WRONG BELIEFS
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.
EPHESIANS 3:20
Many people use this verse to say that God is able to do anything, but they miss the point. This verse doesn’t just say that God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all they ask or think; it goes on to say, “According to the power that worketh in us.” “According to” means in
proportion to or to the degree of the power that is working within.
If we don’t have faith and if we are not building ourselves up on our most holy faith (Jude 20), we limit the power of God that flows from us. We can stop the power of God in our lives. If we’re not
healed, it’s not God who didn’t heal us—it’s us not releasing the power of God on the inside of us. God has to flow through us. When we say that God just sovereignly moved, we are saying that no person had anything to do with His moving. We are saying that God just sovereignly reached down from heaven and did something. That is not scriptural. God always uses people. God flows through people, but there are many ways that we can limit what God wants to do in our lives.
God doesn’t move in waves. If we look hard enough, we will find that somebody was praying, somebody was believing God, or somebody was actively involved in bringing about a move of God. There was the Charismatic Movement, the Healing Movement, and the Word of Faith Movement. Yet we blame God as if He’s the one who comes in waves and pours out His power then retreats and lets a generation languish. That’s not the way God operates. God wants every single person to walk in His fullness.
God would pour out all of these movements at once if we would receive them that way. For instance, in the healing revival, the church had lost the truth of healing. There were some people, like Oral Roberts, who just pressed in. His testimony shows that it didn’t come upon him—he pursued it.
I remember Oral Roberts talking about the very first meeting he held. He was so sick and tired of seeing the powerlessness and the lack of healing in the body of Christ, he determined, “I’m not going to live this way. Either the Word is true and God does miracles today, or I’m gonna quit serving God and quit playing the pastor game.” He had to fight through unbelief and struggles, but when he began seeing miracles happen, he caught on fire and set others on fire too.
That and other similar instances produced the Healing Movement. People started saying that God was moving in this Healing Movement. God wants to move in healing all the time, but most people won’t pursue it the way those involved in these movements did. They broke through in the area of healing and started seeing God’s miraculous healing power. However, they didn’t break through in other areas. It wasn’t that God only wanted to pour out the Healing Movement; He would have poured out
the Word Movement, the Charismatic Movement, the Righteousness Movement, and the Baptism in the Holy Spirit Movement all at one time if people would have received them that way.
If we get sick and tired of being sick and tired and decide to start believing God, we will see things happen. We might be tempted to think God is doing a new thing, but no, God is doing the same thing He’s wanted to do for 2,000 years. He didn’t want the church to go through the Dark Ages—a time when the body of Christ perished for lack of knowledge, not knowing what the Word of God said. If we’ll stop limiting Him, He can do what He’s always wanted.
