AMAZED BY HIS GLORY
IAN JOHNSON
Jun 29, 2005
"AMAZED by His Glory
Ian Johnson Papatoetoe NZ.
MARK 16: 15 And then he told them, "Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone, everywhere. 16 Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned. 17 These signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons in my name, and they will speak new languages.* 18 They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won’t hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick and heal them." 19 When the Lord Jesus had finished talking with them, he was taken up into heaven and sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 20 And the disciples went everywhere and preached, and the Lord worked with them, confirming what they said by many miraculous signs.
In a vision the Lord took me back to the time when the Apostle Thomas was preaching the Gospel in India. When He spoke the Lord confirmed his words with great signs and wonders in Healing, in Raising of the dead and in miraculous signs in the sky around him. This caught the people’s attention and the Gospel bore fruit. Even to this day in South India
The key to Mark 16 is the last verse & the Lord worked with them! When Peter & John were going to the temple as recorded in Acts 3, The Lord confirmed his Gospel by healing the man paralyzed since birth. Interestingly this man would have been in the temple court all of Jesus life, He would have seen Jesus come and go. But the Lord healed him as a sign & Wonder through the Apostles.
ACTS 3: 10 When they realized he was the lame beggar they had seen so often at the Beautiful Gate, they were absolutely astounded!
The one thing that is obvious through a study of the word Amazed in the Bible Is that wherever God turns up so does the word Amazed! Some would dismiss the workings of glory and signs and wonders in this age, but I would have to question the logic in the argument. Why after 6000 years of being Amazing does God now have to become politically correct and behave himself behind the four walls of religion? It is the role of Gods people to demonstrate to this world The God of Abraham Isaac & Jacob, Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit as He promised he would in John 16 in order that we would do the works that Jesus did and greater than these because He (Jesus) has gone to the Father! It is the role of Gods people to cause the people of this world to be amazed" As representatives of the Kingdom of God! Signs, wonders and manifestations of Glory Are sent to cause the people to be amazed at and by God!
Some time ago the Lord used us to minister to a Fijian woman named Mary, For seven years she had suffered illness, and it had reached a point where she was near death and very weak. Her husband Elias had undertaken with Mary a Journey to visit a witch doctor they travelled by bus and had come to a cross road and needed to change buses, This was the village I was ministering in, I was walking back from an afternoon stroll on the beach preparing for the evening crusade, when I saw them, Mary laying very weak on a Palm mat unable to lift her head, I enquired about her and her husband told me the story, I offered to pray, They were not Christians. Elias asked Mary who agreed and she received a Miracle! They were Amazed! They didn’t travel on to the witch doctor but stayed for the crusade and were saved, but the miracle didn’t stop here. That night Mary told me she had been married for seven years and had not been able to conceive a child because of her illness. Jesus healed her womb and 10 months later I received a letter to tell me that Mary had bore a Son! The People were Amazed!
When Peter and John saw the man at the gate Beautiful healed, the amazement that followed caused a turning to Jesus, It was a demonstration of Gods Glory! People were saved and it gave the Apostles a chance to preach Jesus! When Mary was healed in Fiji, it created a window of opportunity to proclaim the greatness of Jesus and people were saved. Never before has there been a need for a demonstration of Gods glory as in this hour! Signs and wonders are the tool God uses to amaze people into the kingdom!
The critics say, "There is too much emphasis on the Signs" but the signs are there to point people to Jesus and to create a window of opportunity for the Gospel to be preached. Too often the Signs and wonders that God sends are wasted by preachers and individuals who neglect to see the window or don’t know that the window is given to reach the lost. The signs are not for the believers to hold to themselves; rather the signs are for the lost, the doubters and the backslider to turn again and follow the King of Glory.
Jesus came and for 3.5 years of ministry caused people to be amazed. Look at the following examples of the master
AMAZED AT HIS TEACHING MATT 7:28-29 After Jesus finished speaking, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 for he taught as one who had real authority—quite unlike the teachers of religious law. Jesus revealed the Living God in an open demonstration of revelation straight from the throne room, It is recorded that He never said anything unless he had first heard the Father speak it. When he spoke he spoke and taught from the throne room. Holy Spirit empowers us to hear straight from the throne also, if we will listen. You have the opportunity to release this revelation glory into the earth also, The people will be amazed. These things shall ye do and greater than these!
AMAZED AT HIS POWER When He Calms the Storm MATT 8:27
26 And Jesus answered, "Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!" Then he stood up and rebuked the wind and waves, and suddenly all was calm. 27 The disciples were amazed "Who is this?" they asked themselves. "Even the wind and waves obey him!"
Jesus demonstrated the His glory, with words of faith, with a command, Renny McLean in his book Eternity invading time says "The force of faith is launched in words, like a missile from the mouth of the believer, to fulfil its task, and will conquer the impossible barriers of time and space to get its mission accomplished." Isaiah says "Gods word will go forth and accomplish that which it is sent forth to do" The Power of God is a release of this word into time and space. The people will be amazed!
AMAZED WHEN HE CAST OUT A MUTE & Blind SPIRIT MATT 9:32-33 32 When they left, some people brought to him a man who couldn’t speak because he was possessed by a demon. 33 So Jesus cast out the demon, and instantly the man could talk. The crowds WERE AMAZED. "Nothing like this has ever happened in Israel!" they exclaimed.
MATT 12: 22 Then a demon-possessed man, who was both blind and unable to talk, was brought to Jesus. He healed the man so that he could both speak and see. 23 The crowd was amazed. "Could it be that Jesus is the Son of David, the Messiah?" they wondered out loud. The demons know who Jesus is and also know that they must obey him. This Glory will cause the people to be amazed. When I was in India last year a young woman was brought to the meeting as we were conducting a Pastors conference, the young woman was a university graduate but had become possessed by demons and would go about grunting and growling, and when she did speak she had the voice of a man. At one stage the demons cried out and said even if 100 pastors pray we will not leave! One by one the demons were cast out in Jesus name and when the final one came out with a scream she fell to the floor, when she got up she was restored to her right mind! The people were amazed!
In our Papatoetoe Glory meeting last year a man came in very confused and obviously demon possessed, A cloud of Glory filled the front of the room and the man came forward and as he entered the cloud fell to the floor and was delivered on the spot! The people were amazed, The fruit of this is still evident in this mans life, he is totally changed.
AMAZED WHEN JESUS DEMONSTRATED HIS POWER OVER TIME & NATURE
MATT 21:18 In the morning, as Jesus was returning to Jerusalem, he was hungry, 19 and he noticed a fig tree beside the road. He went over to see if there were any figs on it, but there were only leaves. Then he said to it, "May you never bear fruit again!" And immediately the fig tree withered up. 20 The disciples were amazed when they saw this and asked, "How did the fig tree wither so quickly?"
Time is not a measure of the eternal or glory realm but it is a measure of the natural realm, although we live in the natural realm, our home is in fact the glory realm, Jesus caused an instant change in the fig tree, He moved outside the natural realm and spoke, Time is not a native in this realm so the change in the fig tree was instant. God wants us to live in this realm also, in doing so we will be amazed at the instant transformations that occur.
AMAZED AT HIS WISDOM
"Whom are you trying to fool with your trick questions? 19 Here, show me the Roman coin used for the tax." When they handed him the coin,* 20 he asked, "Whose picture and title are stamped on it?" 21 "Caesar’s," they replied. "Well, then," he said, "give to Caesar what belongs to him. But everything that belongs to God must be given to God." 22 His reply amazed them, and they went away.
One of the gifts of the Spirit listed in 1 Cor 13 is the word of wisdom & the word of Knowledge, these gifts are for the release of the window that I spoke of before, because in the instant that God through a word of knowledge reveals something that only he could know about a person, the window of salvation is opened, we must learn to use these gifts in the market place on a regular basis. The people will be amazed!
Amazed when Jesus rose from the dead! luke24 :22 Then some women from our group of his followers were at his tomb early this morning, and they came back with an amazing report. 23 They said his body was missing, and they had seen angels who told them Jesus is alive!
The thing that we as Christians have, that no other religion has, is we serve a living God! The God who raised Jesus from the dead now dwells in your mortal body. The resurrection power of Jesus is also yours, because he was the first fruit from the dead! The wonderful thing about being a Christian is that we cant loose! Even if we are killed for our faith we will live forever with him! So if we live or if we die we have victory! We can’t loose! It’s amazing.
AMAZED WHEN THEY SAW THAT HIS FOLLWERS NOW MOVED IN HIS POWER
ACTS 4:13 The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men who had had no special training.
Jesus transforms ordinary men and woman into extraordinary super heroes of faith, this is Gods doing and it is marvellous in our sight! Remember, Jesus said these things shall ye do and greater! Don’t hold back any longer behind the four walls of religion, but break loose into the freedom of the kingdom of God, which is a demonstration of power and Glory, all this to cause men, woman and children to be amazed and to open windows of his glory in the outposts of darkness, that the light of His salvation might flow through.
Be Amazed be very Amazed!
www.papelim.org.nz His Amazing Glory Ministries Aucklnad New Zealand
