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Hi, my name is Michelle Steele. Pastor Phillip and I want to thank you for listening to this message from Life of Faith Church. We have more resources available to help you build your faith and frame your world by the Word of God. From our website, lifeoffaith.net, you can connect to our YouTube channel. Watch the live stream feed from our church services. Access books and downloads in our web store. And discover more about Life of Faith Church, producing like city, state, nation, and world. Visit lifeoffaith.net today.

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We want to continue with this that we've been looking at the core values of the believer. And I'm I'm centered up on the ability of the word. And I've been this is the third lesson along these lines on the ability of the word. Brother Hagin would often make the statement that uh we should give as much reverence to the written word as you would if Jesus Christ stood before you in the flesh. Because that is the kind of reverence he gives his word. When you look at the word of God throughout the scripture, you you find uh different elements. You find that God has bound himself to his word. You find that God makes statements that uh if the word fails, if the word doesn't do what it says it will do or what he said it will do, he said this heaven and earth would pass away. In other words, if the word is not what I say, it's what's holding everything together. Hebrews chapter 1 says that it's the word of God, the word of God's power that's holding everything together. It's what's propelling the universe and making everything that we see function and operate. And while we know that, that's the reverence that God gives his word. God never looks at his word and says, Well, I know I said that, but. But believers say that. Well, I know the word says that, but see, that's irreverence for the word. If if a person says, I know the word says that, but it's akin to saying, God lied. They didn't say God lied, but they're saying God didn't do what he said. That's God never says that. God said, If I said it, I will do it. Why? Because I cannot lie. Amen. When we taught on the eternal faithfulness of God, that's why God always describes himself as our rock, as our strong tower, as our lofty, inaccessible place. He describes himself as something unmovable, as something unchangeable. Every time I cross over the bridge, come into Little Rock, come into work, coming to the office, coming to church, and I look over there and I see a pinnacle over there, I think of the faithfulness of God. Because it's a mountain of granite. If God said it, he said, if I say it, it will stand firm. It will stand unshakable, unmovable, it will stand unbendable. Jesus said that when you found your life on the word of God, he said, here's what'll happen. He said, the same storms will come to you that topple the life of people that do not act on the word. He said, but when you found your life on the word of God, that same flood, that same wind, that same storm will come, and your house, your life, will stand firm. Why? Because it's based on the word of God. We face challenges, but we face them with the word of God. We face circumstances, but we face them with the word of God. We don't face them in our own ability. I look over the congregation all the time, and I see people that I know God did a miracle in their life. And if it wasn't for what God did, they wouldn't be with us. Every time I see Robbie, I say, Praise God. Thank God, because the word of God worked in her life. Every time I see Pam sitting there beside Bill, I think, Praise God, because if the Word wasn't working in their life, things would not be where they're at. So I can be confident that what God said is what will happen. Because he's bound himself to his word. And he talks about his word in such surety. He calls his word the word of truth. He calls, when Paul wrote to the church and he made this statement, he said, When you received the word of God, you received it not as the word of man, but as it is in truth the word of God. Right? And so it's God's word, and it's it's not just God's word in that it's written in word form, it's God's word, it's God giving you his word. Amen. You know, I've had people tell me I've never heard God's voice. Every time you crack the pages of your Bible, you hear God's voice. Because it's his word. God, this is my Bible, this is God speaking to me. Hallelujah. Boy, you got me excited already. Hallelujah. Well, Pastor, you know you get kind of loud. Listen, if it did to you what it does to me, you'd get loud too. Amen. Matthew chapter 4, verse 4. But he answered. He answered the devil. Jesus did and said, It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And so Jesus makes the statement here that how we live is by the word, living in the word. Right? Luke 4 and 4 says the same thing. It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. So that means that there's a coupling of the natural and the spirit. There's things I have to live. I have to live in the natural world, but I live in the natural world by the word. I live in this natural life, but I live it by the word. The Bible says the life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who died and gave his life for me. So that's how I live. I live in the Word of God. Tell your neighbor, say, I live in the Word of God. Oh, hallelujah. Now, let's go over to James chapter 1. Because there's some things we taught, we talked extensively from James on Sunday morning, and I didn't get nearly into what I wanted to get into. I knew I'd be back. You can't uninvite me. Glory to God. Amen. And we talked from James 1 about how the word is what is able to save our souls, to renew our mind, to renew our lives. And we're not going to focus on that tonight. We did that on Sunday morning. But verse 22, he's talking about the word. And remember, it's the engrafted word. And that word engrafted means to impart, and it's imparted either by your reading it or hearing it or somebody imparting it to you. And he said in verse 22, but be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. If any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass, for he beholds himself and goes his way, and straightway forgets what manner of man he is. Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, notice, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. Oh hallelujah. One translation says we have to keep on becoming doers of the word. So that means a doer of the word is not just a doer of the word once, they keep on becoming a doer of the word of God. Amen. Now, hearing the word and doing the word is what renews the mind. It's what changes the outlook, it's what changes my perception. All right. I I need to say this because it's important. You know, prayer doesn't renew your mind. Praise and worship doesn't renew your mind. Fasting won't renew your mind. The only thing that renews your mind is the Word of God. Because the reason your mind has to be renewed is that's the natural, that when I say the natural part of you, that's the part of you that that is more closely connected to this world. Right? The mind that you grew up with. I I taught a series one time, removing the limits. I don't know how many weeks, 10, 12, 15 weeks, something, removing the limits. And I talked about these limiting mindsets that we grow up with. And that most limiting mindsets are imparted to us, they're taught to us. Somebody had to teach you to think that way. And so I grow up thinking like that, and the only way to change that is to renew my mind. Hallelujah. Right? Renew my mind. And the way I renew my mind is by the word of God, because here's what happens when you ingest the word of God it imparts the life of God to you. And it's almost like, you know, it's just uh theoretical. You know, theoretically, he'll impart his life. No, no, no, no, no, no. It's the life of God that comes into you that renews your mind. Because you can't renew your mind with anything other than the word of God. Brother Hagin would say over and over again, he said, what the church needs more than anything is renewed minds. And he would say, God wants submitted bodies and renewed minds. The number one need in the church is renewed minds. In in any area. When people get born again, have you ever watched people get born again? And it's like they're just a saved version of what they used to be. I mean, nothing really changed. You know, they're going to heaven now, they're not going to hell, but life didn't really change. That's not how it's supposed to be. My mind is supposed to be renewed. So what? So I can think God's thoughts after him and receive those things that he wants for me. How does that happen? By being a doer of the word of God. Amen. Doing the word, hearing the word, and doing the word is what renews the mind. But the key is continuing in the word. That word continue means to live, to remain, to abide, to continue in the word. As I continue in the word, I won't forget what I look like according to the word. You've got to constantly go back to the word and remind yourself what you look like. Amen. I got to constantly go back. When those challenges come up in your life, if you think on it too long, you'll start to see yourself with that perception. You've got to go back and look at the word of God, the mirror of the word of God, and let the mirror tell you what you look like. Hallelujah. See, this is important. That's why the enemy uses challenges and uses situations and circumstances to convince people that they are something the word said they're not. Hallelujah. I mean, think about this. And again, I'm not asking for a show of hands, but you know, if you've ever heard these words in your mind, you know you're a failure. Who told you that? Wasn't God. There's no failure scriptures in the Bible. It's not one of the Ten Commandments, thou shalt be a failure. It's not there. Everything God says about you is that you're an overcomer, you're a champion, you're more than a conqueror. You can do all things. You're the righteousness of God. You're created in the image of God. You're created in the image of Christ Jesus. You're loved. You've been accepted into the beloved. You're God's own Son. No room for failure. Well, who told you that? Well, you know, I it's it was just, you know, my thoughts. No, it wasn't just your thoughts. That thought came to you from somewhere. Who was it? The deceiver. What's he trying to do? To deceive you that you're something other than what the word says you are. See, that's the challenge, that's the fight. Is holding on to what the word of God said. That's in any area. Hallelujah. That's why continuing in the word, being a doer of the word. That word doer, it means to be a performer of the word. So I perform the word. I do what the word says. Oh, hallelujah. But then that word hearer, it means merely a hearer. And that that's that's challenging to me. That's that's that's strong to me. Now they're just a hearer. Merely a hearer. In other words, they don't have any intention of doing what the word says. They're just hearing. You know, there are multiplied thousands of believers that go to church every Sunday just to hear. They don't intend to do anything. They just, right? Amen. I've talked to people before. They said, they said, you know, the whole time that I was growing up and going to church, I'd sit by my dad in church and and you know, they would talk about tithing and the blessing of tithing and these different things. And they said, if my dad ever gave more than five dollars, I don't know it. Well, they're hearing the word, but they have no intention of doing it. Now, see, that's not you. I'm talking to doers here tonight. But you need to understand how hearers are. We need to understand how them cross the tracks live. Right? Hearing the word only. Remember what Jesus said? He said, This people draw near to me with their mouth, but their hearts are far from me. You don't hear with your ears, you hear with your heart. It may go in this organ, but it's designed for this heart. This is how I hear, is in my spirit. And he said, if you're a hearer only, with no intention due, you're just merely a hearer. So it's the it's the contrast of, well, I've heard that versus I'm doing that. Amen. Some of the most detrimental, two of the most detrimental words in the English vocabulary are this. I know. Because you understand, usually when that comes out, it's like, oh, I know, I know. In other words, you don't have to tell me anything. I know. You know, if it's not working in my life, go ahead and tell me what I know. Because I want it to work. Amen. Isn't that great? I say, Lord, if it's not working, show me what I need to do, and I'll do it. See, this is so important because he said you've got to continue in the word, in the word that you're hearing. Amen. So I don't want to forget what I look like according to the word. What does the word say you look like? Well, you know, I'm just, I'm just when I was a boy growing up in church, there was a song, and uh it was by a singing group, and it was very popular, and you probably never heard it. And it's probably a good thing. But the title of that song was I'm just a nobody trying to tell everybody about somebody who can save anybody. Mighty clouds of joy. Right? Now that's that sounds real good on the outside, but notice how it stopped. I'm just a nobody trying to tell everybody. Well, I'm not just nobody. I've heard people stand behind a pulpit and say, now look, I'm nothing, then sit down. Because you're about to transfer that I'm nothing on to everybody else. That's how you'll preach about everything. I am nothing in myself. But the Bible says, according to the book of Romans, that because I have received the gift of the gift of righteousness and grace, I reign in life as a king by Jesus Christ. I'm more than a conqueror, I'm reigning as a child of the king in this earth. I am far more than nothing. And so are you. See, that's that's false humility. And that goes contrary to the word of God. God spends all of this time building you up, showing you who you are in Christ, reminding you of how special you are to him, reminding you of what authority and power and and and standing that you have for. How can you call yourself nothing when he says at any time, any day of the night, or or any day or night, any time, you can come boldly into the throne room and receive whatever you want from me. Why? Why can I come boldly into the throne room? Because I belong there. I'm not interrupting anything. Man, I got a I got another illustration of this the other day. I've talked about this before. But I was uh now now don't please don't misunderstand me because I'm I'm gonna talk about Liliana. She was not being rude, or I was meeting with a person. It wasn't a super important meeting or anything like that. I had the door closed. I had the door up, there she is, uh my princess. Amen. And I had the door open, and she had been with Miss Sarah and some of the kids. I don't know what they were doing, but Miss Sarah took them somewhere, and uh they came back. Well, when Lily comes back to the office, the first person she wants to see is me. And so she came in the office and just came walking right back, came right in the office. Hi, hi. Why'd she come in that office so boldly? Whose office is it? Her dad's office. Right? Now, if the door had been shut, she would have knocked, but the door's open. I'm coming right on in. The door is never shut into the throne room, it's open to the family anytime. That's what God thinks about you. You are seated at the right hand of God in Christ. You're not 10,000 seats down, you're not 50,000 seats down, you are right next to the Father's right hand because you have been engrafted into the family of God. You are part of the family, you are an heir and a joint heir with Christ Jesus. Glory to God. And you've got to see that. You've so whenever those things come, I've got to go back to the word and cultivate that image. This is what I look like. Amen. Hallelujah. Glory to God. 2 Corinthians 3 and 18, it makes the statement, it says that as we behold ourselves in the mirror of the Word of God, that we are changed into the image. What image? The image that we're beholding. We all with open face beholding as in a glass, a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are changed into that image. From glory to glory, even as of by the Spirit of the Lord. So the Word of God is a mirror. And as you look into the mirror of the Word of God, you begin to become that image. Hallelujah. Glory to God. And we've touched on this some, but when he says image, you're changing to that image, that resemblance, that likeness. So what you see in the word, you begin to come become like that. Hallelujah. So if if we could take a very simple verse, it said, beloved, now are we the sons of God. You cannot meditate on that and not begin to think of yourself as a child, a son, a daughter of God. And then when you see yourself as a child of God, then you think about all the good that God wants to do for you. Because Jesus said, Look, look, you're wicked and you're just normal men, and he said, and you wouldn't give your children anything that would hurt them. If they asked for a fish, you wouldn't give them a stone. If they asked for bread, you wouldn't give them a serpent. He said, if you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more does your heavenly father know how to give good gifts to you? So what's what what kind of gifts does God have for you? Good gifts. So I can't look in the Word of God and find anything that God wants to give to me bad. Anything that God wants to give to me detrimental to my success. Oh, hallelujah! And that that's For a church, a family, a person, whomever it may be, an individual. When an individual gets a hold of the word of God and they're constantly consulting the word, right? They're seeing themselves in the word of God. When parents are sitting down and taking the word and showing their kids what they look like in the word, this is what the word of God says to you. You're precious, you're loved, you're cared for. Amen. It transforms everything. We wouldn't have these things where people have bad self-image if we would keep them in the mirror of the word of God. This is what the word says. Yeah, but my dad said this about me, but what did your dad say about you? That might be your earthly father, but what did your dad say about you? What did the one that created you say about you? Amen. Well, I never knew my father. Get to know your father. You may not have known your earthly father, but you can know this father. And it's what this father says about you that's the important thing. Oh, hallelujah. In Isaiah 55, 11, and we've talked about this some, and I just want to touch on it briefly because of what we've got to get into towards the end of this. The word has the ability to bring itself to pass. I heard Kenneth Copeland say something decades ago, and he was talking about the seed of the Word of God, and just the seed in general before the curse, the natural seed, but referencing specifically the seed of the Word of God. And it was this that the seed of the Word of God will continue to bring forth perpetually in the life of a believer if they don't dig it up. Once you declare the word of God, it's going to continue to bring forth. Amen. Because the word has the ability to bring itself to pass. The life and the energy of God is in the word. And so when you're declaring the word of God over your life, the very essence of God is coming into your, it's bringing to pass what it says. Isaiah 55, 11, it says concerning the word of God. Verse 10, of course, talks about the snow and the rain coming down and not returning. And then it says, So shall my word be. That's a life-changing phrase. Because this is how the word is. When it goes forth out of his mouth, it will not return to him void, but it will accomplish the thing that he sent it to do. Now notice all of those important words. It shall not return void. It shall accomplish. Now never doubt that. Never doubt that. Charles Cap still, his program still comes on with the David Ingalls song, The Word is working mightily in me. Amen. Well, I've sang that song over and over again when it seemed like the word was doing anything but working mightily in me. But see, my feelings, how it looks, what it appears, has nothing to do with the word bringing itself to pass in my life. Because God said it's working. Amen. I had a person come to me one time and they said, Pastor, I've been saying it like you say, I've been saying that, I've been saying it, and I'm not saying anything. I said, Say it again. Say it again. In the face of apparent defeat, you declare victory. In the face of apparent problems, you're declaring victory. Why? Because the word, the problem must give way to the unstoppable word of God. Has to. It has to. Your problem cannot hold up under the weight of the word of God. It's too much. Oh, hallelujah. Glory to God. So the word will bring itself to pass. The word will never fail. It will accomplish what it was sent to do. Well, I've been believing for this, and you know, I kind of had a setback. Well, just get me, listen, listen, listen. Just keep the word coming out of your mouth. There's no scripture that says you won't have a setback, but it says every time you have a setback, that God will put you to the front, God will redeem you, God will bring you out of it. Oh, glory to God. Amen. You know, we we've all heard the story of the three Hebrew boys, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And you know, we we all know uh uh about what happened, but what always just fires me up about that. Sometimes it's preached wrong, but he said, Look, I'm gonna do this one more time. I'm gonna have them play this music again, and you're gonna have to bow. And they said, We're not, look, we're not careful to answer you. In other words, we don't have to think about it. Listen, we're not bowing. And if you don't throw us in, that's fine. We're not bowing. If you do throw us in, God will deliver us. Amen. God will deliver us. If if you don't throw us in, we're still not bowing. Why? Because the word said you can't bow. See, if you don't bow, you don't burn. If you don't give up on what the word said, you don't lose. Yeah, but I'm in the middle of it. Just keep swinging the word. You're coming out. If you're in the middle, that means you were once at the beginning. You're closer to the end than you were yesterday. I had a person come to me and say, Pastor, I'm just, I feel like I'm going through hell. I said, Well, keep going. Don't stop, don't camp there, don't take up residence. Use the word of God and get yourself out of there. Yeah, but the devil's fighting. That's what the devil does. He's our adversary. He doesn't care for us, he doesn't care for the kingdom of God. What do you do? You take the word of God and cut him long, lean, and often, and leave him there bleeding on the side of the road. You just keep doing what God told you to do. Oh, hallelujah. Boy, that was worth shining your shoes and coming to church. Amen. Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4, verse 11. The writer of Hebrews says, Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man should fall after the same example of unbelief. For the word of God is quick and sharp, powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing and center of soul and spirit, and of the joints and morrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. Hallelujah. Now notice this. What did they not believe? The word that had been spoken concerning the promised land. He said, We don't want to have to fall after the same example of their unbelief. What they disbelieved was what God said about the promised land. When you read in Numbers chapter 14, uh when Dathan and the group of Levites rose up against Moses, they said, You told us we were going into a land of milk and honey, and we haven't gone into a land of milk and honey. You brought us out of a land of milk and honey to bring us here to the desert. They were on the border of the land of milk and honey. And they said, We're not going. We're not going in. And that's when God said, You tell them, you tell them that as they've spoken in my ears, that's how it's going to be. So they disbelieved the word that had been spoken. The word that God speaks, the Amplified Bible says the word that God speaks is alive and full of power. That's why it starts off there in Hebrews 4 and 12, for the word of God is quick and sharp and powerful. In other words, they heard the word, they disbelieved the word. The word would have brought them into the promised land. Their response should have been, if God said we're going into the promised land, we're going to the promised land. It doesn't matter if there's no water. It doesn't, none of that matters. God said. Amen. I had a person look at me one time and say, All did you ever say is, well, but God said, Well, what else am I supposed to say? I'm not going to agree with what you're saying. This is what God said. What did God say? Amen. The family in Kansas, the Wilder family, this, that, that, that their daughters are rapidly increasing in health. It's so wonderful and beautiful. I I got a video the other day of Destiny walking up the steps. She had had uh fractured vertebrae in her neck and just coming along. God's doing so good. The other girls are back in church. They're coming back to youth group. God's so good. But my response to them was people were saying this and saying these other things, and I got with them. I said, your response is always this, what did God say? That's what I'm gonna stay with. That's where they missed it. See, the word brings itself to pass. And so what God said to you will come to pass because the word has the power to make it happen. Hallelujah. Amen. In in Exodus 3, chapter 3 and verse 8. I'm hurrying a little bit because there's a part of this I want to get to. But in Exodus chapter 3 and verse 8, God said, I'm come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, to bring them up out of that land unto a good land, a large land, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. And he says, The Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, Hivites, Jebusites, all themites are there. Right? So now notice God doesn't hide anything. See, the Bible is real plain to tell you and I something. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but God delivers him out of them all. You're gonna face challenges. But he said, I'm gonna deliver you out of them all. So he says, look, the Canaanites, Hittites, Emorites, Perizzites, Perizzites, Hivites, Jebusites, they're all there. But I'm bringing you into that land. And then he told them later, and here's what's gonna happen I'm gonna send my angel before you, and they're gonna drive them out. Right? Now, do you see the problem now? God says, This is what I want to do for you. And every time they faced a challenge, they said, Brought us out here to die. God said he brought them out there to go to the land of milk and honey. Then they get to the land and they cross over into the promised land and they send the spies, and what did the spies find? Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. That's what they found. God never hid it from them. He said, I'm gonna send my angel and drive them out. Remember what happened when Joshua went to sent the spies to Jericho and Rahab hid them? She said, the minute that we heard that it was the Israelites, our our hearts melted. And the Lord gave me a message there. Faith takes the courage of its enemy. Because it says they did that by faith. It says, all the kings, when they heard that the waters of the Jordan had dried up and that Joshua and the Israelites had crossed over, that their courage left them. Wow. That's what God would have done for that first generation. But they died in the wilderness because of their unbelief. There are men and women that love the Lord with all their hearts. People that you know, people that I know, that are going to leave this earth without ever walking in all that God wanted them to walk in, because they will not just simply take God at his word and take a stand on the word and refuse to be moved. I don't like challenges. Right? I've had people tell me, you know, I'm not I'm not like you. I I don't like challenges and confrontation. Look, I'm not a confrontational person, and and if you like challenges, you are a fool. I mean, nobody likes challenges. I mean, I don't like I don't like to have to believe God for money. You hear what I'm saying? God says, I want you to do this, and it's like $25,000, $30,000, $40,000, $50,000. Well, okay, where am I? I'm gonna believe you for the money. That's that's not my favorite thing to do. But God said, do it. And so the word, when God asks you to do something, it's His word on it. This is important. Every time they faced a challenge, they said, We're gonna die. Brought us out here to die. There's giants, all them ice. And God said, I'm gonna drive them out from before you. And what are you gonna do? Watch, watch this. Thirty-nine times in the book of Deuteronomy, 39 times, he said, I want you to go possess the land. Go possess it. Everybody that came in here tonight, you came in and possessed a seat. How hard was it? Not hard, you just came and possessed it. If you had your Bible in a seat and somebody came in and sat in that seat, you might come in and say, excuse me, my Bible was there. That's my seat. Right? I would. Maybe you wouldn't, I would. Why? Because you're possessing something that's mine. The word would have brought them into the promised land. It did bring the second generation in. It would have brought the first generation into the promised land and drove the enemy out from before them. Everything that may try to set itself against your success, right now, the word is actively working against it. Especially if you're declaring the word. Amen. Around this ministry, there's such a shield of favor that nothing else can work. Just can't. Why? Because every day we say, Lord, I thank you that you're extending your open hand of favor to us. I thank you, Father, that we're not going to get the city or the building or the lands in our possession with our strength or the might of our hand, but because you show favor unto us. Hallelujah. This is so important. Glory to God. So the word determines your actions and your words. And that's why you got to lean into the word. Because the word is dependable in every circumstance. Lean into the word. Hallelujah. Now, let me finish here. There's more I could say there, but we'll be back. John chapter 20. And I want to start wrapping this up with this, but this is so important. I've had people say, you say that a lot. Well, it's all important. John chapter 20 and verse 24. This is a familiar passage, but notice it says, But Thomas, one of the twelve called Digimus, was not with them when Jesus came. He was not in the room that Jesus came and saw the other disciples. The other disciples therefore said, We have seen the Lord. But he said, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger in the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side. Notice this phrase, I will not believe. I will not. Now this is important because one translation says, the Knox translation says, You will never make me believe. If I don't see it, you'll never make me believe it. Moffat says, I refuse to believe it. That's important. Because he was refusing to believe. Decades ago I ministered a message called the Greatest Faith. And I talked about the greatest faith from this passage. And and Jesus, well, we'll talk about that in just a moment. Thomas is not believing two things. He's not believing the disciples, and he's not believing the word. None of the disciples believed the word that Jesus said, or they would have been at the tomb on resurrection morning. Because he had already told them, if you remember, if he had already told them, I'm going to raise up and I'll meet you in Galilee. And none of them were there. They were all hiding. Peter and John came to the tomb and found it empty and still didn't go where Jesus said he would be. Why? They didn't believe. It says right here in the book of Mark, it says that when Jesus showed up to them, walked through the wall, it doesn't say he said, Hey guys, how you doing? It says he upbraided them because of their hardness of heart and unbelief. About what he said. Hallelujah. Do you see this? So God looks at taking his word lightly as hardness of heart and unbelief. If nothing else, we're like, we have to be like the father of the epileptic son when Jesus said, if you can believe, all things are possible. And in the Greek he was saying, you know, ask for this question of yours, if I can do anything. I am a believing one, and nothing is impossible to a believing one. And the man looked at him with a heart yearning and he said, Lord, I believe that. Help my unbelief. I believe you can do what you say. Help me with my unbelief. Amen. If nothing else, you take God's word to him and you say, I see this in your word. And I believe it because it's in your word. I don't understand all of it. I'm having a hard time with it, but I believe it because it's in your word. And I take it as mine because I see it in your word. Glory to God. Do you see this? Repeatedly, Jesus said to the disciples, I'm going to die and be raised again on the third day. Over and over again he said that. Right after the scripture that we quote in Matthew chapter 16, where he said, Upon this rock I'll build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And Peter took him, you know, afterwards, because it says, and from that time on, Jesus began to teach and began to tell them, I'm going to be betrayed into the hands of wicked men and going to be crucified, and I'm going to rise again on the third day. And that's when Peter said, Oh, Lord, have pity on yourself. Feel sorry for yourself. Don't say that. And Jesus called him Satan. I've had people say, Well, he didn't call Peter Satan. Then who did he call Satan? Satan was a tool of the devil. Or Peter was a tool of the devil. He didn't know it, but he was. The Wee's Bible says he turned to Peter and to Satan and said, Get behind me. You're an offense to me. This is important. Because he told them, I'm going to die and be raised again on the third day. Acts chapter 2. We'll wrap this up. It's exactly 8 01 if you're taking medicine. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Acts chapter 2, verse 27. Well, let's start here in uh verse uh 25. Talking about Jesus being raised from the dead, Peter's message on Pentecost, and he said, Notice, for uh David speaks concerning him, concerning Jesus. I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he's on my right hand that I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad forevermore. For also my flesh shall rest in hope. Why? You will not leave my soul in hell, neither will you suffer your holy one to see corruption. That's Psalm 16, verse 8 through 11. Jesus went to the cross believing that. God will not leave my soul in hell. He's gonna raise me up. Now here's The thing. If Jesus had to believe the word to be raised from the dead, we got to believe the word to receive anything that God's promised us. Hallelujah! It was not possible for death to hold Jesus because the word said he would be raised up. God's power is found in his word. And that's not just something we know as charismatic theology, word of faith theology. That's got to be a reality. That's got to be a Holy Spirit-inspired truth to me. Hallelujah. God had sworn an oath, I will not leave your soul in hell. We got into that in depth in healing school on Tuesday about everything that Jesus did was on credit based on Isaiah chapter 53. When God told the children of Israel, he said, I am your healer. Well, why, why, how could he say that to this group of people that wasn't, that was largely an unbelief? Because based on what Jesus was going to do, every person Jesus healed, he healed them on credit. In the mind of God, Jesus was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. This was settled before Jesus ever entered the atmosphere of the earth. It was settled. I'm going to raise you up. You're going to go, you're going to die, you're going to be in the ground three days and three nights. I've heard people say, why three days and three nights? I don't know when you can get when you get to heaven, you can ask the Father. But the point is, Jesus was in the grave in hell long enough to satisfy the claims of justice that would absolutely redeem every man, woman, boy, and girl for all time, for all eternity. He absolutely paid the entire price that justice demanded and was raised up on the third day. And the only people that got to see it was two angels. Everybody he told could have been there and saw it. Hallelujah. But they didn't believe. John 20, 26 through 29. Jesus told him that. And Thomas said, My Lord and my God. And Jesus said, You've believed because you've seen. You know what believing because you've seen is zero faith. Zero. Because the word's bringing itself to pass. When? Right now. The word's bringing itself to pass in your life, in your body, in your finances, in your family, in your job, in everything. When? Right now. The word is working mightily in me. When? Right now. Where you're sleeping tonight, the word's going to be working. As you get up in the morning, the word's going to be working. Some of those things, some of those challenges can be corrected overnight while you're sleeping because the word's working. Let me share this with you as we as I close. One of these young men that I'm going to tell about was actually the young man that uh his daughters were in this accident, and they are are uh now. If you call them concrete men, they'll kind of bow up at you. They they are concrete cutters, all right. They they cut concrete, they don't lay concrete, they cut it. All right. That's a that's a skill position, all right. And in any event, uh they work for a certain company there, and uh I was ministering and I made a statement. I said, if God has to wake your boss up and tell him to give you a raise, that's what he'll do. I didn't say anything, think anymore about it. I just kept kept ministering and and prayed for people and we went on. Well, about two weeks later, something like that, two weeks, we had just come, we had just come here and started the church. Well, Michelle had actually started this church already. I had just come up, and we were in Markham at the time. And uh I went back to minister in the Kansas location, and uh we were getting ready to have a prayer meeting, and uh they they said, Pastor, we we gotta we gotta tell you something. I said, What's that? And they they had a testimony. I said, All right. They said, we went to work, this was Sunday. They said we went to work last Monday. I said, okay. And they said, when we walked in, our boss said, Come, come in office, I gotta talk to you guys. They said, All right. He said, sit down. And he looked at uh the the older brother and he said, now I don't remember all the numbers, but it was it was quite big. He said, I'm gonna give you this amount of bonus. It was like $2,500, $3,000, something like that bonus. And he said, and I'm gonna give you X amount of money raise a year, a month, and a year is significant. And then he talked to the young man that the younger brother, and he said, I'm gonna give you this bonus, and it was again significant, two, three, four thousand dollars, and this significant raise. They said, Well, praise God. Well, thank you. And they said, you know, the obvious question is what made you? He said, I had a dream last night. He said, I dreamed that you guys came in and told me that you couldn't work for me no more because I wasn't paying you enough. And he said, You brought me in a million dollars in revenue last year. And he said, something woke me up and told me to give you raises and bonuses. And he said, because I'm not willing to lose you. I've watched that happen over and over and over and over again. You know what's on those young men's lips all the time, those young men's lips all the time? I get raises and bonuses, benefits, sales and commissions, favorable settlements, estates and inheritance, interest and income, rebates and return, all these different things. See, it's the word of God. So if the word of God has to wake somebody up to tell them to help you, that's what they'll do. Amen. People are hearing the word. A lady came to the church uh Sunday night in Kansas, and they'd never seen her before, her and her family, and and so they were talking to her, and and uh they said, Well, you know, how'd you hear about us? And this is what the lady said. She said, Oh, I've been listening to Pastor Steele for years. I didn't know her. I didn't know her name, never saw her. Her husband said, Oh, yes. Said, every every morning while she's making breakfast, she's got him going on YouTube on her phone. See, people are hearing the word of God. Every day that I walk through this sanctuary and I pray, I call out to the north, the south, the east, and the west. Father, you send those people that are hungry for the word of God. I call for the north, the south, the east, and the west to give up their captives, to unchain them, to free them, to set them free to hear the word of God. Amen. And then no matter what you see, no matter what I see, no matter what I experience, no matter what I encounter, I have spoken the word of God. So, right now, the word of God's speaking to the east, the north, the south, the west, telling those captives where they can find their freedom. Oh, hallelujah. Let's stand up tonight. Glory to God. Thank you for being here.