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!
The Power of Revival
We need the FIRE of God to fall afresh on us! We often say of people who are very enthusiastic that they are ‘fiery’! Come on! We need to have some of that FIRE that came on the first Day of Pentecost! Look at Acts 4.33, ‘With GREAT POWER the Apostles witnessed to the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus!’ Look, these men were not educated, nor religious – their ONLY Power and Authority was the Holy Spirit and Jesus! What we need, what I pray for – is a spiritual awakening that will bring back the FIRE AND THE POWER into the Church. We need Jesus and the Power of the Holy Spirit. We need a renewal of this experience in the Church! O God, grant it in Jesus’ Name! Amen!
Have Faith in God!
Have faith IN GOD! Our faith is not in people, it’s not in the preacher or the evangelist. Our faith has to be directly IN GOD! We have to emphasise this when we talk about faith. Too many people look to me, and think I’m some healer… No! God is the Healer. I explain this in every evangelistic meeting before I pray for the sick, “I am NOT a healing evangelist! Jesus is the Healer, He’s the One you have to ask!” And I teach them how to call on Him for their healing.
I’m trying to give you a wider picture about faith, and I feel I have to return to some subjects I have already dealt with. I don’t want to teach on faith as a generalisation, but look at the practicality – what effect faith will have in your life, how we can enact it, live it out, see the results. I want to show you the pitfalls, the difficulties – and the phenomenal result of faith.
God is calling us to trust Him
God is calling us to trust Him! I ask myself sometimes, which was the greater miracle, the children of Israel crossing of the Red Sea on dry land, or the total destruction of the crack troops of the elite Egyptian army, chariots and horses that raced in after them – it was like drowning tanks! So here, in Numbers 14, God is saying, “I performed all these miracles and still these people don’t trust in Me.” God is always demonstrating His Power, always calling us to trust Him – and He never, ever fails!
To me, the story of the 12 spies sent to spy out the Promised Land is a tremendous challenge to my faith. The children of Israel were still in the wilderness, and it had taken them a long time to get to this place. Now the command of the Lord to Moses is to pick twelve representatives from each of the twelve tribes, and to send them to see for themselves what the future was. I find this very interesting, because they were actually sent out to see the future! - And the level of their trust in God would affect whether they received the promise or not.
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!
What is faith and how do we use it?
What is faith and how do we use it? Here in the UK they classify all religious groups, whatever they are, as ‘people of faith’. This only means that they have a religious faith of some kind. It doesn’t relate to faith as I understand it from the Bible. I’m not going to give you a dictionary definition, but I’m trying to deal with the kind of faith which, for me, is a personal experience which works and sees miracles happening! I’m trying explain what faith REALLY is, how to appropriate it, how to use it, how to put it into ACTION. Faith is the motive that drives me, faith is the Power that I receive from God to see miracles! Without faith it is impossible to please God! I have discovered that if I want to please God, I have to let my faith loose, I’ve got to go out and DO these things. That’s what pleases God! Come on! This is what pleases God! To go out in faith and to do the impossible!
Faith is demonstrated by what you do!
Faith is something practical, it’s substance, evidence – of ‘something’. But remember, right from the very beginning, we’re ‘saved by faith’. But by faith in what? We’re not saved by ‘having faith’… We’re not saved from sin ‘simply by faith’ – we’re saved by faith in Christ! It’s faith in Him, it’s specific. It’s very strong! I’m looking at the practicality of faith, at the evidence – not just because we nominally believe in something – but faith that is demonstrated by what we do! Not just by what we say, but by our ACTIONS.
Command the mountain to move
The Latter Rain of the Spirit - Living in the Greater Works of Jesus
I believe in the Latter Rain of the Spirit - an outpouring where we will do the Greater Works. The prophecies, the Words of Jesus are quite clear, a GREATER outpouring of the Holy Spirit MUST happen in the last days before He comes back (Joel 2.28-29, Acts 2.16-17). Do you see the URGENCY?! I have believed and lived in this experience of a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Look at my ministry – the phenomenal numbers of healings, tens of thousands of healings, incredible miracles that have happened – it’s not me, it’s only what Peter, Joel and Jesus all prophesied would happen. But what I have seen is only a beginning. I am yet believing that this next phase of my ministry will be greater and more powerful than anything that has happened in the past. Don’t rest and say that we cannot see GREATER miracles than Jesus. I am challenging you. If we are to expect to see and do GREATER things than Jesus did (and we MUST expect this), then come on, we at least need to be doing the things that He did – preach the Gospel, heal the sick, with signs following! God bless you.
The Day of the Lord
In 1 Thessalonians 5.2-3, the Apostle Paul writes, “You know perfectly that the Day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes on them as travail on a woman with child, and they shall not escape!” We know this, the Lord’s Coming is as a thief in the night. Ah, but, look how Paul is putting it here. We have to be prepared, we have to be ready, we have to prepare… Because in v4, Paul says, “YOU, brethren, are NOT in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief!” Paul is saying, as far as the world is concerned, the Coming of Christ will be a sudden unexpected happening – but you, brothers and sisters in Christ, should not be in such darkness that the Coming of the Lord will overtake you as a thief! The suddenness of the Coming of the Lord is a shock to the world, but not so to the Believer, who should be expecting it.