Living Hope Fellowship Church...Sermons From the Pastor
DIVINE
NATURE
by Pastor Kevin Badgley
We've been wrestling with the Lord, and with flesh, and with the devil the last few days.
Go with me to Matthew 4:23-24. (23) "And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. (24) And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them."
In Acts 5:15-16 it tells how the shadow of Peter passed by and overshadowed the sick people lying on beds and couches in the streets. (16)" There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one." In Acts, Chapter 8, we find that Philip was caught away by the Spirit. He was translated and found in another city, Azotus. He was literally picked up and moved by the Holy Ghost power of God.
Revelation, which was written by John, has 22 chapters. Deep truths revealed therein are awesome. He saw heaven clearly. Then I saw in Acts, Chapter 6 and 7, Stephen's testimony and the vision he saw of Christ standing at the right hand of the Father. I was awe struck by this. A viper bit Paul and he just shook it off into the fire and he felt no harm. He saw Jesus. He talked with God. He was so anointed of God that aprons and handkerchiefs taken from his body were taken to people many miles away and when they were laid upon the sick or the devil possessed, the sick were healed and the devils went out.
I see two factors molded into one. There is an anointing that we can walk in, where all the sick are healed and the afflicted are delivered. They are not halfway delivered. They are completely set free by the power of God. We can't say just Jesus did it because the same thing happened through the people I just mentioned. There is a place in God they got to walk in. I believe in the remaining part of their ministry they walked in that, and all that they prayed for were healed. All that they prayed deliverance for were delivered. All that were afflicted or tormented in any fashion were set free by the power of God. There was no hit and miss. There was no God bless you, brother; keep believing. There was none of that.
I am fully aware that Jesus and the apostles, after walking in that place, knew which ones were real and which were fake. I believe they divided the sheep from the goats. When they prayed for the sheep, every one of them got healed. This is an awesome thing to me. We know it is possible because the Bible shows us that it is. This is the hope that we have. We have got to get into the place where it is more than a confession and a profession. It becomes an obsession. It becomes your whole life and it contains you. By the Spirit of the living God you are no longer your own. You will be walking in the anointing that Jesus walked in. Paul, John, Philip, and many others walked in that anointing. These are in the ages. Some in modern times have done the same things, men and women alike. We are not restricted by gender.
2 Peter 1:1-4, (1) "Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." This is talking about those who have received faith just like the apostles. Verse 4 says, "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." Look at the part that says ". . . partakers of the divine nature. . . ." The entire New Testament is written to expound upon and prove to us how to get to that place. There is sufficient reason to believe that we can be partakers of the divine nature. It is according to the scriptures and confirmed by the signs of God following.
When Adam and Eve fell in the garden, they became partakers of a Satanic nature. All have fallen short of the glory of God thereby. If man was without the tempter, his nature that lies within his own bosom, in his own flesh, and carnal thinking is enough to take him to hell. The devil assists us in driving us into deeper lusts. This is what it takes to satisfy the tormenting spirits in the world today. You have to learn to overcome all the power of the devil. The only way you can do that is to become a partaker of the divine nature of Christ. When you become a partaker of his divine nature, signs will follow you.
It is possible for us to become a partaker of Christ's glory and his ability that he walked in as a man on this planet . . . not as he is now, because he is one with the Godhead again. What Christ did, we can do likewise. Peter denied Christ three times so we can't say we've done too much wrong to get forgiveness, in order to become a partaker of the divine nature. We have done a lot of things, but we can get forgiveness of sins if we will yield over to the cross of Christ and be strengthened by his Spirit. Be set free by the power of God and you can be a partaker of the thing Jesus walked in.
God wants us to become like his Son Jesus. He wants us to be more than, I know Christ and I really love him and I wish I could be like him. He wants us to become "sons of God." John 1:12, "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." In other words, they haven't even seen him. They've just accepted him by faith. It is possible and it is commanded to begin a road toward Christ that would soon make you a partaker of his divine nature.
Many people today want to get just enough of Jesus so they can go to and fro without any heat on them. God has not given us a touch of his Spirit just to do that. He has given us a touch of his Spirit to begin a walk that will go deeper and deeper into the things of God. We must forsake the other things in the world and come to a deeper place in God. Why? So we can see signs follow as we believe. I am not rewriting the scriptures. I believe that is the way it works. Mark 16:17, "And these signs shall follow them that believe. . . ." As you believe, the signs become greater, more frequent, and in a greater proportion than known before.
We have prayed intercessory prayer for people and watched God heal cancer. One young man we heard of just the other night at prayer meeting was totally eaten up of cancer, age 17. The doctors had given up all hope. After intercessory prayer of a few weeks, God totally delivered him from cancer! This is just from intercessory prayer. There is a place in God we can walk that we can lay hands on the sick and they will recover right then before your very eyes. We have begun to see and experience these things. This is not the only report. We've seen God put brand new discs in backs. We have watched him immediately heal afflictions and sicknesses in the body, from a common cold to putting bones where there weren't any before.
We've seen God cast out devils, heal the sick, and raise the dead as he did in the days of the Bible. We're not seeing enough of it. We are not convicted enough for people to come to Jesus. There is still too much comfort in those who are around the ones who have already begun to partake of the divine nature. I have personally prayed that God will begin to send forth an anointing that will literally melt down all nature of the devil. God is beginning to do it. Fewer times can people come and sit under the anointing as the Word is going forth, and remain the same. Sooner or later they are going to run, or get saved.
This is the way it is going to be in the last moments before Jesus comes. The anointing is going to become so awesome and so powerful that even the lunatic who thinks he is saved will suddenly be shaken to his very foundations. He will realize that he must get saved or die and go to hell. God is doing it. God is moving on those who have begun to partake of the divine nature. God's divine nature is soon to be manifest in the church. Many people do not believe this.
The devil has been fighting tooth and toenail to try to stop what God has begun. In the last few days the devil has dealt with me greatly. This is his argument. Why do you pray for them that do not want God anyway? Why do you pray over them that don't give a rip about God? Why don't you let them go to hell and I will play with them. He has been trying to make bargains like you've never heard. If he can, he will steal all of the charity you possess. Without charity you can't have a bond of perfectness; you can't have a yielding over to God's Spirit to pray for others. Why receive the power of God if you cannot pray for those who are afflicted and away from the things of God? It is not good enough to say, I'll pray for my four and no more. It's not good enough to say, I've got enough, let the rest of them go to hell if they don't want it. We've got to press in.
Peter was a partaker of the divine nature. There were many in that day who were partakers of Christ's divine nature. When they walked on the street, it wasn't Peter, or James, or John, or whoever it was; it was God walking in them. ". . . After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people."
It is high time the world stops seeing a people who claim to be of the kingdom of God. Rather, when they walk out there, they won't have to be told. They will know that they are the people of the most high God. There will be an anointing, a move, a great conviction in their very presence wherever they go. Sinners will cry out under great conviction. Devils will cry out (which they have already done) under the presence of the anointing of God. Many times when Jesus would walk and minister, devils would cry out in great fear. Matthew 8:28, "And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?"
There will be no hidden sin before the rapture of the church. All things, according to the scriptures, will be made manifest. They will be shouted from the housetops. Those that are involved with such things will preach it themselves by saying, What have we to do with you? A person can walk about with a religious spirit, but soon he will be screaming out in great fear of the things of God.
There is going to be a remnant, a people, that will not sell out to the world any more. They will not compromise with the world any more. They are going to take on the divine nature, not only the beginnings and portions of it, but the entire completeness of it. Soon they won't need an automobile to travel, they'll just translate. They won't need the government to feed them; they won't need a job to feed them; the ravens will feed them. Though they be nailed to a cross of whatever circumstance, they will die only when their lives are given over by the hands of God. They shall be raised and changed by the same power that was in Jesus Christ, because it dwells in them. There won't be a question if a person is a Christian in those days. You will either be for Him or against Him. Jesus said, "He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad."
These are the times that God is sending forth. There is going to be a difference made. Many think they are going to go to heaven because the wife comes to church, or the husband is more faithful, or because Grandma prayed for them, or their background is holiness, or have a background of any kind of church. God doesn't have any grandchildren. He has children. You are either his son or daughter or he doesn't know you. You can't get to Christ through somebody else. The only way you can get to Christ is by the drawing of the Spirit of God and you come to him yourself. The only way you can get to a deeper walk with God is not by hanging around the preacher or somebody else that prays, but by hanging around Jesus, the Son of God, who has everything from God. Somebody shout yes!
Timidity must go out the window! We must have a boldness for the things of God. We must become complete partakers of the divine nature. Half-baked won't get it. You're either gonna get all the way done or you're gonna get burnt. Go all the way through or you ain't going through. Jesus is looking for a people that will sell out to him. The world has been picking up those who have not sold out, time and time again. Preachers have fallen right and left because they didn't completely sell out to God.
All the little things that you thought amounted to nothing is exactly where Satan is standing. This is the place that the Bible talks about when it says, "Neither give place to the devil." These little tiny footholds . . . many people think the devil's feet are the same size as their own. If it is a certain size they think he can stand on it. They think if it is a little bitty thing he can't stand on it. He can stand on any kind of little crack or crevice-a crack in your armor. He can stand and hang on and hang on and hang on until it seems like he's got all of you, rather than just a little bitty piece of you. That little tiny piece of you, as of late, has been all of you. Your mind has been consumed of the thing. That is all that has been on your mind. That is the very thing God wants to get rid of because that is where the devil is standing. The Lord wants it to be like Galatians 2:20, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
God is wanting to see us walk out in faith or walk out completely. It is not the time to mamby pamby. We would be better not to see God at all than to play around with him. There are some things we have not gotten the victory over. If we do not get the victory over them, Satan will take us in that area. I don't care how minuscule it seems, get it out now. What harm could it do to get rid of it anyway? God has got a place for you. Peter said that we are partakers of the divine nature. We must begin to take on more and more of God because the draws and temptations of the world are coming fast and hard.
I know a man who was doubtful whether or not suicide would take you to hell. He runs one of the biggest TV corporations in the world on so-called Christian broadcasting. He said there were situations where God might have to work out some kind of mercy pact if somebody killed themselves. Darlin', killing yourself on purpose is caused by a suicide devil. If you die with the devil, you go to hell with that devil. An easy gospel mentality is encroaching in every single area of the Christian world. Jesus said, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." We better be hearing now while we can still hear, because soon darkness will come and there will be no hearing and no confessing; there will only be enduring. God wants us to be set free. He loves us enough to tell us the truth, but he doesn't love us more than his Son, Jesus. His Word is the epitome of his Son, Jesus. His word cannot lie or repent. It will not back up for what you want; it only moves forward what God wants. For God to make an allowance for you, he'd have to reject what his Son has already said in the Bible. He won't do that.
Let's go full force deeper and deeper in Jesus. Pull all the stops out. Come to Jesus.
Lord, I preached short as I know how. It is to the point and I believe it is what you told me. Lord, prick every heart and make it uncomfortable. I don't want anybody comfortable. I want every soul to search their heart. Are we sacrificing and giving something up to the devil and soon see our own children's name stamped on it? Is there something that we're not giving over to you, Jesus? Oh, God, have we yielded over to pleasures? Are we yielded over to things that do not profit? Have we whiled away the hours twiddling our thumbs, when we should have been reading the Word or praying? Dear God, if any place is found for these things in us, have mercy on us. Break every fetter and chain. Take the pleasure out of this thing. Set us free. Satan, I charge you, Go from this people. Loose all that hear this message. Lord, let the victory be upheld in them. Touch every one in Jesus name.
If you haven't compromised, then don't worry about it. But if some place you think you might have or you know you have compromised, come to Jesus. You say, You have altar calls all the time. We go up all the time. I'm tired of going up there." There will come a day when you won't have to worry about an altar call because there won't be an altar. They have taken them out of some churches already. You know I'm telling you the truth. They shut it down because they didn't think it was necessary. Elijah told God that he was jealous for the Lord God of hosts because his people had thrown down the altars. We're not tearing this one down! This one is still raised. You have got a chance and a place. Come to it. If you need a touch in body, heart, mind, or need to get saved . . . if you're going to hell and you know it, and you want to get saved, come. If you are backslid and you're going to hell and you know it, come back to Jesus while the Spirit of the Lord is still dealing with you. I'm not asking you to rededicate your life. I'm telling you to come back and get saved again! I'm not telling you that if you don't live for God you'll be eternally separated from God. I'm telling you, you'll go to hell! There is a smooth gospel out there and nice ways of saying something, but if you don't get all you need from God, get in the altar. Let God touch you. Let's believe God. God will set you free.
References: Matthew 4:23-24, Acts 5:15-16, Acts Chapter 6-7, Acts 28:1-6, Acts 19:11-12, 2 Peter 1:1-4, Mark 16:15-20, Romans 3:23, Matthew 26:69-75, John 1:12, Colossians 3:14, Jeremiah 31:33, Hebrews 10:16, Matthew 8:29, Luke 12:3, Matthew 12:30, John 6:44, Ephesians 4:27, Galatians 2:20, Matthew 11:15, 1 Kings 19:10.
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