Question: I want to do great things for God. I want to see miracles happen through my life. How does this happen?
Answer: As I pondered that question, while praying at the altar of my church over 35 years ago, in a flash God showed the following to me. I have lived out of this revelation ever since. By following a few simple steps, God has birthed miracles as well as an international ministry out through me, which is far beyond my wildest imagination. I pray He does the same for you as you let God fill all five senses of your spirit with Himself.
Abraham is called the Father of Faith (Rom. 4:11-16). I believe that means he models all the key steps which we would need to take if we desire to be children of faith. The Bible says we can cast mountains into the sea if we don’t doubt in our hearts (Mk. 11:22-24). We really want to understand how to have heart faith so we can see miracles released out through our hands. We want to speak to mountains in our lives (i.e. sickness, poverty, demons, etc.) and see them removed! So let’s see what we can learn from the Father of Faith. How did Abraham grow so strong in faith?
Step 1 – Faith begins with a SPOKEN WORD from the Lord.
God spoke a promise into Abraham’s heart.
Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father's house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed." (Gen. 12:1-3)
So when we need a miracle, we go to God in prayer and ask, “Lord, what do You want to say to me about this situation?” We listen for His voice, tuning to flowing thoughts, and we write down what He speaks back to us. (As taught in 4 Keys to Hearing God’s Voice.)
Step 2 – God adds a VISION, a picture of the promise fulfilled.
God showed Abraham a vision (Gen. 15:1). And He took him outside and said,
"Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be." Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. (Gen. 15:5-6)
We say a picture is worth 1,000 words. According to the above verses, I would say the Bible agrees. You will note that as soon as God gives Abraham a picture of the promise fulfilled, the next verse tells us “then he believed.” So I understand that in order to have miracle-working faith, I need two things from God: I need God to speak a rhema word to me, and I need God to show me a picture of this rhema word fulfilled.
“So Lord, what does my healed body look like? What will I be able to do when You have restored me to full health? What does Your blessing of prosperity look like in my life? What does total freedom and release look like? Can You show me pictures of these things? Thank You, Lord!”
I would say that once we have received a rhema word and a vision from the Lord concerning His promises and provision for any area our lives, then conception has taken place. We are now pregnant with the purposes of God for that area of our lives.
Step 3 – We PONDER this rhema and vision from God – nothing else!
And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore "IT WAS ACCOUNTED TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS." (Rom. 4:19-22 NKJV)
As with Abraham, we must choose what we are going to look at and what we are going to believe. Abraham could have looked at the weakness of his aged body, and said, “Reality is, I can’t reproduce anymore,” but instead he chose not to consider (ponder and picture) his weakness but instead, to ponder and picture only the promise and vision of God.
So, I choose carefully to daily, continuously ponder and see ONLY God’s promised blessing to me and not lack or need. As God spoke to me, “Whatever you fix your eyes upon, grows within you; whatever grows within you, you become.” This changed my life. I no longer look at disease, self-effort, lack, weakness or law. Now I only fix my eyes on Jesus (Heb. 12:1,2; Acts 2:25; Ps. 16:8), and His spoken promises and visions to me, and these grow within me and I step into these realities. I am healed! I am blessed! I have favor everywhere I go! I release effective ministry to those I touch! I have a blessed marriage and family! Thank You, Lord, for these amazing blessings!
What do you see in your mind’s eye: lack or fullness, disease or health, disunity or unity, rejection or acceptance? We ponder and see something all the time. Make sure you are ONLY seeing God’s promises to you in each and every area of your life! We choose to meditate on God’s promise and visions to us in both our morning and evening prayer meditations (1 Chron. 23:30) as well as throughout the day. I would recommend a 5-15 prayer meditation of thanksgiving morning and evening where you speak the promises God has made to you in the various areas of your life. Filling your heart and mind with His divine light causes darkness to flee.
Step 4 – We SPEAK the rhema and vision God has spoken to us.
When Abraham was 99 years old (Gen. 17:1), and had no children by his wife, God asked him to speak a word of faith and call the promise into being:
No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. (Gen. 17:5 NKJV)
So now, every time Abraham speaks his name aloud, he is confessing the promise of God to Him (the name Abraham means “father of a multitude”). Abraham was convinced that “God… calls those things which do not exist as though they did” (Rom. 4:17 NKJV), and “by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible” (Heb. 11:3 NKJV).
So our spoken words become the directives which frame the creative miracles we are going to see. Breath and spirit are the same words in the Greek and Hebrew languages. So when we speak what God speaks, the spiritual energy/realities which have been growing within us through our daily meditations on God’s rhema and vision pour out with our spoken words and create that which we frame with the words of our mouths. Death and life truly are in the power of the tongue (Prov. 18:21).
God will tell us what words to speak. We don’t need to come up with them ourselves. We ask God what He wants us to speak over our situations, and He will tell us. God said to Abram, “Your name shall be Abraham,” so God told Abram exactly what to say and incidentally, God waited a period of time before telling Abram to confess this new name. So we keep God in the center of the process at all times. We don’t need to be doing things on our own initiative. Our only desire is to live as Jesus, out of divine initiative (Jn. 5:30).
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. (Isa. 55:11)
Step 5 – We ACT on the rhema and vision God has spoken to us.
Faith without works is dead (James 2:17). Take up your bed and walk (Lk. 5:24). We decide to get up and walk. We decide to walk on the water, to take risks, aware that God must and will come through. As long as our eyes stay on the Lord, our faith is intact and the miracle happens. Peter walked on the water as long as he looked only at the Lord Jesus Christ. When he looked other places, fear entered in, the power of God stopped flowing, and down he went (Matt. 14:29-31).
Abraham grew STRONG in faith (Rom. 4:20 NASB), which brought him to the place of instant total obedience to God’s ongoing directives to him. He acted, circumcising his family on the very same day God commanded him to do so (Gen. 17:23), his wife became pregnant immediately following, and within one year Isaac was born (Gen. 22:1,2).
We, too, grow strong in faith, through daily, prayerfully revolving in our hearts and minds the rhemas and visions of Almighty God, and in the fullness of time (Gal. 4:4) God brings forth a miracle.
Step 6 – We DIE to self-effort.
The fullness of time… hmmm. It only took 24 years for Sarah to become pregnant! Personally, God, I don’t want to wait 24 years for anything to happen. I prefer it to happen within 24 minutes or 24 seconds of the time God speaks it. His answer back to me was: “Who writes the rules of the universe, you or Me?”
“Fine, You do.”
So many times miracles require an incubation period before they are released from the invisible, spiritual world into the visible, physical world. I need to make sure that, while I wait, I stay tuned only to God’s voice and vision, and don’t come up with my own ideas of how to make things happen (Gen. 16:1,2). For if I do, I will be birthing an Ishmael, which will not be accepted by God (Gen. 17:18,19). I must die to all self-initiated behavior (Jn. 14:10) and only do those things I hear and see the Father doing (Jn. 8:26,38). Wow! This is a totally counter-cultural way of living. Lord, teach me to live this way, I pray.
Step 7 – In the fullness of time, GOD BRINGS FORTH the miracle.
And the LORD visited Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as He had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him…. Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. (Gen 21:1,2,5)
Wow! Only took 25 years for this miracle to get started, and the full manifestation of it (i.e. the earth being blessed through Abraham’s seed), occurred 1500 years later when Jesus was resurrected from the dead! Yikes, now I really don’t like the rules of the universe. However, I only have two choices: one is to say “Yes, Lord” and the other is to become angry and bitter and fall away from the living Lord. Of course, whatever is not of faith is sin (Rom. 14:23).
OK, Lord, I believe, and I am willing to go to my grave believing in the rhema and vision You have given to me. I will be a worshipper until the day I die, and then I will continue worshipping You for all eternity.
A Summary of the 7 Step “Word of Faith” Miracle Model
- Faith begins with a spoken word from the Lord.
- God adds a vision, a picture of the promise fulfilled.
- We ponder this rhema and vision from God – nothing else!
- We speak the rhema and vision God has spoken to us, according to His directions.
- We act on the rhema and vision God has spoken to us.
- We die to self-effort.
- In the fullness of time, God brings forth the miracle.
Mountain-moving faith is conceived by a rhema and vision from God, which when incubated, through pondering, speaking and acting, births a miracle in God’s fullness of time.
Additional Resources
- For further teaching, order the inspirational sermon by Dr. Virkler on “Mountain Moving Faith”.
- Click here for a one-page diagram that can be handed out when sharing this message.
- Click here for PowerPoint slides that can be used for teaching this message.
- Click here for the 7 Step “Word of Faith” Miracle Model, which is a summary of this teaching.
- Click here for A Closing Declaration of Intent Concerning Having Mountain-Moving Faith
- Click here for a 60 minutes preaching on Mountain Moving Faith by Mark Virkler teaching
- Miracles Occur When COMPLETELY Aligned with Rhema and Vision from God
- Release Divine Creativity - King David Journaled Out the Design for Solomon's Temple!
- Perfect Peace When Your Imagination Is...
- Biblical Meditation Involves Imagination!
- What Does the Bible Teach about Visualization?
- Which Focus: Rapture Me Out of This Hellhole or Anoint Me to Disciple All Nations? (Applies this blog to establishing an eschatology of victory)
Go Deeper - Get Healthy!
Check out this entire blog series on Vibrant Health! - Miracles PLUS Gifts of Healings. Working through this series on health is ideal for both individuals and groups. The more we take responsibility for ourselves - spirit, soul, and body - the healthier we become! Won't you join me in living to at least 100 in vibrant health?
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Word of Faith
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