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I’ve heard preachers say, God isn’t our personal Santa Claus, that you can just ask and he grants you whatever you want. Nor is he your personal genie in a bottle generously granting wishes. They are correct he isn’t a genie, nor Santa Claus, because he is real. He is our heavenly Father who cares and as any good father wants to provide for his children. It is his good pleasure to do so. After all, he chose to make us his children.
Luke 11:11 - 13 “You fathers if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”
Notice when Jesus states “if you know how to give good gifts to your children”, the word gifts is plural. Then he goes on to state “how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” He states it this way, because the gates of God’s Kingdom are opened by the Holy Spirit in us. It is by the Holy Spirit in us that we have full access to our fathers’ kingdom. Because he is the embodiment of the Kingdom of God. It is by the one gift of the Holy Spirit that we receive all the blessings of our father's kingdom.
John 14: 12 - 14 “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!
Jesus states “anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done.” Let’s point out who Jesus defines as being able to do the works he did. Anyone who believes in me, that means every believer is able to do the same works as Jesus. There is no hierarchy of works that are preserved only for leadership, all have free access to the Holy Spirit and all the blessings from him.
Think about this, all of the works that Jesus did, John twenty-one verse twenty-five. Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written. In other words, the miracles Jesus performed covered every single area of life. The miracles that were written down cover health, money, the weather, food and even transportation, because in several instances Jesus was translocated out of the reach of those wishing to harm him. Add to this Jesus' statement that greater things than these you shall do! Now that is truly mind-boggling. That old saying that is often used to limit God, and his children “God helps those who help themselves”, is wrong. God helps those who rely on him!
I am breaking this down because I have seen how limiting our thoughts are when it comes to the supernatural. When the majority of Christians think that a successful surgery is a miracle, or that if we’re starving, the best that we can ask God for is that someone gives us food, then we are really limiting what he wants to do. Instead of asking God to guide the surgeon’s hands, we need to be speaking that the surgery isn’t even needed. Instead of fearing tornados, hurricanes, floods, thunderstorms e.t.c. and tuning in to the weather channel with fear and anxiety, we should be commanding the storm to dissipate. In order to see the supernatural, you must not only believe that it’s possible, but that it’s already approved and granted by Jesus himself, and then expect it to happen with all confidence.
Here are some examples of the supernatural from my own life that I’ve seen. Don’t even think well that’s just for Tony, I will never see those things in my life. Are you a believer in Jesus? Then he’s already stated that he will do it.
One time I was in a time crunch, and my field of four acres had to get cut. My riding lawn mower had only a third of a tank of gas in it. I didn’t have time to go get gas. I jumped on the mower and started mowing, the intention was that I’d mow till it ran dry. Just then I had the thought why can’t the mower not run out of gas. I felt the Holy Spirit say don’t worry about the gas, don’t even look out how much is in the tank. Two hours later I finished the whole field, which normally took two tanks of gas. Once I parked the mower, I looked at the tank, it had the exact same amount, one-third of the tank, that I had started out with.
Another time I was mowing and accidentally ran over a turtle. I felt bad, the shell of the turtle was in the grass in pieces, and the turtle was all hacked up and in a pool of blood. I just said "Live turtle." I continued mowing, the next pass I made where I’d massacred the turtle, I looked there was blood there but none of the rest of it. Thank you, Jesus. I went about six feet, and there was the turtle whole, complete and alive!
I had a plumber working on replacing some pipes that had leaked. He locked his keys in his van. I simply stated, "Door be unlocked." Right in front of both of us, we saw the stem pop up. He opened the door in amazement. There is actually a lot more to this story, but while he was working, he had been delivered from severe anxiety, panic attacks, his back healed and he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior.
One day I was at Walmart, their internet was down they were only accepting cash. I had looked in my wallet prior to leaving the house and had no cash on me. Holy Spirit just nudged me to look at my wallet again and there was a hundred-dollar bill staring me in the face!
Driving on a mountain road where there was a cliff on one side and a mountain wall on the side I was on. A semi-truck went to pass me, a car was coming towards us, the truck suddenly went into my lane in the same spot myself and my car was occupying. Supernaturally I found myself twenty feet in front of the truck, when myself and the car should’ve been plastered on the side of the mountain.
I was taking a woman to a doctor’s appointment in Knoxville Tennessee, an hour and a half away. I had picked her up late, we had ten minutes before she’d be late. We had left her house at ten minutes to ten, her appointment was at ten. The drive seemed normal, but when we arrived at the office it was exactly ten minutes till ten! The program that was used to log whenever I picked someone up, verified that I had picked her up at ten minutes to ten. The woman herself verified it; we were both amazed.
I always speak peace to storms, and there are many times the weather responds. On one such day, I had spoken to the storm the weather channel my wife was watching had the weatherman saying there was a reported tornado sighting in our city, in mid-sentence he changed it to it’s not showing up anymore. Outside where there had been a very strong wind, it was suddenly bright, sunny and calm.
These are just a few samples of what I’ve seen. One Thanksgiving Day, I was delivering thanksgiving meals to the poor. When loading my car up, I and the person helping me must have left some of the boxes behind, I was ten meals short. I made a statement like let ten more meals just appear. I turned around to call the church, to see if they had any food left. When I turned back around there were exactly ten more meals in the back!
Remember you too can see these things; any believer can experience this. We each have the Holy Spirit inside of us, and contrary to a lot of teachings you already have the faith inside of you, you have the spirit of faith. Second Corinthians four thirteen It is written: "I believed; therefore, I have spoken." Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak.
Let’s go back to John fourteen, where Jesus stated. “Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!” The point I’m covering now is because we get too dogmatic and strict with the way we do things that it actually stifles the Holy Spirit in us. That word “ask” in our modern way of thinking is we are begging God, and waiting to see if our request is approved. That isn’t believing, neither is it faith. We already have his approval and he has told us that we do in no uncertain words. Jesus demonstrated to us how to perform his works. In the article The Simplicity of Healing in Jesus, I look at how Jesus healed; it was with short commands, and at times even less. With other miracles such as the storms we simply have Jesus stating “storm be still”. The disciples followed his example. Paul with the deadly serpent didn’t speak at all. He simply threw it in the fire and kept going. Matthew twenty-one twenty-one “Jesus replied, "Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done.” Jesus wasn’t talking about a figurative mountain either as is proven by his reference to the fig tree. He was talking about a physical fig tree and a physical mountain.
Now let’s talk about "ask for anything in my Name." This doesn’t mean to religiously tack on in the name of Jesus, at the end of any command. In fact, we know of him as Jesus, but Jesus was actually referencing his position of being The Christ, the Anointed One. Names meant more to that ancient culture than what they mean to us today. Names reflected a person’s position in life, so when Jesus was stating in my name, he was actually talking about operating under his position of Being the Christ with his power and authority. Proof of this can be found in Peter’s formal speech on the day of Pentecost where he is speaking to all the house of Israel. Notice how Peter is referencing Jesus' position.
Acts 2: 29 - 36 “Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; he seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
Therefore, If you want to walk the absolutely correct line, then you’d better add his position instead of only in 'the name of Jesus', like Peter did. Yes, technically everyone has been doing it wrong, but yet people have still gotten healed, take note of that. That is precisely my point; it isn’t the words or tacking on Jesus at the end, it’s knowing whose power and authority you’re operating in and from. Lose the politically/religious correctness and let Holy Spirit flow spontaneously from you. We have plenty of scriptural examples where there were mighty miracles without “In the Name of Jesus”. In fact, on purpose in my examples above, there is not one time that I specifically stated "In Jesus Name." Yet, every one of those testimonies was done in his power and authority.
This week, I encourage you to spontaneously speak the spiritual solution to a circumstance and acknowledge the miracle that took place. In fact let’s get specific, command a bad storm or nasty weather to dissipate. You will be amazed by what will happen!
Be Blessed, Be Healed, and Be a Blessing!
