John G. Lake
Obedience to the Word of God is the first principle upon which relationship with God is established. Christianity is one hundred percent supernatural - God possessing man. Everything that Jesus did was the will and the word of the Father. So everything the Christian does, if he is a real one, should be the will and word of Jesus Christ. People talk about the heaven they are going to, but I want to tell you that heaven is right here when the consciousness is awakened to comprehend and understand and realize what our environment in the Spirit is. The Holy Ghost in the Christian was to be as powerful as the Holy Ghost was in Christ. Jesus Christ operates through you. He does no operate independently of you… Man and God become united The world is awakening to the marvelous truth that Christ is not only in heaven, but that Christ is in you. When I saw for the first time by the Word of God that sickness was not the Will of God… everything in my nature rose up to defeat the will of the devil. Whenever I reach a place where I lose my appetite for the Book, and rather talk with people than read the Bible, or rather read books about the Bible than to read the Bible, then I know I am backslidden in my spirit. There is a mighty lot of difference between saying prayers and praying. Now healing is not a difficult matter. It does not take a bit more faith to be healed from your sickness than it does to be saved from your sins. The only difference is that in your own consciousness, you knew there was no place to get forgiveness except from God. You had sense enough to know you could not get it from the devil; you had to get it form the Lord. I feel that very frequently prayer is made a refuge to dodge the action of faith “If” always doubts. The prayer of faith has no “ifs” in it. When we are in right communion and fellowship with the Lord, there is not power enough in all hell to put diseases upon our little finger. Your knowledge may give you ground for faith, but faith is resident in your spirit. Beloved, faith is more important than power. Faith commamds power and vitalizes it. The Holy Spirit coming into the person of a sick one comes as a living, creative power. It is the Creation of life in them that drives out the disease. Beloved, it is not our long prayers, but believing God that gets the answer. Miracles are creative. Healing is restoration of what has been. I regard healing of a man’s body to be just as sacred as the healing of his soul. Fear causes the spirit of man to lose its sense of dominion. It causes the mind of man to become subjective. It causes the person of man to become subservient. that which is in the inner life will also be reaveled in the outer life. That which is a fact in the mental and psychological will become a fact in the physical also. The minister of God who is afraid to walk out and believe his God and trust his God for results is no Christian at all. The more a Christian possess the Spirit of God, the more of a servant he will be. God is not confined to methods. Heaven bows to the soul with faith anywhere, under any circumstances. There is only one prayer that is answered. It is not prayer that is answered but is the prayer of faith. It is the prayer of faith that shall save the sick. Believing prayer is not much noise. Believing prayer may not be any noise at all. Believing prayer is a committing, an intelligent committing of yourself to God, and your mind is stayed in God and your heart is stayed in God and you are walking in God. You are ready to die rather than go to anyone but God. That is the real believing prayer. People go around cursing the devil all the time. You go in the ways of the devil, you get crooked in your soul and proud in your heart, and that cuts you off from God and you are left in the hands of the devil. The wisest thing to do with you is just like I did with one of my sons. I said, “Young man, you just take your own way until you bump your head against the wall.” When he was hurt almost to death, he was glad to come back to his old dad to be helped out. Jesus did not heal the sick in order to coax them to be Christians. He healed them because it was His nature to heal. The multitude surrounded Him. His love gushed forth like an electric billow. A God without power to heal a sick heathen’s body is a poor recommendation of his ability to save his soul. And a God with the ability to heal but is not willing is worse yet and is not a God worth serving. Jesus never intended Christians to be an imitation. They were to be bone of His bone, and blood of His blood, and flesh of His flesh, and soul of His soul, and spirit of His Spirit. Now if your faith is weak and sickly, it is because your spiritual connection with the Lord is faulty. Maybe there is a fuse blown. Maybe a switch is out. But there it is. Now there must be a right adjustment of the soul to the body and of soul and body and spirit. Christianity is not the product of human reasoning. Christianity is a divine intervention. The devils fears are always falsehoods. His suggestions are always lies, and if lies, they cannot harm. if fear comes from Satan, then we can conclude there is nothing to fear. A weak Christianity is ever inclined to whine in prayer, while God waits for the believer to command it. Real prayer is communion with God, not just praying words, but getting an answer from heaven. The great majority of the Christian world is still weeping at the foot of the cross. The consciousness of man is fixed on the Christ Who died, not the Christ Who lives. They are looking back to the Redeemer Who was, not the redeemer who is. Man was never made a slave. He was never made for slavery. He was made to reign as king under God. As long as your spirit is triumphant, you are a victor and go right on. A man is defeated only when he is defeated in his spirit. I’ll tell you, dear hearts - we have been satisfied to live in Christ in our babyhood, to perpetuate our babyhood, and to go on shouting like a lot of babies, instead of entering into the secrets of the heart of Jesus Christ by the grace of God and claiming from heaven the divine flames of God upon our souls.
(via iamrevival)
