 6, he’s crying out to God to FULFIL every Promise, to VERIFY all the Promises He has made! There should come a time in our own praying when we are calling on God to fulfil His Promises!!! This is why we need to pray over the Word of God! We need to SEEK the Word of God! Whatever my crisis, I SEEK God through His Word! God never, ever fails! God has never once – in all my 70 years of ministry – failed to keep the Promises He has made to me!
Through faith we obey and receive
Do you understand how powerful faith is? God will never ever, ever fail to keep His Promise!! Even if everything around us seems to conspire against it, God won’t fail!!! Somebody once said, there are three levels of faith. The first level of faith is that you believe in something because all the evidence is there that it is going to happen. The second level is when you are believing for something and there is nothing at all to support or convince you that it could happen. But the third level of faith is when everything is against you – it can’t happen! Faith when it’s impossible, absolutely impossible.
Your confidence has great reward
We can understand faith in so many ways. Yes, the faith to receive miracles of healing, faith to receive answers to prayer, but also the CONFIDENCE we have in our Christian walk. Faith should be, that when we get out of bed in the morning, we are confident God is with us. When we open the front door and step out into the day’s life, whatever is in store, we have confidence. It is confidence in God that has always boosted my life, bolstered my life, supported and strengthened my life.
Whatever you ask in Jesus Name
Whatever you ask in prayer, believe you have received it, and it will be yours! Jesus is teaching us that IF WE BELIEVE in Him, once He has gone back to be with His Father, we then on earth HAVE to carry on the work that He did – we HAVE to do what He did! So many people seem to read John 14 without seemingly being able to believe it. Jesus has commissioned us to do the greater works!
When Truth falls
In Acts 3, Peter and John were brought before the whole religious council – the High Priest, his kindred, the rulers, elders and scribes – for questioning, “By what power, by what name have you healed this lame man?” And Peter replied, “If we are being examined about this man and how he was healed, let it be known to you and to the whole of Israel that by the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom God raised from the dead, even by Him does this man stand, totally healed!” The religious leaders then responded, “Did we not strictly command you that you should not preach in this Name? But you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine!” But in v29 Peter and the other Apostles answered, “We ought to obey God rather than men.” Our allegiance is to Jesus, the Son of the living God, who was raised from the dead; it is Him we must obey!