John Hagee - I Believe In Miracles
I have great news. The God that we serve is a miracle-working God. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The word "Created" is the Hebrew word "Bara", which means "To make from nothing". God did not come here and rearrange something. He came here and made something out of nothing. And it is a thing of mystery and miracle-working power. He breathed into a handful of dirt, and a man became a living soul. He separated the day from the night, and light from darkness. He flung the glittering stars against the velvet of the night to glisten like diamonds, reminding us of his infinite glory. His son, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, was born in the womb of a virgin, defying medical science and all of the agnostics. That son became the healing Jesus, the miracle-working Son of God. Our Lord, our Savior, is a miracle-working God. Give him praise in the house of the Lord!
There were no exceptions in the healing ministry of Jesus. He healed the lame. He healed the deaf. He healed the blind. On one occasion, he healed with one touch. On another occasion, he healed with two. On a third occasion, he put dirt in his hand, spit into it, and put mud into the eyes of a blind man. There's no medical journal that recommends that as a follow-up, by the way.
Why did he do that? Because there was a belief among the Jewish people that there was healing virtue in the spittle of the first born male in every family. Jesus was saying to his Jewish audience, I am the firstborn of my father and I have healing power. Bang! He was healed, because Jesus is the healer. He healed blood diseases. Leprosy was a death sentence in the life of Jesus. But with a touch, leprous bodies were healed.
Those of you who are in this room who have aids, those of you watching by television who have aids, Jesus Christ can heal you. He can heal you. He can save you. He can redeem you. Your life is not over until God says it's over. Often we give up on ourselves. God doesn't give up on us. He healed blood diseases. He healed the paralytic. That's a nerve disease. He healed one on one. He healed in mass. He healed long distance.
Remember when the centurion came to him and said: my son, who is a long way off, he needs healing. And he said to Jesus, if you would just speak the word. And Jesus said, I haven't seen this kind of faith in all of Israel. And that military man received the instant healing of his son, who was a long distance away, because there is no distance in prayer when God's children start to pray.
The Bible says: these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name, they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. They what? They shall recover. When you meet God's conditions, he begins to supernaturally release the healing power into your body.
This word is the living word. It is a two-edged sword. It is the bread of life. It is living water. This word spoken under the anointing of the Holy Spirit makes every demon in hell tremble with terror. I am what this book says I am. I can do what this book says I can do. I can have what this book says I can have. It says: nothing is impossible to those that believe. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God!
Do you need a miracle? When you want what you've never had, you've got to do what you've never done. And what the first step is, is faith in God. Have faith in God. Say that with me, have faith in God. Why? Because nothing is impossible to those that believe, nothing. Whatsoever you ask the father in my name, I will do it. If those three verses were the only verses in your Bible, it would make it the most powerful book ever printed.
Faith starts out before you know how it's going to turn out. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world. Without faith, the Bible says, it is impossible to please God. By faith, Noah built an ark, and he saved his family and his generation. By faith, Abraham looked for a city whose builder and maker was God. By faith, Sarah conceived at 90 to produce Isaac, the son of laughter. The Bible declares in the New Testament: have faith in God. Have faith in God! Have faith in God! Give the Lord praise in the house of God!
Let's consider the spiritual foundation for miracles. Man is of two-fold nature. You are physical and you are spiritual. Both natures have been equally addressed in the scriptures. The God of the natural is the God of the supernatural. Get that in your brain. And let me say this in following: you be natural and let God be supernatural. When you get so heavenly minded you're no earthly good, you're on the wrong end of this.
The God, who enforces the law of gRavity, the law of physics, enforces the laws of the supernatural. One is in the natural kingdom: the other is in the supernatural kingdom. Your physical body is exposed to disease and your soul has been corrupted by sin. Both have been addressed in God's plan of redemption.
Your sins have be forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ. And your body has been healed by the stripes on his back. The bill has already been paid. All you have to do is confess to the father, in Jesus' name, that you want this healing, and God will do it! That's what the Word of God says.
I like the word David uses in the 103rd Psalm, the text that we've read. Bless the Lord, o my soul, and all don't forget his benefits. We love benefits. What are they? Who forgives, all of your iniquities. What is an iniquity? An iniquity is a sin. You know it's a sin when you're doing the sin, and you go ahead and do it anyway. How many of you've ever committed iniquity? This week?
Who forgives all of our iniquities and heals all of our diseases. Think about that, all. Notice the connection between the spiritual and the physical. Notice that all sin is forgiven and all diseases are healed, not some, all. Your physical problem is not a crisis for heaven. When you ask the Lord to heal you, he doesn't say, oh, this is really big. Come on, angels. Boom! He can do it just like that.
Healing doesn't start with Jesus: it starts in the book of Exodus 15. God said to the children of Israel, "I will put none of these diseases upon you which I have brought upon the Egyptians. For I am the Lord your God that healeth all of your diseases". Say that with me, for I am the Lord your God that healeth all of your diseases.
When did God make that statement? He made that statement just as soon as he brought them through the Red Sea. They had been delivered from Egypt. That's bondage. They went through the water experience of baptism. The very first thing God promised them on the other side of the read sea was healing for their physical body.
David answers in Psalm 105: he brought them forth with silver and gold. And there was not one feeble person among their tribes. Where did they get that silver and gold? The Egyptians loaded their ox carts down with gold and silver and fine fabrics, because they were terrified.
They had just watched the God of Israel send ten plagues that wiped out the Egyptian army: that wiped out the Egyptian economy. The cattle were dead in the field. The wheat was gone. There was nothing to eat. The bugs had eaten it. There was one dead body in almost every house in Egypt. They were terrified by the power of God. The Jewish people had worked for 430 years for free, and God made sure they had a payday. Let me tell you something. The wicked will never steal your inheritance. God will make them give it back to you seven times over.
Isaiah 53:4 through 5, Isaiah writes: surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows... And with his stripes, we are healed. Look at the two words "Borne" and "Carried". They denote more than sympathy. Jesus just wasn't sorry about your sin. He just wasn't sorry about your sickness. On the cross, he literally carried them away.
What is this a reference to? This was carried in the seventh feasts, the feast of yom kippur, the feast of repentance. Two goats were brought into the temple by the high priest. The first was slaughtered on the spot. His blood was poured into a bowl. The high priest took his forefinger and his thumb, and put the sins and sicknesses on the second goat. It was called "The scapegoat".
And it was led to the edge of the cliff in a far remote place, and thrown off where it died. When it died, the sin and the diseases of Israel were removed. Boom! How does this respond? Matthew 8:16: he healed all that were sick: that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, saying, 'he himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses', literally stating, if this is your sin and this is your sickness.
God didn't say, well I'm so sorry you have this. There's really nothing I can do about it. He picked it up and carried it away, and he threw it over... I'm not going to throw it: don't worry. Boom! He threw it away. And now I'm free. Don't you let the devil throw your old sin back on you. Don't you let him do that.
The healings of Jesus were not occasional: they were continuous. I want you to hear this statement. Jesus never turned anybody who was sick away, never, never. And neither should the church. I know some of you are listening to me by television. And you're going to churches where the pastor says, miracles are not for now. Let me tell you candidly, your pastor is dead wrong, dead wrong.
It's easier to say they're not for now than it is to seek the face of God and receive them now. Pressing right along. The healing of Jesus was not occasional: it was continuous. The Bible says: as many as he touched, were made perfectly whole. He did what? He simply touched them.
John 14:12: verily I say unto you that he that believeth on me and the works that I do, shall he do also - that's what we're going to do today. And greater works than these shall he do, because I go to my father. How do we know he got to his father? Because he said: when I get to the father, I'm going to send you the comforter.
When the Holy Spirit arrived in the upper room, it was literal, supernatural proof that Jesus had reached the throne of God. The sacrifice at the cross had been accepted. The sacrifice for your sin had been accepted. The sacrifice for your healing had been paid. Now we can say, we are redeemed by the blood of the lamb, and we are healed in the authority of Jesus' name! Give him praise in the house of God.
Jesus gave this commission to the church. It's a commission that has never been rescinded. It is still God's will to lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. And the proof is in the book of James 5:14. It says: is any sick among you? Let them call for the elders of the church.
Notice they didn't say, let them call for the apostles. Why? Because the apostles were dying. God knew that the church would exist forever. So he is saying, let them call for the spiritual leaders of the church, and let them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord Jesus. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise them up. And if they have committed any sins, it shall be forgiven.
That's just a whole house cleaning right there. Note again the relationship between sin forgiven and bodies healed. Notice it was not transferred to the apostles, but transferred to the leaders of the church, because the church was going to exist until the rapture.
Notice that the time in which this commission was made, it was given, not at the beginning of the apostolic age, but at the end. The meaning is very clear. Miracles would not cease at the death of the apostles. They would only begin because the New Testament church was spirit filled, operating in the name of the Lord Jesus with the power to do what he did. Give the Lord praise in the house.
Luke 8:43: and the woman, having an issue of blood, came behind Jesus and touched the border of his garment. This is what we're talking about. It was a prayer shawl. If you'll read in the border of your Bible, some of the better Bibles will have the word "Tzit tzit", t-z-i-t t-z-i-t, tzit tzit. This is what it's talking about.
This in Hebrew geometria spells "The Lord our God is one". This is the Word of God. Jesus was wearing it. And as he came by, she reached out and grabbed that twisted coil, recognizing that she had the Word of God in her hand. Jesus said: I have felt virtue leave my body. She had touched the very source of healing, which was the word of the living God being worn by the Word of God himself.
When you put the Word of God into play in your healing, you have a supernatural force that is above and beyond anything the natural mind can fathom. The Word of God brings life. The Word of God brings healing. It brings joy. It brings confidence. It brings peace in the midst of the storm. It brings power in the hour of battle. Miracles are the only thing that can happen whenever you meet God's conditions.
Let me give this illustration. Physical laws, spiritual laws. You take an ice tray and water, and put it in the freezing compartment of your refrigerator. If it's under 32 degrees, that water is going to turn to ice. You don't have to close the refrigerator door and say, o God, let it turn to ice, please. I'll go to church on Sunday night and tithe. That's all it can do is turn to ice.
When you meet God's conditions, you don't have to beg him to do what he said he would do. That's all he can do. When you meet the supernatural conditions, you don't, oh, please. God is saying, stop begging and start praising me for what I have done! I'll have to give these before we can have the prayer. Sickness comes into the body through resentment, resentment, something that's happened in your past you can't get over or you won't get over. Sometimes you dwell on these things, because you just don't want to give it up, because you're controlling other people with your resentment.
Unforgiveness. Forgive us as we forgive those. That phrase is used 23 times in the New Testament. If you don't forgive another person, then God won't forgive you. Twenty-one times, it says that. It says it in the Lord's prayer. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. That's a law.
Now listen to what I'm saying. Because you forgive another person doesn't mean you have to be their doormat. You can still tell them what for and you can still stand up for yourself and have ever right that God ever gave you. But you don't have to let them control you because of what they put you through. That's what forgiveness is. It's something not to be brought up again.
Rebellion against spiritual authority. God has said in the church, spiritual authority. If you rebel against that spiritual authority, the judgment of God will come to you in spades. I have preached a ten-sermon series about that in years past. I may bring that back up, because it is an awesome teaching.
Fourthly, lying. Have you any idea how much God hates a liar? What's a lie? It's anything less than the truth. The Bible says: all liars shall have their part in the lake of fire. If you lie, you are going to hell. Can I say that any clearer? God's certainly not going to pass out healing if that's something that you do.
Fifthly, talebearing. Talebearing is you're talking about other people's business when you don't know what their business is. Let me give you this recommendation from the Hagee Amplified version. If it's not your business, shut up.
The next is accusing the brethren. You accuse someone in the church of doing something when in fact, it's none of your business what they're doing. If they're not under your spade of authority, keep your mouth shut. The Bible says: who are you that judges another of my servants? For unto his master does he or she stand or fall. Jesus is saying, they answer to me, not you. Ooh, that struck fire back there. Yeah.
A critical spirit, nothing is ever right. You criticize everything. The last is murmuring, murmuring, complaining. You know what God did to Israel when Israel murmured, nagged, whined, complained? Do you know what he did? He sent snakes into the camp, thousands of snakes. And those snakes bit the people who were murmuring.
Now, what if there were a thousand rattlesnakes supernaturally released in this auditorium at one time with a divine commission to bite everyone who had complained this past week? How safe would you be? Just a thought. I plagiarized it from God. It's in the Bible. There's amazing stories there, by the way. God could get people's attention. It shut that complaining just right away, solved the whole problem. If you want what God has for you, you're going through a difficult time, you praise your way out of the problem.
It works like this: "Lord, I don't know why I'm going through this problem. It's really a big one. But I know you've never failed me. I know that we have fought lots of battles together and you've always brought the victory. I'm now thanking you in advance for the victory that you're going to bring: that you're going to scatter my enemies like the straw of the summer threshing floor: that the victory that God has promised the righteous is mine, and I shall have it. I will not be defeated and I am not going to quit, because God has never failed me".
You will feel the power of God fill your room and fill your body. And suddenly, on the other end, heaven sends its angelic squadrons to earth. And those people, who are resisting you will scatter, because the living God has become your defender.