REVELATIONAL FAITH FOR HEARING THE PROMISED WORD FOR YOU

Transcription

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2 REVELATIONAL FAITH FOR HEARING THE PROMISED WORD FOR YOU Thought for the book taken from the Message delivered on March 29, 2015 Dawsonville, Georgia U.S.A.

3 2015 by Ben Howard All rights reserved. This book cannot be sold, nor in any way be used for the soliciting of funds. All scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version Bible Published by the Sound Of Liberty 7286 Hwy 53W, Dawsonville, Georgia U.S.A.

4 REVELATIONAL FAITH FOR HEARING THE PROMISED WORD FOR YOU We are going to read several places in the Word of God today. And I m going to start reading in Chapter 10 of the Book of Romans, just one verse to begin with. I want to take a little thought and entitle it, Revelational Faith for Hearing the Promised Word for You. Now when speaking of the revelational faith, the Word for this faith has got to be in you first. See, the Word is the seed; and it s got to be in you first before it can be quickened. The ministry brings it to your mind, and then it is quickened to you by the Holy Ghost. Jesus spoke to the Pharisees and Sadducees in the Book of John 8:43; He asked them, Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. In other words, they could hear the natural Word, but they weren t getting the spiritual meaning of it. In John 6:53, it says, Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. But they thought He was talking about His physical body. He said, He that eateth me hath everlasting life. He is the Word; In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1) So from that standpoint, it takes a spiritual ear to hear the Word of God. And anything that God is doing, or has promised to do, has a season that it will happen in. And until that season arrives there is no revelational faith to put life in that part of the Word, because it would be out of season. In the Book of Luke 8:11 it tells us, Now the parable is this: The seed is the Word of God. And that seed has got to be in you already. We find in John 8:37, Jesus saying, I know that ye are Abraham s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place

5 2015 Revelational Faith For Hearing The Promised Word For You 2 in you. Then in Matthew, Chapter 13, Jesus went out of the house and sat by the seaside, and a great multitude were gathered unto Him, so that he went into a ship and sat, and the whole multitude stood on the shore. And He spoke many things unto them in parables. And upon hearing this, His disciples came and asked Him, Why do you speak in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. So I say to you, If there is a desire in you, and a want to, then that want to is from the Lord; He put that within you. You were born with it. There are people born with the seed of God in them and that is predestination. The Word of God teaches us that Whom He did foreknow, them He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. So anytime God has a promise, as the time cycle rolls around for that promise to be fulfilled, then the inspiration for it comes and it will strike God s true ministers and they will begin to bring that Word to the people. That is why we separate from denominations, because they are still preaching what they were taught five hundred years ago when coming out of the Dark Ages; and they haven t changed. But the Word of God is a constant moving force. The Bible says, If we walk in the light, and in walking you are moving If we walk in the light as He is in the light we have fellowship one with the other and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin. So that is what we are looking at today. But before we read the Word, let s just bow our heads in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we come to you, Lord, with praise in our hearts, thanking you for giving us this day and for the beautiful weather, the nice sunshine; it just makes us feel good physically, Lord. We appreciate it and we thank you for it. And Lord, we thank you for the healing that you have granted to your people as we have seen and have received testimonies. And we thank you for blessing the many, many people with the good Word of God. We also thank you for the letters

6 2015 Revelational Faith For Hearing The Promised Word For You 3 we received, Lord, on the books, cd s, and the website. We know, Lord, that you are your own interpreter when you bring it to pass. So we just pray for the anointing of God, that we ll be right under the spout of the anointing and that you will anoint our lips to say words that will be of an edifying nature and help to your people. We ask this in Jesus Christ s wonderful name. Amen. First, I want to get this one verse here in Romans 10:17. It is a simple verse. It says, So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Now in order to have faith in the Word, it has to be timely Word. And we have to recognize the promise that God made for the day that we are in; and there s where God will quicken a faith. Most everybody says, I believe the Bible; I believe in Jesus, and things of that nature; and they do, but in a very natural way. But when it comes down to the specifics of what God is doing, then that s where we have to move by revelation of the Word of God. And that s what we want. So faith cometh by hearing means it will be preached to you; it will be taught to you; it will be timely; and it will be what you need for the time you are living in. We have now arrived at the sounding of the last trumpet that will raise the dead and translate the living, and this is something that we have automatically moved into without struggling. So faith cometh by hearing; just think about those words for a moment. Faith is something that is an unstoppable force. It cannot be stopped, and what God said would be is here. When we look back in time, we can see the great deliverance revivals that have taken place. I have been in A.E. Allen s meetings where there were perhaps ten thousand people. I saw all the shouting and many healings taking place. Also, I ve been in Oral Roberts meetings. And nearly every time those men preached, they preached on faith, saying, You ve got to believe God. God will heal you. He is healing His people. There s a healing in the land. And healing is still taking place; it is the way of God. But now we are looking more and more at the

7 2015 Revelational Faith For Hearing The Promised Word For You 4 promises of God for the total redemption of our body, as now the body is being glorified, also. Sometimes it s a soul that needs healing as well as the body. In the deliverance revivals the crippled walked, the blind saw. There was one man that came to Gainesville, Georgia, to a meeting back in those days when the healing revivals were going on, and he had a glass eye. Prior to this he couldn t see out of the eye and he came up to be prayed for. The preacher asked him, What would you have the Lord do for you? He said, I can t see out of this eye. I need God to heal me. And the preacher said, All right. God gives you back your sight, in the name of Jesus Christ. And the man s sight came back, but he still had his glass eye. He could take his glass eye out and cover up the other eye and see just as well. They would get him to read different things with the other eye covered up, and he could read just as well with the glass eye in or out. And that was a great miracle. Those things were taking place because the healing revival was on and no one could stop it! And when a preacher put up a tent or would have a healing meeting, people would come out; because that was the message, God is a healer. By His stripes you were healed. And each service it was preached along those lines, because that was what was taking place. It produced faith. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. So they began to receive it. Well, faith is still here, healing is still here; but at that time that was the main thing God was putting emphasis on. So as we moved on in the Word of God, there were other things in God s Word that He wanted to teach us; and He began to lead us deeper and deeper in revelation. And now we have gotten to the place in God s Word where we get to the final phase of redemption. I preached this many times, and you ve heard me say it We are not redeemed unless and until our body is redeemed. Now as we read in Romans, Chapter 8, we hear Paul saying, We wait for the adoption to wit the redemption of

8 2015 Revelational Faith For Hearing The Promised Word For You 5 the body. See, the body has to be redeemed also, and not just the soul. That s why Jesus Christ died in His physical body so that He could redeem our bodies. And He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. And now our gospel has come into its cycle and its season. So we ve got to look in the Word of God to see if we are in that season to produce our glorified bodies; because we have to have something to base our faith on and it has got to be solid. We can t have faith just because we want something to take place. I could say, Lord, I would like to have five new houses. One in this state and one in that state. And I want a big condo on the beach. And I d like, Lord, for you to give me a yacht. And also, Lord, give me a plane so I can move around good. See, I ve got no faith for that and no basis to claim it. And God will not quicken such a faith as that. Only if we ask according to His will, will He do it. But He gives the whole body a certain faith for a certain thing, and in this case it is faith to be translated and raptured. We have come into this faith in this last day (which God has promised to we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord) that says that we will not die but we shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Now that is the hour that we have come into in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye we shall be changed! But before any of that takes place, the dead will be raised and together we will be caught up with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. So these are the things that we are looking at in the Word and are believing God for. (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, and 1 Corinthians 15:51-57) Now I want to go to the Book of Hebrews. There are many scriptures that I want to read in this book. There is a chapter that we usually call the faith chapter. It talks here more about faith than any chapter in the Bible. Now faith is something that we have in a measure, but the Word tells us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of God. And in order to grow we have to fertilize

9 2015 Revelational Faith For Hearing The Promised Word For You 6 our faith by the Word of God for our day. Because we (as a seed of God) had the Word placed within us at the time God predestinated us and created our spirit to glorify Him. God has a wonderful plan for His people. He started introducing this marvelous plan by sending Jesus into the temple to offer this plan of God to the Pharisees and religious leaders, and some of them even came out and listened to Him. And there were a few of them that even became believers in Him; for they saw Him raise the dead, heal the sick, and even walk on water. But most of the religious began to say certain things like, Who is this? Abraham is our father. They would say, We follow Moses, the one that God sent unto us. We fellow God. Who are you? And Jesus said unto them, If you knew who God was, you would know who I am. And as He began to bring these things out, there were some there that believed, but the religious leaders went about to kill Him. And He said, You do this because my Word has no place in you. Now you could be in a bad shape in this world, but the worst shape that anyone could possibly be in is to be a person where the Word has no place in them. In other words, they can hear the Word and it really doesn t do anything for them, while other people hear the Word of God and it takes root. Jesus gave a parable about sowing seed; some seed falls on stony places and it springs up and quickly withers away when the sun comes up. This He said as He gave many different parables. Some are sown among the thorns. You ve got to get out from among the thorns. The thorns will choke the Word to the point that it will cause our faith not to grow. And Jesus said, These are they that when tribulation and trials come because of the Word, they fall away. God wants somebody that will look at the promise and believe it. But first it has to be in you. And the preaching of the Word of God will quicken that seed and bring it forth into perfect faith, this hybrid stuff won t do that. The reason being is because the life was already in the seed, and it will come forth in

10 2015 Revelational Faith For Hearing The Promised Word For You 7 its season. Putting it in the ground didn t put life in it. The life was already there; it just took the soil and moisture and warmth to cause it to come up out of the earth. And nothing can stop it from coming up. There is something calling those seeds in the soil. And that s the way it is with the Word of God. If there is something in us, and it s planted in good soil, it will come forth. Now learn the parable of a little tree: One day, a man decided he wanted to plant an orange tree. He went out and bought a little tree and brought it home and planted it. But he planted it in the shade where it couldn t get sufficient sunlight. And every now and then when he would walk by, he would give it some water. He went about his daily life, not paying much attention to the little tree. But once in a while, when he walked by, he would think to himself, I didn t get a very good tree; it s not growing a bit and it looks like it is about to die. It will never have any oranges on it! One day, a wise man came by and started a conversation with the man. The wise man began asking him about his little tree. The man told him, I brought it home and planted it, but it s not growing a bit; in fact it looks about ready to die. I ve got no use for it. It s not going to give me any oranges. The wise man said, Well, if you don t want it, then sell it to me. I will take the little tree home and see what I can do with it. So, the wise man took the little tree home and planted it in a place where its roots could grow deep, and also a place where there was plenty of sunlight. Oh, how he loved the little tree. He went faithfully every day to see to her needs. He turned the soil and kept the weeds pulled from around her. He gave her just enough water each day to keep her roots moist. And as he did all of this, he lovingly talked to the little tree. Time went by, and the little tree began to grow. She grew and grew. First white blossoms appeared; then oranges sprang forth. The wise man went out and rejoiced over his little tree that had grown so much and was finally producing. Then one afternoon, the man that owned the little tree first saw the wise man, and he

11 2015 Revelational Faith For Hearing The Promised Word For You 8 said, You re the man I sold the little tree to, aren t you? Is that little tree still alive? The wise man shook his head, Yes, she is alive and well. Do you want to come and see her? So the wise man took him to see his little tree. The man was amazed at how tall and majestic the little tree had grown, and she was filled with the most luscious fruit he had ever seen. The man asked, How did you get it to grow like this? The wise man answered, I brought the little tree home and planted her in a place where she could get all the sunlight she needed and where her roots could sink deep, and I gave her plenty of room to grow. I made sure she was in a place where there was plenty of light, and gave her just enough water each day to keep her moist. The man, with a puzzled expression on his face asked, Are you sure that s all you did? The wise man replied with shining eyes, Yes, but what made the difference was love and faith. That s why it is important to hear the Word of God; faith cometh by hearing. And Paul said, Forsaking not the assembling of yourselves together. That s what we do, we come to hear the Word of God and let it grow. We just don t hear it and let it wash away. We talk about it. We thank God for it. We testify about it. One of the things that the apostles did, starting in the Book of Acts, they testified about Jesus Christ being raised from the dead and that He had come back as the Holy Ghost; they gave witness of the resurrection. Everywhere they went they were telling, He is risen! He is risen! He is risen! And some said, He is risen! We saw Him! We ate with Him! We were sitting there in the room, and suddenly He appeared (the doors being shut) and He sat with us and He ate! He said, Children, do you have any meat? And we sat out fish and honey and He ate it and talked to us about the Kingdom of God; then suddenly He was gone! They testified about it. They talked about it. That was the message in that hour He is risen! He is risen! Now each time that God has sent a truth, there was a people that testified about it, talked about it; it was a large part

12 2015 Revelational Faith For Hearing The Promised Word For You 9 of their conversation because that was what was within them. Hallelujah! Many times, Jesus talked about a seed, and we know that Jesus Christ was the seed of God. And that means He sprang forth from God. That seed was planted in the soil of the womb of a virgin named Mary and it grew and came forth. John, Chapter One, says that He was the Word made manifest; He s the Word made flesh. See, the Word comes forth and nothing can stop it. We can t speed it up. We can t slow it down. Because the Word of God speaks and the Word is always right, so faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the revealed Word. Now we have certain promises for this end time that are not promises for another age. It s our promises. We lay claim on them and we believe God for them and we proclaim them! Now I want to read here in this faith chapter. I want you to notice how many times the Word talks about faith in Hebrews, Chapter 11. I m getting to some promises that God has for us in our day. I will begin reading in Verse One. There are two things in Verse One that is very important in order for us to have real faith. It says, Now faith is the substance. I want you to notice that word substance. You can t see it. You can t feel it. You can t taste it. It s not reachable by any of the senses of the body; but it is a substance. It s just like radar. It s not anything you can see, but it is just as real; it s a substance. It s just like the telephone. They ve got satellites many miles above us up there. And this Word, as we go on the website, it flashes anywhere in the world through the air. It s a substance, see. There s no wires; especially going up to the satellites. It hits the satellites and comes back down to any place in the world. We see the children (not only the children but also the adults today), every one of them have their little phones. I guess if you took their phones away from them they couldn t breathe. They ve got it in their hands at all times. Well, what they are sending is going somewhere. It s a substance that causes that to go to whoever

13 2015 Revelational Faith For Hearing The Promised Word For You 10 they re sending a message to. See, faith is just as real. It s not something that we see with a natural eye, but it is something that we see with our spiritual eye. We see it right here in the Word. So faith is a substance. Now we ve got a substance. When we re talking about faith we re not talking about something that doesn t exist. It is a substance. Now that is one of the things I want us to see about faith. Another thing is, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Amen, we have the evidence. Glory to God! Today there is a people that believe God. It s evidence. We ve got faith. We believe it. We talk about it. And don t try to change us. We ve got that substance in our hearts and the evidence is coming out! I think about Jesus; He could, just by faith, set aside the law of gravity. That s the way He did when He walked on the water. And that same faith came into Philip down on the desert when he went and preached to the eunuch there; then suddenly he was caught up in the Spirit and he was seen over in another town preaching. Instead of taking an airplane ride, he took a plain air ride! That s a substance of faith. This thing is just as real as it can be. And some people say, I m not going to believe something unless I see or feel it. Well, then they can t even be saved, because we accept God by faith. By faith we believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins; and there cannot be one doubt in our minds about it. And we believe that the stripes were put on His body for our healing, and His chastisement for our peace. That s the reason we ve got peace like a river and joy like a fountain; we ve got faith in what happened at Calvary. And it is a substance and there is evidence of it. Just stay around a few days and you will see! Now everything has come to pass just like God said it would up to this time, and the rest will be right in line and nothing can stop it. Now watch the next verse here. Verse 2, For by it the elders obtained a good report. Now watch the word faith again. Verse

14 2015 Revelational Faith For Hearing The Promised Word For You 11 3, Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. In other words, the worlds were created just by Word spoken by faith. See, faith is the substance that created this world. We can see on television scientists that want to go to Mars and try to figure out how this thing happened, and why there is a planet out here, and why the moon comes around and goes into different quarters. They try to figure out how it all takes place. See, all of that is nonsense. The earth is part of God s spoken Word, and it cannot be destroyed (He will purify it, but not destroy it); it is eternal. God s creation is made by the Word. The worlds were framed by the Word of God. It is part of the Word and it is eternal. That s why when we read Revelation, Chapter 22, we find that we go into the eternal age that will never end, and we will still be on the earth. It can t be destroyed. It is indestructible. It is the Word of God. Just like water; it is indestructible. If you freeze it, it gets solid. If you boil it, it goes up in steam and comes right back down. It just keeps coming back. It is eternal. And Jesus said, Out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water. That s this living water that is flowing forth today. It is real. It s not an imaginary thing. It s a substance. Now faith is a substance and it will translate these bodies. And that is what God is quickening the Word to as we come more and more up to this time, and you can t help but believe God! There are groups today that say, We need to do this (or that) to get rapturing faith. No, all we need to do is hear the Word of God and realize the time and season that we are living in; and we know it is time for it and we can t help but believe it. All right. Now the worlds were framed by what? The Word of God; so they re part of the Word. And it will be here throughout eternity; for the Word of God is eternal. In the days of Noah, when God spoke to Noah to build an ark He told him, It s going to rain. Now think about that. The first couple of thousand years here on this earth it hadn t rained

15 2015 Revelational Faith For Hearing The Promised Word For You 12 and the seas didn t exist. And the way God watered the earth a mist would go up. That s what it talks about in Genesis; a mist would go up from the earth and water it. No rain. But God told Noah, You build an ark because it is going to rain. I m going to destroy the whole world, all the wickedness on the face of the earth. Build an ark for the saving of your household. Well, Noah began to preach the Word to his generation (and in his day a generation was about one hundred and twenty years). Do you know how many converts he got? Not a one. He didn t get a single one. It was only Noah and his family that built the ark as he preached the gospel. And people would no doubt say, There s no rain up there. Where is the water coming from? If this world is going to be flooded out, where is it coming from? Well, God knew where it was. It was somewhere up in space; because the fountain of the deep was open (and that is not deep earth, it is deep space). The water began to fall down to this earth by the tons, and for forty days and forty nights it rained. And finally that ark began to rise up and float. And they were on that ark for over a year before the water began to recede. That s where we get the oceans and so on that we have now. But when we get over into eternity, we read in Revelation, Chapter 21, where John saw a new heaven and a new earth. Verse One says, And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. Leading up to that thousand year period of time, which is the millennium, all the water will go back to where it was to begin with. There will be a perfect climate. Everything will be perfect all over the earth. And there will be no more places where it is so cold that we can t stand it or where it is so hot that we can t stand it. Those conditions won t exist when the earth goes back to its original. The earth is fallen like mankind, but God is a redeeming God; He s going to redeem it all back. It s going to be a paradise right here on earth.

16 2015 Revelational Faith For Hearing The Promised Word For You 13 Let s go to Verse 4, By faith (or revelation) Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous. God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. What s being said here is what Abel did by faith when the fall took place in the garden. He knew that the bloodline had gotten defiled and so he offered the blood sacrifice. Looking way into the future by revelation, by faith, that the Lamb of God would be slain on the cross, Abel killed a little lamb. And God testified that he was righteous. But I want to move on. Watch every verse here says, By faith. Watch what it says in Verse 5, this is talking about Enoch. Now here we re getting into our day. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; And I want to ask you a question. Do you believe that? He was translated; he didn t see death. Neither did Elijah; he was caught up. Some people say, Everybody has got to die. Well, not necessarily. The reason they say, Everybody has got to die, is because of that one law that says, It is appointed unto man once to die but after this the judgment, not realizing that there is another law that overrides that law of sin and death. There is a spiritual law that says, We which are alive and remain shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye and we shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So that law is a greater law. The law of life has made us free from the law of sin and death (Hebrews, Chapter 2). It says that Jesus tasted death for every man; both spirit and body in total redemption. The Bible tells us that there are two kinds of death. There s the death of the soul and the death of the body. Now everybody can see when the body dies. But the Word of God speaks of the second death; that s the death of the soul when it will go out of existence and be as though it never was (after it goes through the things that God has ordained). Hell is for the destruction of Satan and his angels, and also for people who have chosen to go there. Death and hell will give up the dead and they will be cast

17 2015 Revelational Faith For Hearing The Promised Word For You 14 into the lake of fire; and all will be destroyed there. Even in this enlightened age some still say, I believe hell is eternal. The only way that one could be in hell for eternity is to have God s own life, because that is the only source of eternal life that there is. And if you live for eternity, whether in hell or heaven, you would have to have God s life; but you can t have God s life and go to hell. That is the second death according to the Word of God. It says, They that believe God will not be hurt by the second death. In other words, this ole natural body can die, but the soul cannot die if you ve got eternal life. But if you are dead, She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth. Now let s get on Enoch again here. It says, By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. And what does the Bible say? It says, Without faith it is impossible to please God. And how do we get faith? Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. This faith is water that is poured on that seed, and the warm soil will make it come up, and we can t help but believe it! Barbara Jean and I were going to the park to walk the other week, and all the leaves had fallen off all the bushes and trees (except those evergreens) and the grass there was just brown. When winter comes, when the season comes around, nothing can stop it or change it. There was not a leaf on the trees in the park. But just the other day when we went back to walk, we saw little leaves coming back on the trees. Now somebody try to stop that. There is no way to stop it. It is a law of God that He set in here and it will do it every year. Likewise, as this spiritual season comes around there is going to be a people that are translated; and I am here to tell you that we are in that season. Yes, we re in that season. We are the we which are alive and remain. I had a man tell me the other day, We re going through the tribulation; there is no way to stop it. Well, I m not going

18 2015 Revelational Faith For Hearing The Promised Word For You 15 to argue with him; he probably is. He said, The church will go through the tribulation. Well, that may be so, but not the wife of the Lamb. He said, That is when Jesus will come back. I said, Yes, that s when Jesus comes back; but not when Christ comes back. Christ is that Spirit that came back and is shown in Revelation, Chapter 10, as He has come in His fullness as the Mighty Angel, one foot on sea and one on earth, both legs of this spiritual coming. And as He has come, we which are alive and remain have received this Word, and this Word will change us. Because by one Spirit we were baptized into the body of Christ, and Jesus Christ died once and death has no more dominion over Him, and we are members of the body of Christ and death has no more dominion over us, His wife. Notice the translation of Enoch he was a type of the rapture. Now there are two things that God is showing in this period before the flood. First, the rapture, and then the tribulation, because Noah going through the flood is a type of the tribulation. But before the tribulation began, before the flood came, there was a man named Enoch. That s the one we just read about. By faith he believed God. God dropped a revelation in his heart, I m not going to die; I m going to be changed. I m going to be translated. And he was translated that he did not see death. Now do you believe that? That is the point; do you believe it? Do you believe there was a man just like you and I, who believed God and was translated? Well, I m telling you, there is a people on earth today, and there are no special powers about them. They may not be educated people as far as education in the natural realm; for the common people heard Him gladly. Although it is okay to be educated; what matters is what s is in your heart revelational faith for the move of God that is now taking place in our day. Verse 6, But without faith it is impossible to please him: See, Enoch pleased God. How did he please God? By faith. But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God

19 2015 Revelational Faith For Hearing The Promised Word For You 16 must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Do you believe that He will reward you? He will reward you according to the faith He has given you. In Bible days there were some that came to Jesus, and Jesus gave certain things to them. But there was one that came to Jesus and said, I believe, Lord, but help my unbelief. Not help my unbelief to grow, but help me get rid of this unbelief. If you believe God, walk with God to be spiritually minded is life and peace. The carnal mind will say it is not possible. Say, Lord, I believe; but I have a little shadow of unbelief. Help me get rid of that unbelief. Jesus helped the man and he got what he wanted. But the point is, He said, Faith. He said, Faith cometh by hearing. And there in the Book of 2 Thessalonians 1:3, it says, Your faith growth exceedingly. It s just like this: Barbara Jean had some flowers that she planted in hanging pots on our porch. She had some soil that already had some fertilizer in it, but she bought a water hose attachment where you could put a little packet of fertilizer in it called Miracle Grow, and when you sprayed the water, the fertilizer would mix with it. She would spray that water on the flowers and say, I tell you, this Miracle Grow is good stuff. Watch those flowers grow! Everybody that came by our house were just amazed at them. They said, I ve never seen flowers as big and beautiful as these. How did you get them like this? Well, she told them, I ve faithfully been spraying a fertilizer called Miracle Grow on them and it really works. I ve never grown flowers like this before! She was thrilled over her flowers, and couldn t believe how good they looked. But when she took her water hose attachment off to see if she needed to replace her packet of Miracle grow, she came to find out that she didn t have the little label pulled off the packet where the Miracle Grow could get into the water! She was just putting plain water on them! So we could say that these flowers were growing on faith; for when she thought she had added the

20 2015 Revelational Faith For Hearing The Promised Word For You 17 Miracle Grow, they really grew fast. We need to put some Miracle Grow on our faith. And Miracle Grow is hearing the Word of God. We are required in this hour to walk in the light of the Word; and there is a people who are doing that. Yes, we believe God that we are going to walk out of here and be changed in a moment and in the twinkling of an eye. Now watch, again, Verse 6, But without faith it is impossible to please him: Some people have come to me or written to me saying, Brother Howard, I want to please God. How do I please God? I don t know if I am pleasing God or not. Well, He sent a message. He sent a Word. And without faith it is impossible to please God. That faith pleases God, see. When Enoch believed God, He was translated. But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. We must believe. We ve got to put legs on our faith. (And if you walk in the light you might need faith on your legs to walk in the light of the gospel!) But this is not something where we just come to church to hear a little sermon, and say, Well, I m going to church today. No, it s something we get in. It is something we talk about. It is something we tell our neighbors about (if they ll hear us). It is something that we just praise God for With our voice we praise Him! At least He will listen to us; and He won t get mad at us for praising Him. Verse 7, By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, (There are things not yet seen, but we believe God. We have been baptized into the body of Christ, and it is just like God said it would be.) moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; Now faith is a substance of things hoped for, the evidence. That was evidence. Noah didn t say, I tell you folks, there is coming a flood and you better get ready. No, he just began to cut the timber and he began to build the ark. That is the kind of faith that God is looking for in us. That is growing faith. If we believe it and testify about it, then we walk with it,

21 2015 Revelational Faith For Hearing The Promised Word For You 18 and that becomes our very own life; for we are dead, and our lives are hid with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3) We are dead to everything around us, but we are alive unto God. In Galatians 2:20-21, it says, I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; (watch this) yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. But to the wife of the Lamb, faith has come to free us from the law; to believe God. And that is what we are doing, we are letting Christ live through us. Is He living in you today? When somebody looks at you, do they see Christ? Paul said, I m in Christ s stead. Now we can say we re in Jesus stead as the Christ in the earth, the wife of the Lamb. Again Verse 7 says, By faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. The word faith is used twentyfour times in this one chapter. By faith, showing that everything has to be by faith. And that faith has to be within us. And if we do have the faith, it will not be just something we talk about, but it will be something that will express itself in us. And that shows forth the substance. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. It s the evidence. What evidence of faith do we have? What God says, are we doing it? Here s another one that we talk about a lot, and I love it. Verse 8 says, By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed: and he went out, not knowing whither he went. In other words, God said, Go, and he didn t say, Lord, how do I do it? It s just like Peter on the housetop there in Acts, Chapter 10, when the Spirit told him to go with three men to Caesarea to the house of a Gentile man named Cornelius, doubting nothing. Believe God for whatever it is; go with God. That s the way Abraham went

22 2015 Revelational Faith For Hearing The Promised Word For You 19 out. Verse 9, By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: Now watch, he knew he was traveling. We re walking in the light; that s the reason we don t join a denomination; we don t build a house. We just keep on moving. See, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob they lived in their tents. They were herders in the natural. They moved just like the Indians of this country would do; they moved with the food. They kept right on moving. So he sojourned. What was he doing? Verse 10, says, For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. He looked for it. Well, we found it! Abraham, let me tell you something; the thing you were looking for, we ve got it! We are part of it. We are the city of the living God. The city on a hill cannot be hid. We re the lights of the world. And the light of this last trump of God message has come upon this religious world that is in darkness and they comprehended it not. But to those that received it, to them He gave rapturing faith. I want to get Verse 11. It says, Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Paul wrote, It ceased to be with Sarah as with women. In other words, she was in menopause. She s old and there s no way. But God said, Abraham, you and Sarah are going to have a child. But many years passed and Abraham was as good as dead the Word said. And Sarah was past age. But the Word said it! And do you know what those folks did? Everybody thought they were crazy, but they believed God anyway! Some of the women might have said, Sarah, are you this old and haven t gone into menopause yet? And she would say, I m in menopause. Then they would say, Well, you re saying you re going to have a child. Look at Abraham. You ve both got rheumatism so bad you have to help each other get into the bed,

23 2015 Revelational Faith For Hearing The Promised Word For You 20 and you re saying, We re going to have a child. She would say, Oh, yes; we are going to have a child. Well, do you know what happened? One day a man came out of the desert. Actually there were three of them. Two of them went to Sodom, that s when God judged that situation. But one stayed with Abraham and Sarah, and that man said, Now Sarah is going to have a child. Well, Sarah and Abraham were a hundred years old and past childbearing age. And Sarah laughed in the tent behind him. And the man said, Why did Sarah laugh in her heart? And she said, Oh, I didn t. He said, But you did. He said, But it doesn t matter anyway. About this time next year the season is going to come around and you re going to come out of menopause. They became young again. They had that child. And to show you that they became young again, Abraham was as good as dead before Isaac was born, but when Isaac got married forty years later (Sarah passed away just before then) Abraham took a wife and had six children by her. Abraham was good as dead before Isaac was born, and forty years later he married another woman and had children by her; all because of one thing Faith! He believed what God said. Now what God is promising us is not a less miracle to believe the promise of a glorified body. In John, Chapter 11, we read about where Lazarus had died; he was dead four days and stinking. They sent for Jesus. And they were crying and carrying on. Mary and Martha (Lazarus sisters) both said to Jesus, Lord, if you would have been here, our brother wouldn t have died. And Jesus said, He will resurrect. They said, Oh, we know he will resurrect at the time of the resurrection. Do you know what Jesus said? He said, I am the resurrection. Then He asked, Where did you lay him? And they took Jesus to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus told them, Take ye away the stone. But Martha said unto Him, Lord, by this time he stinketh; for he has been dead four days. Jesus said unto her, Did I not tell you that if

24 2015 Revelational Faith For Hearing The Promised Word For You 21 thou would believe, thou should see the glory of God? Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I know that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when He had thus spoken, He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth! He didn t doubt one bit. Then suddenly here came a man out of that cave who had been dead four days and stinking. Jesus said, Unwrap him and let him go. That is what faith will do. Faith is going to change these bodies. And faith is going to raise from the dead those that died in the Lord. They re going to hear us, and are hearing us; because the Bible says, Those that are in the grave will hear the voice of the Son of God and come forth. This is the voice of the Son of God; because it is the Word! We re baptized into His body. They re going to come forth and we re going to be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye (just like Enoch was) and caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Again, Verse 11, Through faith also, Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. In other words, if God made the promise, what can you do? Who is going to argue with it? Here s a woman past age and here was a man as good as dead, and they judged God s Word faithful. Circumstances didn t mean a thing. And anytime we look at circumstances, we re placing that above our faith in God. Circumstances don t mean a thing; it s what God s Word says. And we are part of the Word. In Ephesians, Chapter One, it says that we were with Him before the world was. That s when He put our names in the Book of Life making us just as eternal as He is. That is eternal life. Somebody might say, You can lose eternal life. No, you can t. If God gives your soul eternal life, that s what it means, eternal. Eternal means, lasting or existing forever, without end or beginning. Somebody might ask,

25 2015 Revelational Faith For Hearing The Promised Word For You 22 How old are you, Brother Ben? Well, very shortly I will be 76 years old. But in God I am just as old as God and just as young as God, because He made me part of Him when He sent the Holy Spirit into me and quickened that seed that He put in me before foundation of the world. And here I am today with eternal life! I can t die. Those that went by the grave didn t die; they just went on ahead. They re going to get up before we are changed. So, God gives eternal life. Watch now. Verse 12, Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, an embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. They held on to it knowing that they would live again! In the Book of Job 19:26, we hear Job saying, And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God. Whether you go by the way of the grave or are translated, eternal life is the same. But since there is a way to go without going through the channels of death, I believe I will just take that way! There is much more to be said about this plan, but I m not going to get to it in this message. But the seed is the Word of God, which is in us. And we can t hear unless we have spiritual ears. This faith comes that way. The title again, Revelational Faith for Hearing the Promised Word for You. See it is revelational faith; it s the Word that God promised for you. We can t believe God for something else. We can t believe God for what they had in other ages and other times or what they re going to have in the tribulation period. But we can believe God for what He has for us today. Today is the day of Salvation; now is the accepted time. Do you love Him with all your heart? Can you believe? And even if we get a little shadow of doubt, we quietly say, Lord, help my unbelief. Take it away. Let my faith grow exceedingly. How does it grow exceedingly? By hearing the

26 2015 Revelational Faith For Hearing The Promised Word For You 23 Word of God. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word. And that includes reading the Word and rejoicing in Him, and knowing that by one Spirit we are baptized into the body of Christ. He has come back in Revelation, Chapter 10, to make all this live for us. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word. There is a way, as one said, that our faith may be perfect. And we have that perfect faith, but sometimes it gets clouded a bit; but Lord, take away those clouds. This message of the last trumpet of God drives all the clouds away; it drives all the doubts away where we can look at the light of the Word and see Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. Heavenly Father, we come to you praising your name, thanking you, Lord, and appreciating you. O God, we just thank you for helping us to see the faith, for giving us the faith, for letting us know that this is a reality, this is not imaginary but this is a substance and it is an evidence that we can have to claim the promises that are lying right here before us. And there is the promise of eternal life that you have given to us without going through the channel of death, but to be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. I pray you quicken this faith in each one that hears this Word. We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

27 2015 Revelational Faith For Hearing The Promised Word For You 24 AUDIO/VIDEO SERMONS AND BOOKS All sermons by Brother Ben Howard are recorded on Cassette tape, CD's, DVD's, and Mp3 formats. Also, there is a collection of published books that are available for download or by request as well. Please feel free to visit us at our website often as new materials are constantly being added, or write to our postal address below. Sound Of Liberty 7286 Hwy 53W, Dawsonville, Georgia U.S.A. TwoAnds@soundofliberty.org