Possessing Your Mountain Pt. 3 - Dr. bill winston believer's walk of faith

>> male announcer: "The Believer's Walk of Faith" is paid for by Bill Winston Ministries partners and viewers. >> Bill Winston: He didn't need your ability. He needed your availability. Why? Because it's not of works, lest anyone would boast. And I'm telling you, in these last days, this is where the church is going to have to go to dominate. >> Bill: Hello, I'm Bill Winston. Welcome to another program. The program that you're watching is called the "Believer's Walk of Faith," where we walk by faith and not by sight. Well, as we continue this teaching on "Possessing Your Mountain," this is a part of our series on the power of love. Well, it's so important to understand that when we are in this place called our purpose, God puts us in one of the mountains, a mountain of maybe media, or the mountain of the family, the mountain of government, the mountain of education. Whatever mountain you're in, God's going to raise you up to the top. But remember, him raising you up in that mountain is not in your own ability. God doesn't need your ability, he needs your availability. Remember now, as God raises us up, we get greater opportunities. And as we get greater opportunities, it comes with greater dependency on God. See, he wants us to depend on him for everything. Remember what he said? The battle is not yours, it is God's. So, let's go right into today's teaching. It's called "Possessing Your Mountain." >> Bill: When I look at the church, I said three things, temptation, temptation, deception, and condemnation are the three things that Satan tries to operate in to keep us from being all that we're supposed to be. If he couldn't keep you from being born again, his job now is to keep us from occupying, from advancing until Jesus comes. And so, this idea of occupying I want to talk about because we've got to possess this land. And possess means to control it. So now, I was reading from a man's writing, and he was talking about cruise control. And that when you put a car on cruise control, then you can take your foot off the accelerator. And even if it's going down a hill, it will slow the car down to keep the car at the set number of miles per hour that the cruise control has been set. And that the enemy puts the church on cruise control to keep the church from increase. Exodus chapter 16, let's look at that. And over in Exodus chapter 16, this is when God's going to feed the people manna. I'm taking it slow because I want to cover some points here. And look what it said in verse 4, "Then said the Lord unto Moses, 'Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my ways, or law, or not.'" Now, the things of God basically are laws. And the kingdom is made up of them. And that the things that God does and the way God does it is already set. So now, what you and I have to do is learn God's laws. Because the way you increase in God is through sowing. Are you with me? Now, this is different from the world because the world, they don't do it like this. And so, what happens sometimes is people try to apply human logic to God's laws, and it doesn't fit. I'm coming back to Exodus. Please just leave your Bible right there. But in Colossians chapter 2 and verse 8, and put that up there in the Amplified, please, but in Colossians chapter 2, verse 8, this is a key Scripture for me. In Colossians 2:8, he says, "See to it that no one carries you off as spoil or makes you yourselves captives by his so-called philosophy and intellectualism and vain deceit (idle fancies and plain nonsense), following human tradition (men's ideas of the material rather than the spiritual world), just crude notions following the rudimentary and elemental teachings of the universe and disregarding [the teachings of] Christ (the Messiah)." Now, what is he saying? They're going by what they feel. They're going by what they think makes sense. But these things are antagonistic to the kingdom. And when that culture continues to flow into a darkness like this, there has to be some force that is strong enough to bring it back so that people can live. Because just violating laws will lead a person to death. It's not that he doesn't want folks to have fun. He wants them to have fun. But if you violate the laws in having fun--so what happens is the enemy's set up his own law, so he would take it and say that in our culture, living together before you get married makes sense because you don't want to buy a car until you test it out. Am I right about it? But in God's kingdom, come on, he is saying that you--it's okay to remain a ***. I'm just talking about laws now, I'm just talking about laws. Now, don't get under condemnation because I told you, that's one trick of the devil. "Well, I wasn't about--" Well, that's you. But we can teach our kids, we can teach the next generation, why? It's violating the law. It's violating the law. Hate enough, and eventually it'll come back on your health. Because you're violating the law. It's not that he doesn't want you to just violate the law. Hold unforgiveness? Watch this, eventually it'll put you in bondage. I'm saying that now I want to put this thing on cruise control because I want to stay right where I am, and that's not God's plan. God has already planned to grow you. He has already planned to increase you how much? More and more, keep going, you and your children. See, it's no time to put on the cruise control. It's time to put the pedal to the metal. Am I right about it? And what happens is people come and they're trying to get here by faith, "By grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's a gift of God. It's not of works, lest anyone would boast." So, we got to understand, wait a minute, this is not of works. That I didn't get saved by works. And watch this. I can't do what he's calling me to do by works. So, once I come into the kingdom, I've got to change my attitude and understand that no longer am I going to achieve, but I'm going to believe God to just receive. One more time. No longer am I going to achieve something. I'm not going to do it based on my performance. Abraham, now you're going to have a child. Now right then, Abraham said, "Wait a minute, thinking now. Now, I'm past the age of child-bearing." If you don't know what that means, it means I can't have sex no more, I'm gone. My point is that he had to wait until he--that Abraham couldn't have sex for him to give him a child through his body. He had to pick a man that was the dumbest of the bunch named Gideon because he didn't need your ability. He needed your availability. Why? Because it's not of works, lest anyone would boast. And I'm telling you, in these last days, this is where the church is going to have to go to dominate. Other than that, you're going to compete. And competing, you might lose. But when you dominate, there is no doubt about your victory. And that's what everybody's life--and that's everyone in here, so you have no excuse. I don't care what the excuses are because we come now with all these excuses, see. Whatever you got, God can override that. Say amen to that. He can put an anointing on you for victory that no man can deny. Why? Because you're going to re-cultivate the earth. You're going out here, and you're going to be fearless, and it's going to all be done by grace. Say amen to that. God's unmerited favor. And that, through faith, you access his grace, and that anything else that you need in this life, God has made it so that he's laid it up for you, and all you've got to do is receive. I said all you have to do is receive. Now, this is a key because the enemy's temptation is to get you back in your own ability. Thank God you went and got an education, but it didn't say an education makes room for you. It says the gift will. And that gift you didn't get in that classroom. You got that gift from Almighty God, and the Bible says in Romans 11 that it's without repentance. "Well, what about all that money I spent?" That's your money. But my point to you is that God doesn't want you to be able to boast, he doesn't want you to be able to say, "Well, I went to Harvard, that's why." He doesn't want--that's the world. And the world has done that and elevated those people, but there's a people who are without all of--many of the things that people have in the world. And they are coming in now, and they're coming, and God's going to use the people who were no people, and come and take back everything that was stolen in there. Come on now. And I'm not saying an education's bad, but an education is supposed to pull something out of you. Say amen to that. It's your gifting that he placed in you, and that education's supposed to help you surface that gift so you can work that gift, and that working that gift will improve that gift. And pretty soon, it'll raise you up in whatever environment you're in, make room for you, and make people see that there is a God in heaven, and he can raise you up. Say amen to that. Now, what am I saying here? One thing, so you can go where God's called you to do. And these things that I'm about to talk about are two of the main obstacles of receiving. One is lack of knowledge, lack of knowledge. Look what he said in Hosea chapter 4, verse 6. He said, "My people are destroyed for the lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you." And I'm just saying that one of the things that you've got to have is you've got to have knowledge of what God says is yours. Say amen to this. And that you don't have to earn it. I said you don't have to earn it. Now, you're saying, "I don't go to work." Well, I believe one of the reasons why the revelation of not having to earn something is there is because people--if God told them they didn't have to earn it anymore, they wouldn't go to work. And that is not why he doesn't want you to work is your assignment. That's where he's going to use you to either double up on your gift and also make room for you, so that people in that workplace will know who God really is. It said, "Let your light so shine among," who? Among men. He's leading you in there on purpose. But he's leading you into a battle you can't win. Let me talk to this side. He's leading you to a fight you can't win, not without him. But with him, you win every battle. There's not a battle at your job you can't win. Say amen to this. If it's performance, God will lay an anointing upon you that you will outperform anybody at that job. He laid a ten times better anointing on these Hebrews, and they outperformed everybody, including the sorcerers. I'm telling you, he can lay an anointing upon Moses, who said to God, "I can't talk." Then God made an orator out of him, say amen. So I'm saying don't say, "Wait a minute, I don't have this, I don't have that." No, what you don't have is knowledge. Because if you had knowledge of how God sees you and what God sees you doing, I'll tell you, it's almost too big for your thinking. Boy, I'm not going to say almost, it is too big. Folks, when you think in terms of what God has for you, you got to think large and lavish. I'm going to go to that again. When you think what God has for you, you better start thinking large and lavish. Folks, the church is supposed to be the biggest real estate owners in every city. Come on, come on, the church is--I'm not backing off. I'm telling you what you're supposed to be. I just had a man come up in the last service, he said, "Pastor, I heard you say that, and guess what?" He said, "We got a four flat." I said, "You and who?" "My wife." This young brother. I said, "Okay." He said, "Yeah, pastor, we did what you said. We listened to the Lord. He told us to go speak to him, then he goes to go, and we kept saying this, and kept saying this, and the realtor talked about, 'You really believe that stuff, don't you?' And he sees now we believe it because we got the property. Pastor, we got it." Listen, God knows--God knows that the enemy kept the money from you. He knows that he kept you in debt, he kept you paying bills, he kept you--he's kept you with limited funds. Listen, God says, "Come and buy with no money." That was Isaiah 55. Listen here, listen, where he sends you, he's going to provide for you. My point to you is you've got to have knowledge of how to access it. And the first bit of knowledge is that you don't work for this. This was Adam's from the start. And the devil took it, built on it, but everything he built is coming over to you. I said everything he's built is coming over to you. So, that's one obstacle. Another obstacle is capacity, capacity. Now, I don't know whether you know how big God sees you. I really don't know whether you know that. I got to stop right there. I really don't know whether you know what all he sees you with. Come on, I don't know--we've allowed people, associations, come on, help me now, mistakes that we made, we've allowed these things to marginalize our image of ourselves. Now, those days are over. I want you to take on an air of superiority. Now, I didn't say arrogance, I said superiority. Because when David came to the front line, he said, "Wait a minute, who is this big guy?" They said, "Go back there and keep those sheep." See, it's always somebody that don't want you to step up. And what you've got to do is you've got to keep listening to folk like me, and stop listening to Tylenol and this and that. I'm just saying, listen, nothing wrong with that, but I'm saying you've got to have more Word in you than you're hearing from the world. Because the devil will always give you something to say and something to do. And you've got to say, "Wait a minute, I need to go and get me a fresh dose." Now, when you get it, understand that God at some point wants you to--he wants you to wean you off of people, and put you on him. Glory to God, are you following what I'm saying? There is something that I said here, I said this. I said, glory to God, that God does not want us to take from him the privilege of working for us. He doesn't want you to take that privilege away. We used to sing a song down there in that old church, ♪ What a friend ♪ ♪ we have in Jesus. ♪ Come on, y'all also know I'm Baptist. ♪ All our sins ♪ ♪ and griefs to bear, ♪ ♪ what a privilege ♪ ♪ to carry everything ♪ ♪ to God in prayer. ♪♪ Now, listen to what I said. God does not want you to take away from him the privilege of working for you. See, we used to sing it, but then we ought to do it. We would sing it and just be just as broke. Now, say amen. So, God wants to move you and get your foot back on the accelerator. Say amen to that. He wants you to start moving ahead again. See, it'll be different if you had to pay for it or if you had to work for it. But you don't have to do any of that. All you've got to do is receive. When he said he's going to save you, what did you have to do? Receive him, that's all you had to do. When he said he's going to heal you, what did you have to do? I got to receive. What did he say? It doesn't make any difference, folks. It's right across the salvation board. Whatever there is in salvation, and he did everything for you, and he paid for everything, you just got to receive. So, the biggest thing we need to work on is our capacity to receive. And that's what Jabez prayed, "Lord, bless me indeed. Enlarge my territory, that your hand would be with me, and you'll keep me from evil." And I'm saying God is going to lead you from victory to victory because this is your season now. Listen, folks, we don't need to stay where we are. Your car has been on cruise. You've been saved and satisfied. This is not a time to be satisfied. We got things to do and places to go. And where he's taking you, it's going to be big stuff. Get ready for it, get ready. And don't say, "I don't need that." You do need that. Because if God needs it, you need it. So this is our time. And whatever comes against you, I'm not preaching this right now, but whatever comes against you, God's going to deal with it. Why? Because you're entering into the latter days. You're entering into a time that Jesus didn't preach. He just preached upon, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to preach the gospel," and so forth. And he closed the book and sat down. That was the end of his ministry, then he went to the Lord. But he sent back the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost says, "Okay, now it's time for my ministry." Now, he is under the Lord Jesus, the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost. But he's going to now have a different way of operating than Jesus did. Because when Ananias and Sapphira told a lie in church, they dropped dead under the ministry of the Holy Ghost. Oh, Lord have mercy. Listen, don't get scared, get glad because we are now being fortified with God's power, that we're going to go into places that men didn't go into. And see what they're doing, they're making the laws agree so that people think it's okay for same sex marriage because the law says it's okay. But God's law says it's wrong. And I'm saying you're not mad at people, you get mad at the devil, and going to change his laws. Because the man didn't make it. The devil made that law, and he's going to have to give it up. And I'm telling you, God will put his hand on somebody who's kind of acting kind of strange, and put his hand on him while he sleeps, and they'll wake up straight. Come on, is this the right bunch? Yeah. Now, we're not coming against anybody, ain't no hate or nothing like that. I'm just telling you what the God that you serve can do. Say amen. You see, you see, one of the big kings, Nebuchadnezzar, Darius or whoever it was, I think it was Nebuchadnezzar, he thought he was all that. So, he came talking about how big he is. And then a writing went on the wall, say, "Hey, you're going to be like an ox out there in the field." And he kind of shrugged it off. The next thing you know, something came on him, hair grew out of him, his nails grew out, he went out in the field and was crawling like an ox, and did it for 7 years until he acknowledged that Jesus is Lord. And when that happened, he came back, and God put him up again. God can take a man down, make him say, "Jesus is Lord," and put him back up. Now, that's the God you serve, and that's the God that's in you, and that's who's going with you into the battle. Give God some praise because we're going in. Hee, hee, hee, hee. We are going in. Hey, hey, hey. You've got to believe the love. That's all I was preaching. You've got to believe the love and receive the love. What God's got for you, you're going to have to enlarge your capacity to receive it. He got you in a place, this is according to his picture of you, that you can walk in a company and decree a thing, and it shall be established. That's the God that's in you. Believe the love, receive the love. >> announcer: Develop the seed of your faith and expand the borders of your capacity to reach your destiny in Pastor Winston's powerful, life changing teaching, "Possessing Your Mountain." To order on CD or DVD, contact us online at BillWinston.org, or by phone at 1-800-711-9327. When you operate in God's laws, you are going to get God's results as you step out to advance and boldly occupy in "Possessing Your Mountain." Order "Possessing Your Mountain" today. ...