During the last presidential election season I was on the Romney bus with Governor Mike Huckabee speaking at various churches around Florida that were in the Christian coalition. I was talking to the man who set up the campaign and he shared an interesting story about Pastor Rick Warren of Saddlebrook Church and author of “The Purpose Driven Life”.
He told me Brother Rick came to a rally and asked what the goal was as to how many folks he hoped would attend the rally. My buddy was unprepared for that question, he scratched his head and responded, “I dunno, maybe 5000”.
Pastor Warren looked at him and told him, “Put a zero on the end of that number and that way when the people show up you’ll know that it was God that did it and not you”.
My buddy did as he instructed and when 50,000 people showed up, he indeed praised God for His blessing and gave Him all of the glory.
I was reminded of this incident when we set our goal, (which we thought was aggressive) for 5000 folks in every state in America and every country all over the world to pray for the Renewal of America and that folks would renew their faith in record numbers; (that amounted to roughly 1 million people praying).
Then I met several people already involved in prayer ministry and one in particular who has already organized a 1.2 million folks who are praying for it daily, and he thinks he’ll hit 2 million soon. Now get this, he hopes to enlist 100 million folks before all is said and done
Gulp . . . That’s two zero’s behind my paltry goal of 1 million . . .
Hmmm . . . Where is my faith? How large is my faith?
We serve a mighty God and things that we view as insurmountable are mere child’s play to Him.
My good friend T.K. Wetherell preached at Honey Lake Church this past Sunday and it was a profound message that stirred our souls. Afterwards, as is my custom on second Sunday Worldwide Ministry services, I interviewed T.K. on camera and he remarked that each day he prays that God will cure him of cancer. Then he added something for which I quickly admonished him. He said, “I don’t really believe God will cure me but I ask anyway”.
The Bible teaches that we should pray with confidence, that God hears from heaven, and will answer our prayers. It also states that God blesses such faith. The best example I can find is in Matthew 8:5-13, a Roman officer who commanded over one hundred soldiers, came to Jesus and asked Him to heal one of his servants, a paralytic, who was suffering greatly.
Jesus quickly agreed to go to the man’s house and heal his servant. The centurion calmly stated, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
This man had deep faith in Jesus. He understood the power of someone in authority, and he believed that all Jesus had to do was to “speak” and the power of the Lord’s word would be sufficient to heal his servant.
Jesus said to those that were following Him that He hadn’t witnessed this kind of faith among those WHO SHOULD’VE HAD FAITH, (His followers who had witnessed all kinds of marvelous things).
Jesus told him, “I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” Jesus then told the centurion, “Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.”
The “rest of the story” as Paul Harvey used to say is that his servant was immediately healed.
The Bible is clear that with God’s assistance we can accomplish mighty things that are within His will for our lives. I don’t know what the will for T.K.’s life is but I advised my beloved friend to have total faith when he went to the Lord in prayer.
I am however, cognizant that we don’t always receive everything for which we ask, because God who is omniscient and knows everything with divine and perfect wisdom and clarity often has a different plan and we know it is a better plan.
Take His son Jesus for example. Jesus prayed face down with so much intensity that He was literally sweating blood, but at the end of the day the answer He got was “no”.
His prayer: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” He of course was asking for God to find another way to provide redemption to mankind rather than Him being horribly, horrifically, crucified.
There wasn’t another way however, and had God granted His only son’s request, we would have never had an opportunity to be reconciled with Him in paradise for eternity. (Imagine how hard it was for Him to deny His own Son’s request the next time you are denied a request. That is how much He loves us.)
Notice that the first sentence states “Father if You are willing . . . ”
We should assume the Father is willing my dear friends. Pray with faith; pray with gusto; and remember that nothing is too large of a request (no . . . ESPECIALLY when it seems too large of a feat for us).
Jer. 32:27
“I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?”
February 11, 2014 – Click here to listen