Converted from "PROMISE.TXT"

The Death of a Promise (Part 1) {transcribed from audio}

He teaches us His ways. It's a wonderful thing to know His ways. And we are all learning that. He's been blessing me with some truths and some teachings, the Holy Ghost has been teaching me and I had no intention of preaching it, because I thought it was just for me. But then I felt that like ..those lepers that came upon all that good stuff and said you can't keep it to yourself. So I think I'm gonna share it tonight

The death of a promise, the death of a promise

I hope that some of you will understand the ways of the Lord better tonight. And you will leave here deeply, greatly encouraged by the truth of the Word. Would you go to Romans the fourth chapter, please ? Romans 4..We will read one verse and then we'll get right into the Word of God. Romans the fourth chapter. verse 19, please. Speaking of Abraham, verse 19

"And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body, now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb: "

Let's pray. Holy Spirit, I thank You for truth that sets free. You said, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. Lord, you have put something in my heart that has freed my spirit. Truly freed my spirit, concerning many many things in my life and what You've said to me and I pray God that You will cause that freedom to spread to this congregation tonight. Lord, I ask you to sanctify me, holy before the throne through the blood of Jesus. Lord, let me speak as a pure vessel, honest and righteous before You, not my own righteousness but Your righteousness. And, O God, I pray, that the words You put in this shepherd's heart tonight will be of a blessing and encouragement to those who have heard a promise from You and have not seen it fulfilled yet. O God, speak clearly. Lord, help it to come. You have made it a part of my life and blessed me with it, now bless the people with it. I pray in Jesus name. Amen

The Death of a Promise

I want to share with you a Bible principle tonight that I hope will help you better understand why God has not yet answered your special prayer, or He has not given you the promise that He made to you at one time, a very special promise. Let me ask you a question. Did God make you a promise ? Now I'm not talking about the general promises in the Book. All those who walk righteously before God, all those who know Him as Lord and Saviour, He speaks to, He gives promises, He talks about the future. He will lay out before you His precious Word. It's all through the Scripture. It's not wrong, folks, it's not wrong to desire something special that can make you more fulfilled and more efficient in the work of God, in your home life, in your family life. It is not wicked, it is not unscriptural to desire good things, especially having to do with the work of God. A blessing, a work. Has God spoken to you about a blessing that He's going to bring ? Did He talk to you about a special work that He has for you ? Did He speak to you about the salvation of your family or friend ? What was that special word that came to you way back somewhere and you knew it was God ? He caused you to hope on that word, He caused it to be a part of your very life. You KNOW that you KNOW that you KNOW that God made you a promise.

The Bible says "Delight thyself in the LORD and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart." And in Proverbs 10:24, "The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him; but the desire of the righteous shall be granted." The desire of the righteous shall be granted. David boasted, "Thou hast given me my heart's desire, and You have not withheld the request of my lips." You gave me what I asked for, David said. The Bible says, "The desire of the righteous is only good." But Proverbs 13:12 says, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire cometh, it's a tree of life."

Folks, many of you are at this place called deferred hope. God spoke to you, He gave you a promise, and it has been delayed, and it has been delayed, and now you're at the place where you have almost given up hope. You've become discouraged, and the question arises, "O God, did I hear You right ? I thought I heard from You. I know You made me a very special promise. You spoke clearly to my heart. You caused me to hope on the word that I received. But I see no sign of it happening, I see no evidence of it happening. This brings me to the point and the heart of my message: Listen closely, because this is a biblical principle. You'll find it all through the Book. Now listen closely, and if you hear this in the Spirit it will change your life. It'll bring an understanding to you about the ways of the Lord. The Holy Spirit sent this to me, and has been working it for about two weeks into my very being, and, oh, the blessed hope that it's given to me. Listen clearly.

IT IS AN INEVITABLE PRINCIPLE OF GOD, WHEN GOD INTENDS TO FULFILL HIS PROMISE BY BRINGING ABOUT A SPECIAL BLESSING OR SPECIAL PROMISE TO YOU, WHEN GOD'S ABOUT TO FULFILL IT, WHEN HE FULLY INTENDS TO BRING IT TO PASS, HE FIRST PUTS A SENTENCE OF DEATH ON THAT PROMISE, AND NOT ONLY A SENTENCE OF DEATH ON THE PROMISE, BUT A SENTENCE OF DEATH ON ALL THE WAYS AND MEANS BY WHICH THAT PROMISE CAN BE FULFILLED.

He brings total death to it. And till you understand that principle, you'll live in turmoil the rest of your life. You cannot begin to understand the ways of God whatsoever unless you understand this divine principle. God will allow it appear that your promise is absolutely dead and every possible way of its being fulfilled cannot be implemented. It's absolutely impossible. God has revealed this principle all through the Scripture. You show me any saint of God in this Book, who was given a great promise, and I'll show you God rolling death in on it. Before He fulfilled it. And making it seem absolutely impossible that that promise could ever be resurrected.

Now I want you to follow me very closely. Now let's consider first of all, Abraham, that great marvellous promise God gave to him. We're all very much aware of it. It's Genesis 12:2 -- And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; -- This is a great promise, that's he's gonna have a son, that he is going to have children. And that means he's going to have offspring. He's 75 at the time. He is very capable, his sources have not dried up. This man is capable of bearing children, because he gave birth to an Ishmael. We know that. His wife is 10 years younger, she's 65, and her womb is not shut. This sounds like a very doable promise, it's within means, it's possible because he was still able to bear. He was not dead. She was not dead. It's very doable. It's a wonderful promise.

And it's a wonderful thing when God makes us a promise, because we set about to just wait in faith and say "It's going to happen anytime. I praise God I have a promise." Sarah and Abraham looked excitedly every year for that child to come. He was waiting for the day when his wife would come in and say, "Guess what, honey ? I'm pregnant." And it didn't happen. And a year goes by, and two years goes by, and three years go by. And the years go by. Finally, it comes to a place where Abraham is saying to God, the years roll by, and he says, "O God" (I know this is the way he's thinking, because I know human nature) He's saying, "You had better hurry up or it is going to be too late. This thing is going to die. And it is not going to matter. Lord, where is the promise ? "

And what does God do ? He rolls death in. He puts a sentence of death on that promise. Abraham is now 100 years old, and his wife is 90. And the Lord comes to him and says, "You're going to have a child ! " And he says, "Too late, Lord." That's what he says at first in his mind. Now we know that he recovered in his faith. But you see, God rolled death in on the promise. And he rolled death in on all the ways and means by which that promise is to be fulfilled. Because the ways and the means was a womb that was alive, and the womb is dead. So not only the promises, all the possibilities of making it happen die. God rolled death, God put the sentence of death on the promise and on all the ways and means by which it could happen. And to the human mind God waited too long. To the human mind, it was too late, it's all over.

Beloved, God was not late. God was right on time. And He is never one minute late on His promises. He knows EXACTLY when to fulfill it. But He will never fulfill it until death is rolled in on it. And we will understand why before the message is over.

Consider Joseph with me, if you will, please. I've been going all through the Scripture watching this and seeing it, and being blessed by it. What a great and very special promise is given to this man ! The Bible says his sheaf should be higher than all the other sheaves, the sheaves of his brethren. "The sheaves of thine brothers should all bow down to thine. The sun and the moon will bow down before you, your father and your mother." And, folks, this was literally fulfilled before his eyes, when his 11 brothers come and bow down their face before him, trying to get grain for their families. The whole thing was fulfilled to the letter. But before it was fulfilled, what did God do ? He rolled death, He sentenced the promise to death, and all the possibilities of it ever being fulfilled. He is sold as a slave into Egypt, he is imprisoned, he is forgotten, he knows nobody, he doesn't know the language, he gives up all hope of ever seeing his family again, he's given by Pharoah an Egyptian wife, he has Egyptian-born children. And finally, the vision is dead. The vision is gone, there is no hope. The Bible says, till his promise came, the word of the Lord tried him. It came to the place where, I believe, Joseph did not understand at all, and absolutely laid the vision, laid the promise aside.

Until one day, one of his co-workers comes to him and says, "There are eleven Hebrew men that have come a long distance and they are wanting to buy grain." And something perks up in Joseph's mind, and he goes out, and he suddenly realizes after a short conversation that these are his brothers and they are kneeling before him. Suddenly, the lights go on ! The promise ! The promise ! It's not dead, God sent me here to save them ! He sends for his mother and father, and they come bowing before him. And Joseph later reveals, "This was the working of God, God sent me here to save a posterity." The promise was at work all the time. But first, God sentences it to death and every possible means by which it could be fulfilled. Hallejah ! one day, unexpectedly, suddenly, it happens.

Consider the incredible promise made to David. Remember Saul is bypassed now, he's lost the annointing and the kingdom, and Samuel is told, Go, annoint David. He takes David aside, takes the cruse of oil, pours it over his head, prophesies over him. And not only that, I believe he took him aside, told him all about the work of God. The Spirit of God comes on that young man. What an incredible promise to give a young man just out of his teens. That he's going to the king of Israel. What a promise ! I'm going to be king of Israel. I don't know what that did. God must have trusted him, he was a humble young man. But what does God do with that promise ? He sentences it to death, and every conceivable way it could be fulfilled. You find David next hiding in caves. You see Saul chasing him like an hunted animal. He is chased, he is reproached, he is mocked, he is ridiculed, he is persecuted, he loses touch with his family, he loses touch with all those he knew, he loses respect of his nation and people, and he is hiding in a cave, he's running for his life. And if you caught David at Ziglag, he's lost his family, he's lost everything, his houses burnt. And he stands there, his co-workers wanting to stone him. And you go up to him and say, "David, what about that promise ?" Promise ? Do I look like a king ? I can't even handle a bunch of rebels, how can I handle a kingdom ? Do I look like a king ? Where's my palace ? My house is burnt, everything is gone.

David in his despair...we say foolish things when we think the promises have failed. We say stupid and foolish things. David said, "In my haste, I said all men are liars." He's talking about Samuel. Samuel told me I was going to be king. Look at me. All men are liars. You go up and ask him. What promise ? King of Israel ? I'm a fugitive. I'm not a king. It's dead, it's gone, it's hopeless. There is no possible way. All the possible ways that it could be fulfilled are gone. But did God make a mistake ? Was the promise dead ? Did God keep His word to David ? Did David ever sit on the king's throne ? Hallejah ! But first death was rolled in to make it appear dead so that God would be all the more glorified when it happened=.

How about Job ? What a holy, righteous man he is. This man is very comfortable, he is raising his family in the fear of God, he is highly esteemed and prosperous. And suddenly God rolls in death on everything. He's on the ashheap now, everything seems to be gone, he's lost blessings, a sentence of death upon all of his comforts, everything he possessed, and to the human mind, Job's a dead man. Everywhere you look it's death. No possible way for him to recover, but God made him a promise.

The Scripture says, "And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, so the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning" even in his children and everything he had, God kept His word to this holy man. Hallejah ! The promises were fulfilled doubly.

I want to show you something I saw in Revelations. I want you to go to the 11th chapter of Revelations, I want to show you something. How God first rolls in death, He sentences the promise to death. Revelations 11:11. This is about the two witnesses. "And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them." Now the two great witnesses there, and they bring fear to the whole earth. And they have witnessed and the whole earth fears them. These are two witnesses, powerful witnesses. But before they bring this message that shakes the whole earth, before they ascended into glory, look what happens to them. Look at verse 7 -- "And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves."

Now, folks, look at this please. God sentence death on these witnesses, but out of the grave, out of death, these witnesses which shake the entire globe, out of death. There is resurrection. Friends, that what redemption is. The word "redemption" means "brought out of death." This is how God works, all the time. He brings joy out of sorrow, He redeems peace out of conflict, He redeems beauty out of ashes, He redeems health out of disease, He redeems liberty out of captivity, assurance out of doubt and unbelief.

This is the way we can enter, as Paul says, that we may know Him and the fellowship of His sufferings and the power of His resurrection. This is how we do it. He sentences the death, and then out of that death He brings resurrection, and we become a partaker of His resurrection power. We realize that only resurrection power can do it. And we've gone through the suffering and the death. We've seen every possibility, we've suffered through the deaths of all the possibilities of it happening, and now suddenly we are sharing in the power of the resurrection and fellowship of His suffering. Hallejah ! Now God takes us the way of death that we may learn to trust Him alone. The Scripture says "But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead." That is why God sentences it to death, that we may not trust in any human resource, we will not trust in man's ways, we will not trust in any human flesh. But we are cast completely on trusting the Lord.

There's a very unique Scripture the Lord brought to mind this afternoon. 1 Timothy 5:5 -- "She that is a widow and desolate, trussteth the Lord, trusteth in God." That word "desolate" there means devastated, lonely, feeling rejected, and deserted and hopeless. And what the Bible says is when this person is brought down, losing the comfort and hope and has suffered rejection and loneliness and at the end of themselves and death is rolled in, then they trust in God. That's the purpose of it. To cast you whole-heartedly onto faith and reliance on the Lord. Giving up on all human ability, all human resources. It's said that no man can learn to swim if he can touch bottom. As long as you can touch bottom and trust in the bottom, you'll never swim. You have to get out into the deeper waters before you cast yourself and commit yourself, either sink or swim. And that's what's happening to many of us, we're always touching bottom, we want something to fall back on. We're afraid to swim out into faith and believe His promises. God's going to take the bottom out. He takes the bottom out, so that we're cast completely into His care. The prophet Habbakkuk was absolutely stunned. The Lord had given him a revelation of a revival. Said, "I want to bless and I want to revive." And if you read the last chapter of Habbakkuk, you find him absolutely stunned and fear, because of what he's seeing, the vision he's seeing, God is taking away everything in His path, afflictions, and the mountains are trembling, and the sun and the moon are standing still, and the seasons are being changed, and there's trampling of the nations and devouring of the poor, and in the middle of it, he cries out, "When I heard it, my belly trembled, my lips quivered at the voice, rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble." Here's death on his promise, absolute death. Everything opposite to what he heard and believed. He thought revival was coming, he's preaching revival. And instead affliction and pestilence. B

ut suddenly he stands up in faith, because God is showing him something. The prophet stands up, in the middle of all this, he says, "I'm not going to look on the circumstances, I'm not going to look on what I see with my eyes. I know what God said." And then he says this, "Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the field shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hind's feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places." He can say, Praise God, I've heard a word from the Lord, I don't care how dark it is, revival is coming. Though all he could see was death.

Why does God give us a special promise and then put a sentence of death upon it ? We're given a promise, and we expect it shortly to come to pass, and then it's delayed and delayed till finally we say, Lord, why did You ever speak it in the first place, why did You cause me to hope on it ? The reason He gives us the promise, He wants to give us an anchor or a cable to hold the ship when the storms come. He knows you're going to go into a storm, I know you're going to be tested in your faith. Everybody that loves Jesus, everybody headed for heaven is going to be tested. You're going through a storm, you may not be in one now, wait till tommorrow, it's coming, you can be sure the storm, the testing is going to come. Everybody. And the Lord says, "I know what you're going to face, I know you're going to face rejection, I know you're going to face misunderstanding, I know people are going to turn on you, even family is going to turn on you, you're going to go through doubt and fear, the boat is going to shake, but I give you an anchor.

God give us a promise that He intends to be an anchor of hope to hold us through every single storm we go through. It's a cable, it's an anchor. Instead of resting on the promise when the storm hits, when times get dark and it seem hopeless and all means and ability seem to be gone that's when we speak these harsh things, like David did. "Is His mercy completely gone ? Does His promise fail forever more ? " Is God never going to fulfill His promise ? It's a promise to anchor your faith, to hold you steady in your faith.

Let me ask you another question. Did you receive a very special promise from the Lord in your life ? Now this promise, I'm talking about something personal, a desire of your heart. And does it look like its dead ? Does it look desolate, as far as any means or ways by which God can do it ? Are things getting worse instead of better ? God is in the process of fulfilling the promise, but before He fulfills it He has to sentence it to death.

Now do you understand that principle now ? How many are getting it ? How many understand that principle, that God must first put the sentence of death in it ? How can you know, listen closely, how can you know, how can you be sure that God's going to resurrect and raise your promise and bring it to pass ? There are ways you can absolutely be positive that the promise you've heard..

Now, folks, there are promises that people hear in their heads that are not from God. There are promises that are just absolutely from the devil. I had a young minister years ago tell me that God told him, he was 30 some years old, and he was very known young evangelist, and he lived near me, and he said, God told me I'm going to live to see all my grandchildren. The only problem, he had a bitter spirit. And he had a bitter spirit on him when he heard the promise. He hadn't been talking to me in four months, and, in fact, he said, "I don't think I'll ever talk to you again, Brother Dave." He was so angry at me. He was angry at everybody. He had an angry spirit. And when he entered the pulpit, the anger would come out. If I named him, everybody here would know his name. He died in a plane crash shortly after..just died. Promise never did come to pass.

Folks, if you're living in sin, if you're living in bitterness, if God told you to obey Him in certain things and you're not doing it, don't wait for that promise to come pass. Get into obedience. Obey God. Folks, the promise I'm talking about comes to those who truly know His heart, and you're walking with Him. I know there are some people locked into a hopeless marriage and they come to church and they hear a voice, "He's going to die. You're going to get a young girl, man." Now, folks, I believe God can say anything to the heart that has to do with future, and He's faithful to those who walk before Him. I'm talking about those who walk in foolishness, and their own desires take on a voice. Their own desires, have never been yielded, have not been submitted to the Lord, and that person has not said, Thy will be done, and not mine. Folks, the only ones who can believe God for promises are those who say, Not my will, Lord, but thine.

But let me tell you how you can know God's going to resurrect your promise from the death. Folks, it's really not dead, it's sleeping. Remember, they said, "She's dead," and the Lord said, "She's sleeping" ? The promise looks dead but it's only sleeping. How can you tell God's going to raise it up ? Oh, hallejah ! this blesses me now. Here's the good part.

Everybody ready ? You can be persuaded that a promise is going to fulfilled, absolutely fulfilled, by the frequent visitation of the promise to your soul. By God having it keep knocking on the door. You can't get rid of it, God keeps sending it back, reminding you. Until finally, it's there, you live with it, the promise; it becomes a settled issue, I know it, I know it; because God keeps sending the Holy Ghost back to my heart, knocking on the door, reminding me of the promise; He speaks it over and over and over again. Hallejah !

I found a wonderful promise today. It just blew my mind. Today I was studying on Moses, looking at Moses, how God rolled in death. In his last sermon, his last message to Israel, he says this, it's very powerful, amazing words. "The good will of Him who dwelt in the bush be with you..The good will of Him that dwelt in the bush be with you." I said, What's that mean ? The Lord said, This is the promise, this is where he got his promise, he was at the burning bush, when God said, I'm going to send you and you're going to be a deliverer of Israel out of bondage. God spoke to him there. And, folks, to his dying day, he's finally saying to Israel, he said, "I want God to bless you with a promise that will keep you, like mine was kept. I had the burning bush before me all the days of my life. God fulfilled it, the burning bush, that's where I got my promise. I've never came back, God brought it back to me every day, He visited every day, every time I had a problem, every time there were doubts and fear, He took me back to the burning bush. He took me back to the promise.

You'll know it because God will keep by His Spirit knocking on the door, reminding you of what He said. Tell me God made you a promise your family, your son, your daughter, your husband, wife, your mother, your father are going to be saved. Well, I tell you, if God gave you that word, He will never let it go..He will bring it back, no matter how dark it gets, no matter how hard they may get.. The promise will keep coming and coming and coming at you. Glory to God !

Secondly, you can be persuaded the promise is going to be fulfilled by the little interim miracles and mercies of God that have to do with the same matter as the answer itself.

Let me give you an example. David has a promise and he is being chased. The promise looks hopeless, but God shows him these little mercies all along that show him that God is with him and the promise is going to be fulfilled. Because he goes this way on the mountain and here comes Saul the other way, on the top of the mountain. And they don't even meet. One day David goes into a cave, sleeping way back deep in the cave, and he hears a noise, and his men came running back, saying, Guess what ? Saul and his group and they are asleep in the front of the mouth of the cave ! God has sent deliverance ! an interim blessing, first fruits of the promise. He always gives you the first fruits, He gives you a taste of what He's going to do, to keep you encouraged in your faith. Here's the test for David. Is he going to take matters into his own hands and make the promise come true ? God said, I'm going to be king, here it is, He's laid it right in my lap. Is David going to take matters into his own hands ? Is he going to use the flesh to fulfill the promises of God ? No, because God allowed this to happen, because He knew David's heart, He knew David wouldn't touch it. But what he's trying to say to David, "David, look. Look how weak the enemy is. Look how weak the devil is. Look how any moment, at any time I can make it happen. I want you to know David went out of that cave rejoicing, he knew "It's going to happen, it's going to happen, I could have killed him but God's going to kill him in His time and His way, I don't have to touch it. God's going to fulfill His promise." Because he got his interim blessings, he got the firstfruits of the promise. Hallejah ! Some of you are getting firstfruits of the promise right now. Little miracles, little things God is doing that assures you that the promise is coming. Hallejah !

Now finally, just before the fulfillment of the promise, there will come the darkest hour of all. I've always said the hardest part of faith is the last half-hour. The worst storm will break on you just prior to the coming of the promise. Now, let me read this to you, from Acts 7:17 -- "When the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt. Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph. The same dealt subtilly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live." Now look what it says. It's time for the promise given to Abraham to be fulfilled. The time is come. God says, This is it. And the children of Israel at that time, their population begins to explode. There were many children and young men growing up, and I know, I know in my heart and I feel it in the Spirit that the priests and the princes of Israel were saying at that time, Just a few more years, give us 10 years, when all these children and young men, we've got an army, we've outstripped them in population, God's promised us deliverance. It's those who believed the word of God and knew the covenant promises of Abraham were saying, This is going to be our deliverance, we're going to have an army of young men, and we will make our own weapons secretly, and we will overpower the Egyptians and we'll take over Egypt.

God rolls in death. Remember all the firstborn die. That army they're trusting in is gone. All the ways and means by which their minds conjure that God can do it. All of the human resources are gone becaue that army is now in the grave. But there is something happens the moment we read that a Pharaoh arose who didn't know Joseph, at the same time these amzing words are spoken, In which time Moses was born. Pharoah came, a new Pharoah, in which time Moses was born. Now get the picture please. Here are the children of Israel before their burning ovens, and here's a man before the burning bush. God is bringing everything, dovetailing it all together. How could they know when they are losing hope, how could they know when they had given up all hope of deliverance, that right now God is working on this man, God's training a deliverer and at the EXACT TIME, the EXACT DAY, the EXACT HOUR, God is going to answer and bring forth the promise.

The Scripture makes it clear, And it came to pass, at the end of 430 years, even the self-same day, it came to pass that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. If Moses had come one week earlier, they would have not all wanted to leave. Because God had to make them so miserable, they would run out of the land. He had to send a man to make it miserable. He had to wean them away from Egypt. And what's happening right now, before God fulfills the promise, He has to wean us from all confidence in the flesh, all confindence in anything else, until finally we say, " O God, You are my only hope, sink or swim, live or die, I believe Your word, I believe Your word "

One last promise before I close. Hallejah, I know this to be true, I can say it with Joshua, "Not one thing hath failed which the LORD our God spoke concerning you. All have come to pass to you, and not one thing has failed thereof. Joshua says, There failed nothing of any good thing that the LORD has spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass. All came to pass. I stand here and tell you now, that I don't know of one thing in my life that He promised me that He hasn't fulfilled. Every promise He's made me has come to pass. Now He has checked out my promises, He's made me jettison some that I knew were of the flesh. But every one that was born of the Spirit of God has been fulfilled. I close with an example.

We've been negotiating for a year and a half for this space above Beef Steak Charlie's. 3 floors up there, 63, 000 square feet we need desparately. And, folks, God made me a promise one day. I was standing right on the corner and God said, I'm going to give you all three floors to this church. All three floors. And faith rose in my heart. So I went after it. I went to the owner and started negotiating. And we negotiated and negotiated and it would look like it would happen and it would fall. It would come apart. We had 4 or 5 deals that just collapsed. Finally I gave up. It's no use. I just laid it down and walked away. And the Lord said, Let it die, let it die. Then the Lord spoke to my heart, I made you a promise, David. All three floors. And no matter what you see, no matter what you hear about them leasing any of the floors, you're not going to get one floor, or two floors, you're going to get three floors. You're going to get it all. But you wait until the owner calls you. And the day he calls you, you will know that it's time, it's the promise being fulfilled. I waited and waited for months, I would go into the office every day, and I would say," Any calls, any calls for me ? " Soon as I go out again, Any calls ? One day, I walked in about a month ago.. "Any calls ?" "Oh, yeah, there's one that's been here about a day or so." A day or so ? It was the man ! This is what I've been waiting for. I got on the phone and said, "I've been waiting for you" I said, "You may not understand this, but God told me you would call, when you're ready to do business." He said, "There's only one problem. We've already leased the top floor." I said, "It's no good. God told us we would get all three." It looked dead again. 2 days later a call. The people who had signed the lease withdrew. And God had fulfilled the promise. He sentenced it to death, all possible means of it ever happening, and resurrected it. He does that so He gets the greater glory. He does that so we learn to trust Him. And God said, If you can trust me with that, you can trust me with everything. I'm teaching you how to trust me, and He's going to give us all kinds of oppurtunities to learn to trust Him. He'll roll in death on so many things until we learn to trust Him. And when we learn to trust Him, oh Hallejah, that's when the promises come. Will you believe God tonight that He's going to fulfill the promise ?

Are you experiencing tonight the darkest part of the whole experience ? The most hopeless it's been, the darkest it's been ? Rejoice ! It's closer than you've ever been. Let's stand.

well, I said, "This is for me" Is it for anybody else ? Hallejah ! what wonderful ways of the Lord ! How faithful He is ! He wants to assure you tonight, that He knows right where you're at. How many believe God's not sleeping on the job ? No, He's not. How many believe He knows right where you're at ? He's knows everything about you. Hasn't He heard the very thoughts, let alone the cry of your heart ?

There's a sister in this church. I believe God's going to hear her cry. She's been asking God for an apartment, because she has 6 children, and she lives with her mother in one room with 6 children. I know God's going to answer. She told me this last week, It's getting so hard, it's getting so difficult. 6 children in one room. It's just unbearable. I'll stop right now, Lord, bring that promise to pass. It looks hopeless, but You're going to raise it from the grave. Hallejah ! Glory to God !

Some of you are going through a living hell. Oh, but you have a hope. Don't give up that hope. Don't give up the promise. Hold on. Hold on. Hallejah, don't look at the circumstances. Don't look at the impossibilities. God's able. Nothing is impossible. Nothing is impossible with our God.

If you've been staggered and you've lost faith, you lost hope, get out of your seat and come right here now. And ask God to forgive you and ask Him to restore your faith and confidence in His promise. Amen. Amen. If you're backslidden or cold or something in the message touched your heart, I want you to come right now, especially if it has to do with unsaved loved ones, it has to do with a promise God made for your future, come now. Let the Spirit of the Lord encourage you. I'm going to ask you to give your promise over to death. Just give it over. Say, Lord, I put it in your hands. I put it in your hands. I'm not going to look at the circumstances, I'm not going to tell You how to do it.

For example, somebody's been given a promise that you are going to have a year of victory, God's going to deliver you from all your temptation. The lust, the battle, the struggle that you've been in, God's going to bring you victory and peace this year, you have that promise. God made you a wonderful promise of freedom, and instead what did you get the past few weeks or since that promise came ? Probably more furious temptations, you've had more battles and struggles than you've ever had. And then it looks like everything you promised Him, and everything promised from Him goes into death, it looks hopeless. Oh, folks, God's Word cannot fail. He's going to bring you to a victory. Hallejah ! So, don't worry, don't fret when this death comes in and everything looks impossible, it looks hopeless. That's the time to surrender and say, Lord, I'm going to trust you through this.

Folks, look at me. The only hope we have is faith. The only way is faith. To fully trust Him. That's what it says of Abraham, He didn't consider his body, now dead, or his wife's womb, he didn't consider it, but held on by faith. He didn't consider the situation, he didn't consider his feelings, he didn't consider the ways and means. Didn't consider anything he saw. He said, God said it, that's it. I'm going to believe Him, I'm going to rest until it happens. I'm going to rest until it happens. He wasn't too old. There was time. God's going to come, He's going to deliver you.

I want everybody that came forward that believes God is going to answer your prayer and deliver you, and fulfill the promise in His time and in His way. And if you want to believe God for that, I want you to raise both hands to the Lord. Both hands. And I want you to pray this prayer with me right now.

Jesus, by faith, I give every promise that You've given to me, over to death. Lord, it may appear dead, and all hope may die, but Your promise is true, and I'm going to hold on to You, and I'm just going to love You, and I'm going to believe You and I'm going to put everything in Your hands. And in Your time and in Your way, I will see before my eyes, fulfilled, completed, every promise You've made me. Cleanse me now, Jesus. Prepare my heart, to trust You and believe You. I trust You, Lord. I'm not going to be afraid, anymore. It will be Your timing, not my timing. Your way, not my way. Thank You, Jesus.

Just give Him thanks. Lord, I thank You. Hallejah ! Glory be to God, Glory be to Jesus, Hallejah ! Glory to God

Can we sing, Lord, I believe all things are possible

{conclusion of tape}