Tree of Life Church, London

Believing God for the Impossible

Believing the Impossible

One of the most important things a Christian needs to be is a dreamer.  You cannot limit your dreams and your vision for your life to what is possible and what is probable.  You need to be like the dreamers in the Old Testament.

Joshua had a dream that he would take the people into the Promised Land.  David had a dream that he would defeat Goliath and rule the nation.  Peter had a dream that he could do the same works Jesus did.

Dreaming is meditating on the impossible: people getting out of wheelchairs, healings, prosperity and abundance.  Doing the things that Jesus did – doing the same works He did, as He promised us in John 14.12.

One of my best friends was in a wheelchair following a stroke.  He never stopped dreaming that he would walk, and one night God completely healed him in his own living room and he got up and danced around the room.  Don’t ever be afraid to dream of complete healing – God wants you well.

My wife and I are living now in a house we dreamt about.  We drew pictures of the house we wanted to live in and put them on a notice board.  We called the notice board our “Dream Wall”, and we put it in a place where we would look at it often because we wanted to be provoked to dream.  Never, ever forget how to dream.

Dreaming Brings Joy

When God does things in our lives it always brings joy.  Now if you know by faith that God will do it, why not have the joy now.  Children get excited before their birthdays because they trust their parents to buy them presents.  If we trusted God to keep His Word, we could be excited and joyful right now.  If you do not have joy, it is because you do not have faith.  If you do not have faith it is because you are not spending enough time in the Word because faith comes by hearing the Word (Romans 10.17).

If you read the Word humbly and simply believe what it says, you will have pictures of impossible things painted in your mind.  It will make you dream.  Did you know that every major move of God was brought about by people reading the Word with humility?

What do I mean by reading the Word with humility?  I mean that when the Word says something that you cannot accept due to your theology or lack of experience, you don’t change the Word to fit your thinking, but you change your thinking to fit the Word.

Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther read Romans where it said the “just shall live by faith”.  Up until then, people read that verse and thought it meant everything but the just shall live by faith.  They changed the Word to fit their doctrines and their theology.  Martin Luther believed it said what it meant, and that it meant what it said.  He realised that justification, being right with God, did not come from works or from penance but from believing the gospel.  And from this, the entire Reformation started.

About one hundred years ago, some people associated with Charles Parham were looking at the Scriptures trying to work out what “they were all filled with the Spirit and they all spoke in tongues” actually meant (Acts 2.4).  Someone decided that it meant what it said and that it said what it meant, and people started speaking in tongues just like in the book of Acts.  The subsequent Pentecostal revival has spread across the world and transformed Christianity.

Reading the Word and humbly accepting the Word paints pictures inside your mind.  Pictures of life, of abundance, of righteousness.  Faith always comes when you hear the Word.  You cannot get this kind of faith, this kind of dream from praying and fasting.  You have to read the Word and accept what itsays. 

Doing this is what will change the nations.  Your impossible dream should affect the nations.  If your dream for your life does not affect nations, does not need the supernatural anointing of God to bring it to pass, you are dreaming too small and need to get back into the Word!

Your miracles are not for you, they are for the world.  We have only had our dream house six months at the time of writing this, yet already we have had missionaries stay here for a sabbatical and we are about to let some people stay here on their way to a conference in which they will totally be encouraged and blessed.  God always has the world on His mind.  He is always thinking about nations.  In Acts 3, Peter healed a crippled man.  Peter did not then go and tell the church – he preached to the world and 5000 people were saved. 

Many Christians go from church to church, from service to service, looking for a miracle.  This is not right – we should be going from town to town, from place to place, bringing miracles.  Signs and wonders follow believers – believers shouldn’t be chasing miracles.

I am all for signs and wonders.  I am not for them for the sake of them; I am for them for the sake of discipling nations.

The Impossible Starts Invisible

Psalm 126.4 says “Turn our captivity, LORD, like the streams in the south”.  In the south of Israel was a desert area called the Negev, and streams would always start underwater.  They would increase in size and gather speed and momentum until eventually they would rise to the surface seemingly out of nowhere and flow with remarkable speed and intensity.

God always starts fulfilling your dream invisibly.  That is why you need to exercise faith – because faith is the evidence of the invisible (see Hebrews 11.1).  Revival starts invisibly – in people’s hearts.  The Welsh revival started with a small group of teenagers – there was nothing visible that would have made you think that revival was about to sweep the world.   Healing ministries start when one person decides to believe God’s Word and launch out in faith – no one knows about it until it develops momentum, but it has begun.

A good example of this is the Alpha course which spent years as a Bible study and evangelism course in one church.  Then when it gathered enough momentum, it appeared on the scene, changing many lives and bringing many into the kingdom.

The Impossible is Dangerous

One of the problems with the streams in the south is that because there are no banks in a desert the streams there are liable to flooding.  There are no banks because there have never been any streams that have gone that way before – it is the path less travelled, the path of obedience and faith in the Word of God.

It is time to get a bit dangerous in my opinion.  It is time for us to take the stabilisers off of our bikes and stop playing at church.  We like being safe because our flesh likes to be safe.  The flesh wants to be comfortable and safe, it wants to be liked and loved by everyone.   It likes to stay in its comfort zone and be comfortable and cosy.  Your desire to stay safe is holding back the impossible in your life.  It is not the devil stopping you moving forward with God because the Bible says that if you resist the devil he will run away from you in terror (James 4.7, also see 1 John 4.4).  It is not the world that is holding you back because He that is in you is greater than the one in the world (1 John 4.4).

It is your flesh, your desire to be comfortable that is stopping the impossible happening wherever you go.  Ezekiel 37 talks about the army that God wants to raise up – an army of dry bones.  Dry bones have no flesh on them, so they are dangerous: they have no fear, no doubt, no pride, no anger, and no sense of embarrassment.  People like that can obey God and live in the realm of the impossible.

If you read the book of Acts, there is a progression.  Acts 1 is about repentance, Acts 2 is about revival, Acts 3 is about nations, Acts 4 is about cleansing and Acts 5 is where the glory manifests.  There is danger in Acts 5, as two liars drop dead in a church service.  But if you are not a liar, and you are living for the glory there is so much love and so much of the power and glory of God, it is the greatest days of your life.  Let’s move out of the shallow end and launch into the deep!

The Impossible is a Seed

If you want to see the impossible, you must learn how to sow a seed.  Jesus said there is no harvest unless a seed dies.  When you are looking for a move of God, look for a seed, not a tree.  Every tree begins as a seed.  We are looking for the full tree when all God hands us is a seed.  We ask what the seed is – and God tells us it is something that we must let die before we can see His glory and His kingdom.

Referring back to Alpha, when Alpha took off many Christians were looking for a way to reach non-Christians in the UK.  They were looking for a large move of God, huge crusades like the ones they saw in Africa and India.  They were looking for a tree, but God gave them a seed – 1 Bible study course in 1 church.  Then the seed became a tree.

Why does God do it that way?  Start with the seemingly foolish and insignificant?  So that only He is given praise for the move of God and no man takes the credit.  I pray that God will do something with my life so magnificent, so anointed, so glorious that only God could take the credit.  Everyone that knows me would say “That has to be God, there is no way Ben could do that!”  You should pray the same!

Do you need finances?  Then give some away – die to some of the money you already have by giving it to someone.  Do you need healing?  Then go and find 20 sick people and lay your hands on them and command healing to come into their bodies. 

Don’t expect the people you give to to be the ones that benefit you!  Expect the God – the One you are really giving to – to be the one that benefits you.  God is a good God and He is no man’s debtor.

Do you want the impossible – become a giver, look for the seed – God has already given you what you need to produce in your life.  All you need to do is to die to it. 

Behold the Dreamer

When Joseph’s brothers saw him coming they said “Behold the dreamer”.  They then persecuted him and Joseph had some hard times, but he never stopped dreaming.  I know some people have been persecuted, even by their own families, but I want you to know: don’t stop dreaming.  Be the dreamer.  I know some of you have been in tough situations, but I want you to know: don’t stop dreaming.  Be the dreamer.

You will soon stand in the place of your dreams.  The stream that is in your heart that no one sees will soon become a rushing, dangerous river of glory and goodness that will impact the nations.  Praise the Lord!

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