Andrew Wommack - Effortless Change - Part 7
Welcome to our Tuesday’s broadcast of the gospel truth. Today I’m continuing a series that I started over a week ago talking about Effortless Change, and just basically emphasizing how essential the Word of God is to your spiritual life, that just as a plant doesn’t grow without a seed, just as a person doesn’t come into this earth through a stork bringing it, there is a seed that has to be planted. Likewise, the seed of God’s word has to be put in our heart and if we do it that way, well then, change just comes effortlessly. Growth comes effortlessly. But most people, change for them is a traumatic experience because they aren’t doing it God’s way. They’re trying to pray and you know, just petition God and feel so earnest and passionate that they think that this ought to get it done.
I’m telling you, the Word of God is what produces change and growth in your life. I’ve got some things that I’m really trying to emphasize because it’s one thing to hear me talk about this, but then it is a totally different thing for you to get into the Word of God yourself. You know, I am praising God that he’s called me to teach his word and to minister to people. I get thousands and thousands of testimonies of people’s lives that are being changed and I love it, but did you know I actually am trying to preach myself out of a job. If you would go to the Word of God and if you would begin to open up your heart and let the Holy Spirit speak to you, you could get anything that I have to offer you because I got it all through the Word of God and I would really like to impress upon people to please, get into the Word of God for yourself.
We have this Bible reading guide. This is the one that our Bible college students, first year students, have to read through the entire Bible in one year in their first year of classes. I think it would just be a shame for a person to come to a Bible school and never have read the Bible. So, this is a Bible reading guide. You only read three to four chapters a day and it takes you through the entire Bible in one year. This is a free gift to you, and then we have this living commentary, which this, honestly, is probably one of the best kept secrets in our whole ministry. I have written footnotes on over 18,000 verses in the Bible, and this is a Bible commentary. It can be put on a cell phone, it can be put on an iPad, it can go on your computer, and it has all of these footnotes that I’ve written, plus, we call it the living commentary because it’s constantly being updated.
I average over 200 verses a month that I write new footnotes on or adjust or change a footnote, add to it or whatever and it is just a powerful, powerful tool. All of these things are designed to help you get into the Word of God. I’ve been talking about how that John the Baptist in Matthew, chapter 11 and Luke, chapter 7, he began to doubt that Jesus was the Christ, even after he had boldly proclaimed him as the Christ and said, the Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world, and when the pharisees tried to come against him, and get him envious of Jesus, he said, he must increase, I must decrease. I’m not even worthy to latch his sandals for him.
At one time he was absolutely certain that Jesus was the Christ, but after being in prison for months or possibly even years, his faith began to waiver. He sent people to Jesus and he says, are you really the Christ? And Jesus instead of just, you know, saying some real complimentary things about him, he said those things after John’s disciples went back. But when John’s disciples were there, he just said, go tell him what you’ve seen and heard. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised, and blessed will John be if he isn’t offended in me, and it was after John’s disciples were gone that Jesus began to say, this is the person that was prophesied in Malachi, chapter 3.
This is the one that is the greatest person that has ever been born on the planet, and he said all of these complementary things that certainly would have boosted John’s ego after the disciples were gone, and this perplexed me and finally I saw over in Psalms, chapter, or excuse me, Isaiah, chapter 35, where it was a prophecy given that when the Messiah came that the eyes of the blind would be opened, the tongue of the dumb would sing, the lame would walk, and all of these things would happen through the Messiah. Jesus literally fulfilled Isaiah, chapter 35, and did all of those things prophesied in Isaiah 35 about him in one hour, and then he sent that word back to John, and what he was doing was referring John back to the word, not because he didn’t love him and respected him, he loved him and respected him more than anybody else.
He sent him back to the word because that is the best way that God has of speaking to you and encouraging you and removing doubt, and see, when I first saw this, I didn’t understand that. I was seeking for some kind of miraculous thing. I wanted God to appear to me. I wanted to hear an audible voice. I wanted to see angels. I heard other people talk about that when they prayed for people that fire would jump from their hands from one to the other and I wanted all of these kind of things, and I was kind of pressing in, and the Lord used this passage of scripture about John the Baptist to show me that his best is for us to just believe the word, and here’s some other passages that go right along with this.
Out of Matthew, chapter 8, it says in verse 5 and when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, and saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus said unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, go, and he goes: and to another, come, and he cometh: and to my servant, do this, and he doeth it.
When Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said unto them, first of all, before I get into what he said, let me just say that there’s only twice in scripture that it says, Jesus marveled. Once is right here at this man’s great faith, and another was at the disciples' unbelief, he marveled because of their unbelief. He was amazed that a person, who wasn’t even a Jew, wasn’t even one of the covenant people of God. He was outside of what we would say the church today, and yet he marveled that a man like that could stand so strong in faith and the only other time he marveled was at how his disciples could be so full of unbelief.
So, this is worth noting. This man’s faith impressed Jesus so much that Jesus marveled and said unto them that followed, verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. In other words, Jesus was saying, this man’s not even a Jew. He’s not even one of the ones that the covenant was given to and all of these promises, and yet this man is believing God better than anybody he had ever seen that was inside of the covenant and had the Word of God revealed to him.
So, let’s go back and look at this. What is it that made this man’s faith so strong? Jesus said in verse 7, I will come and heal him, but then the centurion sent to him in verse 8, and said, Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed, and then he gave an example of how he understood authority and he understood the power of words. He says, I’m a man under authority. I have soldiers under me, and if I tell somebody to do this, they do it. If I tell somebody to come here, they come here. He says, I understand the power of words. If you will speak the word only my servant shall be healed, and I believe that that’s what made his faith so strong. Jesus marveled at a man who understood the power of words and the power of his word to heal.
So, Jesus didn’t have to follow him to his house and pray for the servant, he just said, you know, it’s done because you have believed, and this man’s servant was healed from that very hour. It goes on to say that in verse 13, «And Jesus said unto the centurion, go thy way: and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour», and so this was a faith that just took the word only and believed it, and Jesus said, that’s the greatest faith I’ve ever seen.
Now, let me contrast that with one of Jesus' disciples named Thomas and look at Thomas' lack of faith over here in John, chapter 20. This is after Jesus was resurrected from the dead and on the resurrection day he appeared unto his disciples when they were all in a room, the doors were locked, the windows were locked, and yet, Jesus just appeared there and it was his resurrected body and he showed himself to his disciples, but Thomas wasn’t there. In verse 24, this is John 20:24, it says, «But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, we have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe».
You know what? He said, I will not believe. Unbelief whether you realize it or not, is a choice. You can choose to believe, you can choose to trust God and trust the representation that is given in his word, or you can choose to say, I’m not going to believe something until I can see it, until there is physical proof. It’s a choice that you make, and you know, the people who sit there and say, well, I’m just trying to be a realist and stuff, they make decisions all of the time. You know, you don’t understand how a plane works, you don’t know all of the nuances and the ins and outs of it, you couldn’t build a plane, and yet you fly in a plane. You don’t understand everything about a car and yet you’ll drive a car. You don’t understand everything about television and how these signals can come through the air and you can pick them up and yet you’ll watch television: you’ll use a phone and all of these kind of things.
You do things and you trust things without understanding it all of the time, and yet people, some of those same people will just sit there and say, I refuse to believe. It is your choice to believe. You are the ones that hardened your heart towards God and made it this way. Thomas, when he said, I will not believe unless I can stick my finger into the print of the nail, unless I can thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. That was his choice, and there are many of us that have been raised in a way that we are told that this is just wisdom and it’s smart to do this, but I’m telling you that there’s things that you have to accept by faith. You do it all of the time anyway in these other areas, but yet many people just refuse to trust the Word of God.
Now, I don’t believe it’s a blind faith. I don’t believe it’s trust without some verification. God has proven himself to me. I have seen the supernatural power of God. I’ve seen people raised from the dead, including my own son. I have had God confirm things, speak things to me supernaturally that there’s no way I could know with my natural mind and it proves to be true. I have seen things. You know, we just built this building, the first of two buildings that we’re building for a Bible college campus, a $32 million project and we did it debt free during a time that people are calling the great recession. I have seen the word work. It’s not a totally blind faith, and yet it is faith. I mean, if I was just to have this attitude of Thomas and say, unless you can prove everything to me in a test tube so that there is no faith involved, I will not believe.
Well then, it wouldn’t be faith if there was no faith involved, if it was just all empirical evidence. The Bible says in Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 6, that without faith it is impossible to please God. God is a God of faith and God sets things up and he will prove himself to you, he will speak to your heart, he will confirm things, there will be an assurance and a knowledge and things like this, but ultimately, there is faith involved, and if you are trying to find God without exerting any faith, you’re going to miss him because without faith it’s impossible to please God: for those who come to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him, and you may say, well, I don’t like that.
Well, tough because this is the way that God set it up. God is a God of faith, and so Thomas said, I will not believe, and in verse 26, and after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, peace be unto you. Then said he to Thomas, now, this is interesting. Jesus wasn’t present when Thomas told these things to the other disciples, and yet when Jesus showed up eight days later, he walked right over to Thomas, had total knowledge of everything that was going on because again, Jesus is God manifest in the flesh and he knew all of these things.
What a great confirmation this was to Thomas, and so he said unto Thomas, reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands: and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. Don’t sit here and just default to doubt and always have to just have everything proven to you, so that it removes all doubt. You need to exert some faith and you need to believe God, and when this happened, verse 28, «And Thomas answered and said unto him, my Lord and my God». There is no instance that he actually stuck his finger into the print of the nails and put his hand into his side, but he saw Jesus. Jesus knew exactly what he had said and Thomas believed, and he fell down and said, my Lord and my God, and look at what Jesus said unto him in verse 29.
Jesus said unto him, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. You know what this is saying? That God said to Thomas, Thomas you saw, and therefore believed. Yea, rather, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Now, this is really important. I pray that you get this. The Lord used this passage right here to show me that there is a greater blessing on people who just believe the report, believe the word and don’t have it proven unto them physically, in some physical, tangible way. There is a greater blessing on those who just go by the word than there is on those who have to have all of these physical, natural things to confirm the word, and when I saw this, this totally changed the course of my life.
As I was sharing on our program yesterday, when I first came out of the Baptist church that had taught that miracles don’t happen today, that you know, the supernatural passed away with the apostles, et cetera, when I came out of that and received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and began to experience supernatural things, man, I started longing for this, praying for it. I wanted to see a vision, hear a voice, get prophecies. I wanted God to just have people come to me and prophesy things to me and say things that they couldn’t have known but by the Spirit of God, and I was pressing in that direction, and when I saw these passages, I said, God, I want your best, and if your best is just standing and believing the Word of God like it says over in Matthew, chapter 8 about this centurion, that he says, you speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed, and Jesus said, that’s the greatest faith I’ve ever seen.
I said, father, I want to operate in the strongest faith, and so I’ve never rejected or you know, rebuked or criticized the supernatural and the prophecies and all of these kind of things, but I quit seeking that and instead I said, I just want to be a person who takes the word and believe it, and did you know, prior to that time I used to just get prophecies and people would prophesy to me. Since this time, I’ve been in services, I mean, literally hundreds of services where somebody is up ministering in the gifts of the Holy Spirit and they’ll have words and they’ll call preachers up and they will just sit here and speak all of these prophecies to them and things and they’ll skip me nearly every time.
Now, I have had supernatural prophecies given to me. I mean, there was two really miraculous prophecies given to me that resulted in my son being raised from the dead. God used those to help me fight and overcome my doubt and fear about that, and so I am saying that I have received these. I am not against prophecy, I do not despise prophesying, but I don’t seek it. If it comes, actually prophecy just confirms things that God has already spoken to me in my heart. God gave me prophecies about this building that I’m in right now, about the building that I just built, that I wouldn’t have to take out a loan but my partners would be my bank and that they would provide for these things debt free.
God spoke to me through that. I have had prophecies, but I’m saying that the majority of the time now God speaks to me directly through his word, and it is not because he doesn’t honor me as much as somebody else. I believe it’s because he does honor me that he’s trying to let me operate in his best. You know, when I first started leaving the local church that I had pastored and then I traveled in six Bible studies in three states, but God was telling me it was time to change, to go on radio, to start traveling and ministering different than what I had done. He spoke a number of things to me and I went to this convention out in California and I went believing God that he was going to give me a word, and there was like 10,000 people in this meeting, and I was sitting in the nosebleed section, I mean, up in the balcony part, way, way far away, but I was saying, God, you could do anything. I ask that you just speak through this man down there on the platform.
And as I was praying, he started prophesying and he had his finger out and he was pointing, it looked like, right at me, and he started saying, it’s time for you to leave what you’ve been doing. There’s a change coming. You are going to start traveling and you’re going to go on television, you’re going to go on radio, you’re going to do all of these things, and they were prophesying, and I thought, man, it’s really happening. God is speaking to me and it looked like the guy was pointing right at me, and at the end of his prophecy he said, did you get that, ed? And he was pointing at a man who was standing up, right in between me and the speaker, and he was actually giving a prophecy to somebody else and not to me, and when I saw that, I thought, oh God, I thought that that was for me.
That was exactly what I needed to hear and the Lord spoke to me and he says, if that had been for you, would you have gotten anything new out of it? And I said, no, sir. I said, you had already shown me every one of those things, and he says, why don’t you just take the word and what I speak to you directly into your heart and trust that? Why do you have to have, you know, two cats walk this way and one dog walk that way to confirm things to you?
And boy, it was a rebuke to me and I made a decision and I changed the whole course of my ministry and started doing what I’ve been doing for the last, you know, 20-30 years and it was of God and God has blessed it, God has used it, and so I’m saying all of these things to say that God’s best way of speaking to you, not the only way, but the best way, the one that amazed Jesus when he saw a man who just took the word only and he says, I don’t need you to come into my house, I don’t need you to wave your hand over him, I don’t need to see or hear anything. You just speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.
Jesus was amazed, and then in contrast he told his disciple, he says, because you saw, you believe. There’s a greater blessing than this and that blessing is on those who just believe because the Word of God says it. You know, the very reason that some of you may have been praying and asking God to send an angel, to do something, to reach you in some physical, tangible way, and the very reason that you haven’t had a manifestation yet and that you haven’t seen or heard something, it could well be that God loves you so much he’s trying to draw you into the greater way of receiving from God, the one that Carries the greater blessing, and it’s God that caused you to tune into this program today, it’s God who is speaking to you, and you already know in your heart.
God has already spoken to you through the word and through the Holy Spirit, quickening the word, speaking things to you and you are just tentative, you’re fearful, you’re hesitant to step out on it, and God is speaking to you through me today to point you back to the word and say, there’s a greater blessing if you would just trust what he’s already spoken to you in your heart. I tell you, this is powerful, and I believe that God is speaking to many, many people today trying to point you back to the word.
Once again, let me mention that I have all of these materials. I would really like to encourage you to read through the Bible in one year. This is a free Bible reading plan, if you’ll call in for that. We’ve got our living commentary where I’ve got footnotes on over 18,000 verses in the Bible. Boy, this is a good thing right there, and then we’ve got this teaching on Effortless Change in CD and DVD, in book form, as well as a study guide, and I tell you, all of these things could just help you receive Revelation from God’s word. It would change your life. So, please listen to our announcer. Please call or write today and receive these materials, and watch me again tomorrow on the gospel truth.