Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 2417 FEBRUARY 2017 BODY OF CHRIST NEWS don’t care how much you can pray, if you don’t pray according to the prescribed order, you won’t get the same result. If you want water, you need two mol- ecules of hydrogen, and one molecule of oxygen. If you say, “I am just going to use three molecules of oxygen; I’m not going to add any hydrogen at all,” you will not get water. I don’t care how powerful you are as a scientist; you must follow the prescribed order. If you want your prayer to be answered, you’ve got to come to a place where you will let all this cultural prayer go away. I was telling somebody the other time, I said, “The prayer you are praying, God cannot answer it.” He said, “Why?” I said, “You are preaching.” Christianity is so simple, but it gets into the hands of theologians, and they make it so complex. Hear this: in Matthew 1:21, the Lord spoke to Joseph, He said, “Your wife is going to have a child. She is with child. You shall Name Him Jesus.” Why? “Because He will save His people from their sins. What is sin? The word ‘sin’ comes from a root word that means ‘missing the mark’. He will save you from missing the mark. You know what we do? We begin to look at the fruit instead of the root. If I go ahead and I badmouth him to him, we look at that as the sin, but that is the fruit of a man that has missed the mark. Beat me. Get angry with me. Until you take care of the root which is missing the mark, I will do it again. You understand me? I will just do it to somebody else, not only to you. How many of you know that there are things that you say, “I will never do that again,” and you find yourself doing it, because all you are pursuing is the fruit, not the root. The word sin means ‘missing the mark’. So, you’ve got to go back and say, “Where have I missed the mark? And Jesus came to make sure that everywhere we have missed the mark we are reprogrammed. Financially have you missed the mark? Spiritually have you missed the mark? Emotionally have you missed the mark? In relationships, have you missed the mark? But Jesus came, and He said, “He will save His people from missing the mark.” And yet we make His Name look as if it doesn’t have power. Receive the Power of the Name We are Progressively Being Transformed 2 Corinthians 3:18; that’s the very last verse in the chapter. “And we all, with unveiled face, behold- ing the glory of the Lord, are being transformed” (or changed) “into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” In the presence of the Lord, by the Name of the Lord and by faith in that Name changes come, dreams are fulfilled and expectations are met—in fact great expectations are met. This verse says, “We all look into the glass.” The glass is the Lord Jesus. The glass is the Word of God, and Jesus is the Word of God. We all look into the glass, into the Word. We all study the Bible, and as we study we see the glory of the Lord Jesus, and we are changed from one level of glory unto another. A progressive way of making our brains meet—Jesus is the answer. Jesus is the answer, and today I want to use my few minutes to show how glorious the Name of Jesus is and how that Name alone can solve our problems, meet our challenges, and pave the way for our Prince to be met. The Power in the Name of Jesus In Philippians 2, you have heard it over and over before, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow—knees in heaven, knees on earth, and knees under the earth—that all knees should be bowed and every glory should be given to the Father in heaven. Christ is the answer to every problem. What is in that Name? What authority is in that Name? How does He manifest Himself? Let’s look at a few verses of scripture, and you’ll see what Christ will do for you, will do in you and will do through you. On one day after His resurrection on the way to Emmaus, He appeared before the two disciples, and He told them something. He said, “You are fool- ish. Why don’t you remember all the things I have been teaching you? How Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms speak about Me of the things that must happen.” Jesus is revealed in the Old Testament as the One who is to come and the only One who can be trusted. The only One who can save. And today we want to look at some things Jesus can do and will do for you as you bring your faith into Him. I’m going to concentrate on one chapter of the Bible. Let’s go to Matthew 9 and see some of the glory of the Lord Jesus. I have prayed in my heart, and many people have prayed, that today you may enter a new realm, a realm of fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ so that things may happen in your life in your family and in your work. Your Sins are Forgiven Matthew 9. That chapter starts—Khun! —with a miracle. Now, everything in chapter 9 of Matthew happened only on one day. Please note that. Everything. So, you can see how Jesus was just flowing—flowing into the lives of people and bringing untold blessings. Chapter 9 verse 1-2. “And getting into a boat (Jesus) crossed over and came to his own city. 2 And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.’” Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven. Take heart, my daughter; your sins are forgiven. The only one who can say that is Jesus. He forgives sins. Are you sitting here with a guilty conscience today? Your Savior, your Forgiver has come. He is the only One who can forgive, and He’s the only one who will forgive, and He’s the only one who has for- given. Amen. Listen to that. The man didn’t ask Jesus to forgive him. The man was paralyzed—he could not even speak—but Jesus knew his heart. Jesus knew the burden of the sin upon that man. Please listen to some things He said. He said, “Cheer up! Don’t lose hope. That’s not the end; it is only the beginning. Cheer up!” And then He said, “Cheer up, My son.” Jesus was only thirty years old then, and the man was over fifty, and yet He called that man, ‘My son’. You know that Jesus you are serving? He said, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” He has no beginning. He has no end. He is after the form of Melchizedek, the high priest, a unique priest. The Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End—that’s Jesus. That’s your Master. That’s your Savior; that’s your Forgiver. “Cheer up, My son! Cheer up, My daugh- ter!” He is the One who made you—Jesus—for without Him there was nothing made that has been made. He is the Beginning and the End. He is the Judge of the world; He is coming again, and if Christ has not judged you, nobody can judge you. FAITH ... from page 10