The Ministry of Jesus
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Or you read, “With long life I’ll satisfy you and show you My salvation.” (Psalm 91:16) “I took
your infirmities, bore your sicknesses, carried your pains.” (Matthew 8:17) “By His stripes
you’re healed.” (Isaiah 53:5; 1 Peter 2:24) And you say, “It doesn’t look like it. It doesn’t feel
like it. They say it isn’t going to happen...” You have a choice.
Some ascertain the will of God from what they’re seeing, hearing, and feeling, and by what
someone else has heard and felt; it’s easier to try to water down the Bible to match your
experience or lack of experience.
You can take the easy way out. There are myriads of books and educated people who will
explain it for you and tell you why it’s not going to happen. You can accept that and be with the
majority who don’t get persecuted, go with the flow, and don’t get their money, don’t get healed,
and don’t get miracles. Or… you can say, “I am believing God to elevate my experience to
match His Word! And I am standing for the perfect will of God. I’m going to hold out for the
perfect will of God.” It’s your choice: Hold out for the perfect will of God, or settle for
something else, something less. It’s easier to just try to explain it away.
I’m so glad that years ago I read about speaking in tongues in the Book of Acts. I had never
spoken in tongues, but I thought,
Well, there it is. I’m supposed to have the same Holy Spirit they
have. I’m part of the same church they are.
Mark 16:17 says, “These signs will follow them that
believe. They’ll speak in new tongues.” I read it. In 1 Corinthians 14:18, Paul said, “I thank my
God I speak with tongues more than you.” I think people forget that Peter was a tongue talker.
Paul was a tongue-talker. The Ephesians were tongue-talkers. The Colossians were tongue-
talkers. The Philippians were tongue-talkers. The Corinthians were tongue-talkers night and day.
The New Testament is full of tongue-talkers. That sounds foreign to people, but it is a fact.
Yet, what have people done? They have watered it down and explained it to match their lack of
experience.
One time, I had a fellow come and try to take me to task about how that has all passed away. It’s
funny that one of the passages people try to quote is 1 Corinthians 13. They forget about all the
other things that are mentioned in there that have not passed away, but they pull this one thing
out and say it has. Finally, I said to him, “Well, Brother, have you ever spoken in tongues?”
He said, “No.”
I said, “Do you have any experience in the matter at all.”
He said, “No.”
I said, “I do.”
Some might ask, “What are you saying? Are you trying to imply or suggest something? Are you
trying to say there’s something wrong with me if I don’t speak in tongues?” No. “Are you
saying that I’m not saved if I don’t speak in tongues?” No, you have to be saved to be a
candidate to receive it. What I am saying is this: whether it’s that, or it’s prosperity, or it’s
