Confession Without Revelation Equals Frustration: Know El Shaddai

Sermon outline

Confessing the Word is not enough: you need a personal revelation of God as El Shaddai, your all-sufficient provider, and that revelation ends worry and lifts you onto a higher plane of living.

1. God's Word is a mystery: confession without revelation equals frustration

   No one understands the Word without the anointing of the Holy Ghost, and even then you need rhema, supernatural revelation. Teaching and preaching under the anointing give instruction, instruction unfolds what was clouded, and the eyes of your spirit open to that one word so that you can walk in its light. Without that you repeat good Christian-sounding things that carry no power, and you end up saying the faith thing does not work.

   Illustration: Lazarus and the rich man: the rich man could feel, remember and speak after death, which shows that your spirit man has all the same faculties as your body, including eyes.

   “Confession of God's Word without revelation in your spirit will equal frustration.”

   • Luke 16:19-31
   • 1 Corinthians 2:14

2. You are a spirit first, and the Word is your spirit food

   The right order is spirit, soul and body. The natural man lives body first, but the born-again man or woman must not operate by the five senses. God created spirit food for the spirit man, and it is His Word, not tradition, human philosophy or psychology. Feed on it and your spirit grows until it dominates everything in your life.

   Illustration: Just before the service another pastor said something negative to him on the phone. It was true, but he sensed a spirit of fear coming through the words, and before he could reply he heard his spirit say, 'No, I will not take that in.'

   “A spiritual man, a spiritual woman lives on the diet of the word of God.”

   • Matthew 4:4
   • Deuteronomy 8:3
   • James 3:15-17

3. A higher plane: the centurion and authority exercised from far

   Laying hands on the sick is scriptural and right, but he calls it a lower level of faith. He asks the people to put themselves not in the shoes of the centurion, who made the demand, but in the shoes of the Master, who dispensed divine power over a place He could not see. This is what John G. Lake called Christian consciousness, where your thoughts are lifted until they become His thoughts. God has taken up residence in you, so you are God's address: when you step He steps, provided your thoughts and words agree with His Word, and binding and loosing has no geographical limit.

   Illustration: He points to a man standing at the back of the church to show how far away the sick servant was, while Jesus stood with only the centurion in front of Him.

   “Jesus took authority and controlled an environment he could not see with his eye, but could see with his spirit.”

   • Matthew 8:5-13
   • Isaiah 55:8-9
   • John 14:9
   • 2 Corinthians 5:20
   • Amos 3:3
   • Matthew 18:18-19

4. The moment you reason, you nullify God's Word

   When Jesus warned of the leaven of the Pharisees, the disciples reasoned that it was because they had brought no bread. That is what most people do when the Word is preached, and in the arena of the mind the Word is cancelled and they never walk on water. Jesus called them 'of little faith' and took them straight back to miracles they had witnessed first-hand: the five loaves and the five thousand, the seven loaves and the four thousand.

   Illustration: He likes that Jesus said 'large baskets', because some people reason the power out of the Scriptures and would say they must have been mini baskets.

   “And the moment you reason, you nullify God's word.”

   • Matthew 16:4
   • Matthew 16:6-12

5. Who do you say I am? A revelation of El Shaddai is the end of worry

   The question is not what the pastor, the elder or the cell leader says about God, but who you say He is. Serving Jesus and going to church are not what qualify you for an overcoming life; a revelation of His goodness, mercy and provision is. Peter's answer came from the Father, not from flesh and blood. Everyone walks in the name of his god, and when God revealed Himself to Abraham as the Almighty, hidden in it was the redemptive name El Shaddai, the many-breasted one, the nourisher: from that day Abraham never needed to worry about provision.

   Illustration: Sweating hands and people taking Gaviscon for their stomachs, all because they have not yet grasped who God is.

   “You are worrying because you have not had a revelation yet who God is.”

   • Matthew 16:13-17
   • Micah 4:5
   • Genesis 17:1

6. In the storm, train yourself to hear the voice of the Spirit

   Storms and hardships are real, because you are dealing with a real devil, and a storm can brew right in front of you as it did for the disciples in the boat. Many voices compete for your attention: human wisdom, the world, the news, the devil, your friends. You have to train yourself to dim the clutter, put your antenna up and catch the voice of the Spirit. He then sums up the path: mystery goes to instruction, instruction to revelation, and revelation gives wisdom and understanding of how to relate with God.

   Illustration: Jesus asleep in the boat while the disciples wake Him: 'Master, the storm, don't you care we're perishing?'

   “Now the one that you give attention to will give attention to you.”

   • Mark 4:35-41
   • John 10:27

7. El Shaddai, the all-bountiful supplier of all our needs

   Reading from his notes, he says the name stresses the providence of God over all creation: foresight, forethought and divine superintendence, with nature producing abundantly to supply every need in due season. There is no stinginess or meanness in God; He is committed to your progress. The world's economy is a Babylonian system built on human reasoning that leaves God out, and it is falling, but believers operate in an economy far beyond it. So when the talk at work is of retrenchment, walk above it, as Jesus did when He gave thanks over a little bread and fish.

   Illustration: Even if you are retrenched after all your declarations, say 'this is for my promotion', because God may be getting you to start a business.

   “Don't look for a way out. Look for a way in.”

   • Proverbs 4:7
   • Matthew 14:15-21

8. Place your story at the Master's feet: God is your source

   Make a quality decision to believe everything in your Bible and stop needing to know how; he calls this biblical economics, which makes no sense to the human mind. Everyone has a story, but if you place it at the Master's feet it stops being a test and becomes a testimony. A husband, a wife, children who have left home or a job were never your source. When medicine, the bank account, the salary or the contract fails you can turn to Him, so let God be God over your marriage, finances, business and body, and put your wavering to rest.

   Illustration: The book of Acts has no 'amen' at the end: God left it open, and we are still writing it by what we believe and how we walk.

   “Your husband is not the source. God is your source.”

   • Exodus 15:26
   • Psalm 3:3
   • Psalm 23:3
   • James 1:6-7