However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.  John 16:13 NKJV

One of the greatest self-inflicted wounds of the Church is that we make doctrines out of our unbelief, instead of holding fiercely to the Word of God in spite of our experience. My experiences teach me that if I hold fiercely to the Word of God then my experiences will eventually line up with that Word. I believe that Paul, as the writer of the seven Church epistles, presupposed that everyone of his readers would speak in tongues, that the infilling of the Holy Spirit would be prerequisite to the experiential knowledge of the Epistles. Didn’t Jesus say, “He who believes in Me…” in John 7:37-38?

Smith Wigglesworth said it like this – that you have to get to Acts, and its experiential reality of Acts 2:4 and others, before you are ready to go to Romans through Thessalonians. If the Church would make it NORMATIVE for every newly born again one to get filled with the Holy Spirit, EVERYTHING would change for the better.

We are going to talk about the operation of the word of wisdom, and how it applies to the future, but first I must address our responsibilities with regard to our faith. To blindly say, I trust God, is to deny your responsibility to believe and pray, and frame your future with His help and guidance. The “I trust God” folks are continually flummoxed by their circumstances, instead of using their God given authority to shape their futures. This is another example of doctrine, i.e. what we believe, being developed out of unbelieving experience rather than the clear Word of God.

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. Gen 28:20-22 NKJV

You and I are to learn to work with the Lord in cooperation to bring our futures and the promises of God to pass. ‘He will tell you things to come.’ The future, within certain parameters, is flexible. It can go many different directions, and our faith has a huge impact on what directions it does take. Do you realize that you can negotiate with God, that His will is broad enough for you to make demands and receive them from Him? I told Him when we started this thing twenty-two years ago that if He couldn’t pay me, I wouldn’t work for Him. He has not missed a paycheck in twenty-two years, and He has gone above and beyond that for us personally and in the ministry, thank you!

Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one; God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do… Gen 41:25 NKJV

I wish I could teach good Christian businessmen about the word of wisdom. Imagine how much money could be made, how much could come into the Kingdom, if wise businessmen knew what the markets were going to do before it happened! The same could be true in all the professions. Suppose godly policemen, judges, detectives, clergymen and security people knew how to stop specific crimes before they occurred? Suppose medical researchers knew how to make medicines to treat every disease of man from powerful natural antidotes God has already put in the earth? The answers are already there, and have been already there, since the Garden…

I tell you, I get so encouraged when I think about the word of wisdom! This answers the question, “Why doesn’t God, if He is so powerful and loving, deal with all the problems in the world?” The answer is, He has! Now it up to us to do our part, and be willing to change and grow. If you are a born again one, don’t look beyond the end of your nose for who is responsible for your problems. If you have responsibility, then you have authority, and with authority you can do something about it.

Be still, and know that I am God; Ps 46:10 NKJV

Suppose you took just one hour a week to listen to God, to do nothing but simply listen to Him, and you wrote down what you perceived He was saying. Then you acted on them. Very soon you would learn to hear His voice, and to act effectively on what He says. Suppose you learned to ask Him about practical matters, both large and small, both personal but also for your family, your people and your nation, all that you love, because to ask only for yourself is grossly immature? You could change the world!

Paul, Wilberforce, Washington, Lincoln, King Jr, Mandela, Rosa Parks. They all changed the world. You can too…for His glory!

Now, before you begin to ask, lets do some things to build your box. You see, we all have boxes for everything, and everything, faith wise within that sphere, happens within that box. Our boxes are made up of our experiences, our beliefs, our prejudices and our imagination. Some people don’t see healing because their HEALING box isn’t big enough to even imagine healing, let alone experience it. Or they may have some weird cynical religious prejudice against healing (“all healings are faked, or lies, and preachers do it just for the money or fame!” etc. (HISS! Can you hear the snake? Genesis 3:1)). Maybe the belief system they were educated into doesn’t allow for healing. So,what do you do?

Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” Gen 15:5 NKJV

If you want God to talk to you, examine your box. Is there a place there for the subject you want God to speak to you about? You need to build the will of God into that box, so that you give God some room to move. The reason why people get small or incomplete answers from God is they have no room in that particular box for the fuller answer. This is why God doesn’t talk to me indepthly about quantum physics, because I don’t have a PhD in that subject, and all the TEDTALKS in the world aren’t going to change that! You have to grow your box, whether its HEALING, FINANCES or EFFECTIVE MINISTRY…and the Lord will help you (when the Lord took Abe outside He was growing his box)!

Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Rom 5:5 NKJV

Another great principle to hearing from God, and this is a box issue, is that you can hear God speak about anything you love. Many people have great faith, great love, for others but have very little love for themselves. If your box marked MYSELF is full of great condemnations, great hurt and resentment, there will be little room for love and light to fill that box. Open that box, dump that stuff out, plead the Blood over it and declare it null and void. Ask Jesus to fill your MYSELF box up with His love. He will!

Practice listening. Obey what you think you are hearing. If it’s something outrageous, call a mentor like me first. Build your box. The Lord will release faith for the future as He gives you a RHEMA word through the word of wisdom. Take responsibility for your future, and the Lord will release faith for that future. Love you!

Remember dear ones, we must be about our Father’s business…