Day Twenty-Four
“Living to Promote the Glory of God”
Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, “Be taken up and cast into the sea,” and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted to him. Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them and they will be granted you.
Mark 11:23-24
I was seated at my desk early this morning seeking the Lord in prayer and was captured by Jesus’ words in Mark 11:23-24. I felt Him tugging and stretching my heart to believe Him for greater things. Soon tears began to trickle down my cheeks as I cried out to the Lord for miracle after miracle, mostly related to expanding His kingdom. I begged and pleaded with God to intervene in the affairs of life and ministry all around me and in missions work.
Soon my heart felt aflame with Jesus’ words that if I would not doubt but believe, I could have the things I had been asking Him. Impossible things. Unattainable things. Impractical things. Unfeasible things. That’s when it really hit me right between the eyes - if I really devote myself to a life of believing prayer I will also be devoting my life to promoting the glory of God. That revelation only served to intensify the flame burning in my heart and my desire to see the Lord do the impossible. I prayed as fervently as I ever have at any time in my life for anything.
One by one I brought both ministry and personal mountains before Him and asked that each one be removed out of the way so that His glory could be promoted further. I want to be one who lives on the cutting edge of faith and who lives daily to promote God’s glory through answered prayer. I know full well what I am yearning for - I am yearning for God to continually push my life and ministry toward risk, attempting the impossible, challenge after challenge, open criticism for presuming upon God, and ridicule mixed with skepticism when the miracles are delayed. I have experienced all of this before on numerous occasions, but when God comes through and I get the privilege of testifying about His faithfulness, it is worth it! Praise God, it is worth the delays, the hours spent in solitude with the Father, and all the skepticism just to watch God come through and bring greater heaps of grandeur on Himself. I live to see that happen!
I love to hear the gasps in the crowd when a miracle is detailed to a listening congregation. I love to watch the stunned faces as people hear about how the Lord turned the impossible into something possible. I am deeply moved when I see faith growing slowly in the hearts of those who were once filled with fear and doubt as they hear what their God has done for someone else, encouraging them to hope again for God’s help in their situation. I live for that; I live for God to be glorified over and over again through miraculous, astounding, extraordinary, and phenomenal acts that defy logic and explanation.
I cannot tell you how many times I have felt alone at this point. I have found solace and comfort through reading biographies of Hudson Taylor, George Mueller, John Hyde, Rees Howells, David Brainerd, and E.M. Bounds. They forged the trails of faith and blazed a path to demonstrate the truth that the miraculous was not just intended for the days of Acts. It has been a lonely pilgrimage but I have sought to bring others along with me. God longs to work in our day as well and I for one intend to live so that His name, His power, His mighty acts, and His glory will be promoted in this generation and in the generations to come.
What mountains are you facing right now? What impossible thing is intimidating you into cowardly unbelief? What mountain stands in the way between you and the dream God planted in your heart? What mountain looms so large over you it is causing you to hesitate and withdraw to safety and comfort? I plead with you to stop retreating and look your mountain square in the eye. In faith I exhort you speak to your mountain to get out of your way in the name of our valiant and strong Lord. Gather those who will believe with you and pray to promote the glory of the Lord.
How long will we live in the shadow lands of complacency and comfort when the fragrance of the miraculous is filling the air? Where are the pastors who will charge ahead on their knees and watch the Lord shove open doors that have been closed too long? Where are the intercessors who will give themselves no rest and the Lord no rest as they plead for the salvation of souls without ceasing? Where are the churches that will bend their ears to Heaven and follow the Lord’s promptings by faith into grandiose kingdom expansion projects regardless of the risk or the cost? Who will shirk fear and personal security and run toward the risk of promoting the glory of God in your corner of this world?
Do we really believe? I asked myself that same question over and over again in my prayer time this morning. I looked at two very large mountains that I have been facing, one of which I have been battling for over eight years. It is the mountain that stands in the way of the publication of my books. Doors had been repeatedly shut and prayers had gone unanswered, but after hammering away at that mountain and by God’s grace, I can now testify that the necessary money to publish Behold the Faithfulness of God was given, the book has been produced, and it is now in circulation. It is the will of God to publish my books and I pledged to give all the sales of my book Behold the Faithfulness of God to our church’s building fund for expansion of our facilities. I have been laboring in prayer over the other mountain for three and half years now - I have been asking God to provide a house for my family, debt-free. It is time to dismiss unbelief and doubt and watch the glory of God shine brilliantly through the miraculous again even though I have been told that believing God for a miracle house for my family without going into debt is impossible. Why is it impossible? Are God’s resources limited? Does He not provide for His own? Is the miracle of a house any more taxing for God than making provision for a house payment? Is God glorified by my going into debt? Would the glory of God be promoted around the world through my family receiving a miracle house? Would others be encouraged to believe God in their situations? Would ministry take place in that house?
Many people live in doubt and unbelief, making excuse after excuse, because we live in a day of miracle famine. I hate the day of miracle famine! God does not get glory in those days. When will we read God’s word like we believe it to be true and stand on His precious promises without wavering and longingly gaze into the Heavens at the throne of grace to obtain miracle help and miracle mercy in our times of need? Unbelief is a plague in most of our churches. May it not be so in FBC Paradise. May we live, pray, serve, labor, worship, and give sacrificially to promote the glory of God. May our example be a catalyst all over this region and this world to promote, advance, exalt, honor, and move the glory God forward in one heart at a time.
Jesus said all things we ask and pray for while believing would be granted to us. I know they will only be granted to us if they are in His will for us, but I am convinced that we have been living like paupers rather than children of the King of Kings. For this slave of Christ, no longer. I asked God this morning that He would graciously allow me to live to promote His glory until my last breath. Even as I write this I am moved to tears for people everywhere to be captivated by the greatness and the power of God to save the lost, to heal the sick, to reclaim the backslidden, to revive the church, to expand His kingdom in nations around the globe, to give birth to miracle provision for those in need, to explode churches in unprecedented growth, to bless the confused with wisdom, and to promote His own glory.
It is neither our praying nor our faith that is the focus; it is the greatness of God that is the focal point. He is mighty to save. He is our Glorious One and greater than we know. Oh, how I plead that you would join me in living the rest of your days from this one to your last to believe and attempt impossible feats in prayer that when answered will promote the glory of God like a tidal wave on unbelieving pastors, churches, and ordinary people like you and me until they too live to promote His glory. I wish I could cut my heart open and let you feel what I feel as I write this, but alas I am left to trust the Sovereign Lord to take the ramblings of this pitiful preacher and sear them into your hearts and minds so deeply you cannot shake them no matter how hard you try.
Great Father, King of all Kings, my Great I Am, I come to You with fearless faith today. I ask you to forgive me for hiding behind the sin of unbelief for far too long. Today my heart is aflame with faith in You. What is impossible to You? Nothing. I lift up all those who will read these words and beg of You to capture their hearts and wills and stir them to greater faith and larger exploits than they have ever believed You for before. I weep for them now. I beg of You to remove doubts and help their unbelief. I ask You to enlarge all our faith to believe You when You say that nothing is impossible with You. I ask you to sear the fragrance of the miraculous into our nostrils until we are nauseated with stench of unbelief and miracle famine but intoxicated with Your power to do anything. I ask You to give us courage to run to the cutting edge and leap in believing prayer, defying the skeptics, experts, and the odds of failure. Lord of the Universe, I plead with You to leave a lifetime of miracles in the wake of our lives and let not only this generation but each generation to follow, take this same adventure journey of living to promote Your glory. We will leave the results of such living up to You. I ask You to annihilate selfish ambition and self-glorification. May You consume us from head to toe until no other passion is left but to live to promote Your glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Steps to Trust and Obey:
Spend some time asking God to help your unbelief.
Let the powerful words of Jesus sink into your heart and soul.
Ask Him give you new hope that He wants to answer your prayers.
What is the Lord speaking to you and leading you to do in obedience?
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