Lesson 1
God is looking for volunteers to be available to Him to do the stuff Jesus did. We see this in John 14:12-14, which is an incredible passage. Jesus promises that each of His followers (e.g., you and me) can move in the same power and anointing that He did and do the same works that He did. Here is the text of that passage:
12 "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. 13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it."
Are you hearing what Jesus said? Verse 12 says that whoever believes on Jesus will do the same things that Jesus did, and then the following verse is about if you ask anything in His name He will do it, so long as it brings glory to His Father. That is pretty encouraging stuff for us, isn't it.
Now, in that context, look at verse 15, 'If you love Me, keep My commandments'. Jesus is not changing subjects. He did not finish one topic, and then shift to another topic. The keeping God's commandment is the 'believing in Him' in order to do the things He does. I will paraphrase it this way: "If you love Me, obey Me." This is how you prove you love God--you obey what He tells you to do.
Some of what Jesus told you to do is to heal the sick, and He will give you the anointing, and He will supply the supernatural power, but you have got to get out there and do the praying. Some of what Jesus tells you to do might not be so good. Maybe He will say, "I do not like the way you are treating that person--change it." Maybe He will say, "You know you are spending your leisure time that sows for the devil, instead of sowing for Me." The problem is you cannot control what God decides to tell you. You just have to obey.
Does God expect us to obey Him? Yes, I believe so. Jesus knew He as going to die and He spent most of that last time with His disciples. John, chapters 13, 14, 15, 16, 17ish, describe the time He spent with His disciples just before He was about to leave them. Since Jesus knew He was about to leave them, don't you think He is going to tell the disciples the things that are most important to Him at that point? He knew He was going and He knew He was not coming back to them because He was going to ascend to heaven go back to the Father. And He knew the Holy Spirit was about to be sent to release the church into their destiny and commission. So He was telling them the stuff he thought was really important.
Let us just look at a couple of verses in this context. We already looked at verse 15 (chapter 14). Let us drop down to verse 21, "He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." Now look at verses 23-24 'Jesus said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me."
Flip over to chapter 15 verse 10, 'If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love." Okay, now drop down to verses 14 and 15, 'You are My friends if you do what I command you to do. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for the things I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.'
See, those verses were all Jesus saying that He expects us to obey Him because we love Him. So obedience is pretty important.
Would you also agree that Jesus has commanded us to demonstrate the power of God to heal the sick, to cast out demons, to preach the kingdom? He asked us to be His witnesses and to do these things. So, we know what God's will is for us now. We might not have known it before we started to study this. We might have been a little fuzzy on some of the issues because we kind of knew them but they were not put together in a way we thought. But now we know that it is God's will to heal the sick. So, when you know you know God's will, there is an increased accountability to obey God's will.
Look at Luke 12:47-48. Jesus said, "And that servant who knew his master's will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But the servant who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with a few. For everyone to whom much is given, from that one much is required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more."
Do you see how that applies to us? You now understand more about what God wants, (healing the sick) so God is going to hold you more accountable to do it. If you did not know that God wanted you to heal the sick and you did not heal the sick, well, you are going to get rebuked. But it is not as a big of a rebuke as you are going to get if you know and chose not to do it now that you know what He wants.
Obedience
I would like to talk to you a little about obedience--this is an important key to moving in God's power and anointing. If you want to do the things Jesus did--if you want to move in His power and authority, then you have to do what He is doing. You have to be committed to obey Him. The anointing is not for you to look good in front of your friends. The anointing is not to bring in the money. No, that is not why God anoints us. The anointing is to do what the Father is doing to advance the kingdom of God, and in order to be trustworthy with God's anointing, you have to be committed to obey God.
Jesus promised us that anointing in John 14:12-15. But His promise of anointing to us came with the caveat that we believe in Him, that we love Him and that we will prove our love to Him by obeying Him. That means God gets to call the shots. Sometimes obedience will be in areas like: if God says to go pray for the sick, I will go pray for the sick. (Yes, that can be scary, but it is not the toughest thing that God might ask us to do. At times, God will step on our toes in other areas, and He expects us to obey Him.
For example, suppose God comes along and said, "I want you to treat your husband with more respect." You may say, 'Well, wait a minute God, You are getting on private territory God. This is my area, this is my home." But God says "No, if you love Me, you will obey Me." It is important to understand that God is not just asking you to obey Him in the area of healing (e.g., praying for the sick); He is saying that He wants to be Lord and Master in every area of your life.
Maybe God comes along and says, "I do not like the movies you are watching. I do not want you to watch those types of movies anymore." You respond, "But, God, this is my leisure, this is not kingdom stuff, and this is my time. This is my leisure, I am not hurting anyone; I am just watching TV in the privacy of my living room." Please understand, I am not saying that television is a sin, but I am saying God may move in it and want lordship over what you watch on it. If He does, then guess what? He gets to call the shots.
Let me give you an example from my own life. I was a "Trekie" from way back when. I loved Star Trek--the original Star Trek was awesome. God had never complained to me about the original Star Trek. (That may have been because I was a lot less mature as a believer and not at the point where He was ready to call me into accountability over how I spend my leisure time. Or it may have been because He had no objections to the first Star Trek series. I don't know which one it is.)
However, some of the following Star Trek series caused problems. One was called Deep Space Nine. It had a female crew member (I think her name was Dax), and she was the "host" to some other life form. Sometimes she was herself and sometimes this other life form took control of her. I used to like that show, but God told me that He did not like it because the devil was using this program to teach people to be demonized. It encouraged them to give themselves over to another force to control them.
Now, many of my Christian friends also liked that program. They would watch it and talk about it. Please understand this--it is important. I am not saying that they are in sin because they watch this show. If God did not tell them not to watch it, they have no sin in watching it. But God told me not to watch it, so I had to stop watching that program.
This was not an easy thing for me to do. One of the ways that my husband and I spent our leisure time together was to watch Star Trek--it was one of our "together activities." God said, "Not anymore. I will give you new things to do together. Your husband can still watch Star Trek, you are not allowed to watch it anymore."
God stepped on my leisure time--something that I thought was my own to spend however I chose. But God claimed His lordship in that area of my life, and He might do the same thing to you. Does God have the right to call shots in those areas of your life that you thought were your own? Are you sure? You better watch out how you answer that question, because He is listening.
Lesson 2
Let me talk a bit more about obeying God. I am going to use an example from my own life that is sort of a humorous story. I want you to understand a little bit about what I am talking about before I ask you to make a commitment to sign away your life to God here, so I will share this experience with you.
One day I was in a rare furniture store, and they had this beautiful roll-top desk, and I really wanted this desk. I really loved this desk, I really had to have this desk and it cost a lot of money. I can't remember the exact amount, so for the purposes of this story, let's say it was $5,000.
I started saving up for this desk. Instead of going out to lunch with my co-workers, I took my lunch money and I put it in my desk fund and I brought the little sandwiches from home and ate at my desk by myself so I could have my desk. I sowed into that desk for like over a year and I put money in from other sources to, like if somebody would give me money for my birthday, it would go into my desk fund. I cannot tell you how badly wanted this desk.
I would go to the furniture store about once a week and I would visit the desk. I would check to make sure it was still there, and I would lay hands on the desk and ask that on one be allowed to buy it before I saved up the money. I claimed that desk as mine, and I did so in Jesus' name. I am sharing this to give you an idea of how badly I wanted the desk! I saved up for over a year!
Now, there was a friend of mine who got engaged. Let's call her Lynn (not her real name) and let's call her fiancé Ron. Ron was the pastor of this teeny little fledgling church plant. The church only had about thirteen people in the whole congregation, and some of them were kids. As you can imagine, there was not much money in the church, and it could not afford to support Ron, so Ron lived by faith. You have met the type--they have no income, yet God meets every one of their needs, and that is pretty awesome. Well, Ron and Lynn got engaged, and it was all wonderful.
I went with Lynn to Ron's church to hear him preach because he was her fiancé. I got to know him a little better, and he seemed like a really nice guy, although I did not know him very well. They were happy together and their future looked very bright. But then tragedy struck. They decided to go shopping for their engagement ring. They went to the store and they tried on different rings and they finally found the perfect ring. But then they looked at the price tag, their hopes were dashed to the ground. It was very expensive, much more than they could afford.
They were very disappointed about that. Lynn called me and she said, "I am so discouraged. We found the perfect ring but we could not get it and I am so sad." I said, "Oh, is not that too bad, I am sure you will find something in the price range that you can afford." She said, "Well, the cheapest rings they had were out of our price range as well." I said, "Oh that is too bad and I am so sorry."
I got off the phone and sat down to do my devotions. I started reading the bible and God spoke to me. He said, 'Teresa, give Ron the money to get that ring." And, I said, "Excuse me God?" I thought I got that 'stray thought' out of my system, so I went back to reading the bible again. Then God spoke to me again and said, "Teresa, give Ron the money to buy that ring!"
Now here is the problem--I had the money to give to Ron. I almost had enough money to buy the desk that I had been saving for a whole year for. I wanted the desk! But God was saying, give the money to Ron. My response was "Satan, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus"--but it did not go away. "Teresa, I want you to give Ron the money to buy the ring."
Now I realize I am using finance as an example. The "cost" to obedience might not be financial for you, but there is always a cost to obedience. It might be in the area of a relationship, maybe an unmarried Christian lady is dating an unsaved man and God says, "No you cannot marry him, he is not a believer." Is that costly? You bet it is!
Or maybe God is saying, "This relationship with this friend of yours is dysfunctional, you are fighting all the time, I want you to walk away from the relationship." Or maybe it is the other way around and God tells you to stay in a relationship you hate so, that you can be His witness there.
Or perhaps God is saying, "I want you to take on this person who is so needy that he is going to consume all of your time, they are going to drive you nuts, they are going to complain all the time, but you are going to love them until My life enters into them." Is that costly?
We do not know what "costly" will look like, but you will know when it hits you. And for me, giving Ron the "desk" money was very costly. I wanted that desk so bad; I saved for it over a year, and I did not even go out to lunch with my co-workers. I really wanted that desk, and God was saying 'Teresa take the money for the desk and give it to Ron so he can buy the ring.'
And, what was even worse, I could not tell him where the money came from because God said, "just say it is from Me."
"But, God, it is my money!!"
"Don't I own everything that you own? Did not you tell Me that you would give everything you have to Me? Well, I want some of it."
Well, I never thought God would take me up on it when I prayed that prayer. Yeah, commitments to God are great until God actually calls them in. So, not only did I have to give Ron the money, I could not even tell him that it was from me.
I struggled with this for a while, then I finally decided that this was really God commanding me to do this. Then I had to decide if I was going to obey Him or not. Did I love God enough to do what He told me to do even when I definitely wanted to do something different?
I really liked this desk! Did I really have to give Ron the money? Then John 14:15 would come to me: "If you love Me, obey Me." Alright! After quiet a struggle, I finally decided to obey God.
It was a Saturday morning, and God told me to get the money out of the bank and give it to Ron--not a check, I had to go get cash out of the bank in hundreds. It takes a lot of hundred dollar bills to make five thousand dollars, and I had this thick pile of money. I remember thinking, "I hope I don't get robbed while I am carrying all of this cash!"
On the way to Ron's apartment, I stopped by the furniture store to say goodbye to the desk. I prayed over it one last time, "Okay, I release you in Jesus Name; someone else can buy you now. Bye."
I went to Ron's apartment and was about to knock on the door. Just before I knocked, I told myself, "If he doesn't answer the door, I am going right back to that furniture store and I am getting the desk! I am putting the last little bit on my credit card!" So, I knocked on the door and hoped he would not answer. At first it seemed like I was going to get my wish, because there was a long delay before he opened the door.
He had one of those chains across the top that only lets the door open a few inches. So, He cracked it open, looked out at me and said, 'Yes?' He did not even open the door all the way when he saw me.
I said, "Well Ron, God told me to give this to you". I handed him the envelope but I did not tell him what was inside. "God told me to tell you that He loves you and that He will take care of all your needs and this is from Him for you to get the ring for your fiancé."
Ron reached out through the little crack and took the money and said "Thank you very much." Then he closed the door.
I was left standing there. I was obedient and now I was substantially poorer, and he did not even invite me in! So I stood there on the porch for a few seconds and cried out "God! He didn't even invite me in!"
God said, "What is the big deal, you did what I told you, didn't you?"
Was that it? I thought maybe angels would come and minister to me, but it wasn't like that at all. I didn't even get a pat on the back from God for my costly obedience. It had been such a big deal for me to make the decision to obey God--but when I obeyed, neither Ron nor the Lord made a big deal out of it.
I remember wiping my brow and thinking, "Boy, I sure hope that really was God who told me to give the money to Ron!"
There is more to this story, where God confirmed to me that it really was His command. That happened the next day at church, where I heard Ron tell the story from his perspective in his sermon on "trusting God."
I will share his side of the story with you in our next lesson.
Lesson 3
We have been talking about obedience--about obeying God because we love Him, as per John 14:15, which says, "If you love Me, keep My commandments."
You may be wondering why a teaching series about obedience is being taught on a healing school. But the truth is that obedience is crucial if you want to move with God in His power and anointing. In short, God usually won't give you His power until He knows that He can trust you to use it to do what He is doing.
In fact, Jesus tied those two things (obedience and moving in God's power) together. He talked about obedience in John 14:15, and that is closely tied to the things He said in the three preceding verses. Three verses earlier, in John 14:12, Jesus told us to expect to do the same works He did, and even greater ones. In verses 13 and 14, He promised that when we pray in His name, our prayers will be answered. John 14:13-14 is why we can pray for a sick person and fully expect God to heal them.
But those verses are not a "carte blanche." God is not saying that anytime we pray in Jesus' name, we get what we asked for no matter what God wants to do. He is not saying you can pray for a brand new sports car and you will get it because you believe in Jesus. (Don't get me wrong--I am not saying God would never answer that prayer. Our Heavenly Father is a loving Daddy who enjoys giving good gifts to His kids, so you just might get a sports car if you ask Him for one--but that is NOT what this passage is talking about.)
Verse 15 is the key to walking out verses 12 to 14. When we have a love relationship with the Father, where we obey Him because we love Him so much, and we love Him because we believe in Jesus--then we get to do the works Jesus did. Then we can pray with confidence that God will answer our prayers. Then we can move with Him in His power and anointing to heal the sick and to cast out demons and to do all the works that Jesus did. A heart of loving obedience is key to moving with God in His power and anointing.
That is why we spent the first lesson talking about how God expects us to obey Him. That is why we spent the second lesson talking about costly obedience.
I shared a story in the second lesson that your probably found humorous. It was about how I'd been saving up for a year for this really fancy desk that I wanted. Then when I had saved almost enough money, the Lord told me to give it away. More specifically, He told me to give it to a pastor who lived by faith, so that he could buy an engagement ring for his finance.
This was a very difficult thing for me to do--it was my money and I had plans for it. It was very hard for me to give God control over my finances in this instance. He wasn't asking me to do something trivial, like giving a twenty dollar bill to a beggar. He was asking me to die to my desires in a very tangible way. He was asking me to give up something I wanted so badly that I'd been saving towards it for a whole year.
There is another reason that this was difficult for me, one that I did not share in the last lesson. The ring that Ron and Lynn had chosen was nicer than my own ring. It irked me to pay for someone else to have a nicer engagement ring than I had.
It was a huge struggle for me to decide to obey God and give the money to Ron. When I did, Ron did not even take the chain off his door and invite me in. He just cracked open the door and reached his hand out and took the envelope and did not even look at it. He did say thank you, but it was the same type of "thank you" that I say to the waiter when he brings my food to the table. You might say that the actual event (giving the money to Ron) was a bit of a let down for me. I walked away shaking my head and hoping that I hadn't heard God wrong about giving it to him.
But the next day, God let me hear the story from Ron's point of view. He preached a sermon on trusting God, and he shared this experience in his sermon. This is his side of the story.
Ron had gone to get the ring, and he realized he could not afford to get it. That started a crisis of faith in Ron. He started thinking, 'It's okay for me to live on faith, but how can I ask Lynn to live on faith? How can I ask her, I might not be able to feed her, I might not be able to give her clothes, I might not be able to take care of her if she gets sick. If we have kids, I might not...oh, I cannot do this!'
It really bothered him that God had not provided the money for the ring. He realized that at times God was not going to come through to reward his faith. He decided he could not ask Lynn to be in a situation where God does not come through for them.
He decided he was going to call off the wedding because he was not in a position to financially support her. He had made a date with her to take her to dinner Saturday night, so he could explain this to her. Saturday morning was really tough for Ron. He was in the living room, on the floor and he had his bible in front of him and he is crying out, "Oh God, why aren't You taking care of me? I do not understand! I thought I could trust You! God, now I have to give up the woman I love, God it just is not fair!" At that moment, his prayers were interrupted by a knock on the door.
Ron got up to answer the door, but he was in a state of "emotional mess." He'd been crying and his face was red, so he tried to quickly clean up a bit before he answered the door. Of course, I did not know and of this when I was knocking.
He had one of those chains on the door that only lets you open it a little. So he cracked the door open. We did not know each other very well at that point, so from his perspective, he saw some lady, one of his fiancé's friends that he hardly knew. This lady was muttering something about God giving him something, then she handed him an envelope.
Ron had no clue what I was talking about, and he did not want to be impolite. So he reached out through the cracked-open door, took the envelop and muttered, "Thank you very much." His main concern at that moment was to finish the encounter without bursting into tears because of his crisis of faith. He hoped that I did not notice he had been crying. So he shut the door as quickly as possible and went back to the middle of the living room and sat back down on the floor in front of his open bible.
Ron threw the unopened envelope on the floor, picked up his bible and cried out to God. "God, why didn't You come through for me?" God replied, "Ron, open the envelope." So, he picked up the envelope, opened it, and saw all this money! Right then, God said, 'I have come through for you in this, and I will come through for you anytime you need Me. So don't be afraid to marry the girl, for I will take care of you both."
They went ahead and they were married. As far as I know they still live on faith. I have kind of lost touch with them over the years. But the last I heard, they had kids, they were doing great, everyone was healthy, and God was still meeting all their needs.
God used me to be a part of a miracle in Ron's life. It cost me a small fortune though. This was one form of costly obedience.
If you want God to use you for His glory, you have to be committed to costly obedience. I do not mean financially costly--though could might be money that God demands of you. But it could just as easily be something else. The point is, I can guarantee you 100% accuracy, there will come a time in your life when God will tell you to do something you do not want to do. But He will expect you to do it--to obey Him because you love Him. Or, it could go the other way, God could tell not to do something that you really want to do. And guess what? He will expect you to obey Him because you love Him.
If you want to move with God in His power, if you want to be a part of what God uses to transform the world to advance His kingdom, He expects obedience. And He won't settle for a grudging obedience accompanied by whining and complaining. God expects obedience us to obey Him with a good attitude, because we love Him.
I can assure you that He is going to tell you to do things that are not convenient. He is going to tell you to do things that are not comfortable for you. And when He does, He does not expect a debate. He does not expect an argument from you; He expects obedience.
If you love Him, will you obey Him? Do you understand the kind of cost that might go with this? I do not know what the thing in your life that is most precious to you, that does not belong to God, but God may ask you to give that up or to turn it over to Him.
Let me give you an example. One of my friend's two children both felt "called" to go to Iraq in ministry just after the war. They felt that the country was spiritually open and wanted to go right away. These are teenagers who were like just barely out of high school, and their parents did not like the idea at all. Neither parent wanted to let their children go to Iraq because it was so dangerous. They suggested their kids find someplace else to minister, someplace safer. But the kids felt God was calling them to Iraq, and they understood that there was a very good change they might not live very long serving Him there. They were prepared to go where God was sending them. but their mother wasn't.
She was fervently praying, "God do not take my kids from me. Let them go somewhere safe." Then God asked her, "Do you love Me enough to let Me send your children to Iraq?" That was what costly obedience looked like for her, letting her children follow God's call on their lives even though it was dangerous.
I do not know what "costly obedience" will look like for you, but I can guarantee you there will come a time when saying "Yes" to the Lord will be very, very difficult for you. When that happens, do you love Him enough to obey Him?
Lesson 4
We have spent the last three lessons talking about obeying God because we love Him. We have discovered that obedience might be difficult at times, but God expects it of us if we want to be trusted with His power and authority.
Those three lessons have all been leading up to this one. Here is what I am asking you to consider doing. I am asking you to consider making a covenant with God that goes like this: "You are the boss, I am the servant. Whatever You command, I will obey. I give up my rights to any say in the manner; I will do Your will."
I am asking you to consider making this covenant with God today. Covenants are not something to take lightly because God is with you now and if you make this covenant, He is going to hear it and He is going to hold you to it. You might want to come back later and say, 'Oh, I changed my mind, I was just kidding. Now that You are making the request, I was just kidding.' But if you make a covenant with God, He won't let you "change your mind"--He will hold you to it.
In this covenant, you are basically saying, "Lord, I give up my rights to You, You call the shots and I will obey You." That is what I am asking you to consider doing with God.
If you do, it will be the foundation from which you will be able to move forth and do the things Jesus did.
Jesus had to do something similar to this covenant when He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. The first thing that happened was Jesus got baptized, the Spirit came down on Him in the form of a dove, and God's power for doing miracles was released to Him at that point.
Then immediately, the Holy Spirit took Him into the wilderness to be tempted for forty days. Satan tempted Him in three areas. The first temptation was to turn rocks to bread where the devil was trying to get Him to use the power and authority of God for His own gains and not for God's purposes. He turned that down. He said, 'No, we are going to do God's will'.
The second temptation was where Jesus was on top of the temple and Satan told him to throw Himself off, and the angels will keep Him from falling. The temptation was to defy the law of gravity and impress everybody, sort of like, "Look at me, I' special. Look at how God protects me. Look at me, aren't I great?" In short, the temptation there was to use the anointing of God for His own glory instead of for God's glory--and Jesus would not do that either.
The third temptation was where Satan took Him up to a mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms and glory of the world. Then the devil told Jesus that He could skip the crucifixion and suffering and still possess all the kingdoms of this world. All Jesus had to do was to fall down and worship the devil, and he'd give it to Him. In short, this temptation was to get your power from some source other than God, or to use it for some purpose other than God's will. And Jesus refused that, remaining completely submitted to the Father's will because He loved Him.
Jesus came out of the wilderness after those three temptations. This is what the bible says, in Luke 4: 13-15 'Now when the devil had entered every temptation, he departed from him until more opportune time. Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee and news of Him went through all the surrounding region and He taught in their synagogues being glorified by all.' In short, He started doing all the miracles and healings and power stuff.
There is an important key here. Before God would trust Jesus with that authority, Jesus was tested. Likewise, there is a very good chance God will bring a test into your life once you make this commitment to obey Him; He will test you to see whether or not you are serious about obeying Him.
The test is not usually easy; I want you to understand about what kind of commitment we are talking about. But, here is the thing: Jesus is not unhappy that He chose to do it the Father's way. It was hard to go to the cross; He did not want to go to the cross. He was in the garden praying, "God if it is possible let this cup pass from Me." But once He completed God's will, then all power and glory was given to Him and He was restored to His place in heaven. It is hard, at times, to serve God---but it works out for the good.
Something similar happened to me with that "desk" that I never got because I had to give the money for it away. It was hard for me to give up at the time, but it did not take long to get over it and stop missing the desk. In fact, I purchased another roll-top desk later on, it was much cheaper and not as fancy, but it met my needs at the time.
Over the years, my "desk" needs changed, and my idea of an "ideal" desk changed accordingly. I needed something really big, with lots of drawers and pull-out work surfaces. I had become partial to oak and dreamed of a great big huge solid oak executive desk. When I set up my GodSpeak office in my house, I went out and priced one. It was really expensive; it was several thousand dollars. So instead of getting my "dream desk," I used a little formica kitchen table as a desk, and kept my stuff in cardboard boxes under the table.
Guess what God did about a year ago? God gave me my "dream desk." One of the branches of my friend's company was going out of business and they gave the office furniture away to employees and their to friends and relatives. My friend asked me if I wanted to come get a desk. Most of the furniture was already claimed, but there was one desk that was so big no one wanted it. And it was the type of solid oak executive desk that I really wanted. So, the same God who asked me to give up my desk gave me one even nicer 15 years later, when I needed it for the ministry. God is not a ogre or a "meanie." If we can trust Him and obey, He will reward us with something much nicer than what He asks us to give up.
Let's take this back to the realm of praying for the sick. Yes, God will call you to costly obedience so that He can trust you with His power and anointing. But you will eventually find the cost is well worth it.
There is an incredible joy that comes when you lay hands on the sick and see them healed. There is an excitement that comes when you see the power of God move through you; leading people to the Lord. The first time I led a witch doctor to the Lord in Nigeria, I was just in tears. He had seen the power of God, and decided that God was more powerful than the god he served, and he changed sides. It was awesome. Nothing is as wonderful as what God will do through you.
Yes, it is hard to obey when God asks you to do something costly. I kind of made a joke story out of my struggles to give my "desk money" to Ron for the ring. The truth is that it was very hard for me to put my finances to the point where God could spend my money His way. If there is some area of your life that He wants to spend His way, you will need to let Him--that is the commitment I am going to be looking for. What I want to do is to invite you to commit yourself to God.
A covenant is just an agreement. There is God's part and there is your part. I am not saying this lightly, but I believe God is telling me to offer this covenant. He is inviting you to enter into this covenant with Him even as you read this lesson. God wants to enter into a covenant with you where God is the boss, not you. You are the servant and you are committed to serve Him once He shows you clearly what He wants you to do. That is the covenant that God is looking for. Are you willing?
If you are, that means He can call the shots in any area of your life and command you to do whatever He wants to do. You can take your time to make sure it is really God, but once you are sure it is Him, you are committed to obey. If you are willing to make that commitment to the Lord, I am going to give you a simple prayer. Once you pray this prayer, an exchange of rights takes place, and you no longer to have the right to say "No" to God. Are you ready?
This is the prayer:
Lord Jesus, I want you to be Lord and boss of my life. I recognize you as the one who is control, and I am willing to enter into an obedience covenant with You. Lord, You are the boss, You are the master, I am your servant. God, whatever You command me to do, I will obey You.Lord, empower me to keep this. If You command me to do something impossible, then You have to supply the supernatural power to make it doable.
Lord, Your will. I will do Your will. You are the boss, and I commit to obey You and I give up my rights to You, right now. I call You Lord and Master. May Your will be done in my life.
I pray in the Name of Jesus, Amen.
Hallelujah. Now Lord, just come, just come with Your presence, Your power and Your anointing and meet those who just prayed this prayer.
If you prayed that prayer, then the Lord is going to begin to release empowerment into your life. Because you have made this commitment, He is going to touch you and release His power and anointing upon you; He is going to be speaking things to some of you, He is going to be showing you things. Look expectantly to Him, for He will meet you.