Speaker 1: You know I was preaching a message on Sunday.
Speaker 1: Faith makes a demand, and so tonight I wanted to go into some more detail on that message.
Speaker 1: Faith, that makes a demand too.
Speaker 1: I like to teach on faith, because the just shall live by faith, Amen.
Speaker 1: You must live by your faith, not on grandma's faith or mama's faith.
Speaker 1: It's your faith that makes the difference.
Speaker 1: So let's just lift our Bibles up, wave them around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad.
Speaker 1: Let's say this together Say, heavenly Father, I'm ready for my faith to be fed tonight.
Speaker 1: I thank you for the Word of God and for the Holy Ghost.
Speaker 1: I'm growing from strength to strength, from faith to faith and from glory to glory and from victory to victory.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1: Doesn't that make you feel good to say that?
Speaker 1: Amen, all right.
Speaker 1: Tonight we want to look at John, chapter 15, verse seven, and of course it's in red.
Speaker 1: Jesus is speaking to his disciples.
Speaker 1: Again.
Speaker 1: It's on the night before he was crucified and he said if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you.
Speaker 1: Herein is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit, so shall you be my disciples.
Speaker 1: So here again, as we see these verses, we see the Word of ask you ask what you will and it shall be done unto you.
Speaker 1: The Word again, as we said Sunday morning, the Word of ask means to call for, to require or to demand your do and, of course, where it's referring to making a demand on your covenant, it's not demanding from God.
Speaker 1: God's not the one withholding anything from you.
Speaker 1: We don't have to shake our fist and pound the table and make a demand on God himself, but he wants to know that you know what belongs to you.
Speaker 1: And to make a demand on your covenant, to demand the devil or the problem or the or the poacher or the trespasser or the squatter to leave right now the pain and whatever it is, to go in Jesus' name, to make a demand.
Speaker 1: And so here tonight, we see now, you know, sunday we talked John, chapter 14, it said much the same thing.
Speaker 1: We ministered on a verse there.
Speaker 1: So you?
Speaker 1: So the second time, on the evening before he's crucified, he brings up this word ask, which means to make a demand.
Speaker 1: And he's teaching his disciples to be bold in faith, to not be mealy mouth when they're asking.
Speaker 1: It's not begging, asking is not begging.
Speaker 1: And so tonight when he says ask what you will, what you will, not what grandma will, so I would anybody else.
Speaker 1: With what do you want to happen?
Speaker 1: You make the demand based on your covenant and whatever it is that you desire.
Speaker 1: About the situation, some have said, oh gosh, that just can't be right.
Speaker 1: That's just not see.
Speaker 1: Many people have been just religiously brainwashed.
Speaker 1: They've been taught theories.
Speaker 1: I like what brother Hagin's definition of a theory?
Speaker 1: Theory is a supposition based on ignorance of the subject under discussion.
Speaker 1: That's all you get in some places, just theories.
Speaker 1: No, this is the word.
Speaker 1: This is what Jesus said.
Speaker 1: There's simply a matter of looking up in your concordance what a word means in the Greek, and I've just simply told you what Jesus said and what it means.
Speaker 1: It means to make a demand, and so that doesn't mean beg.
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean oh poor me.
Speaker 1: It means you know what belongs to you.
Speaker 1: Now here he has an if, verse seven.
Speaker 1: He said if, number one, you abide in me and number two, my words abide in you.
Speaker 1: So there's two conditions to see whether or not your demand will be granted.
Speaker 1: The first one if you abide in me.
Speaker 1: Well, the minute you got saved, we're taught in the word that the Holy Ghost baptizes you into the body of Christ.
Speaker 1: You become one with Him, so you abide in Christ.
Speaker 1: When you get saved, you are in Christ automatically.
Speaker 1: It's not whether you feel like it one minute and don't feel like it the next minute.
Speaker 1: It's something that happens when you're born again.
Speaker 1: You are in Christ.
Speaker 1: That's the legal side of it.
Speaker 1: A lot of people don't live like they're in Christ.
Speaker 1: They live like they're still on their own, and so that's how important it is for you to meditate.
Speaker 1: You know we've been doing a series of messages that are strung together.
Speaker 1: We started off with the power of hope, power of positive expectation, I should say and then we went into meditating the word, how important it is because that leads to success, and meditation is not just thinking, it's speaking.
Speaker 1: And then we talked about confession, bills, your supply chain, and so now we're on.
Speaker 1: Faith makes a demand.
Speaker 1: So if you really kind of hook these messages together so that you know what I want to do is, pastors, I want to give you the big picture of faith I want to give you be able to connect the dots and give you plenty of information where you can check up on yourself, look into the mirror of the word and see where you are and hopefully you'll move up to the next level of your faith.
Speaker 1: You know God doesn't want you to stay in the kindergarten, he wants you to go on up.
Speaker 1: He wants you to move on up the ladder and of course we can't stop at top.
Speaker 1: Start at the top of the ladder.
Speaker 1: We have to start where we are.
Speaker 1: Everybody starts at the same place when you're a baby Christian, but hopefully, as time goes on and you come to glorious way church, I'm going to teach you on faith and your faith is going to come up a few notches.
Speaker 1: We never graduate, but we do progress, amen.
Speaker 1: And so he said if these two conditions are met, you can ask what you will ask, what you will Ask, what you desire, what you will, what do you want to happen, and it shall be done unto you".
Speaker 1: What an amazing, amazing statement that Jesus has made.
Speaker 1: But these two conditions?
Speaker 1: So the condition one is pretty much automatic you do abide in Christ.
Speaker 1: You need to know.
Speaker 1: That's why you ought to be meditating on who you are in Christ, what you have in Christ, what Christ is doing right now at the right hand of the Father, what His ministry is today.
Speaker 1: You know, he's not just sitting up there just kind of sitting on His throne doing nothing.
Speaker 1: No, he's got things that he's doing.
Speaker 1: You ought to know what he's doing.
Speaker 1: He's a high priest of your profession.
Speaker 1: He's watching over His Word to perform it.
Speaker 1: There's all kinds of things that Jesus is doing right now.
Speaker 1: And then the second condition, and my words abide in you.
Speaker 1: Now, this is where you have a choice in the matter, because His Word abiding in you means His Word does abide in you to the degree that you live by them or to the degree that those words govern you.
Speaker 1: And so that's all on you.
Speaker 1: That's your choice.
Speaker 1: That's the decisions that you make day by day and multiple times a day.
Speaker 1: Are you going to walk according to the Word?
Speaker 1: So for most people there's a gap.
Speaker 1: There's a gap between what they know and what they do, and my job is to give you the information that will close that gap and so that you will act on the Word in every case, that you won't spend time having a pity party when you're going through trouble, but you'll find out immediately what does the Word say about my situation, and then you'll begin to take the Word of God and act like it's so, amen.
Speaker 1: So those two conditions you abide in me.
Speaker 1: Well, check that if you're born again.
Speaker 1: And then, number two my words abide in you.
Speaker 1: Well, that's where the you know you're living by the Word, to the degree that you live by the Word.
Speaker 1: Maybe we're not all perfect, of course we're not.
Speaker 1: We're all growing in that area, but the greater we live by the Word, the greater we're able to make demands on our covenant, hallelujah.
Speaker 1: So when both those conditions are met, you will know what belongs to you.
Speaker 1: You're not going to just pray some outlandish prayer.
Speaker 1: You're not going to, you know, come up with some fanciful desire and specific prayer about something or claim something that doesn't belong to you.
Speaker 1: You know, I knew a woman one time when I was first saved and she's coming to our Bible study, that I was going to have been saved about three weeks and she and I was a home builder in those days and I was building houses in this particular subdivision that I lived in.
Speaker 1: That's where we were having the Bible study.
Speaker 1: And this couple came from and they were, you know, I knew them from Lakewood.
Speaker 1: They didn't know who I was, but I knew who they were.
Speaker 1: They were kind of, you know, maybe VIPs, I guess I don't know.
Speaker 1: But anyway, she and the lady that was directing the Bible study started talking.
Speaker 1: She said oh, I saw that house over there, so and so built it.
Speaker 1: I'm believing, I'm claiming that house.
Speaker 1: He's not going to be able to sell that house, I'm going to buy it.
Speaker 1: Well, immediately when I heard that, I knew in my spirit that was wrong.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's covetousness.
Speaker 1: You don't have the money to buy that house, sweetie Pie.
Speaker 1: I mean, this house back then was like a $200,000 house and that would be like $600,000 now.
Speaker 1: And and I thought you know that's not right I mean that house had been sitting for quite some time.
Speaker 1: I knew the builder and I knew that he needed to sell it.
Speaker 1: And here she is trying to interrupt that process and use her faith to say, no, you can't sell it to anybody, I'm going to have it, it's mine.
Speaker 1: But she didn't have the money to buy it.
Speaker 1: See, what is that?
Speaker 1: Well, that's covetousness.
Speaker 1: Actually, that's witchcraft.
Speaker 1: And being a baby Christian.
Speaker 1: I've been three weeks old and the Lord, I knew about that better than she did.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's not everybody knows what I'm preaching about tonight.
Speaker 1: Not everybody has a working knowledge of the rules.
Speaker 1: You know she didn't have the word of God abiding in her, or she would have known.
Speaker 1: That's not right, that's not faith, that's foolishness.
Speaker 1: Actually, what that is is presumption.
Speaker 1: And so, and sure enough, that house didn't sell and the bank did take it and foreclosed on it.
Speaker 1: The guy lost his house and didn't get any credit for building a house.
Speaker 1: You know he built it for nothing.
Speaker 1: In fact it cost him money and she didn't wind up with it either.
Speaker 1: It made me wonder for a while, you know, whether that witchcraft really entered into it or not.
Speaker 1: I don't know that it did, but that's not how to do things.
Speaker 1: So when you really have both of these working, that you abide in him and his word abides in you, you won't ask some foolish thing.
Speaker 1: You will know what belongs to you, you will know to stay within the faith that you have, that you have in your grasp.
Speaker 1: And of course, god's gonna move you from one level to another, to the other.
Speaker 1: And you know, I remember Brother Hagin.
Speaker 1: He was just having to believe God for enough money to have a Christmas for his kids.
Speaker 1: You know, when he started preaching on the field, I mean, that's what he could.
Speaker 1: All he could have the faith for was just enough to pay his bills and have a little bit extra for the kids at Christmas.
Speaker 1: I mean it was skinny and he and Aretha he'd be gone and they'd have to agree on $300 for Christmas or $200 extra for Christmas and things like that.
Speaker 1: And he progressed in his ministry till finally, you know, he believed God for a million dollar one time gift for his ministry which came in, and after it came in once, it came in many times, it came in on a regular basis, like it broke a dam open, see.
Speaker 1: So Brother Hagin had to grow in his faith.
Speaker 1: We also have to grow and progress in ours.
Speaker 1: And so when you have both of these conditions that Jesus is talking about, then when you bear fruit, what does it mean to bear fruit?
Speaker 1: Well, in this case he's not talking about love, joy, peace, patience, goodness and all that.
Speaker 1: He's not talking about the fruit of the Spirit.
Speaker 1: He's talking about the fruit of your faith.
Speaker 1: In other words, when you get what you desire, god is glorified.
Speaker 1: That's what he says.
Speaker 1: He said here is my herein, is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit.
Speaker 1: God wants you to have everything that you desire.
Speaker 1: He's not chinchy, he's not the one holding anything back.
Speaker 1: Always remember the demand is on the devil to get his hands off of your goods, how you been.
Speaker 1: And so when you ask or when you demand, under those conditions it, this is Jesus talking.
Speaker 1: It shall be done unto you.
Speaker 1: Oh, come on, lift your hand right now.
Speaker 1: What an amazing statement that Jesus has given us.
Speaker 1: I mean he just opened the checkbook and said all right, son and daughter, just get in there and get whatever you want.
Speaker 1: Oh, wow, what a Father we have.
Speaker 1: You know, years ago it was in, oh, I guess the late 80s, probably 80, 1989.
Speaker 1: I had been back in the home.
Speaker 1: No, actually 91, about 1991.
Speaker 1: I was back in the home building business and I had a house that was for sale in West University Place and just finished up.
Speaker 1: And and of course, when a house finishes up, that means there's no cash flow.
Speaker 1: I mean, that means all the money's going out of your company to pay interest and you wanna make sure you sell that house real soon.
Speaker 1: And it hadn't sold yet.
Speaker 1: And.
Speaker 1: But yet I was sitting on the house one weekend just to see on Saturday, see if anybody would come by and I could talk to them and sell them the house.
Speaker 1: It was listed with a realtor.
Speaker 1: But they don't sit there, you know, they just wait for their phone to ring.
Speaker 1: Well, that wasn't good enough for me.
Speaker 1: I wanted to intercept somebody and sure enough, a couple came in and I talked to them a long time, showed them through the house, and they were two engineers and they had a lot that was out in near Rosenberg and and they were interested maybe in building a custom home.
Speaker 1: So, ultimately, what I wound up doing, that house didn't sell right away.
Speaker 1: So I made a deal that I wouldn't normally do.
Speaker 1: I'd made a deal to build them a custom home on their lot and that house would be 57 miles each way from my home in spring to that job site.
Speaker 1: And and I gave them you know, gave them the price I built, it cost plus a fee.
Speaker 1: So they, they agreed to that.
Speaker 1: That way I'm protected, whatever my costs were here's, here's how the house is gonna look.
Speaker 1: It looks like this house right here, and this is the price.
Speaker 1: And then you're gonna pay me X number of dollars plus that.
Speaker 1: You know, I think it was 20,000.
Speaker 1: Cost plus 20,000, not a percentage but a figure, a fee.
Speaker 1: And they agreed and so we started construction.
Speaker 1: Well, you know you take a few, a few drives to that Construction site.
Speaker 1: It's in the middle of nowhere, there's country roads for miles and there's nobody out there in those years.
Speaker 1: And I've got a car that's got 270,000 miles on it.
Speaker 1: It was a overhaul the engine and transmission at 140,000, so it's got 130,000 on an overhaul.
Speaker 1: And and you know, being an engineer myself, I know that that thing is not probably not going to be able to hold up to the rigors of that trip, because I got to drive out there and back every day, plus I've got to go to West you and I've got to make a circle there, kind of a little bit traffic.
Speaker 1: And so I went to the Lord about it and I and I pled my case.
Speaker 1: I said, lord, you know, your word says Let the word abide in you.
Speaker 1: Give, it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, shaking together, running over show Men.
Speaker 1: Give unto your bosom, said Lord, you know I'm a tither and a giver.
Speaker 1: And Further that you said, you know what swearer a man sows, that shall he also reap.
Speaker 1: You know that I've sown cars, I have given cars, and and I went down the list of the cars that I had given and I said, you know, in spite of that, I've the bank has taken three of my cars a Several years ago, three cars that I lost to the bank because of business, and I said so.
Speaker 1: You know it's not going the right direction.
Speaker 1: I you know.
Speaker 1: I'm just want want you to know.
Speaker 1: I want to make a demand on my covenant.
Speaker 1: I believe I have a car coming because I've sown cars and and and I need one, and I'm not particular about the make or the model or the year or the color, I just want a car that will be dependable to get me through this job.
Speaker 1: It's going to take me at least six months to build this house and then after that I'll be able to breathe and I can either Make other arrangements later, but the car that I have right now, it's not going to make it that long, it just not.
Speaker 1: And it's got a finite life and I've used it up.
Speaker 1: Lord, thank God it's been as dependable as it's been, but I need another car.
Speaker 1: So I just believe I receive it.
Speaker 1: See, based on these verses, based on John 15, 7, I said thank you for it.
Speaker 1: Lord, I'm making it a man on my covenant.
Speaker 1: Devil, take your hands off my Transportation, take your hands off the people that are supposed to give me this car.
Speaker 1: See, men shall give unto your bosom.
Speaker 1: I mean it's not going to be drop out of the sky on top of you.
Speaker 1: You know Chevrolet's not going to call you from the factory and say we've got a brand new ship before you come and get it.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know people are going to give you the car somewhere some way.
Speaker 1: I was the person that gave cars and now somebody's gonna give me one and Then I just praised him.
Speaker 1: Every time I thought about it I'd thank him, but for the car.
Speaker 1: So about a month later a dear friend of mine still a friend today, young man at that time, called me and and he said brother Griner, very formal with me because he's younger, so he always was very respectful.
Speaker 1: He could have called me John if he wanted to, but he never would do that.
Speaker 1: He called me, you know, either mr Griner or brother Griner.
Speaker 1: He said I've got something.
Speaker 1: I got a run by you, said I.
Speaker 1: I was driving down the car and my car the other day and A rock flew up and broke my windshield and it cracked it all the way through and I was so aggravated.
Speaker 1: You know God's God, said that he would protect my Assets.
Speaker 1: And hear that rock, you know it flown up and cracked it and but the day before he, you know, I'd heard this voice tell me to give my car away.
Speaker 1: And I said this can't be, god.
Speaker 1: I, it's the only car I've got and I have to have it.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to give this car.
Speaker 1: And Then the next day, here, this rock flies up and breaks my windshield and he said and that's not all.
Speaker 1: I said, oh, you got more?
Speaker 1: And he said, yeah, he said dinner been.
Speaker 1: After that I'm driving down the road and I wind up at a red light and I get into a fender bender with an 18-wheeler and my back and passenger doors caved in and I got a ticket and for illegal lane change.
Speaker 1: And he said I just really wasn't my fault.
Speaker 1: He cut in front of me and he said I just.
Speaker 1: And after that all happened, I just said God, what is going on here?
Speaker 1: I don't, this is not right.
Speaker 1: I busted my windshield and now I've got this damage to the car and I've got a ticket.
Speaker 1: And he said well, I told you to give your car away.
Speaker 1: He said well, that's not right, I don't have another car.
Speaker 1: What am I going to do for a car?
Speaker 1: I have to go to college.
Speaker 1: He was instilling college at the time.
Speaker 1: I've got to get to class.
Speaker 1: I have no other way to go to my part-time job.
Speaker 1: Go to class.
Speaker 1: He said I just have to have a sign.
Speaker 1: I've got to have a sign.
Speaker 1: You're going to have to give me chapter and verse, just like this Matthew 16.4.
Speaker 1: And boy, I've really got my attention by this time.
Speaker 1: I couldn't wait to hear the story.
Speaker 1: And he said so, I had, man, I drove to my apartment and I bounded out of the car.
Speaker 1: I ran up the stairs, I got in my apartment, I ran to my Bible, I opened it up and I found Matthew 16.4, a wicked and adulterous generation seek it after a sign, and no sign shall be given it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah.
Speaker 1: And oh, I laughed.
Speaker 1: I laughed and laughed and I almost just split in my sides and I said so what's your question?
Speaker 1: He said well, my question is, before I give it away, do you think I need to fix the windshield and the damage to the door?
Speaker 1: And I said oh, fad, I hate to tell you this, but would you give God a one-eyed lamb.
Speaker 1: He said I knew you were going to say that You're the one I'm supposed to give it to.
Speaker 1: I said oh no.
Speaker 1: He said oh yes, oh yes.
Speaker 1: So he was the one that was supposed to give me his car and he was in disobedience and so he had all this difficulty until he obeyed God.
Speaker 1: God said I'm not giving you a sign, the sign of the prophet Jonah.
Speaker 1: Well, jonah got swallowed by the whale.
Speaker 1: Remember?
Speaker 1: Don't tell me God didn't have a sense of humor.
Speaker 1: But you know, god honored my demand and I said well, fad, this is God.
Speaker 1: And I told him my side of the story.
Speaker 1: And he drove a 1983 Mercedes 300 diesel.
Speaker 1: It's a five cylinder diesel.
Speaker 1: It had 160,000 miles on it For that car that's just getting broke in, and it was a good, solid car.
Speaker 1: And I put another 100 and almost 140,000 miles on it before it fell apart several years later.
Speaker 1: But you know, it got me, it answered my, it answered my demand and God had to move in.
Speaker 1: And what about?
Speaker 1: You weren't particular.
Speaker 1: Well, I hear people give testimonies about being real particular about things and I always know that if it comes through man's hands, the more particular you are, the longer it's gonna take.
Speaker 1: So you just better keep that in mind.
Speaker 1: I knew that.
Speaker 1: So I said I don't care what brand, I don't care what color, I don't care what it looks like.
Speaker 1: I would have been perfectly happy with a crack windshield and a mashed in passenger door.
Speaker 1: It didn't matter to me, but it mattered to him.
Speaker 1: He needed to get maximum return on his blessing.
Speaker 1: He wasn't just giving it to me, he was giving it to God.
Speaker 1: Are y'all following me there?
Speaker 1: So what?
Speaker 1: God was glorified because I received my need met.
Speaker 1: God was glorified because he obeyed God in meeting that need Hallelujah.
Speaker 1: And so receiving what's yours is really a sign that you are a disciple.
Speaker 1: He said so shall you be my disciples when you get your needs met like this, when you make demands that are granted, then you're my disciples.
Speaker 1: Indeed, praise God, and so that's proof that you are.
Speaker 1: Faith makes a demand.
Speaker 1: Come on, lift your hands and receive tonight Hallelujah.
Speaker 1: Glory to God.
Speaker 1: I just believe the wheels are turning in your life, and as we preach on faith I mean I preach the things that I take for granted, because in out of my own personal experience, I've proven these things out over many years they work and God is glorified.
Speaker 1: See, religion will tell you that it's insulting to God, but God's got the opposite.
Speaker 1: No, no, that's how God is glorified is when you get your needs met.
Speaker 1: Hallelujah, amen, amen.