The Healing Word

Narrator: 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. The Healing Word program is a ministry of the Largo Community Church, where Christ is honored and people are loved. You're invited to join us in worship this Sunday morning at either 9:00 or 11:00. Visit LargoCC.org.

Pastor Jack Morris: Friend, if you talk to God with that sincerity, that transparency, that openness and honesty, tell him, "I know what you said, but I'm going to say something, Lord. I live and act like I don't believe it."

I'll tell you, friends, God's going to put His arms around you when you become that honest with Him. He's going to be there like your heavenly daddy. He's going to bless you abundantly.

Narrator: Did you know the phrase "fear not" appears 365 times in the Bible? Today, Pastor Jack Morris is here. He's going to take a look at the book of Isaiah, where God tells His people to fear not and what that means for us in our daily lives.

Pastor Jack Morris: There seems to be so much sickness, death, and heartache about us. This is not going to be a gloomy sermon. Owen says he wants to hear sermons that are upbeat. I do, too. That's the kind I want to preach.

The word of God is alive, and we're going to say yes to the word of God. But we're not going to stick our head in the sand and say these other things don't exist because as we call these other things to the Lord, God's going to bring healing and wholeness. It's been a difficult time, but God's bringing us through, just like He brought the children of Israel through the wilderness and through the Red Sea. He's bringing His people to victory. I'm beginning to feel it now, and I believe you are also. It's going to become increasingly so, this feeling of victory, because it's not just a feeling; it's a reality. It's coming right from heaven, right into our hearts.

Millions of Americans are having problems with fear. Many of those people who are having problems with fear are Christians. We're in need of knowing how to deal with this fear because fear is blocking our answers to prayer. It's blocking the healing that Michael sang about today. There's a big block, a roadblock, a spiritual roadblock, but we're going to move through as the Lord moves us through.

This past year with this virus and racism, racism like I've never in my life seen or heard of—I can't believe that people dislike people who are different than they are. We are people, all of us made in the image of God. I can't understand what's wrong with our thinking, and yet I know that we live in a fallen world and sin is strong, but there's a power that is stronger than sin: the power of God's love to His people.

It says in 2 Timothy 1:7, "God did not give to us the spirit of fear, but the spirit of power, the spirit of love, the spirit of self-discipline." When he said that God did not give to us the spirit of fear, he's telling us you were not born with fear. It is a learned something that the world has brought in on us almost imperceptibly before we even knew it. We learned how to fear and became people of fear.

But God's word tells us that in lieu of fear, He has given us the spirit of power, the spirit of love, and the spirit of self-discipline. He gave that to us when we were born again. Remember in the upper room, Jesus spoke to the disciples on resurrection day evening. The disciples were in the upper room with the door closed for fear of the Jews. They had traveled with Jesus for three years, and they were afraid and bolted the door.

Here Jesus appears. This is what I'm praying for: that the Holy Spirit would bring Jesus—an image of Jesus, the very presence of Jesus—to each of us. When Jesus talked to them, the scripture said He breathed on them. We're wearing masks, and we need to keep wearing masks for a little while longer. He breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." It was at that moment that those disciples were truly regenerated. At that moment they had truly become a new creation in the Lord.

It was completed after three years of following Jesus, learning of Jesus, submitting to Jesus, and now they were to that place where they could experience the breathing of the breath of God on them and become regenerated. At that moment, they received the spirit of power, they received the spirit of love, and they received the spirit of self-discipline.

Friends, when you were born again, you received that breath of God, the power of God, the love of God, and the power of self-discipline. That power, love, and self-discipline is now resident within you. We're going to learn how to tap into that and allow that to take over our lives. Fear has taken over. Fear has controlled us. Fear won't let us do certain things because we're afraid to do that. Fear is a controller. Fear now has us behaving in ways that we would not behave, going places we wouldn't go, not going places because fear is controlling us.

But God wants to breathe on us the breath of life and give to us this power. This power is there, resident. He wants to activate it and make it happen so that we can live with power, with love, and with His blessing of self-discipline.

The scripture says perfect love casteth out all fear. Let me see if I can put it this way: perfect love. We don't have to work and strain at trying to love people that we don't like. Is there anybody in your life that you don't like? It's their behavior, I guess, that we don't like. But perfect love—it's talking not about our love; it's talking about His love. When we are in the place that His perfect love becomes fulfilled and complete in me, all that fear is going to go.

It's His perfect love. I have to tap into that and receive a revelation of that perfect love. God's perfect love, God so loved the world, God is love—somehow I know all of that, but it's not working in me. It's not working in most Christians. That's why the lady said real Christians don't fear. Well, we are real Christians. Our names are written in the book of life, but that perfect love of Jesus is not operating like He would have it operate and like we would like it to operate.

But it's going to begin to operate, and today is the beginning. It may take weeks or months before we get through to this, but if we will start today, I'm going to help you to have a roadmap. This will help you to get there where that power will become very evident and very active, where love, His love, will just overwhelm us and we will be baptized in that holy love.

We will become temples of that holy love. We will become conduits of that holy love. Friends, there won't be any fear at all. It will go away. But fear will not let up on you or me as long as we live on this earth. It will keep coming back because the enemy knows that it is fear that will dictate to us how we live, how we think, where we go, where we don't go. Fear is a controller.

Many of God's people are slaves to fear. They wouldn't be a slave to anybody else or anything else, but we are slaves to fear and we don't even know it. Today, the Holy Spirit has given me the message and told me to come to the people of the Largo Community Church because He loves us. He wants to impart His love to us in such a revelation way that we will just be overcome with love and our lives will be controlled by love. Everything we do and say will be motivated by love and by the power of love.

Narrator: We'll return to the message today following this invitation for you to check out TheHealingWord.com. There you'll find inspirational testimonies, 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 TheHealingWord.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.

Pastor Jack Morris: Now, self-discipline—that means the road or the roadmap to deliverance from fear. Self-discipline. We're going to have to discipline ourselves in the next weeks and in the next months. If we discipline ourselves with the word and with prayer and with the fellowship of God's people, if we will discipline ourselves with the spirit of power, the spirit of love, and the word of God, we will move beyond fear.

You will be stepping into a territory perhaps you've never stepped into before, but it will become blessed. It'll become joyous. Step by step by step, you will feel the power and presence of His love because you have self-disciplined yourself and you're going to say yes to life and no to fear.

Last week we had Pastor Manuel, the Spanish pastor, and the young lady, Belissa, who sang. I asked her to sing in Spanish, trying to help us all to know that there are people who are of other cultures. We all are children of the Lord, and in heaven there's going to be people from every tribe, every nation, every tongue, every language. Friends, we need to get used to it down here because what are we going to do when we get up there and get confronted with it? Life is but a vestibule of going into heaven.

So she sang in Spanish. Before she sang, she talked about Moses who said, "Lord, if your presence doesn't go with me and with the children of Israel, don't take us out of Egypt. Let us stay here and be a slave to Pharaoh. We'd rather slave to Pharaoh than to leave Pharaoh and leave slavery, leave Egypt, and be free without your presence." This is what she sang.

I talked to Pastor Manuel yesterday and I said maybe she could come back because when she was singing, he would raise his hand. He could understand everything she was saying, and she was worshipping the Lord as she was singing. I said maybe we can get her to come back and she could sing that song again, sing a stanza in Spanish and then come back and sing it in English, then sing the second stanza in Spanish and then sing it in English. She may be able to do that when we have the anniversary service in the evening at 5:00 on the outside.

But this is what Moses said when God told Moses to go to Pharaoh and tell Pharaoh, "Let my people go." 400 years—400 years living under that kind of slavery. That's how it was. Pharaoh would not let them go until God stepped in. Now, God's going to have to step in to your situation, your individual private situation, to get you beyond fear, get that roadblock out of the way so the other blessings and healings and answers to prayer can come through to you.

We're looking to the Lord today, aren't we? We're moving in the right direction. Healing and wholeness is going to come, and answers to prayer like you've never had answers to prayer before, as we start this walk toward complete healing in the Lord.

This is what Moses said to God: "If your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. I'd rather be a slave in Egypt than a free man out there in the wilderness. I want the presence of the Lord." He talked to God, and then he asked the Lord, "God, you tell me your name. The people are going to ask me your name." And God said, "My name is I Am. I Am that I Am."

Notice: I Am that I Am. Let me come back to that for just a moment. Now, there are many other fears that I did mention, like claustrophobia, agoraphobia. I mean, there are—the professionals have listed hundreds of fears. God knows the fears that are working on you, and watch him attack it today. Watch him begin to attack it today as you begin to walk with Him and His word and in prayer. As Moses said, "If your presence does not go with me"—friend, you need to talk to God about your fears. You need to spell it out very specifically.

Now, we're going to say yes to life. Here's what the scripture says. Here's what God says. Do you see it? "For I am with you." Come on, read that out loud: "For I am with you." Are you kidding, Lord? Are you really with me? I read it, I say yes to it up here, but when I get out there and am all alone and the fear comes, I don't live or act like you're with me. But I know that's what you said, but I'm not experiencing the reality of it.

Friend, if you talk to God with that sincerity, that transparency, that openness and honesty, tell him, "I know what you said, but I'm going to say something, Lord. I live and act like I don't believe it." I'll tell you, friends, God's going to put His arms around you when you become that honest with Him. He's going to be there like your heavenly daddy. He's going to bless you abundantly.

"I am with you." That's exactly what God said to Moses when Moses said, "If your presence doesn't go with me." God says, "I am. I am." This is what God told Moses to tell his people. Now, friend, listen to me: you are walking with the I Am. Do you know that? You are walking with the I Am. You and God are together on this. You're walking with the I Am. Listen to what He says in Isaiah 42:6: "I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you."

I will, I will, I will—God never says no to those people who are seeking Him and wanting to follow Him and experience His power in their lives. He always says, "I will." So friend, don't hold back. God is saying, "I will take hold of your hand." Friend, Jesus is our champion. He is the mighty man of Calvary. He is the mighty man of the open tomb. He defeated death, hell, and the grave. He is the mighty conqueror who will defeat anything that is in you and me that is contrary to His will if we will go to Him and believe Him and begin the process today. He is the mighty man.

Wasn't it Martin Luther who wrote the hymn about the mighty man who is the conqueror? This is the one who comes to us today, the mighty man. Notice He said, "I have redeemed you." Look at what I've done for you. I'll be with you. I have redeemed you. The word "redeemed" in the book of Isaiah has to do with deliverance and protection. I'm going to deliver you. I'm going to protect you.

And then He says, "I have called you by name," meaning I have an ongoing personal relationship with you. I am your heavenly father. It's a one-on-one now with the Lord Jesus. And then He concludes, "You are mine." Now, it doesn't get any better than that, does it? You are mine. Say it, "I am the Lord's." The Lord is mine. I am the Lord's. You are mine. Amen.

Now, here's the strategy. Take that little card that I gave to you, inserted. Take it now. Here's your weapon. Friend, this is all you need. Tape it on your dashboard. Tape it onto your mirror, fellows, when you're shaving and ladies when you're combing your hair. Take two cards—one side, the other side.

"So do not fear." He knows we can't obey that in ourselves. He said, "So do not fear." So He tells us how we're going to be able to do not fear. "For I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Isaiah 42:6: "I will hold your hand. I will keep you." Isaiah 43:1 and 2: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have summoned you by name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I'll be with you, and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. And when you walk through the fire, you'll not be burned." Oh, Father God, what promises. What promises.