Brother Dave Testifies Part 2

Greetings in the name of Jesus! This is Rob Haymes. This is 15 Minutes With Jesus. 

Today is Part 2 of Brother Dave Testifies:

Rob: I’m reminded, Dave,  of something you said the other night. You said, there are three kinds of “Saved”. Would you like to talk about that?

Dave: Amen. There are three kinds of “Saved”: There’s “Saved”; there’s “Being saved”, and there’s “Shall be saved”.  “Saved” is when you receive the Lord. You are born of God; your spirit is saved. That’s justification, the gift of righteousness. That’s what justification is: it’s righteousness. You receive that when you are saved. You believe that Jesus was crucified for your sins; He died for your sins, and you believe God raised Him from the dead. When God raised Him from the dead He gave you Jesus’ righteousness. He gave you the gift of His righteousness. That’s half of the Gospel. The first half of the Gospel is that Jesus was crucified. That’s why Paul said, …Jesus Christ and Him crucified.. He was crucified for your sins, and you believe that in your heart; you receive it in your heart: it’s grace! That Gospel is grace; it’s a gift. It’s revealed to you by the Holy Spirit; the Father reveals it to you by the Spirit; you receive it in your heart, with your faith. And then, you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, and you shall be saved. And then, God the Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit, raised Him from the dead: that’s the other part of the Gospel; that’s what makes you righteous: you have received His righteousness, and so you have no more need of the Law. Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness for everyone who believes; that’s the end of your need for the Law. That’s “Saved; that’s justification. Then, “Being saved”, being saved is sanctification, and that’s a process: you’re more, and more, and more, over time, being conformed to the image of His Son; you’re changing. The scripture says, They have no changes, therefore they fear not God. You’re fearing God, and you’re changing, and Jesus is converting you: you’re being converted, spirit, soul, and body to Christ, more and more, and that’s sanctification. The end, Jesus said, Keep my works till the end, well, the end is redemption. That’s “Shall be saved” : we shall be saved. We’re saved, we’re being saved, and we shall be saved. So at the end, if you keep His works till the end, at the end, it’s redemption. When He comes again, He redeems His people, at the very end, all His people are redeemed, and that’s your final salvation: when we’re redeemed from the Earth- the Rapture. Whatever people are already there with Jesus: absent from the body and present with the Lord; they’re going to come back with Him, and that Rapture is going to be the redemption of everybody in Christ that’s on the Earth: “Saved”, “Being saved”, and “Shall be saved”.

There’s also three faiths! There’s three faiths. There’s “Your faith”, there’s “The faith”, and then there’s the gift of faith. “Your faith” is: with the heart man believes unto righteousness. With the heart man believes unto righteousness. That’s “Your faith”. According to your faith be it done unto you, Jesus said. That’s “Your faith”. And then there’s “The faith”. That’s all things that are most certainly believed among us. Luke 1:1, …a declaration of those things which are most certainly believed among us. That’s everything that Christians believe: that’s “The faith”. The faith: The Son of God loved us and gave Himself for us. Then there’s the gift of faith; that’s a gift of the Holy Spirit. God, by the power of the Holy Spirit gives you, I just say it like this: you’re believing with all the faith you have, and then you just need a little boost to get over the top, that’s what the gift of faith is. It can be other things too: He can just come in and just do it; it will blow your mind sometimes, what God does. You’re not even trying to believe, and it just gets done: He just gets it done. Why? It’s His will being done. Amen. That’s the gift of faith. Amen.

You know, you’re not a threat to the Devil until you really get the Holy Spirit-get baptized in the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues. That’s when you become a threat to the Devil. And he will pursue you. He has spirits, some of them are called familiar spirits, and they’re watching over you; they’re watching your every move. You’re a threat to them. You’re their enemy. The Devil is in a war. You may not even be thinking about a war, but I’ll guarantee you the Devil is in a war, and he’s full-blast in it. He’s the general, and he’s not playing. His idea is for you to be dead and in Hell. That’s all he’s thinking about; he’s pursuing that with all his might. And his servants are after that. They want you sinning. You know, if a demon cannot get you to sin, he’s a looser of a demon. His job isn’t just to pester you and make you feel bad. That’s what the tempter is doing, full time on those who have the Spirit. When you receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit, it opens up the unseen kingdom. That’s what it means when you say, “in the spirit”, it’s unseen: the unseen realm. That’s what evil spirits are: they’re unseen spirits in the unseen realm. There’s rulers. There’s spiritual wickedness in seats. Ok, they’re out there, and they’re going to hinder you. They’re sent to pursue you, and what are they going to pursue you with? They’re going to pursue you with lies. They’re going to attack you emotionally, physically, spiritually, with lies, attacking your mind. They’ll try to fill you with darkness through images and words; they’re constantly doing that to try to hinder you; to try to hinder the Word of God from being established in your heart; in your spirit. When that Word gets established it will come out of your mouth, and everything those spirits can do to try to keep that Word from coming out of your mouth they will do. That’s what fear is about, and unbelief is about: everything that is in your soul that is hindering that Word from coming from your spirit out into the world is what the Devil is after. He’s trying to stop that, any way he can. He’s moving in that constantly; that’s what he’s warring in. It says the battle is in the mind, so, it’s in your mind; it’s in your flesh; trying to stop that Word of God with the Holy Spirit sent from Heaven, to stop that from coming forth into the world, and being manifest in the world, and ministering to the hearts of other people, and growing and establishing the Kingdom of God in the hearts of others. So, that’s his plan.

Rob: I’m reminded of a scripture, Rev 12:11, And they overcame him by the Blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death.

Dave: Amen, amen. So, what I was going to say is, how are these things ministered to people? Well, first it’s lies, and then strongholds and the strong man. Then you have spiritual wickedness in seats: the rulers of the darkness of this world and the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience, and it goes all the way to the Devil: the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience.

The very first thing here is lies. In the scripture it says that a spirit came before God and said he would be a lying spirit in the mouth of all of Ahab’s prophets. So one spirit can come and put lies in the mouth of, in that case, 400 false prophets. One spirit did that. 

These spirits are speaking words through these seats. The Devil wants a seat. He’s looking for a seat. He’s not looking to be on the back row somewhere. He wants to be the governor. He wants to be the president. He wants to be the preacher. He wants to be somewhere where he can exercise his power with as many people as he can. The Bible calls this spiritual wickedness in high places. He will use people to do that. People will have these rulers in them. Everywhere I’ve gone I’ve had people that hindered me, and came against me and were my enemies. I’m not talking about in the world, I’m talking about in churches. Every church I’ve ever been in there were people that hindered me, and that resisted me and fought with me. This happened before I ever had any kind of a seat or position. The Devil knows who you are, and he has people that he has strongholds in; some of them are even rulers, and they have strong men working through them, trying themselves to get a seat, or, if they already have a seat, they are trying to keep anyone else, the brethren, the true brethren, from having any seat in that place. So God taught me to look and see who is in the seats: when you go into a church, find out who is in the seats and you’ll understand a lot more about what is actually working there. 

Rob: So, we are in a war, and we need to fight the good fight of faith. We need to believe that Jesus Christ has given us the victory. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested,  that He might destroy the works of the Devil. Because He humbled Himself to the death of the Cross, the Father has given Him a name above every name, that, at the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, every knee shall bow, in Heaven, on the Earth, and under the Earth, and every tongue shall confess that He is Lord. Thanks be to God who has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, and manifests through us the sweet savor of His knowledge in every place. No weapon formed against us shall prosper. Every tongue raised against us in judgment we shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of Me , says the Lord. 

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son, in whom we have redemption through His Blood, the forgiveness of sins. Remember: They overcame him by the Blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death.  For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; building ourselves up on our most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit; keeping ourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever, Amen!  

 Brother Dave Testifies

Greetings in the name of Jesus! This is Rob Haymes. This is 15 Minutes With Jesus. 

Today I have the privilege of having my Brother Dave with me: Brother Dave Hickman. He’s going to testify today, so, open your ears; open your hearts, and let the Holy Spirit minister to you. Dave, it’s all yours.

Dave:

Amen! Thank you Jesus. Let’s pray first: Thank you Lord for just showing forth your will here Lord. Open the hearts of the people to receive; open my mouth; fill it Father with your Words and your truth, according to the Truth, Lord.  Reveal the things that you have revealed to me to the hearts of the people Father. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

What happened to me according to the scriptures? You know, God has been in my life, according to His Word, probably since I was six years old. The first thing I can remember is: I was watching a television show about Lucy (I Love Lucy). I was probably five years old. And Lucy was lying to her husband, and I turned to my Mom and Dad and said, “Mom, Dad, Lucy’s lying!” They looked at me and said, “Well, this is just a show David. They're just pretending on there”, and I was thinking, “No, that’s not true”. That was my heart and conscience: it was the truth in me; it was the Spirit of Christ in me. I was born of God by that time. I don’t know exactly when I was born again, but I believed on Jesus. I believed He was the Son of God. I knew He was raised from the dead. And I was bold enough to speak something like that to my Mother and Father, and my whole family was sitting there watching that show. So I said it in front of my whole family. 

That’s the first thing that I can remember that I did according to the scriptures in my family. My Mom told me I always had a tender heart. That’s her testimony of me. I’m not so sure about that myself: you know the heart is desperately wicked, deceitful above all things; who can know it?  My Mother Eleanor was baptized in the Holy Ghost when she was a child, and  my Grandmother Lois: both were baptized in the Holy Spirit. 

Probably the next thing that happened to me was I went to a kid’s camp when I was about 11 years old in August of 1969. I had been seeking the baptism in the Holy Spirit for probably a year. I would go to the front, when they would call people to the altar and I would pray, and ask God, and I would even beg God!, “Give me the Holy Ghost. Give me the baptism in the Holy Ghost.” And I just stayed after God and pursued it. I ended up going to this kid’s camp, an Assembly of God kid’s camp in Hot Springs, Arkansas. I guess the preacher was preaching about the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and he had faith, and I had faith. Well, God baptized me with the Holy Ghost that night. The power of God just came on me. It was like hot oil coming down over my head and down my body, and I just started speaking in tongues, like 90 miles per hour: a whole other language, not just like a few words, it was like a whole language. And I just kept speaking that language, and speaking that language, and it just kept going like a river, like a river flowing inside of me, up from my belly, up, and then out of my mouth, and even out of the top of my head, there were these words and this power coming and flowing like a river. It just kept going, and kept going. We left the church and it just kept going. That river just kept flowing and going and going. We went to where we slept there: it was like a dorm room, and there were probably about 30 kids in there, and that river just kept going; those tongues just kept on flowing. I was weeping and praying in tongues, and the Holy Ghost was just washing me and cleansing me, and whatever He was doing. The other kids in the room were just trying to get me to shut up: yelling at me and throwing candy across the room at me. And then finally I went to sleep. That’s how I was baptized in the Holy Spirit.  Then immediately the Devil will come and try to steal it from you. You know, like in the Parable of the Sower: The sower sows the Word, and the enemy, the Devil will immediately come and try to snatch that Word out of your heart; I mean immediately! Every Word, not just the Gospel, it’s every Word out of the mouth of God, he will try to steal from your heart if you let him. You have to fight the good fight of faith and lay hold on it; lay hold on eternal life; keep it and not let it go. You’ve got to do that with every Word of God that He speaks to you. You’ve got to grab it with your faith. He gives it by His grace: it’s a gift. Every Word out of the mouth of God that He gives is a gift and you’ve got to grab it with your faith, and you’ve got to lay hold on it, and it’s your faith that you’ve got to use. You have to use your faith. Jesus said, …your faith…

Always it was your faith: according to your faith be it done to you. See, God responds to faith. So that’s what I was doing: I was grabbing ahold of that promise of the Holy Ghost. I grabbed it and I kept after it; I kept after it; I kept after it until I laid hold on it. It’s like when Jacob wrestled with that angel. He got that angel and he wrestled with Him, and he had him down. He had him in a headlock, man, and he wouldn't let Him go until He blessed him. The day was coming and the angel said, “I’ve been wrestling all night, I’ve got to get back to Heaven”, or wherever He was going, or to His next job, and Jacob said, “I’m not letting you go until you bless me.” And he received the blessing from that angel. And he put a stone there, and he saw a vision there of Heaven opened, and the angels ascending and descending on a ladder to Heaven. And Jesus said, later, He said, You’ll see the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.

See, the Son of Man, His Words are of Heaven; His Words are from Heaven, and His truth is from Heaven. The Gospel is from Heaven. And His Kingdom is the Kingdom of Heaven. You receive it by faith: mix it with faith; mix every Word of God with faith, and you’ll receive it, and receive His mercy and receive His grace. Thank God. Amen.

After that I was going back to that same church: First Assembly of God Church, in Russellville, Arkansas, and I decided, with the attack of the Devil, the Tempter: he’s going to tempt you to sin; he’s going to temp you to not yield to the Spirit of God and not be led of the Spirit, and then he’s going to start trying to get you under the Law. He’s trying to get you to turn to the Law to justify, and to cleanse yourself of sin. That’s what happened to me. The Law can’t help you. The Law can’t save you. The Law can’t cleanse you. The Law can’t take away sin. All the Law can do is say, you’re a sinner and you’re going to Hell. That’s the office of the Law: you’re a sinner, and the wages of sin is death.

That’s all the Law can do for you. It can’t help you stop sinning, but the Devil wants you to turn to that Law. He wants you to seek to be justified by that Law. And it says, if you seek to be justified by the Law, you’ve fallen from grace. Ok, so, if you’re born again, you’re under grace; keep the Ten , you’ve fallen from grace. The Devil wants you to fall from that grace. The Devil doesn’t want you to have help. So I decided I was going to stop sinning, and I started embracing the Law more, and of course, you know, every year they probably went through the Ten Commandments at that church. They do in just about every denomination. I don’t remember that, but it’s probably true. So I decided that I was going to have a “Thou shalt not” club. Well, I started this “Thou shalt not” club, and the next thing I knew, that club lasted about a day and everyone else was out of it. You know: you can’t smoke, you can’t drink, you can’t cuss if you want to be in my club, so it took about a day for everybody to get out of it. It took about a week for me to get out, and the next thing I knew I was in sin. And what was that about? It was about the Law. I was seeking to be justified by the Law. I was looking to the Law to stop sinning, and the Law can’t help you with sin. All it can do is say, “You’re a sinner.” That’s all it can say.  By the Law is the knowledge of sin. Any time you see the word Law in the Bible, you can just replace that with knowledge of sin, because that’s what it is, that’s exactly what the Law is, it’s the knowledge of sin. Knowing it’s sin does not help you stop sinning. It’s not going to help you. The only thing that’s going to help you is to come to Jesus, to the Throne of Grace, to receive grace to help in time of need. When’s the time of need? When you’re being tempted. The time of temptation is that time of need, and that’s when you need to run to Jesus for help. And you come to the Throne of Grace to receive grace for help in time of need. That’s what grace is: grace is the gift of God. In Eph 2:8, grace is the gift of God. Eph 2:8 defines it as the gift of God, and that’s what is going to help you: to receive that gift of His grace. And the only place that you can receive it: that true grace of God, is, and this is what God said to me: no Gospel of grace, no grace; no Spirit of grace, no grace; no Throne of Grace, no grace. You have to come to the Throne of Grace for grace to help, and the Gospel of grace is the reason that you get that grace. You’ve got to come to Jesus to receive that grace, and where do you come? You come to the Throne of Grace. Amen. That’s where you receive it. And what’s that? That’s Heaven. That’s Heaven, man! You come to Him. He said, They will not come to Me that they might have life; that they might have it more abundantly. If you want that life, you’ve got to come to Jesus at the Throne of Grace, and He will give you grace to help; to overcome that sin. So, what you have to do is, be ready to anticipate that sin always. If you want to overcome sin, you have to be after it. You have to be after holiness. And if you will be fully after holiness, then, when that sin begins to be manifest, when that temptation begins to be manifest, (Temptation is not the sin. Sin is yielding to that temptation), when that temptation becomes manifest, you need to come to Jesus; you need to immediately come to the Throne of Grace, and receive grace to help in the time of need. He will give you the victory to overcome that sin. It’s pretty hard to sin when you’re praising Jesus: Hallelujah! Praise you Jesus! Praise your Holy Name Jesus! Glory to your Holy Name! When, with all your heart you are praising and worshiping Jesus, it’s pretty hard to go ahead and do that sin you were thinking about doing, don’t you think? Well, it is. It’s impossible when you are doing that. If you’re praising and worshiping Jesus; the Holy Spirit is bearing witness to Jesus, and that’s who He bears witness to. The Spirit bears witness to the truth, and the truth is in Jesus.

When you come to Jesus, you’re going to be in the truth, and the Spirit is going to be with you, and He’s going to bear witness to Jesus, and you’re going to overcome that sin. Praise God! Amen! And, the more you do that, the stronger you’re going to get in the Spirit, and the weaker the flesh is going to get: your flesh is going to diminish in power over you; sin is going to diminish in power over you, and your spirit will be strengthened, and you’ll be strengthened with power in your inner man by the Spirit, praise God, and you’ll get the victory over these things, more and more and more and more. It’s going to be a process. It’s not going to be immediate. It’s going to be a process; you’re going to have to work out your salvation; you’re going to have to walk through it. You’re going to have to yield to the Spirit; you’re going to have to put to death the deeds of the body through the Spirit, and you’re going to have to yield to God. And, as you do that, more and more and more, you’re going to get the victory.

 Compassion And Forgiveness

Greetings in the name of Jesus! This is Rob Haymes. This is 15 Minutes With Jesus.

Today’s program is on Compassion And Forgiveness. Let’s turn to Mat 18:21-35, Then Peter came to Him and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times? Jesus said to him, I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all. Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me what you owe! So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay you all. And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you? And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses. The word COMPASSION in these scriptures means, to have the heart yearn, to feel sympathy, or to pity. 

Now I want to include an excerpt from my beloved Brother Paul Merkle’s book, Jesus Christ, Who Is He?: just a few words from the section entitled Jesus, The Compassionate One: Mat 9:36, When He (Jesus) saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 

“He had compassion for them.”  To have compassion is to feel pity. It is a combination of two Latin words: com, which means “together”, and pati, “to suffer”, that is “to suffer together”, to enter into another person’s sorrow, shame, or need with the urge to help. It is deep sympathy, a feeling of togetherness with another’s need, like one instrument of an orchestra fits into another to produce beautiful music. It is the outpouring of one’s love as we find it in the 13th chapter of First Corinthians, where the Apostle Paul writes:

Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on it’s own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.

Let’s turn to Luke 10:25-37, The Parable of the Good Samaritan, And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said to him, What is written in the law? What is your reading of it? So he answered and said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. And He said to him, You have answered rightly; do this and you will live. But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor? Then Jesus answered and said: A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you. So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves? And he said, He who showed mercy on him. Then Jesus said to him, Go and do likewise. The Apostle James wrote, For he shall have judgment without mercy who has shown no mercy. 

Let’s turn to Exo 34:5-8, This is where the Lord God appeared unto Moses and walked before him and proclaimed His name: Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation. So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped. The first thing that God said to Moses, when He proclaimed His name, about Himself, is that He is merciful, merciful and gracious. 

Let’s turn to Matthew chapter 5, the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said, in verse 7, Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. And in verses 9-15 of chapter 6, the Lord said, In this manner therefore pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. How many people go to fellowship and worship the Lord, and there is something not right between them and another person, or with them and God? Let’s turn to Psalms 32:1-5, Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. I’m going to say this right here while I’m thinking of it: It says, …in whose spirit there is no deceit. Ok, if you have unforgiveness toward someone, and you’re a Christian, and you think you’re ok, that is deceit in your heart; that is not true. When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.

There may be someone in your life that has hurt you so badly, or did you so wrong, that you feel like you cannot forgive them. You must forgive them, or you will not be forgiven, and if you are not forgiven, you are not going to Heaven. Don’t deceive yourself!  If you refuse to forgive them, you are just like the servant in Mat 18:28-30. Your Lord and Master was merciful and gracious to you when you were lost and dead in trespasses and sins and headed for eternal damnation, and you cried out to Him for mercy. He had compassion on you, and, because of the sacrifice of His beloved Son on the Cross at Calvary for your sins, He forgave you and He cleansed you in Jesus’ precious Blood, and made you His son or His daughter. After all that He has done for you, and had compassion on you to forgive you and save you, will you now throw your brother or your sister or family member into the prison of your unforgiveness and hold them there in your judgment and contempt? If you refuse to forgive them, God will deal with you just as He said He would: Should you not have had compassion on your fellow servant, even as I had pity on you? And his Lord was angry and delivered him to the tormentors until he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my Heavenly Father do also unto you, if you from your hearts forgive not everyone his brother their trespasses. Remember how Jesus taught us to pray: …forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. You say, “I can’t! I just can’t forgive what they did to me, or to my loved one!” Are you willing?  Will you even consider how critical this is for you and your brother or sister?

I want to tell, briefly, a story about Corrie Ten Boom. Many of you have heard of Corrie Ten Boom. Perhaps, if you are reading this, and you haven’t heard of her: She and her family, with God’s help, were responsible for saving over 800 Jews from the Nazis during World War II in Holland. They took them into their home until they could find a safe place for them, and they cared for many Jewish people. While they were doing this, there was a Dutchman named Jan Vogel who was betraying his own countrymen to the Gestapo for a fee. He was making money betraying his fellow Dutch countrymen to the Germans, and those people ended up being sent to concentration camps, and many of them died.  So, one day, Jan Vogel paid a visit to the Ten Boom house. He told Corrie a lie that he needed a large sum of money to get his wife out of jail and that she was a Jew.

It was all a lie, and , unfortunately they believed his story and they came up with the money, and the next thing they knew, the Gestapo raided their house and they were arrested and sent to prison and later to the concentration camps. Corrie lost most of her family in the concentration camps. She was released by a miracle of God. While she was in the concentration camp her sister Betsy ministered to her many times that she needed to forgive Jan Vogel, and Corrie ended up crying out to God and asking Him to help her to forgive Jan, and by the grace of God, she forgave him for what he did to their family, and to many other people. One day, after the war, she heard that Jan Vogel was in prison for his crimes against the Dutch people, and that he was soon going to be executed. When Corrie heard about this, she wrote to him in prison and she told him, I want you to know that I have forgiven you for what you did to my family. And Jan Vogel was so moved by her forgiveness that he turned to the Lord and he became a Christian. He got born again; he got saved, when he saw the love of God in Corrie’s heart: that she was able to forgive him. He wrote back to her and he told her what happened, and he wrote, I was so amazed that you were able to forgive me, after all that I did to you and your family, that I turned to the Lord, and I want you to know that I’m a Christian now. It was a matter of days and he was executed. See how the love of God, and the forgiveness of God worked! It was not easy for Corrie to forgive this man; it was very hard! But she called upon the Lord and He helped her to forgive him, and see how this man’s life was changed! Forgive, and you shall be forgiven. Show mercy, and you shall obtain mercy.

 Under Authority

Greetings in the name of Jesus! This is Rob Haymes. This is 15 Minutes With Jesus. Today’s program is called Under Authority. Let’s turn to Mat 8:5-13, Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, saying, Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented. And Jesus said to him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my servant, Do this, and he does it. When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel! And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then Jesus said to the centurion, Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you. And his servant was healed that same hour. What did the centurion say to Jesus? He said, I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me, and I say to this man, Go, and he goes, to another, Come, and he comes, and to my servant, Do this, and he does it. If a man is not completely submitted to Jesus, who is submitted completely to His Father; if he is not walking with Him in obedience, going where He sends him; saying what He is saying; doing what He is doing; if he is doing his own will, and not the will of the Father, he is in rebellion, and he has no authority to be where he is, in the seat which he has taken, and his words have no authority with them; no power. Luke 4, Jesus went into the synagogue in Capernaum, and it says in verses 33-37, Now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon. And he cried out with a loud voice, saying, Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God! But Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be quiet, and come out of him! And when the demon had thrown him in their midst, it came out of him and did not hurt him. Then they were all amazed and spoke among themselves, saying, What a word this is! For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out. And the report about Him went out into every place in the surrounding region. In 1 John it is written, If any man says he abides in Him, let him walk as He walked. How did Jesus walk? He walked as a man under authority. He only did what He saw His Father doing, and He only said what He heard His Father saying. That’s why, when Jesus spoke the Word, it came to pass. He commanded and it was. It was the Father’s will. It was the Father in Him doing the works. The centurion believed that Jesus was a man under authority, and that if He spoke the Word only, it would come to pass. Jesus only went where His Father sent Him, and He went in power and authority to accomplish what His Father sent Him there to do.

How many men who claim to be ministers of God are actually sent by Him? How many are walking in Jesus’ authority? When Jesus sent out the twelve disciples, two by two, He gave them authority and power to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, and cast out demons, and He told them, Freely you have received, freely give, and preach, saying, The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. He told them what to say, and what to do.  So, if a man is not sent by Jesus, and he is speaking his own words, not the words which the Holy Spirit would give him, and he is doing his own will, and not the will of the Lord, not being led by the Holy Spirit, and on top of all that, he is taking up offerings and charging a price: how evil and vain is that?! The Apostle Peter spoke of false prophets among the people in the last days who will bring in damnable heresies; who, through covetousness, with feigned words, words they make up themselves, will make merchandise of the people. They have no authority or power from God. Many of them walk in witchcraft, seducing the people with lying divination. In this hour, how many are truly sent by the Lord? How many are under His authority, and you can say to them, Speak the word only and it shall come to pass? Jesus only did what He saw His Father doing. So it is with His true disciples; His true ministers. So, if Jesus sends you, and you are doing His will; speaking His Words, what He sent you to do will be accomplished as you continue under His authority, including whatever works of power the Father wills to do through you by the Holy Spirit. You will be speaking His Word by the Holy Spirit, and it will be life to those who have ears to hear and hearts to receive what the Spirit of the Lord is saying, and God will be glorified.

Let’s go to Acts 19:11-20, Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, 

so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, notice: they took it upon themselves, saying, We exorcize you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches. Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you? Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. Notice: the evil spirit said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you? Jesus was under the Father’s authority, and Paul was under Jesus’ authority, but these men had no authority. They took it upon themselves. Paul was sent by the Holy Spirit in Acts 13: Certain prophets and teachers were fasting and praying and ministering to the Lord, and the Holy Spirit spoke, and He said, Separate unto Me Barnabas and Saul for the work that I have called them to do. And then the disciples prayed and fasted again, and laid hands on them, and they were sent out by the Holy Spirit. As you read that account, they continued in obedience to the Spirit, and they only went where He led them to go. Paul continued in obedience and submission to his Lord, and the Lord worked mightily through him. 

The Father is the head of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the head of the man. The man is the head of the wife, and the woman is blessed as she walks in submission to the authority of the man, as unto the Lord, and as she receives from the man what his head has commanded him to give her. As he is in submission to his head, Jesus, he will be keeping His Words: he will be loving his wife as Christ loves the church. Love is patient; love is kind. The man is blessed as he walks in obedience to Christ, his head, serving Him in the newness of the Spirit; following Him to do the will of the Father. Jesus always does the will of the Father, His head; He always does what pleases Him. Are you a man under authority? Are you a woman under authority? Are you submitted to the authority which God has put in your life? If you are in Jesus, He is in you, and He is your Lord; He is your head. He said, If anyone will be My disciple, he or she must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Me every day. We are not our own. We have been bought with a price.

The Apostle Peter said, If you call on the Father, who, without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Again, when Jesus sent out His twelve disciples, He gave them authority to speak and to minister. And in Mat 10:14&15, Jesus said, And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city! So, when someone is truly sent by the Lord, people would do well to listen to what they have to say and receive their ministry, because they speak and minister as servants of God in His authority: not so, if He did not send them. If someone is truly sent by God they will be walking in His authority and in His Spirit, and what they say will come to pass. The Bible says, Prove all things and hold fast to that which is good. That which is good is always in accord with His good Word. In verse 19&20 we read, And when they deliver you up do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you. In John 13:20 Jesus said, Most assuredly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. There you see a perfect picture of the authority of God. All authority begins with the Father. All authority comes from God. Amen! 

This is so important that we understand this! 1 Cor 6:19&20, Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. You are bought with a price! Jesus bought you with His Blood! He is your Lord! You follow Him and He leads you. You are His servant. He sends you with His authority as the Father sends Him with His authority. As you walk this way, doing the will of the Father, He will work through you, but you must have a heart after God, not yourself, truly seeking to glorify Him; loving Him; serving Him, and fearing Him. And you must have the Holy Spirit, and yield to Him, and He will lead you to follow Jesus. 

In Mat 15:8&9, Jesus spoke these words, quoting Isaiah 29:13, These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. I want to encourage you this day to ask the Father to give you a heart like His Son: a heart that is completely submitted to Him, loving Him, and fearing Him, doing what He leads you to do, truly seeking to honor Him. If you will honor God, He will honor you. If you will humble yourself, He will exalt you. Remember, Jesus loved the Father, and He humbled Himself to the death of the Cross, so that we might be saved. Therefore the Father has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name above every name, that, at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, in Heaven, on the Earth, and under the Earth, and Every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Amen! See what God will do in your life, if you will do this with all your heart! God bless you.

Interpretation of a message in tongues:

I am God Almighty! You who are listening to my servant Rob this day: Humble yourselves before Me, the living God, and I truly will exalt you, if you will do this!

Humble yourself! Seek my face! Seek Me, says the Lord! Seek to please Me; seek to follow Me, and I will bless you, says the Lord.