The Healing Word

Guest (Male): The healing word ministry on one place is brought to you by the generous donations of people like you. At any time during today's message, feel free to send a prayer request or make a donation using the links provided. Now, I pray you will be blessed as Pastor Jack Morris delivers a message from the word of God that will encourage and strengthen your faith in him.

Pastor Jack Morris: You and I can lose the power and presence of God at any moment. Conversely, you and I can experience the power of God at any time we decide we want God first.

Guest (Male): On today's healing word broadcast, Pastor Morris is going to take us to the book of Ephesians where Paul the apostle describes the love of God and how that love works in our lives today. Let's go hear the introduction of the message for today. God is able.

Pastor Jack Morris: We're in the sanctuary at the Largo Community Church and I have a special message. God is able. Listen to that message. Let it build faith in your heart. You will be an overcomer in the Lord. You will live in victory because God is able to make it happen in your life. Listen to this passage of scripture from Ephesians chapter three. Paul says, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith and I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasseth knowledge.

Friends, you're loved with an everlasting love. God loves you with a love that will never quit. You are loved right now, whoever you are, wherever you are, whatever your circumstances, whatever you have done that you're sorry for or have grief or regret because of, God still loves you. Come with me into the sanctuary and let's learn about this God who is able to do anything and everything. He cares for you and he'll work in your life. He will and you will live in victory once you turn to him and trust him. Hear the message and rise up in faith and be abundantly blessed.

Let's go into the sanctuary. Last Sunday, we talked about navigating our circumstances that the Lord God would give direction and guidance to us, show us the way so that we will not stray or get lost. But you have to see the shepherd. You have to hear his voice. You have to be in that place. Otherwise, we don't keep our eyes on the shepherd, the shepherd may make a turn somewhere and we'll miss the direction he's going in which is the direction to victory and overcoming salvation, wonderful life that he has prepared for us. So, I pray today that our hearts would focus on him and we would follow him even in this message and let him tell us and show us how to handle these circumstances that we had that have been frustrating us and confusing us.

You know, God doesn't want his people to be frustrated or confused. He desires to lead and lead to victory and this is what he does. But here was a church that was discouraged. Now, when we face negative situations and they do come and when we begin to think about it and talk about it, that negativism gets inside us. As a man thinketh, as a woman thinketh and talketh. You didn't get that, did you? As a man thinketh, that's what he's going to be doing, saying and how he's going to be behaving. But as a man thinketh in his heart, in his imagination, so is he.

You talk negative, you're a negative person, not a person of faith, not a person following the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus on the cross said, Father, forgive them. Even on the cross, not one negative thing came from his lips. Not one negative thing. Follow Jesus and you'll be the most positive person alive. You really will because Jesus is positive and faith comes by hearing hearing by the word of God. So, let's talk Bible talk. Let's talk victory talk. Let's give testimonies. Let's share the good news and then you'll be a true follower of Jesus, a person of faith.

But here was a discouraged church that Paul was praying for. He said in verse 13, I ask you therefore not to be discouraged. Friend, lift your church up. Encourage one another. Don't otherwise it doesn't take very many negative talk, negative statements, negative people until a whole church can become discouraged on the Conversely, you talk faith, talk victory, talk Jesus. That church will mount up as on wings of eagles and that church will soar for the Lord Jesus Christ. Friend, you have power to bring your church down. You have power to lift your church into the heavenlies.

Use your power for the glory of God. Hey, I'm getting some amens today. Thank God. So, here was a discouraged church. It must have been discouraged because Paul says so here in the Bible. They were discouraged. Now, one problem that this church had was they were new converts. They they hadn't been saved very long. This church hadn't been in existence very long. Paul was the founder of the church and he was in prison in Rome. So, they were new believers. They hadn't had a lot of opportunity to pray, to have testimony of answered prayer and so they see their pastor in jail.

These were bad times. They focused on this man's unfortunate situation that appeared to be unfortunate. But notice what Paul said. I ask you therefore not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you which are your glory. God even in that situation, there was faith, there was focusing on prayer. There was God there to bless and to help them and they were recognizing it and they began to share it. Paul said, now you're so negative, now I'm going to bring you back again and so he begins to pray for those people. Paul goes to his knees in prayer.

Now, Paul knew how to pray. He knew how to pray. He knew that he was welcome at the throne of grace. He he was not timid at all going to God's throne with his request. He knew he was welcome there. Friend, I want to encourage you. You're welcome there. The scripture says in the Hebrews Paul again said, come boldly to the throne of grace. So, bring your needs and your problems and your your circumstances, bring them to God's throne, pray bold prayers. Paul didn't pray little prayers, little prayers that and so general that we didn't know whether that prayer was never answered or not.

But he prayed big prayers, great prayers, bold prayers and God would come through every time and he knew this but that church didn't know really how to pray and seek God with bold request and they they were becoming discouraged. So, Paul was praying. Now, this is what he prayed for. He prayed that God would give them strength. He prayed that God would give them power. He prayed that God would bless them in the inner man. He knew where doubts dwell and where faith dwells. Doubt and faith cannot dwell in the same heart at the same time.

One of them will overcome the other. So, Paul was praying for this church that had lost its spiritual enthusiasm. They they had become so negative and he was praying that they would receive strength in the inner man. There there is a person living inside every one of us today. The heart, the inner man, it's in your mind, it's in your your your brain, your your imaginations have become negative, Paul was saying. So, now let's focus on God. Times may get bad and they will get bad but God is greater than times. God is greater than the circumstances.

God is still on the throne. You need to put him there, the throne of your heart. And Paul was telling this to this particular congregation. They they were thinking negative. Now, friend, the battle always is in the mind. That's where the battle is. It's in the mind. That's where faith dwells. That where doubt dwells. And if the enemy can sow seeds of doubt, those seeds of doubt will crowd out faith. If doubt is is the predominant intake because of thinking that way, imagining that way, talking that way, you you can't encourage people and talk negative at the same time.

Negativism will sap your strength. Faith will impart strength to you. So, believe the Lord, trust God, take your circumstances to the Lord and be bold about it. Go to the throne of grace today. Go to the throne of grace. God invites you to come and that's what Paul was doing for that church. Now, when God's presence is with us, there is strength and there is power. But when we focus on that which is was that is negative, the strength and the power goes away. You can be drained and be sapped of that strength that God originally put there and now this church needed to get it back and Paul was praying that they would.

It is the presence of God that brings about the victory, that gives the strength to overcome and without the presence of God, then there is weakness, there is lack. But with God, there is no lack. With God, there is strength. Now, this is what happened to David and the people of Israel.

Guest (Male): We'll return to the message today following this invitation for you to check out thehealingword.com thehealingword.com There you'll find inspirational testimonies, messages from the word of God, messages from the word of God to empower your spiritual life and the pray now app that you can access to pray with Pastor Morris over a need in your life. Everything we offer on the healingword.com is our free gift to you. So, go there today and be healed. Now, let's return to the conclusion of today's message. God is able.

Pastor Jack Morris: So, this is what Paul was saying to those people in that very discouraged church. He said, you keep thinking about me and everything that has gone wrong, the prayers that you prayed and not answered, you keep thinking about unanswered prayer, not the prayers that you have prayed and that are answered. You you're not celebrating that you're the church of Jesus, that you're now following Christ. These people were pagan Gentiles. They had turned from idols to the living God but now some of them ready to go back. Some of them are ready to drop out. Friend, you and I can lose the power and presence of God at any moment.

Conversely, you and I can experience the power of God at any time we decide we want God first. We want to talk faith. We want to talk Jesus. We want to talk love. We want to talk victory out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. Is that the Bible or isn't that the Bible? All right. So, now today, it's not the church it's not the church that's that's that's that's gone down. It's it's not the people of God. It's the person of God because of the negative focus that is on you. Now, Paul sent to that church.

He talked about their encouragement. He talked about faith. He he talked about faith with power. He talked about celebration and victory and look what happened to Paul. Look what happened to him in verses 20 and 21. Would you put that up on the screen, please? Verses 20 and 21. Now, Paul got himself so excited. Paul was in in jail. Friend, you're in church. Paul was dressed perhaps in rags. Look at the pretty clothes that you and I have on today. God has blessed us. We've come from nice homes. We've driven in with nice cars. We have health enough to be in the church.

When Paul began to talk to that discouraged church, I don't know whether they got excited and they got their courage back or not but look what happened to Paul. Come on, read the Ephesians three 20 and 21. Now, to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations ever and ever. Amen. Now, all Paul did was talk about the strength of God. He talked about the glory of God.

He talked about the power of God. He talked about the glorious riches of God. He talked about all of this coming to the inner man and he broke in again and basically interrupted himself with this doxology of praise. Paul just stopped. He he was instructing but he couldn't keep on instructing. He had to stop and shout and praise and worship God. He says, now to him, now the word now is the Bible word. Right now, we're going to praise the Lord. Right now, we're going to experience the power of God. We're we're not going to going to wait but we're going to do it now and and it can be later also but now to him.

Notice where Paul's thoughts were, on him, on the Lord, the blessed God who cared for that little church out there that was going through such a hard and difficult place. But but the but what I'm trying to get across and I pray the Holy Spirit will help me, Paul is talking about the strength of the Holy Spirit. He's talking about that strength coming into the inner man and while he's talking about it to them, it's happening to him. And now he stops instructing because he is so filled with the glory of God that he had to stop and give this doxology.

Now to him who is able to him who is able. Say God is able.

Guest (Male): God is able.

Pastor Jack Morris: Now to him who is able, able to keep us from falling, able to keep us on track, able to never help us to navigate our circumstances, able. He's able. He he has the equipment to do so when we look to him. Paul is telling those Ephesians, don't look to my situation, to my suffering. What's happening to me is going to get you down. Don't consider the unanswered prayers that you've been praying for me to get released. Don't keep talking about it, thinking about it, dwelling upon it. Now to him who is able. And what how's he able to do?

Immeasurably more than we can ask or think. There it is again. Think. Think in the imagination of the heart, in the mind. Think and receive the blessing and the glory of God. I pray today that every doubt that you have in your mind that the Lord will rebuke it and cast it away from you. Now there's a place where the doubt used to be, where the doubt took up room. Now there's a place in your mind for the word of God to come in. But doubt will cause the word of God to go forth but bounce off your mind.

Even the preaching of the word even now, you'll go home feeling I I I didn't get a whole lot out of the out of anything today but you can go home with great victory, strengthened in the inner person, rejoicing in the Lord because you have been in the presence of the word of God who is Jesus, the word of God. The scripture says Jesus rebuked it. Now Jesus can turn things around for you today if you let him, if you let him, if you say Lord, I've been thinking wrong thoughts. I've had these negative feelings.

I have circumstances that are piling up against me. And you tell the Lord openly what those circumstances are. Friend, if you take it to the Lord and say Lord, I I I shouldn't have thought that. I I think and thought that I was a better Christian than that but look what has happened. Friend, when you get honest with God, God's glory will come upon you and the blessing of God and you have your own doxology of praise to sing to the Lord. Somebody ought to say amen. God is here today. Yes, God is in our midst and this is the time to rejoice in the Lord and in victory with him.

Now notice it said, God is able to do. That's what it says in the scripture. I don't have it on the on the screen but the word do, a little word do. God is able to do meaning you serve a God who does things. These these people in that little church came out of paganism and idol worship. They were Gentiles. They were not under the covenant of Abraham. They could pray all they wanted, all they would want to to their idols but their idols would not heal them. Their idols would not provide food for them.

Their idols wouldn't give them back anything that it would that is positive but he said this God, him. Now unto him, he's able to do. He is a God who goes to work for his people. Take it to the Lord. He'll go to work for you today. Take it to the Lord. Oh, I wish I could say it again and again. He'll go to work for you today but he'll begin in your mind, in your thoughts, in your own heart. Said, oh, I wish the church would get more spiritual. Well, it won't as long as you are more negative.

We are the church and friend, you can have a great influence over yourself by looking to the Lord who is able to do immeasurably more. Say that immeasurably more. Immeasurably more. More than what? Okay, immeasurably more than we can ask or think. There it is again. It's in your brain. It's in your thinking. It's in your imagination. The Holy Spirit comes today to root out the doubt, to bring in the faith. Sometimes he has to reach in and you know, so to speak, pull it up by the roots and that's that's what we want him to do.

Get that out of me. It's destroying me. It's bringing me down. He is the resurrection in the life and that spiritual life will come and you will soar as on wings of eagles. Friend, do you want to keep living down here in the dirt or do you want to get up there on the wings of eagles? It's time for a doxology of praise. Put that put that scripture back up on on again, please. We're going to go back. It's time to to Paul Paul said to that that that Ephesians church, basically he said it's he he couldn't keep on.

He had to praise the Lord and he said now to him. I I want you to read it again. I want the seed of the word to get in you. The seed of the word will will push out the negative and you will be a person of faith, a person of victory. You will have joy and glory in your heart. Paul was still in prison. Things didn't change on the outside. Circumstances look just the same but circumstances in here rising above. Come on, read it again with me. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever.

Notice to him be glory in the church. To him be glory in the church. To him be glory in the church. Let the church rise up. Let the church sing the doxology of praise to the Lord. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him above ye heavenly host, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Praise him. Friend, let's praise the Lord and rejoice in God and he is able to do more than we can even imagine or think. Friend, let your imagination and your thoughts go on him today, not the circumstances, not the disappointments, not the things that have and the people who have let you down.

Don't let your imagination go there. Get it out. Tell it to the Lord. Watch him do a great and mighty work in your heart. Amen. Amen. God bless you.

Guest (Male): We hope that the message today, God is able, blessed you and strengthened your faith in God. Before we go, here's Pastor Jack Morris with some concluding thoughts.

Pastor Jack Morris: God is able. Whatever is happening in your life now, whatever is defeating you, God is able to bring you through, to raise you up, to bless you and cause you to mount up on wings as eagles. God is there, friend, where you are, right there, right now. Talk to him, turn to him and allow him to do what he is able of doing. He will do it. You you can't do it. There are things in my life that I cannot handle but God is able. Turn to the Lord and receive his blessing.

Guest (Male): Do you need Pastor Morris to pray with you about a struggle or decision you're wrestling with? The pray now app is available to you right now. Go to the healingword.com, click pray now and select the topic that matches your request. Pastor Morris will provide encouragement, pray with you and deliver a brief message on overcoming and living in victory. I also invite you to check out all the ministry resources available for you at the healingword.com. There you can search and listen to messages that match your need and send your prayer request directly to the pastor and he will pray for you and return an encouraging note.

You'll find all these gifts waiting for you at the healingword.com. Join us tomorrow for another healing word message. Until then, blessings on you.