John Gray - The Day Before The Miracle
It's time to live and it's time to have your joy and it's time to walk in freedom and it's time to smile again. No more stress, no more pain, no more tears. I've lived that life. I've done that, been there, got the T-shirt. I'm ready for the abundance, for the joy, for the peace, for the overflow, for the increase, for the rain of God, for the joy of the Lord is my strength.
I'm ready to smile, I'm just ready to live my life! And I'm not gonna let anybody take my joy and I won't let circumstances take my joy. And I won't let my past take my joy. I'm gonna receive the promises of God. I'm walking in that thing. This is living now! You like that leg out right at the end? I just threw that joint out there like aha! I want you to hi-five five people and tell 'em live. Live. Hi-five five people, tell 'em live. Live. I feel the Holy Ghost in here pastor Lisa.
Somebody needed to hear that tonight, live. If you're watching online, live. Live, live, you will live and not die, live. Live, live, the fact that you're alive lets you know that the devil failed again because he wants to steal, kill and destroy. Just live! It may not be perfect but live! I know that you may cry, but live! Just live! Just put that devil on the run and just keep breathing just hallelujah! Somebody give him a praise.
I knew something had shifted in the atmosphere. I feel the Holy Ghost. I feel the Holy Ghost. I feel that there's a revival breaking out in the land. There's a revival breaking out in Lakewood. There's a revival for the people of God. It's a time for a supernatural touch of the Holy Spirit to break out over the people of God. It's time for you to live! Ray, I feel the Holy Ghost. You need to do what pastor Lisa said and write what you're believing God for down. You need to put it in your wallet or bring it in your purse next week and just wave it in this atmosphere.
We are not a natural people! We are a spiritual people. We belong to the only God, the Most High God, the Ruler and Maker of heaven and earth and I don't feel like being quiet about it tonight. I make no apologies for my love for God. The world wants to be loud about their devil, I'ma be louder about my Jesus! That's right! There's gonna be breakthrough in here tonight. There's gonna be pockets of explosive deliverance tonight. I'm prophesying that we have stepped in to the best days of your life. You have stepped in to the miracle power of the living God by the authority of Jesus Christ himself, I declare be healed in the name of Jesus. Be free in the name of Jesus. Be delivered in the name of Jesus. If you only knew what tomorrow was. You would understand why you're praising like this, right now. I said if you only knew what tomorrow was, you'd understand why you're praising God like this right now.
See, I know I'm talking to some people who know what it's like to be hopeless. I believe that there are some people in here who have seen the bills pile up. And notice that the bills don't match what you have in your account and you're trying to figure out how God is gonna make up the difference. I'm talking to some people that have shed tears that you never thought would stop. If you only knew what tomorrow was, you'd understand why you're praising God like this, right now. I feel the Holy Ghost. I said I feel the Holy Ghost and I'm trying to keep it together but you don't know!
Go to John 5, hurry, hurry, hurry! Go to John 5. I was standing in worship and the Holy Spirit said, "This is gonna be a different service. So don't lock into your notes". I said, "But Lord I wrote some things down". He said, "Yeah, I wrote some things on your heart". So please forgive me if I step away from my notes but I have to be obedient to the Lord. Because you never know when your moment is gon' happen. You never know when freedom is going to show up. You never know when hope is gonna arrive in the form of a son. You never know. But if you don't know now you know. John 5.
Last week we started off our new year, Wednesdays. And I shared some things, which I believe were the word of the Lord. I believe they were specifically for you called it's in the will. You need to know that you're in the will of God. Not just Lord I wanna be in your will. You're literally in his will. His will and testament. He left some things for you. There's some promises with your name on it and when Jesus died, those promises were now activated and your inheritance is looking for you. Let me help you to understand. Seven people understand what I'm saying but I got a phone call!
One time, two years ago my wife, we were still living in Atlanta and I got a phone call from someone looking for John W. Gray III and that's me, amen. And I was like, "I don't have no money. Which bill is this, I don't", is this an attempt to collect a debt? I just need to know. You can be so conditioned by the negative that when your miracle shows up, and they said, "No, we actually have an inheritance because your grandfather was working on a top secret government project". My grandfather passed when I was two years old of a certain, very specific rare type of cancer and it was because of the materials he was working with. And they said, "We been looking for his heir".
And because my mother was honorable and kept her married name even after the divorce and was obedient to God not to allow herself to be moved in any direction other than obedience she said, "I don't feel God is telling me or releasing me to get married yet, I just feel like I'm supposed to wait on God". They looked up the last name, found her and she called me saying somebody's looking for you and when they found me they said, "Because of what your grandfather did, we have a check for you".
Now I didn't earn it nor did I know it was coming. But it was mine anyway and it was looking for me. I need to announce tonight to a church with faith that you didn't know it was coming! You weren't even expecting it but something is looking for you! Does anybody believe God tonight? That the promises of God are yes and in him, amen through Christ Jesus, hallelujah!
The day that I got the phone call, it took my breath away. The day before, my wife and I were talking about believing God for our own home. We had a condo but now we had a baby and one on the way. We're like "Lord, we need more space. We need to do something with our name on it". And all of a sudden we get a phone call. Just the day prior we were believing God and hoping and then the next day, here comes the miracle. What I wanna talk about is not tomorrow I just wanna talk about the day before a miracle. Write that down, the day before a miracle. See everybody is ready for the miracle but it's what you do on the day before that positions you to receive what's coming the next day.
John 5:6. Actually let's go to the fifth verse. "Now a certain man was there at this pool, Bethesda who had an infirmity thirty-eight years". You may be familiar with this story. "When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, he said to him, what's wrong with you"? No he didn't. I'm in the Negro International Version. That's what he said if he woulda been a brother. "What's wrong with you"? In the British version it's what doth thou meaneth sittingeth by this pool? All of this time?
Jesus said, "'Do you want to be made well'? The sick man answered said 'listen man, see, I don't have anybody to hold me down and help me out while I'm by the pool, I have nobody to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up but while I'm coming another steps down before me'. Jesus said to him, 'rise, take up your bed and walk'. And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the sabbath". It's important to understand that last piece "And that day was the sabbath" because God's about to give you miracles in the middle of your rest.
Many times, as believers, we assume that we have to work for the favor of God or work for the miracles of God but you couldn't work enough to earn it. You couldn't earn a miracle that's why it's called a miracle. You couldn't pray enough prayers, you can't speak in enough tongues, you can't give enough money. Your checks aren't big enough for a miracle. A miracle just has to come and I need you to get this, you won't have to work for what's comin'. In fact, the prime position for this next season of your life is the position of rest.
I know that this is antithetical to the way Western society achieves. We're a corporate society and we're climbing the corporate ladder and it's a dog eat dog world and everything's ultra competitive and in the midsts of that dynamic, God comes to say, "What I'm about to bring to you, will not be by your hand or by your effort. It'll be by my power and my spirit and my providence. I simply chose you and it's your time".
I need somebody to catch that, one person caught it. Catch this, it's your time. It's your time. And when it's your time, there's nothing anybody can do about it. They can whisper, they can wish, they can try to sabotage but it will not stop the miracle of God or the promise of God from getting to your life, to your marriage, to your children, to your bank account, to your body, to your kidney, to your liver, to your diabetes, to your whatever, chronic condition, it's your time! Watch this, in the same way it was your time to go through trials.
Isn't it funny when bad things happen? We all, "Well you know, I was doing good for a while so I figured this was gon' happen". Anybody ever felt like sometimes things are too good to be true? When you get into a season of blessing you're so nervous like when? Looking out the window. Something gonna catch on fire, somebody gon' come get this. I don't even know what's going on. I don't even know. So if it was your time to cry, now it's your time to reap. If you had a season where you were broke, it's your time to be not broke. It's your time to have enough to meet your needs and enough to sow into other people and enough to go get an ice cream cone for you and your family without having to check your account. It's enough, I cried enough, man! I prayed enough. I'm glad that other people been blessed but it's my turn now!
The day before this man got up, he had been lame, paralyzed, unmovable. He was there and there was nothing, nothing changing for 38 years. So what are the ingredients of a miracle? Let me give you some ingredients for a miracle. First of all, if you want a miracle 'cause I know a lot of times we say in church, "I need a miracle"! If you need a miracle, it must be real bad. Don't ask for a miracle 'til you need one. If you need $40 for rent, that ain't no miracle. You need to call your cousin and ask to borrow $40! Or call pastor Lisa, she got on some nice boots, she got a $40 in there! She's blessed!
Watch this, how many of y'all need a miracle? How many of y'all need a miracle today? You need a miracle today? So if you needed it today, what were you doing yesterday? Here are some keys to a miracle. You have to have a hopeless circumstance. Anybody ever been in a hopeless situation? You need to have exhausted all other options. There's no way out of it. Locked up, won't let me out no way around it. Here, we see Jesus having a conversation with a man who is paralyzed, can't move and he's been like this for 38 years. That's since 1976. He was paralyzed from when there were three TV stations. To now, we got 9000 channels! 38 years. And we always get this picture of Jesus 'cause we watch movies, that he was always really gracious and loving and he just kind of floated around Jerusalem. Just touching, blessed, healed, come out of there devil!
But this miracle was different! He had a little edge! I think Jesus was a little irritated! Because if you are in this area where miracles are occurring all the time, and it's taking you 38 years and you haven't gotten vocal enough to say, "Hey, nobody move! The next time this water is stirred, it's my turn"! If you are one step away from a miracle, but don't have the guts to make a move?
See, this is the thing, and I shared a little bit of this with the young adults on Sunday night. But you need to look at what's coming into your life from the perspective of a checkers board. Anybody ever played checkers? Let me see if anybody's ever played checkers. Your checkers on one side, the other person's on the other. If you make enough moves, you get to the other side and you get to the edge of the board, they have to king you. And when you get kinged, you can make moves that no other player can make. No other checker can make and you're waiting on a miracle and God is waiting on you to make a move. And the moment you make a move, you'll realize that you've got some authority over things that you thought you needed a miracle for. Wow.
Some of you missed that because we get so spiritual and we want this big thing and God is saying some of the things you're asking for don't require a miracle. Oftentimes, a request for a miracle is actually a veiled opportunity to develop discipline. When I went to the doctor a week ago with my wife and the doctor went through some things that were going on with me, my first response is I'ma Son of God. I'm the head and not the tail. I bind this report in the name of Jesus. This is a lie from the devil. God was like, no it's not. I was like, okay. I stand corrected. I was ready to bind up the devil. But God was like, you busy binding up the devil but you won't bind up your appetite.