We are glad you could join us today for the Concepts of faith broadcast. This program is dedicated to teach you how to put the word of God to work so that it will make a positive difference in the everyday circumstances of your life. And now, here’s Charles Capps.
Okay, we’re talking about calling things that are not as though they were. Have you found John the second chapter? All right.
Let’s read here. Let’s start with verse, well, verse one. And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there, and both Jesus was called and his disciples to the marriage.
And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus said unto him, They have no wine. Jesus said unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine power has not yet come.
His mother saith unto the servant, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. Now, you know that’s good advice. Whatever Jesus says, do it.
You know that’ll get you a miracle every time, if you’ll just do it. And there was set there six water pots of stone. After the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece, Jesus said unto them, Fill the water pots with water, and they filled them to the brim.
Now listen, they filled them to the brim with water. They didn’t fill them to the rim with brim. They filled them with water, H-2-O.
Now, I want you to notice, they’re out of wine. And this is a problem there, because they got the governor of the feast there, and they bought out of wine. So they tell Jesus the problem.
He said, Well, fill the water pots with water. Now, Jesus knew it was water. Peter knew it was water.
They all knew it was water that was standing around there. And then Jesus said, Draw out now and bear to the governor of the feast. And I can just see old Peter punching John, saying, You do it, John.
You ain’t getting me to carry that water up there, telling him it’s wine. I mean, he could have my head before sunrise in the morning. He knew it was water.
Jesus said, draw out and bear to the governor of the feast. Don’t take it to somebody else, take it to the governor. Now, what’s Jesus doing?
See, there’s people that’ll say, well, now I’ll tell you, these people are just always calling things that are not. They’re just playing make believe. Why?
They’re just trying to live in a world of fantasy. Why? That’s not true.
Well, now what about Jesus here? Is he playing make believe? You know what he’s doing when he said, draw out and bear to the governor of the feast?
He’s calling that water wine. He called it wine. Now, I’m convinced that when they started with it, it was water.
But when they got there, it was wine. Now, notice what happened. Well, I can tell you what happened.
The wind blew my page.
No wonder it didn’t look right. Let’s read here from verse nine. And when the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine and knew not whence it was, but the servant which drew the water knew, the governor of the feast called the bridegroom and said unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine, and when men are well drunk, then that which is worth.
But thou hast kept the good wine until now. And look at the next verse. And this was the beginning of make believe, which Jesus did in Canaan.
Oh, oh no, no, that wasn’t what it said, was it? This was the beginning of miracles. See, there’s people that tell you, oh, you’re just playing make believe.
You know why? Bless their darlin hearts. They just don’t understand God’s principles.
See, he was calling that water wine. Now, that doesn’t mean for you to go out here and fill your car up with a water hose and start calling it gasoline. Now, you ought not have to say these things, but you do, because sometimes people misunderstand the whole thing that you’re trying to get over.
Jesus used this in his ministry, this principle of calling things that are not. Now, he was much more highly developed in it than we are. You can understand that.
And this was not put in the Bible to get you to start trying to make wine out of water or water out of wine or gasoline out of water or whatever. It’s put there to point out to you that Jesus was operating in a biblical principle that we can operate in today. Calling things that are not.
And it worked very well for him through all of his ministry. And it’ll work for us if we’ll understand it and operate in it. Go with me to Luke the 17th chapter.
Now, while you’re turning there, let me remind you that in Mark 11, 23 is a basic principle of calling things that are not. It may be in just a little different form. But Jesus said to the disciples there, he said, have the faith of God.
Now, a more literal translation is to have the faith of God, to have faith in God or have the faith of God. Whosoever shall say to this mountain. Notice, whosoever shall say to this mountain, be thou removed, be plucked up, be planted in the sea, or be removed, said, and shall believe, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have.
What’s every saith? Now, notice, when he said that, say to the mountain, be removed, was it removed? No, no, it wasn’t.
It was still standing there. Who ever would say to the mountain? Speak to it before it was removed.
Now, the problem is that many people say, well, now, here’s the way I believe it. I believe that you can’t say it until it’s already happened. How in the world would you ever get anything out of this principle if you didn’t say it first before you saw some manifestation?
See, there wouldn’t be any way that you could use the principle of Mark 11, 23, unless you said it before it happened. Because the say in it and the believe in it came before the manifestation. So it is really a form of calling for things that are not.
The thing was not manifest. The mountain was still there. And then right here in the 17th chapter of Luke, Jesus says again something that is very important to this because he brings it down to a seed form in Luke the 17th chapter.
It began with verse 5 there. And you will find that he shares a secret that will absolutely transform your life if you get it. The apostles said unto the Lord, increase our faith.
Now notice, they asked for their faith to be increased. And the Lord said, if ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed. Now notice, he didn’t say the size of a mustard seed.
He said, if you had faith as a seed. Now what are we referring to when you talk about faith as a seed? faith that you’re willing to plant.
See a seed is not good for anything. If you had one seed, it wouldn’t be good for anything. You couldn’t take a wheat seed and make a pancake out of it, could you?
It’s not enough. But if you got enough sense to plant it, you’ll end up having enough seed to make a lot of pancakes. Now he said, if you had faith as a seed, you would say, you know why most people wouldn’t dare call for something that is not manifest?
Is because they don’t have faith as a seed. They don’t dare plant the seed of faith to cause the manifestation of what they desire to come. They stand back and prophesy that the thing is still standing there.
And if you say to the mountain, woo, mountain, you’re getting bigger, I’ll never get over you. You’ve always been there and you’ll always be there, I’ll never get over you. You’ll have exactly what you said.
It’s the same principle, you’re just working it in reverse. See, you’re calling things that are as though they are, and so they are. Now can you see that?
Why in the world would you wanna call it the way it is? When the Bible says, call it the way you want it, or call it the way the Bible says it should be. See, this is calling things that are not.
You call it in the manifestation by speaking the word of faith until that faith gets in you for the manifestation of that thing. Can you see that? We’re here in the 17th chapter now.
Let’s notice 17th chapter of Luke, we’re talking about calling things that are not. In verse six, the Lord said, if ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, or if you had faith as a seed, you might say, now the Greek says it different than this. This is the King James Bible.
The Greek says, ye would say, see stronger word, you would say into the sycamine tree, be plucked up by the roots, and be planted in the sea, and it would obey you. See, the King James says should. Now, the literal Greek, it’s translated different, and it should be translated, it would obey you.
See, it’s a stronger word. Should and would are two different things. He says it would obey you.
Now, let’s look at that for a minute. If you had faith as a seed, you would say. Now, that’ll tell you why a lot of people won’t dare say anything in faith, because they don’t have faith as a seed.
Thank you so much for joining us for the Concepts of faith broadcast today. I want to remind you all this week, we have a DVD offer number 7856, Calling Things That Are Not, a 60-minute DVD for $20 plus $4 postage and handling, a total of $24. Calling Things That Are Not.
Did you realize that this is a biblically sound principle in the Bible? In Romans the fourth chapter, the Apostle Paul talks about this, and he talks about God teaching Abraham to call things that are not. Verse 17, he says, As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
Now, God taught Abraham to call things that were not as though they were. Now, you know, Abraham never was fully persuaded, but the scripture says of Abraham that he was fully persuaded that what God had promised he was able to perform. God could not get Abraham to say what God said about him.
Now, he believed in the Lord, but Abraham believed God. The scripture says Abraham believed God. Now, there’s a lot of people that believe in the Lord, but they don’t believe what God said about him.
And when it comes to calling things that are not, you have to call for what is not manifest. And the scripture says, who against hope, referring to Abraham, who against hope, believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations. In other words, when there was no natural hope, no hope naturally, Abraham took what God said and began to say what God said about him.
And it produced hope. God’s word produces hope. Now that’s the problem with some of you.
You’ve lost hope. You have no hope. And you know, the Bible says, faith is the substance of things hoped for.
One translation says, giving substance to things hoped for. Well, if you have no hope, then there’s nothing for faith to give substance to. So it’s important to give voice to God’s word because it creates hope.
When you say what God said about you, that may be the only audible voice of God you will hear. And you know, that’s what God said. And you give voice to God’s word, and it does something to the human spirit that nothing else does.
Someone else can say what God says, but it does not produce inside you what happens when you say what God said, and you hear your voice with your own ears saying what God said. This is offer number 7856, DVD offer number 7856, Calling Things That Are Not. A 60-minute DVD for $20 plus $4 postage and handling, total of $24.
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Until tomorrow, this Charles Capps reminding you, the enemy is defeated. God is exalted, and Jesus is coming soon.
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