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TREASURES IN HEAVEN
Preface
(prayer)
We should praise the Lord even when
we think there is nothing to praise Him about.
That is called the sacrifice of praise.
Hebrews 13:15 says, “By him therefore let us
offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually,
that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his
name.”
The Lord said to lay up for
yourselves treasures in heaven.
The devil will come along and say,
If you haven’t
got the power, I will not relinquish your son or
daughter.
We look up at God, and boo-hoo, but God told us
in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to - “Pray without ceasing.”
When you have those treasures of
prayer and fasting laid up, you can draw on that
account, and God will answer.
1 John 3:21 says, “Beloved, if our heart condemn
us not, then have we confidence toward God.”
God said to pray, so obey Him and watch Him do
great things.
TREASURES IN HEAVEN
by Pastor Kevin
Badgley
We need to believe anything God tells us, even
when it seems He is telling us a whopper!
I’m talking about things that are impossible
without God. I’m
going to teach about the commitment and devotional parts
of prayer.
In Luke 1:34 Mary asked the angel, “How shall
this be,” but then in Verse 38 she said, “Behold the
handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy
word.”
God is going to take us through and
just transcend all of our troubles.
This will come by the power of His Spirit (see
Zechariah 4:6), but we need to be in prayer like we have
never been in prayer before, not in a defensive mode but
offensive.
We need to believe God no matter what goes on around us!
Psalm 91:7 says, “A thousand shall
fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand;
but it shall not come nigh thee.”
If it is at your hand, it is pretty close,
and yet it doesn’t come nigh (near) you.
That is because you are walking in the Spirit,
not in the ways of this world.
We must walk in God’s Spirit, so that we will not
fulfill the lust of the flesh and the weaknesses and
impossibilities thereof.
God wants the church to walk in
complete
possibility!
God originally ordained that all of His people
would walk in that which is possible!
Mark 10:27 says, “. . . for with God all things
are possible.”
Jesus said in Mark 9:23, “If thou
canst believe, all things are possible to him that
believeth.”
He said if you have faith as a
grain of mustard seed (see Luke 17:6), and you are in
fasting and prayer to God, then nothing shall be
impossible to you.
There are many other scriptures that show us
specifically, and denote to us pointedly, that God wants
us (His people) to walk in a completely possible
state.
In other words, nothing should be impossible to us
except sin.
God wants to get us to the place
where sin cannot enter in.
Jesus went so far as to say that a good tree
cannot bring forth corrupt fruit.
1 John 3:9 says, “Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he
cannot sin, because he is born of God.”
Folks, I want to get into the
presence of the Lord.
Psalm 16:11 says, “. . . in thy presence is
fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures
for evermore.”
I want the peace of God according
to Philippians 4:7- “And the peace of God, which passeth
all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds
through Christ Jesus.”
There
is victory, and all things are possible to every
Christian if you will believe for it!
You are not going to fully understand it, so you
might as well hang that up.
You start out with faith, and God will lead you
into places where you will understand a little more by
and by. God
is able - to make you able.
Philippians 4:19 says, “But my
God shall supply
all your need according to his riches in glory by
Christ Jesus.”
God is a God of covenant, but He is also a God of
emotion.
You won’t find grace under a covenant.
The Word of God says that blessings will come
upon you if you obey the Lord, and cursing will come if
you don’t.
That is covenant.
What happens when I draw on my
account, and I find that I’m a little overdrawn, and I
say, Oh God, I
didn’t mean to do that!
He will say,
Alright, I will
provide.
Just get prayed back up!
That is called grace!
God provides grace, and it just tears the devil
up!
God sends His grace, so surely we
can praise Him in the hard times!
It takes a certain level of grace on our part to
praise the Lord when there is nothing to praise Him
about, or at least that is what we think when we are
under pressure, under the knife, under condemnation, or
in trials of our faith.
That is called the sacrifice of
praise.
Hebrews 13:15 says, “By him therefore let us offer the
sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the
fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.”
You are giving praise to His name
even when you don’t feel like it.
That is when you have to believe God technically,
but there is no way that you can believe Him
emotionally.
You praise Him anyway, even when you feel like He
has left you.
Job got so far as to say in Job
13:15, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. . .
.” He
wasn’t real sure that his slaying wasn’t next, because
God had already allowed the enemy to take all of his
goods and all of his family!
God liked what Job said, and He had
it written down so that future generations could read
about it.
People would know that there was a man who chased after
Him, and who was perfect and upright.
Job had some hard times; many were his
afflictions.
However, later on God gave him a double portion,
and he had twice as much as he had before
Matthew 6:19-21 says, “Lay not up for yourselves
treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt,
and where thieves break through and steal:
But
lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where
neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do
not break through nor steal:
For where your treasure is, there will your heart
be also.”
Jesus was talking to people living on this earth
then and now.
God says He is the “I am”.
Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith it is
impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them
that diligently seek him.”
It is possible for Christians, now in this life,
to lay up for themselves treasures in heaven before they
ever get there.
There is something that we can do in this realm
that will secure us treasures in the spirit realm.
We must be filled with the Spirit of the Living
God (see Ephesians 5:18).
The baptism of the Holy Ghost gives us power, and
that power is edified and raised up in the believer as
he prays in the Spirit (as he prays in the Holy Ghost
prayer language).
God edifies and begins to move on him as he prays
from the heart, because the Spirit of God is praying
through that language.
God never says no or maybe to the Holy Ghost!
God knows the mind of the Spirit, because it is
the mind of Christ.
James 4:2 says, “. . . ye have not,
because ye ask not.”
This is talking about prayer.
Sometimes people pray, but they still don’t
receive.
James 4:3 says, “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask
amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.”
What does it mean by that?
It means that you were praying with an angle;
some twisting was involved.
When you get filled with the
Spirit, you can pray in the Holy Ghost, and He prays for
the good of the saints and the glory of God!
He prays to edify the believer and to build up
the church!
John 16:13 says, “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth,
is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall
not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that
shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.”
Acts 1:8 says, “But ye shall
receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon
you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me . . . and unto
the uttermost part of the earth.”
We can lay up treasures in heaven,
and this is how it is done.
As we pray and believe God we begin to lay up
treasures.
It is sort of like a bank account, and you write checks
from the account.
Writing checks denotes praying for needs, and the
building up of the account is like prayer time you’ve
made to God.
Most of the time during ministry,
Jesus didn’t pray for anybody.
He commanded the devil to leave, or He rebuked
the affliction, or He took power over the sickness.
Did you notice that?
When there was death, there were times that He
rebuked the devil, or just touched them, or just spoke
the word.
He did this whether He was present or from a distance;
it didn’t make any difference.
When He spoke the word it was done.
He wasn’t actually praying, technically, because
He had already prayed!
The Bible says that He was in
prayer all night long before He came to the synagogue
the next morning.
Because of that, the power of the Lord was
present to heal!
If you are prayed up, you can pray the
prayer of faith!
Jude 1:20 says, “But ye, beloved,
building up
yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy
Ghost,”
We have to pray and stir up the Holy Ghost within us so
that most holy faith will be built up.
Jesus is on board, the anointing is there by the
Holy Ghost, and God will answer your petitions!
You can lay up for yourselves prayer time to God
in the
Kingdom
of Heaven,
and God will answer your prayer!
God knows every heart.
David said in Psalm 66:18, “If
I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:”
If you are living in sin, and you pray for
someone, you have a problem.
God is not hearing your prayer!
If you have ought against someone, God will not
hear your prayer.
Mark 11:25 says, “And when ye stand praying,
forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father
also which is in heaven may forgive you your
trespasses.”
Matthew 5:23-25 says, “Therefore if
thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest
that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there
thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be
reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy
gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou
art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary
deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to
the officer, and thou be cast into prison.”
You cannot go to God in prayer and
get an answer if you have hatred, unbelief, or
unforgiveness in your heart!
He says that you need to get these things under
the blood of Jesus.
You may need to ask someone to forgive you, and
then ask God to forgive you.
Be reconciled with them, and then lay the
situation on the altar - pray and seek God, and then God
will answer you.
Matthew 21:22 says, “And all things, whatsoever
ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.”
We
have faith, and there is a faith that Jesus possesses.
We build up our most holy faith when we pray in
the Holy Ghost.
Jude 1:3 tells us, “Beloved, when I gave all
diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it
was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you
that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was
once delivered unto the saints.”
Our faith is so very important.
1 John 5:4 says, “For whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world: and this is the victory that
overcometh the world, even our faith.”
The Bible talks about being under
tutors and governors.
We are under restrictions.
We are under the laws of the land.
All good and moral laws are from the Word of God,
and as we obey them, we have a certain measure of
blessings and order.
However, God wants us to press on into the Spirit
to where we won’t have to figure out what is right or
wrong, because God will just show us.
Then we will just
want to do
what is right, and we will be led by the Spirit.
Then we will not even consider temptation to sin.
Flesh cannot do this!
Only the Spirit of the Living God can do this in
us!
We must be yielded to God’s Spirit.
If you have laid up prayer time in heaven, you
can write checks
on that account,
and God will honor it!
Mark 16:17 says, “And these signs shall follow
them that believe. . . .”
We must walk in the Spirit of the
Lord and be committed to do so.
This is a sign of faith.
If you are prayed up in your most holy faith,
then your most holy faith will enact the Word of God.
The Spirit of God gives life His Word.
We read the promises of God, and we pray to
believe them.
When we pray up in the Spirit, God enacts them.
He causes them to come alive.
It doesn’t matter how impossible it
may seem, God says in Exodus 15:26,
“. . . I am the
LORD that healeth thee.”
As you pray in the Spirit, God will come into
your life, and you can lay hands on the sick, and they
shall recover.
God will speak through you, and move through your
life, and heal that person!
People want things proved to them.
Acts 2:4 says, “And they were all filled with the
Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as
the Spirit gave them utterance.”
God’s Spirit is the one who gives evidence.
Jesus said in John 5:36, “But I
have greater witness than that of John: for the works
which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works
that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent
me.” John
the Baptist did no miracles, but he prophesied of the
miracle giver, Jesus!
Acts 10:38 says, “How God anointed
Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power:
who went about doing good, and healing all that were
oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.”
The same Spirit that bore witness
to Jesus through John, is the same Spirit that bore
witness through Jesus by signs following Him.
It is the same
Spirit that raised Him from the dead.
Romans 8:11 says, “But if the Spirit of him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that
raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your
mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.”
How does someone come to have great
faith?
IT TAKES PRAYER
TIME.
We know that Romans 10:17 says, “So then faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
As we hear and obey the Word of God, God will
give us the Holy Ghost.
Acts 5:32 says, “. . . the Holy Ghost, whom God
hath given to them that obey him.”
Then, our faith is built up by praying in the
Holy Ghost.
When you get filled with the
Spirit, you will perform the doing of the Word; you will
not be a hearer only.
Some people get filled with the Spirit, and that
is where they quit.
They think it is an automatic ticket to heaven,
and they have as much as anybody.
However, they can’t help anybody else until they
go ON.
James 2:20 says, “But wilt thou
know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?”
When it dies, some will go on rattling, because
the gifts and the calling are without repentance.
Speaking of the gifts of the
Spirit, 1 Corinthians 12:11 says, “But all these worketh
that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man
severally as he will.”
The Holy Ghost comes in a believer and checks
them out.
He won’t even come in there unless Jesus is in there.
When God sees the blood, instead of
giving judgment, He passes over you and causes blessings
to overtake you.
He will look at your heart and make you what He
wants you to be!
I like that.
We try to follow Jesus with our own thinking, but
God sent the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, that we can get
to know Jesus.
2 Corinthians 3:6 says, “Who also
hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of
the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter
killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”
As you begin to see the signs
following, there is evidence of the work of the Spirit.
As you hear and obey the Word of God, you
understand a little bit more, and a little bit more.
God creates a hunger in us for more of Him.
Some people won’t eat unless they are hungry!
Jesus said in Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are they
which do hunger and thirst after righteousness:
for they shall be filled.”
He said in Matthew 6:33, “But
seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all
these things shall be added unto you.”
Romans 14:17 says, “For the kingdom of God
is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace,
and joy in the Holy Ghost.”
Isaiah 54:17 says, “. . . This is
the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their
righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.”
Righteousness is of God.
Isaiah 64:6 says, “But we are all
as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags. . . .”
Once you get born again, and filled
with the Holy Ghost, your righteousness has changed.
It isn’t your righteousness anymore.
It isn’t what little good that you think you can
do. It is
what God can do.
God can so overshadow you that everything you say
is the oracle of God.
It is possible that we can be priests and
ministers of our God.
(See Revelation 1:6.)
We can be repairers of the breach
between God and man.
2 Corinthians 5:18 says, “And all things are of
God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ,
and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;”
Ezekiel 22:30 says, “And I sought
for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and
stand in the gap before me for the land, that I
should not destroy it: but I found none.”
We stand in the gap by God’s Spirit that dwells
in us; we can’t do it alone.
It seems sometimes that I can’t
stand the stuff that I’m going through, but by God’s
Spirit. I
was out praying, walking the streets of Grand Chain.
I realized that God was telling me to totally
trust his Word and to be totally reliant on His Spirit.
It came back to me that God told this to a
preacher by the name of Wigglesworth.
I believe the Word of God, and I have to line up
with it.
Psalm 84:11 says, “For the LORD God is a sun and shield:
the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will
he withhold from them that walk uprightly.”
That is awesome.
I can’t walk upright on my own.
I have to be walking in the Spirit, so I won’t
fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Then I won’t have anything wrong between me and
God, and we will be able to walk and talk with each
other!
He said to lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven.
The most important things that you can store up
are spiritual things.
You are going to need them.
God is not on an easy payment plan.
God is not about borrowing.
There is a certain amount of grace He has for us,
but the devil will come along and say,
If you haven’t
got the money, you aren’t taking it away from me.
If you haven’t got the power, I will not
relinquish your son or daughter.
We look up at God, and we boo-hoo about it, but
God has told us to pray!
1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, “Pray without
ceasing.”
The devil said that all the power
of this world would belong to Jesus if He would just bow
down and worship him.
Jesus did NOT compromise His position, but
instead Jesus rebuked the devil.
I wonder if Jesus’ eyes went hot white, and the
devil had to jump way back!
Luke 4:7-8 says, “If thou therefore
wilt worship me, all shall be thine.
And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee
behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship
the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”
Satan was talking to the power of
God, the Word of God.
He was trying to use Jesus against God! That is
what the devil tries to do with you and me.
Where is your treasure?
Luke 12:15-17 says, “And he said unto them, Take
heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life
consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he
possesseth.
And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of
a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:
And he thought within himself, saying, What shall
I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?”
He had more than he could use!
What a problem!
He had so much money and stuff he didn’t know
what to do with it!
Luke 12:18-19 says, “And he said, This will I do:
I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there
will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much
goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat,
drink, and be merry.”
Notice how many times “I” is in there?
Some people are never happy or satisfied!
That man never mentions family members or anybody
else.
We reap what we sow.
Galatians 6:8 says, “For he that soweth to his
flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that
soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life
everlasting.”
This man had his retirement all
figured out, but without God.
In Luke 12:20 God said to him, “. . .
Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of
thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast
provided?”
God doesn’t have any pleasures in fools.
Verse 21 says, “So is he that
layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich
toward God.”
He laid up treasure for himself, in other words -
for “me”.
As best as we can tell, Jesus
rented a house in Capernaum.
He was a tenant preacher, and He owned a robe.
That is all we know that he probably actually
owned.
However, there wasn’t one devil that gave Him any
problem!
There wasn’t one sickness or disease that stopped Him
from bringing the grace and the love of God to the
individual that needed it.
There wasn’t one thing that he
lacked in any way of the things of God.
He didn’t have much to show on this side, but in
the Spirit realm He could ask for anything that He
wanted!
Those who are mindful of the Spirit of God and walk in
the Spirit are the sons of God.
Romans 8:14 says, “For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”
The sons of God will have power to
do what the Son of God does, because a son is a
son. A
second son is kin to the first one.
Romans 8:17 says, “And if children, then heirs;
heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that
we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified
together.”
What Jesus did, we should be able to do!
How He got power is the way we have to get it!
Luke 12:22 says, “And he said unto
his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought
for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body,
what ye shall put on.”
To the flesh, this seems like crazy preaching!
I have thought about these scriptures for months.
Jesus proves us concerning our preoccupation with
clothes, money, houses, and other things.
Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek ye
first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness;
and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Are we preoccupied with praying to God for
other things?
Yes, we have needs, but God says that He will
supply all of our needs!
If we aren’t forced to do something, and we have
options available to us, who is going to take the hard
road?
We have options.
We go another route rather than praying through,
getting a hold of God, and letting Him supply and
fulfill our needs.
If we have options available to us, we will take
them.
We need to be thankful that we have
sufficient things, because God has allowed that in our
lives.
However, we have brothers and sisters in other parts of
the world who don’t have all of that.
Some of them don’t even have a whole Bible.
We have time to read the Bible and pray.
We are not to feel ashamed for our blessings, but
where is our focus?
Where is our devotion, our commitment, and our
priorities?
God is going to search us out to
see what our priorities are!
We have to decide if we are going to keep our
joy. Are we
going to pray or not?
Where else can we go?
John 6:68 says, “Then Simon Peter answered him,
Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of
eternal life.”
God is the one with revival, and He has all the
answers.
God takes care of the lilies of the field, and His eyes
are on the sparrow.
We have to trust God fully if we are going to
make it in these last days.
Isaiah 1:18 says, “Come now, and
let us reason together, saith the LORD. . . .”
God wants to give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight thyself also in the
LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine
heart.” He
says that if you will search Him with all of your heart,
He will be found.
NOW is the time, while we have time, and while
God is near.
God is going to do the miraculous in spite of
what is going on around us.
The Lord does not
put down the blessings, but He shows us the priorities
over them.
We understand that our nation has become intoxicated
with blessings, and God will not tolerate that very
long. Psalm
9:17 says, “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and
all the nations that forget God.”
John 4:23
says, “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true
worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in
truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.”
The Lord is
calling us to wake up literally and spiritually, because
He is calling us to greater things.
May we answer that call in Jesus’ name.
