We have too many people today trying to discourage us from acting on prayer.  “Don’t do that.  Let’s wait and make sure that everything is well and, then, you can say you’re healed.”  That’s a primary teaching in most Pentecostals today.  I’m not saying it’s sin.  I just heard one of the pastors on Swaggart the other day say this very thing.  “Whatever you do, don’t stop taking any medication until you’ve gone to the doctor and affirmed it.”  This is the part that got me.  “And then, he will wean you off the medicine.”  Well, if you’re healed, what do you need weaning for; amen?  I would never tell anybody to go off their medicine, because we all have to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling; amen?  I would never tell anybody that.  But I would tell somebody this, “That’s not perfect faith.”

So, what we’re looking for is, and when I say perfect, I’m talking about perfect in the way of completeness to where we are truly trusting God.  Being fully persuaded that what God has promised, He is able to perform.  I wonder how long it would have been until somebody started pressuring Abraham for in vitro?  What do we tell the three Hebrew children, or Daniel, in the midst of their adversity?  That wasn’t sickness or disease, but there sure needed to be some intervention; amen?  Why are you so afraid of your boss or people that cowered during COVID?  I thank God that I didn’t have to face it, but if my wife is in that hospital and she’s dying, there isn’t anybody keeping me out of that hospital.  There will be a lot of people needing to go to the hospital trying to stop me from getting to her.  “It’s the rules.”  Yes, and this is the rule. too.  She and I are one, she doesn’t belong under your authority.  God has made us one and you will not usurp the rule over her life.

Are we believing when we pray?  We were in John 15 and we were talking about abiding in Him.  If we abide in Him and His words abide in us, we can ask what we will and it will be done unto us.  John 15:16, “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit…”  That word “ordination,” that fruit that’s supposed to be brought forth, is the fruit of our intercession.  This whole context is getting into the presence of God and bringing forth fruit that glorifies and honors Him.  This whole chapter is about establishing what our true resources are, and that is God Almighty.  There’s nothing too hard for Him; amen?  There’s nothing too hard for the Lord.  So, he’s basically saying here—turn over to John 14 for just a moment and let’s put these two verses together, Chapter 14.  We’re very familiar with this verse.  He said in verse 12, “Those that believe in Me, the works that I do shall you do also; and greater works than these shall you do because I go unto my Father.  And whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you shall ask any thing in my name (that glorifies the Father), I will do it.”

So, we see right here, then, that this promise keeps us within the subject of the glory of God.  Making God big.  Making God the source.  Can we say it another way?  “Why look on us as though by our own power, we’ve made this man whole?  You need to understand something.  It’s by the name of Jesus and faith in that name that this crippled man stands whole before you today.”  We have to put this over into every thought, every action, every category, of our lives.  I’m not seeking my glory; I’m seeking the glory of the Father.  Therefore, we are patient and waiting for God to manifest His will as He performs His promises.  Remember how we started the whole study, the sovereignty of God.