"How to Release God's Ability"

The kingdom of God is the will of God imposed, first over the individual believer, and from there over the entire body of Christ. To seek the kingdom of God is to seek the control of the Holy Ghost over our lives. This is the Lordship of Christ. The quest of the Father is for "Sons of the Spirit." Sons who are filled with and controlled by the Holy Spirit. These are the people who shall make up the Bride, and shall sit with Christ on the throne of the universe. For only the ruled shall rule. If the Holy Ghost cannot rule you here and now, you will not rule with Him in the ages to come. As we have already pointed out in another lesson, the Holy Ghost is God's ability in the believer. It is first of all God's ability to overcome the world, the flesh and the devil. "Walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." (Galatians 5:16) Second, it is God's ability to work the works of God. "But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you..." (Acts 1:8) Now I wish to demonstrate how this ability is released. First, we must establish God's intention in the release of His ability. This is set forth in John's Gospel. "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit..." (John 7:38-39) The will and purpose of God is, "rivers of living water" flowing to and through the believer. This is the kingdom, and the ability of God. This river of the Spirit flowing out of the believer heals all that it touches (Ezekiel 47:9). We do not have to beg the river to heal, we need only to allow it to flow. "And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live:..." (Ezekiel 47:9) Whatever the Holy Ghost touches He heals. The problem is not with the river, the problem is with the church. Instead of a river flowing from her, it is only a trickle. The church, for the most part, lacks the ability to give life. She is more like an intensive care ward, only able to sustain life. Ezekiel speaks of trees along the banks of the river whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. Trees in the Bible are symbolic of people. What the prophet actually saw was Spiritual people created by the river (Holy Spirit) whose existence should bring about healing. In other words, Christians should be healers by virtue of the river. We are not here as a part of the problem, we are here to be the solution. It is a profound fact of the Word of God, that to heal the nation we must first heal the church. No civilization has ever failed until its church failed. This truth is verified in history by the fact that every preacher, from Paul to now, who has affected his generation has directed his message to the church. Judgment must first begin at the house of God. Paul wrote over half of the New Testament, and in every letter, he was correcting some error in the church. The book of Ezekiel demonstrates that the flow of the river is gauged by the condition of the house. All of this says in no uncertain terms that the power to heal is resident in the church. Failure to take a stand on the Word of God for fear of persecution has led to much controversy over the question, Do believers have power to heal? The word of God is very plain on the issue. In the tenth chapter of Matthew, Jesus called twelve men to help in the work of bringing the Gospel to mankind. There was nothing in these mens personalities that set them apart from other men. Matthew said, "When he had called unto Him His twelve disciples, He gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease." Notice: "He gave them power..." It wasn't a theological commission to pray for the sick, but He gave them power, power to heal all manner of sickness and disease, and to cast out every devil. Again, Jesus appointed another seventy. These were ordinary men also, but He walked with them and gave them power to deliver the sick and afflicted. As He commissioned them He said, "Behold, I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy...and to whatsoever city ye enter, heal the sick therein and say unto them, the kingdom of God has come nigh to you." (Luke 10:8, 19) Here are these men being equipped for a ministry. They were not going out merely to pray for the sick, they were going into a world filled with bondage and oppression, and were

empowered to deliver men. This is more than merely praying for the sick, more than positive confession. They are sent forth with God's power and God's ability. there is no mistaking the language, it is the intention and purpose of God that this river of the Spirit be in the believer as the ability of God to heal, deliver and set free. The Prophet Ezekiel saw Pentecost as the purpose and the ability of God. The visions of God, seen by the Prophet, were nothing more than the counsels of God in action. It was a prophetic look at the second chapter of the Book of Acts. In the vision, the man of God saw a creature with four faces. The face of a lion, an ox, a man, and an eagle. This is a symbolic composite picture of the Holy Ghost. The lion aspect is symbolic of the determined purpose of the Holy Ghost. Solomon wrote of the lion, When he starts, he never turns back. The Holy Ghost, in His pursuit of the counsels of God will not be turned aside. You may quit, give up, but the Holy Ghost will go on. The ox represents strength. Solomon built a laver that held 16,000 gallons of water. To hold all that weight up, he put twelve oxen. Not only will the Holy Ghost not be turned aside, but He has the strength to overcome any and all obstacles. The man symbolizes spiritual intelligence. The Holy Ghost is God. he knows all there is to know. The eagle, the symbol of perfect freedom, says the Holy Ghost must have free course in all matters of spiritual life. Ezekiel 1:26, "...was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it." Ezekiel sees the man Christ Jesus sitting upon the throne of God, and from that throne pouring out the rivers of the living water, thus fulfilling the scripture, "It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away the comforter (river) cannot come." This river is the ability of God, without which the purpose of God, through man, is impossible. The river is to flow from the throne to the house, and from the house to the world. Stephen saw Jesus standing as the Son of Man at the right hand of the Father, there pouring out, upon His Church, the Holy Spirit. The flow of the river is controlled entirely by the condition of the House. Chapters 41-46 of Ezekiel speaks of the house and it's spiritual condition. The Apostle John wrote against the same background. When John wrote all the other Apostles are dead. If you were to put the Gospel of John in its chronological order it would butt up against the Revelation, the last piece of inspired literature ever written. John is an old man, and is looking back across the years at the church from Pentecost onward. The prophecy of Paul has come to pass, There is a form but no power. For a long time I believe the old line religious systems was what the Apostle Paul saw when he wrote of the form without any power. But one night as I watched a beautiful Methodist service on television, God opened my eyes to the real meaning. It was a very beautiful service. Everything was perfectly timed and executed. I sat there for one hour. I enjoyed the singing, the man spoke well, but nothing about the service led me to expect the unusual. Through that service I realized when Paul spoke of a form without power, he wasn't referring to what I was watching. I saw in that moment that the form has to be Pentecostal. The from must be such as to cause me to expect a manifestation of power. When somebody gives a message in tongues, prophesies or discerns somebody's sickness, I'm looking for power. If God reveals what is wrong with you, He will heal you, otherwise it is just a form. There is always power connected with what God does. There is reality or there never would have been a counterfeit. The from without power always comes through a people who once possessed the power, who after they lost the power remembered how it works. There are those, who long after the Holy Ghost is gone, can continue to speak in tongues, feign a prophecy, and seemingly discern the problems of others. The test is the test of power. If there is no power, it is not God, only a form. Like Saul, they have learned how to be religious without God. Saul never one time tried to bring the ark back. They never missed it. They had learned how to be religious without God. When John wrote, worship had become a form. The people would go through the motions of praise when told. You can teach an ape to raise his hands if you work with him long enough. Praise is a

natural action of life and should flow like a river out of the true believers. John, writing against this backdrop of spiritual decline, quotes Jesus, "He that believeth on me...out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." The test of reality is life. Out of your belly is to flow a river. The church is not a religious debating society. She is not here to argue the finer points of the law. She is here to demonstrate Christ alive by the Holy Ghost. That is the reason for the Church. Ezekiel writes against the same backdrop, Israel has lost God. The house is out of order and there is very little life. In chapter 43, the Prophet pinpoints the problem and the cure. His message is, get the House (the church) in order and the river will flow. "And the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate who prospect is toward the east. (Note the house, the church) So the spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and, behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house. And I heard him speaking unto me out of the house; and the man stood by me." In Ezekiel 41-47 this mysterious man takes Ezekiel through the house measuring and detailing the house so that the river can flow unrestricted to the nations. "And I heard him speaking unto me out of the house; and the man stood by me. And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom, nor by the carcases of their kings in their high places. In their setting of their threshold by my thresholds, and their post by my posts, and the wall between me and them, they have even defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have commited: wherefore I have consumed them in mine anger. Now let them put away their whoredom, and the carcases of their kings, far from me, and I will dwell in the midst of them for ever." (Ezekiel 43:4-9) If the river is to flow, the house must be purged. In Ezekiel 41-46, we have the measuring of the house, but in chapter 44:5 and 23, "And the Lord said unto me, Son of man, mark well, and behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears all that I say unto thee concerning all the ordinances of the house of the Lord, and all of the laws thereof; and mark well the entering in of the house, with every going forth of the sanctuary." (Verse 23) "And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean." The problem is obvious, some things have been allowed to become a part of the house that do not belong. God hates a mixture. He will not allow His presence to remain where the flesh is on display. "No flesh shall glory in my sight." God hates every false way. This truth is driven home by the Apostle Paul. Paul wrote over half of the New Testament mostly to correct the wrong in the church. Certainly Paul brought a revelation, but in every epistle he also dealt with something wrong in the church. What we believe is important to God. We may discount doctrine but God doesn't. The New Testament is filled with admonitions to be sound in doctrine, know what you believe. Know what God says so that there be no mixture of the false. Over and over in both the Old and New Testaments, God drives this truth home. To Israel God says, "Don't plow an ox and an ass together, don't wear a garment of linen and wool, don't sow a filed with mingled seed." Come into the New Testament and the word is, separate sheep and goats, the hot and cold. the church to have His glory must be purged of all that is false. The mixture of Pentecostalism and Romanism must go. God will not tolerate such a mixture. There will never be a real flowing of the river to make alive, to heal, until the church, the house, is cleansed and purged. The man showed Ezekiel the house, he measured everything. You don't have to guess what is the issue. There is a river in us, coming from Heaven so there is no problem between Heaven and the house. The problem is, it is bottlenecked in the vessel, the church. In the average Pentecostal church, nine out of ten testify to having been filled with the Spirit. There isn't a problem with the river being here, the problem is it isn't getting out. The river is locked up in the house, the channel is blocked. If there is to be a revival, the church has to be purged, to be cleaned. Judgment must begin at the House of God. God's plan is for the river to flow from the throne to the church and from the church to the world. There is no problem from the throne. The bottleneck is in the church. We have seen hundreds of people filled with the Holy Ghost so the line is still open between Heaven and the church. God still fills

His people, but the world is starving. Instead of "rivers of living water," there is only a trickle. The lack of the Holy Spirit is evidenced by the fact that there is no restraint on evil. Release the river of the Holy Spirit that is bottlenecked in the church, the church will then fulfill her role as the light of the world. When that happens, darkness will be dispelled, the streets of our cities will become safe again. Men love darkness more than light because their deeds are evil. Evil flourishes in the dark. To counteract the darkness, God commands the church, "...to let your light shine..." According to John 1:4, God's life is light. The command of Jesus, "...to let your light shine..." says that it is possible for this life to be in you and yet not be seen. Until the church purges herself from those things that restrict the flow of the rivers of life, the darkness will continue to cover the earth and evil men will wax worse and worse. Paul says it all in Galatians 5:17, "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." "Go ye into all the world, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." "They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover." "Freely you have received, freely give." "As you go heal the sick, cleanse the leper, raise the dead, preach the gospel." These are the things we should do but very obviously cannot do. Why? Because of the warfare we refuse to resolve between the flesh and spirit. These are opposing forces, they cannot operate together. The Bible sets forth example after example of how we cannot serve God and Mammon. David and Saul cannot be on the throne at the same time. Saul is of the kingdom of self will. He knew better than God. David was a man after God's heart. David was spiritual. Saul was carnal. David cannot sit on the throne until Saul is dethroned. Christ cannot rule in our hearts until self is crucified. The river cannot flow as long as the channel is clogged by the flesh. "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that you would." The church is spiritual, therefore her problem is spiritual and can only be spiritually discerned. The gift of discernment was not given to discern the aches and pains of the human body. It was given to spiritually diagnose the body of Christ. Heal the church spiritually and she will heal every physical disease that sits on her pew. The church is Christ? When you see the real church, you see Christ. We are the body, He is the head. We are joined by one Spirit. Did Christ have any trouble healing the sick? No. "They were healed every one." If the church is Christ, then heal the church of her spiritual maladies and she will heal the people of their physical sicknesses. The same power in Him is in us. It is the same river, but it isn't flowing, it has been stagnated in us, becoming a dead-end street. Get the house right and the river will increase in intensity. Ezekiel 47:1-5, "Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar. Then brought he me out of the way of the gate northward, and led me about the way without unto the utter gate by the way that looketh eastward; and, behold, there ran out waters on the right side. And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ankles. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through the waters; the waters were to the knees. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through; the waters were to the loins. Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over." There is only one answer for the release of this life - purge the church of all that is not God. Isaiah 58:6-7 tells us how. How to release it. "Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?" In the first five verses, Israel is complaining to the prophet that they had prayed and fasted yet God did not hear. The Prophets answer was, your problem is yourself. You are fasting for your own selfish gains and not to glorify God. In Isaiah 59:1-2, Isaiah gets to the heart of the problem. "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened,

that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear." The word sin and iniquity have a different meaning. Iniquity is that spirit of rebellion that worketh in the children of disobedience. It is what the Bible calls flesh. Isaiah said in effect, self has separated between you and your God. In verses 6 and 7, the Prophet tells them that God's fast has one purpose: to break the yoke the carnal nature has on the spiritual man. Fasting is no bargain counter with God. Fasting is for the mortifying of the flesh. "Is not this the fast that I have chosen?" If you run all the references on Isaiah 58:6-7, you will eventually arrive in Romans 7. Paul is speaking about the warfare that takes place in every really born again believer. "For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do." (Verse 19) Out of that struggle comes the heart rending cry: "Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death." Adam Clark in his very fine commentary wrote that Paul uses as an example one of the means the Romans used for putting a man to death for certain crimes in the Roman state. They executed the man by chaining a corpse to his body. The condemned man lived with the corpse until he died from the stench. Paul is saying that the carnal nature is to the spiritual man what that corpse is o the living person, and unless you get rid of that carnal nature, it will get rid of you. The spirit and flesh cannot exist together. You will either crucify the flesh or the flesh will crucify Christ. God has chosen the fast to crucify, put to death the flesh. Take food away from any living thing and it begins to die. Whether it be plant, animal, human or spiritual. When you fast, you put the old man down. When you pray, you life the new man up. To release God's ability that is in you, the old man must be broken. Therefore, God's purpose in dealing with you is to break you. "A broken and a contrite spirit, God will not despise." "But to this man I will look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word." The ability of God is only released through broken vessels, vessels who can say, "For me to live is Christ..." When we choose the right, God is with us; choose the wrong and He will leave you alone. Victory is always in the decision. If you choose to walk with God, the way of escape has already been made. What is that way? Jesus said, "I am the way." Choose Me and I will be with you in the fiery furnaces of life. To choose Jesus demands that you deny yourself.