David [00:00:01]:
You know, six months ago, I shared with you the word God gave me for 2024. And this word was inspired by a passage of scripture I read and John, the first chapter. And so let’s look at that again together.
David [00:00:39]:
It was John, 146 through 50. Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him and said of him, behold, an israelite indeed in whom is no deceit. Nathaniel said to him, how do you know me? Jesus answered and said to him, before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Nathaniel answered and said to him, rabbi, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel. Jesus answered and said to him, because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree. Do you believe you will see greater things than these? As I read the above verse and phrase, you will see greater things than these was quickened to me by the Holy Spirit, and I began to think about it. We’ve all seen great things the Lord has done.
David [00:01:47]:
If I were to sit with you and talk with you, I’m sure you would share with me many things that you know about that are great things that the Lord has done. And I’m sure we all have testimonies of God’s goodness, grace, mercy, and blessings in our lives. Personally, I heard the Lord say as I meditated on that phrase, 2024 will be a year of seeing greater things than these. This past week, the Lord asked me to document the greater things in these that Kanye and I have seen so far this year. And as I was thinking back through that, I began to go, oh, wow. And I want to document them and get them down, because as I thought about it, I began to realize God has done so much. And in the first six months of this year, and I hadn’t even realized how much he had done. Along with that, he also challenged me to look and believe for greater things than these over the next six months of this year.
David [00:03:05]:
He said, don’t let up. So today I felt led to remind all of us of what the Lord revealed at the beginning of the year and to encourage all of us to focus on the greater things God wants us to see and us to do over the next six months. So as I’ve prayed and meditated on this verse, the Lord has shared with me four words of focus. Now, I shared these with you at the beginning of the year, but I want to share them again. I want to reiterate today that God wants to do great things through us. Greater things through us. You know, I taught on last year. I taught on Ephesians 320.
David [00:03:57]:
And one of the things, Ephesians 320 says that God wants to do super abundantly, far over and above, through us, in us and through us, more than we can imagine, more than we can think, God can do that through us. And then it goes on to say in the amplified, infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, dreams, and hopes, God can do infinitely beyond through you, what you can imagine, see, understand, pray for, desire, hope for. Wow. God wants to do greater things through all of us. Amen. And so this first word, the word see, God wants us to see. To see physically, means to perceive by the eye, to have knowledge of, have knowledge of the existence of something or someone, to observe, to note or notice. It means to know, to have faith in.
David [00:05:14]:
And reliance on seeing is actively looking for and expecting to see God doing greater things. It’s not just sitting around wishing and waiting. It is actively getting up every day and expecting to see God do greater things than these. Today. John went on to say in chapter five, verse 20, John 520 says this, for the father loves the Son and shows him all things that he himself does, and he will show him greater works than these that you may marvel. Now, a couple things here that I want to point out. Number one, when it says he will show him greater works than these, that word works can also be translated greater things. So it could have been translated, he will show him greater things than these, that you may marvel.
David [00:06:18]:
The second thing I want to point out is this. This verse is true for us. We are children of God and our father. God loves us unconditionally, and his heart is to show us greater things, that his name may be glorified. Excuse me, I got all choked up there. But his heart for us is to show us greater things, that his name may be glorified. You are a child of God, and he wants to show you things to come. In fact, in John 1613 through 15, it says this.
David [00:07:15]:
However, when he, the spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will tell you things to come. This is what the Holy Spirit does for us. What he does in us and through us goes on to say, he will glorify me, for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you. All things that the father has are mine. Therefore, I said that he will take of mine and declare it to you. So the Holy Spirit is going to show us things to come, declare to us the greater things that God desires to do in us, through us, for us and with us. The second thing we see here.
David [00:08:14]:
So we saw that God wants us to see these greater things he wants to show us. But here it says, whatever the spirit hears, he will speak to us. And so the second part of this, of walking in greater things, is not only seeing greater things that are to come, but hearing, hearing what the Holy Spirit says to you. You know, last night I was dreaming and I was watching this group of people and they were praying for healing. And they just kept seeking the Lord and praying for healing. At about 330 in the morning, I was dozing, but I was present, and I heard the Lord say to me, declare healing over this person. And so I said, in the name of Jesus, I declare healing over this person. I have no idea what they were believing God for, but I know God told me to do that in the middle of the night.
David [00:09:29]:
That’s a greater thing, guys. God wants to do that in all of us and through all of us. And so we listen. Even while we’re asleep. The Holy Spirit can speak to us and we can hear his voice and get direction on things that God wants us to pray and believe for and agree with others on. Hallelujah. Praise God. I’m looking forward to hearing from that person about what God has done for them, hearing their testimony.
David [00:10:01]:
This word here, here in John 16 means to perceive by the earth, to attend, to give attention to, to listen, to obey, to learn, to have faith in and reliance on. Now, there’s something we all know. We see and hear physically with our eyes and our ears. And spiritually, we see. Spiritually, we see in our mind, we hear within us, in our heart and our mind. And so this is something that is happening not only in our physical realm, it’s something that’s happening in the spiritual realm also in our spirit and our soul. We are seeing and we are hearing. The word spiritual here means to discover, to understand, to perceive, to comprehend, to know by revelation.
David [00:11:11]:
Now, we don’t think a lot about this, but when the Holy Spirit is speaking to us and showing us things or telling us things that the Father wants us to know, he’s revealing something to us. That’s revelation. That’s revelation. We are understanding, discovering and perceiving something, comprehending something that our father wants us to know. So seeing and hearing spiritually and physically brings understanding. God wants us to know and understand so we can go forth in and declare the word and see these things come to pass. It’s what Jesus talked about with his disciples, praying that God, your kingdom come, your will be done here in the earth as it is in heaven. He wants us to bring heaven to earth.
David [00:12:12]:
And when we do, we will see greater things than these. Understanding gives us the insight to share God’s heart with others. And that is such a powerful thing, such an honor we have, such a great thing giving us the insight to share God’s heart with others. Wow. Which brings us to the third word the Lord spoke to me about in seeing greater things. So we see, we hear, and then the third word is, we testify. Testimonies are stories of greater things God has done. It could be something he’s done for others.
David [00:13:00]:
It could be something he’s done for you personally. It could be something, a story of something we’ve heard from scripture or from history. But testimonies are powerful. To testify means to give a report, to give evidence of something, to be a witness to something or for someone, we testify. Over the last six months, I’ve heard testimonies of provision, how God met needs in people’s lives, of miracles, how God worked in people in their behalf, healing. In fact, I’ll share this with you. I’ll stop right there and say this. I had done something to my left shoulder.
David [00:13:51]:
Here we were loading hard and loading some really heavy things in a car. And I don’t know if I pulled a muscle or tore some, some tissue or something in there, but that I did something to this shoulder, and it got to where it would just hurt and ache. Now, I tend to be a side sleeper, so a lot of times I’ll roll over on my left side there. Well, it got to where I couldn’t do that much. I’d roll over a little bit and it would start hurting, and I’d have to roll back over. And so I asked Kanye, I said, lay hands on me and pray healing over me, over my left shoulder. And, guys, she laid hands on me. She prayed for me, declared healing over my left shoulder, commanded it to come into alignment with God’s word.
David [00:14:41]:
And then I just lay there beside her and started thanking the Lord. And I had my arm stretched out, and all of a sudden, I felt this warmth in my shoulder and my arm. And all of a sudden, things were feeling good. And I took my arm, stuck it straight up in the air, and I was showing her, look. Look what God did. God healed my left shoulder. And if he’ll do it for me, he’ll do it for you. And that’s the power of our testimony.
David [00:15:13]:
God is not a respecter of persons. And so, guys, we’ve heard testimonies of healing. I’ve heard testimonies of wisdom imparted and insight, understanding, revelation, coming to people for testimony of souls being saved and lives changed. God is doing greater things in these every day all around us. We just need to be looking for, listening for them and then testifying of them. Now we need to hear from others their testimonies. It builds faith when we hear testimonies, it builds our faith. But others need to hear from us also our testimonies, just like I just shared with you, don’t be ashamed to share what God has done.
David [00:16:09]:
Don’t hold back. Others need to hear your story, your testimony also. Like I said, testimonies build faith in the hearer and empowers them to believe for greater things than these also. And that’s what we want to do. We want to share with those around us so they’re empowered to believe for greater things, and their faith is built up. In Romans 116, it says this, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. For the jew first, and also for the Greek. I am not ashamed.
David [00:17:01]:
I am not ashamed. In fact, I am confident in the gospel of God, good news of Jesus Christ. So I’m going to share it. I’m going to share it. I’m going to share it. Kanye and I have a friend. She’s gone on to be with the Lord now, but she was a mentor to many around her. But I remember the last few years of her life.
David [00:17:32]:
If she met someone for the first time, she’d go, oh, good to meet you. Have you met my Jesus? He’s such a good friend. And she would go on and share about the Lord, and if they said, no, I haven’t met, well, would you like to meet him? He wants to meet you. And she, I don’t know how many people she led to the Lord, but she would. It was just like you would talk about, hey, have you met my friend? You know, I want to introduce you to my friend here, and so don’t be ashamed to share your testimony, your good news about the gospel of Jesus Christ and about his goodness. You know, in acts 14, verse three, acts 14 three, Paul and Barnabas are in iconium, and they’ve been ministering there. And it says, this long time, therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands. So what we see here is seeing, hearing and testifying built faith in those that they were speaking to.
David [00:18:55]:
And then they were able to minister to them in signs and wonders. Signs and wonders were done by their hands. God flowed through them to perform miracles, to bring healing, to bring salvation to all those who were listening. And that’s what God wants. Guys, you share your testimony and someone else says, wow, I wish I had that or that would happen for me or I’m believing for that right then and there. You can. Okay, well, let’s pray. Let’s agree in prayer if two or more agree, of searching anything on earth that shall be done for them in heaven.
David [00:19:38]:
Scripture says, and so we have an opportunity when we share with others and testify to God’s goodness that we will also see signs and wonders done when we pray. That is God working innocent through us. It’s not us. It’s not by our power, our ability that is God flowing through us by the Holy Spirit to see this come to pass. So don’t be afraid to testify about God’s goodness. The Lord has reminded me that he works through us to do greater things than these. Every day he’s looking for the opportunity to work through you to do greater things than these. Which brings us to the fourth word.
David [00:20:32]:
We see, we hear, we testify. We do. John 1412 through 14. John chapter 1412 through 14. And I’m reading this from the amplified. I assure you most solemnly, I tell you, if anyone steadfastly believes in me, he will himself be able to do the things that I do. And he will do even greater things than these because I go to the father and I will do, I myself will grant whatever you ask in my name as presenting all that I am so that the Father may be glorified and extolled in and through the son. Yes, I will grant, I myself will do for you whatever you shall ask in my name as presenting all that I am.
David [00:21:36]:
Think about that. I encourage you to go back and read those verses, to read them in several different translations. But get that within me, deep within you. If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and he’s your savior, he’s empowered you to go and do all the things he did and even greater things than these. He says, hallelujah. We have the power within us as believers. We have the authority in his name to go and do the things he did. Think about that.
David [00:22:16]:
That’s awesome. And you say, well, David, how is this possible? How does that work well. Let me share a verse with you. Matthew 20 818 through 20. Okay, three verses. I’m going to share three verses with you. Matthew 20 818 20 says this, and Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.
David [00:22:58]:
And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. All authority has been given to me in heaven and earth. Go therefore. So in that phrase, go therefore, he saying, I’ve got it all. I’m with you. I’m never going to leave you or forsake you. Go and it’s going to flow through you.
David [00:23:30]:
All authority in his name, not in our name, but in his name. We have all authority to act in his behalf. You simply have to take what has been given you by the Lord and act on it. Then he promises, I am always with you. He is with you in all things and always even you may a lot of times we don’t feel it, we don’t sense it. But know this, his word is true. If he said, he will never leave you or forsake you, he never will. He is always with you.
David [00:24:16]:
I don’t care what you’re facing, what you’re going through, the Lord is here right now with you. And so when you pray and believe in his name, with his authority and power, you can expect to see greater things than these. Paul shows us in Ephesians, where we are positioned in Christ as believers right now, not when we get to heaven, not when we step into eternity, but right now as we live here in the earth. Ephesians two five six says this, even when we were dead and trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We are sitting together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus today. You say, well, what are those heavenly places? Well, Paul wrote about that back in Ephesians, the first chapter, when he was talking about where Christ was. Eph.
David [00:25:34]:
119 21 says this. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us, who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. What we see here in Ephesians is from what Paul shares with us in Ephesians one, chapter one, and chapter two is we are seated with Christ in heavenly places, far above all principality, all power, all might and dominion, every name that is ordained above all authority. And Jesus through his name has empowered us to use that power and authority to do greater things than these. Wow. Think about that, guys. Think about that. Think about that.
David [00:26:54]:
It’s not you going in your own might and strength. It’s you going in the might and the strength of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, of the Father God, with all power and all authority. You’re stepping out and representing the kingdom of God. Before Jesus ascended, he declared this about us. Mark 16 1718. He said this, and these signs will follow those who believe. Do you believe? If you’re a believer, he’s talking about you here. These signs shall follow those who believe in my name, they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues, they will take up serpents, and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them.
David [00:27:45]:
They will lay hands on the sick and. And they will recover. Amen. You can expect that when you pray for someone, they will recover. They will come back to health and wholeness. If you are with someone who mentions a need, I challenge you. Take a moment and pray with them. Don’t just say, oh, okay, I’ll pray for you, and walk away.
David [00:28:11]:
Do it right then. Just take a moment. Pray over them. If you become aware of a need and you can help meet that need in some way, give to it. Look for ways to use the authority Jesus has given you to see greater things than these come forth. Guys, we have opportunities every day. I don’t know how many times Kanye and I got a text message this morning and one of our friends was asking us to agree with them in prayer over their daughter who had an eye appointment. She’s got an eye infection.
David [00:28:49]:
Well, yeah, we are now. We’re not going to wait. We pray, we prayed, and we declare she is healed. In the name of Jesus. And I thank you, Father, for giving that doctor the wisdom he needs to know how to help bring that healing and see it manifest, Father, and we thank you for it. So go out there and look for opportunities every day. Just a simple prayer in the name of Jesus will do it. A simple prayer in Jesus name with your faith behind it.
David [00:29:32]:
Wow. Great things. Great things. Guys, I’m expecting greater things than these. Jeremiah 33 three. The Lord says this call unto me and I will answer thee. We could stop right there for a moment. Call unto me and I will, and answer thee.
David [00:29:59]:
Think about that. If we pray, if we ask of the Lord, he is going to respond. He has promised us he will answer. I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. Hallelujah. God is going to do great and mighty things through you that you don’t even know, that you can’t imagine. Just get ready for it. Just get ready.
David [00:30:29]:
Know that it’s God working through you. Ask the Lord and he will show you great things. He will show you greater things. We are only halfway through this year. I want to challenge you. Let’s ask the Lord every day to work through us to do greater things than these. I pray that today God use you to do a great thing and it become a part of your testimony and a part of the testimony of others. 2024 is a year of seeing greater things than these come to pass.
David [00:31:19]:
Greater things are all around us every day. Now, let me say this. If you have a testimony of greater things, Kanye and I would like you to share them with us so that we can share them with others. We want to celebrate all that God is doing this year. So share with us. Email us, text us. Go on our website and there’s places there for you to share what God is doing. Go on our facebook page.
David [00:31:57]:
Let us hear from you. Share your testimonies with us of the greater things that God is doing in you and through you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Let’s bow our heads in prayer. Father, we thank you for this time together this morning. Thank you for reminding us of your power and authority and all that you want to do through us. You want to work with us, Lord Jesus.
David [00:32:24]:
You want to see your kingdom come here in the earth, heaven on earth, Father God. And you want to bring it through us. And we thank you for that. So, God, we just surrender ourselves to you. We surrender our hearts to you and say, Lord, work through us. Your will, your purpose, your plan. And I pray that every day we see greater things than these come to pass, and we give you praise and glory for it all. In Jesus name, amen.
David [00:32:57]:
So be it. Hallelujah, guys, go out and have a blessed week. Go out and, and see greater things than these. Do greater things than these. Pastor Kanye is coming now with a closing word and prayer. God bless.
