Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the importance of seeking Jesus as the healer rather than merely seeking healing. He shares testimonies of miraculous healings that occurred after dedicated prayer and consecration, highlighting that true faith comes from resting at the feet of Jesus. The sermon encourages believers to trust in God's timing and to draw strength from Him, rather than relying on their own abilities. Beach Jr. reminds the congregation that faith is a gift from God, and that the ultimate goal is to be completely dependent on Christ for all needs. He concludes by urging the audience to focus on Jesus, the source of their strength and sufficiency.

And in retrospect, this is what his conclusion was. I have been conducting campaigns in which a prominent place has been given to prayer for the sick and the suffering. To this ministry my Lord has called me, and to that call I have responded with all my heart. To his glory and praise I record that I have seen the eyes of the blind opened, miracles of power divine have raised cripples and paralytics from the wheelchairs and cots, and cancers and tumors have melted by the healing power of our wonderful dear Lord Jesus Christ. But do you know what I have noticed? All great healing services have been preceded by nights of consecration and seasons of prayer seeking him. When the crowds have rushed forward seeking healing, the meetings have been hard and difficult. But when they sought the healer rather than the healing, however, the sweetness of his presence has broken the power of the enemy and the sunshine of his presence has melted the icy feeling that gripped the heart. It may be self-pity or even self-love which brings us to his feet, but our whole viewpoint is changed once we are there, as we at last see him in all of his beauty and glory. What is the Holy Spirit doing? Bringing us to the feet of the Savior. Isn't that incredible? How I long to be at the feet of Jesus Christ. There at his feet we enter into rest, and he imparts to us what we need, right at the right time, every time. Beloved, how can we go wrong? What we have need of, right at the right time. Thank God. Thank God. To Mark chapter 11 for a few moments. Tonight the Holy Spirit wants to bring our attention to the Savior. And then through the daily working of the Holy Spirit in our life, and daily searching the Scriptures, asking the Holy Spirit to shine the light of God's life from the Scriptures, he teaches us to keep our inner heart fixed on Jesus Christ. Knowing that it's from him that we receive everything that we need. And if he's always on time, then if our eyes are fixed upon him, and there's a need, and we must find something, a healing, a faith, a peace, long-suffering, then we know we'll always have what we need. Perhaps not in our timing, but his timing. Would you like things in your timing or his timing? His timing. How many here have been Christians long enough to look in retrospect, and see how if God would have given you what you wanted when you wanted it, it wouldn't have turned out as glorious. So the soul learns to quietly rest at the Savior's feet when the storm is raging. The saint learns how to quietly rest at the Savior's feet when the healing is tarrying, though we believe God has promised it. What's wrong, God? Nothing. Everything's okay. We're tarrying for the fullness of the Holy Ghost more. Paul said, be filled with the Holy Spirit. You know what that means? Be continually filled. A believer longs for more of the Holy Spirit, but seemingly it's not happening. What's wrong, Lord? Nothing. Continue to trust. It'll come when it's time. Meanwhile, like the man who was on the road looking for the Savior, let the Lord deal with your heart. Perhaps during that time of tarrying you'll find out how impatient you really are, and maybe God wants you to see that before you receive your healing. God has a purpose when He withholds, but ultimately the Lord wants to do to us what He did to Abraham, reveal Himself as the Almighty. You know, when God told that to Abraham, it was many years after He promised Abraham that Abraham was going to have a baby, and at the time when God said, Abraham, I am the Almighty, walk before me and be perfect, that was when Abraham was too old to have a baby, and so was Sarah. So what was God doing? Putting things in perspective. I promised you, you have come to the place where you're incapable from your natural abilities to bring the promise about, and so was Sarah. Now take your attention off the deadness of yourself and place it upon the almightiness of who I am. Has your situation got pretty dead? Good. Now listen to the voice of the Spirit, El Shaddai, the Lord Almighty. And then, a little while after that, the Lord again appeared to Abraham and called Himself, I am the Lord that nourishes you and sustains you, the breasty one. Now that, actually, God was using an illustration, the paps, the breasts of a woman. In other words, God's saying, I can be to you what the breasts of a woman are to a suckling child. I can sustain you. I can nourish you. Wow. Now, remember now, this is all happening after God promised. Abraham believed and nothing happened. We don't tell God what to do. We simply believe His Word and then wait for Him to perform it. And then obey the Holy Spirit as the Holy Spirit moves upon us. The ultimate place that the Lord is bringing you as His beloved child is a place where you are totally dependent on Him, not in theology, but in experience. The Lord doesn't want you to find a new teaching. He wants you to learn of Himself. Now, we're going to read a story in the Bible that has been so grossly misunderstood and hopefully, by the grace of God, tonight, we might be able to glean into one of the reasons why this was recorded into the Scriptures. And I hope and pray that it will edify us, build us up, and instruct us so that you can leave here tonight with a jewel from heaven. How many want a jewel? You want a jewel? Now, I'm talking about the kind that can't be stolen by thieves or corrupted by rust. See? The book of Proverbs says, There is the man who is poor, but yet is rich. And there is the man who says he's rich, but he's poor. This is the kind of riches that make poor people rich. Okay? Okay? Matthew chapter 11, beginning in verse 12. Matthew chapter 11, beginning in verse 12. And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry. Now, that's profound in itself. God, eternal God, is hungry. Oh, the depths of how Christ humbled himself. Isn't it a paradox? The almighty God, who deserves to be exalted, humbles himself. And mere man, who deserves to humble himself, exalts himself. I'm sorry, did I say Matthew? I meant to say Mark. Forgive me. I did say Mark. Jesus was hungry. There he was, the bread of life, and he was hungry. He was the water of life, and he said, I thirst. Do you see what God and his love compelled himself to do? Never in all eternity will all of creation know of anything equal to the awesome, unexplainable cost that God paid for our redemption. Eternal God took on the likeness of sinful flesh and was hungry. Wow. How many of you, having food, would go hungry? And seeing a fig tree afar off, having leaves, he came, if happily he might find anything thereon. And when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever. And his disciples heard it. Verse 15, And they come to Jerusalem, and Jesus went into the temple and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple and overthrew the tables of money changers and the seats of them that sold doves and would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. And he taught, saying to them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? But ye have made it a den of thieves. And the scribes and chief priests heard it and saw how they might destroy him. For they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine. And when evening was come, he went out of the city. And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. Now we're starting to see the reason why Jesus initially went to the fig tree. And Peter, leave it to Peter, he's always ready to make a quick observation about something, isn't he? Peter's a special character. And Peter calling to remembrance said unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou curseth is withered away. And Jesus answering, saith unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, that whoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass. He shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore, I say unto you, what things whoever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and ye shall have them. And when you stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any, that your Father also, which is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses. For if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father, which is in heaven, forgive your trespasses. Now this is quite a remarkable story. And, as I said, it has been quite a confusing portion of scriptures. But hopefully, in just a few moments here, we can perhaps see a little insight into what Jesus was actually saying here. Because, remember, the purpose of Jesus was to draw men unto the Father, and to teach his disciples, as well as anyone else who would hear, to teach them to learn to live by the Father, to learn to live by Him, to be sustained by Him, that He may become their very strength, that He may become their very sufficiency. Christ revealed God as being one who is very interested in our lives, not an impersonal gas somewhere in the cosmos that sort of moves with the atoms and neutrons of space. Neither was He some dumb idol, nor was He some strange spirit, but He was indeed a God who loved, who had compassion, who had a will, but most importantly, a God who wanted to reveal Himself as the very source of life for those who would believe. And the disciples marveled at this man of Galilee because of the things that he did. But Jesus was always bringing the attention back to the Father until someone saw by revelation who He really was. And then He said, Shh, don't tell anybody. Other than that, He always gave glory to the Father. Now, I would like to read several verses in another translation that I feel will give us some incredible insight into what Jesus was actually saying to His disciples. Let's go to verse number 20 in Mark chapter 11. Mark chapter 11, verse number 20. And in the morning passing by they saw the fig tree having been dried up from the roots. And Peter, having remembered, saith to Him, Rabbi, lo, the fig tree that Thou didst curse is dried up. And Jesus answering, said to them, Have ye faith of God? Now, let's read that one more time. And in the morning passing by they saw the fig tree having been dried up by the roots. And Peter, having remembered, saith to Him, Rabbi, lo, the fig tree that Thou didst curse is dried up. And Jesus answering, said to them, Have ye faith of God? Question mark. Jesus was introducing one of the most profound revelations that the disciples would ever understand in their life to come, in their ministry to come. Jesus was introducing to them the secret of their future ministry as apostles doing the works of Christ. He was introducing to them the very secret that would sustain them and keep them and hold them and carry them through the great and terrible things that they would suffer for His name. And it all lies in the glorious truth that it is by Him and through Him and not of ourselves that His works are performed. Jesus asked the question, Don't you have the faith of God? It's a gift. You can't earn it. All you do is ask for it. Do you stumble at why this fig has been cursed? You see, we would look in ourselves to find the faith to do something for God or to believe God for something. But Jesus says not so. You look to Christ for what you need. What does the Bible say in Hebrews chapter 12? Looking unto Jesus Christ the what? Author and finisher of our faith. Bible also says that faith is a fruit. It grows from where? From the Spirit. This revolutionary divine truth is what enables the believer to go through the transition of struggle, grief, and labor in the flesh to rest and trust and abiding in Him. Finding in Him all we need to see the will of God realized in our life. Not looking any longer in ourselves. Losing our identity in Christ. Forever abandoning the thought that we can find some resource within ourselves. Forever burying that thought, beloved. And by the grace of God and the Spirit of God looking always unto Him. That in Him we will find all things pertaining to life and godliness. May I suggest that this little story of the fig tree being cursed possibly one of the reasons and surely God probably has a host of others but one I know by the Lord. One of the reasons why the Holy Spirit logged this story was to teach His disciples at that time and we who are reading the Bible at this time that the secret to be a successful Christian and see the works of Christ realized in our life is not drawing from the resources of ourselves but drawing and appropriating the resources of God Himself. By taking the attention from ourself and bringing it to the person of Jesus Christ and finding in Him what we need rather than in ourselves. As Jesus says, don't you have the faith of God? Listen. You don't create it. You don't conjure it up, beloved. You find it at the feet of Jesus. It is a gift imparted to you. There's the secret of the overcoming Christian. The one who draws his strength from Jesus. The one who finds his peace. Jesus Himself. The one who through being tutored by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God makes the transition from struggling in self into the blessed and blissful life of abiding in Christ. Now there's another familiar scripture in Habakkuk. I believe it's chapter 2, verse 4. Let's find it. Habakkuk. That's in the Old Testament. Verse number 4, chapter 2. Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith. Now whose faith are we living from? His faith. Christ's faith. Philippians. Philippians. Chapter 2. No, I'm sorry, Galatians. Galatians. Chapter 2, verse 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, what? By the faith of the Son of God. Now do you see, beloved, how if we can fix our heart's affections and our attention on him and take them off of ourself, how he can become then the very strength that sustains us, the very peace that comforts us, the very sanctification that makes us holy, it becomes he sustaining us, rather us trying to sustain ourself with our feeble attempts and cries, his strength, his power, his peace. How I long to know him. Now oftentimes we can't know him unless we experience weakness of some kind. For God knows that oftentimes unless we are made weak, we glory in ourself and find confidence in the flesh. So God orchestrates his divine plans in our life all intended to bring us to this place where we cease from looking in ourself and begin to look to him. And then he does the work through us. And this is his gift to us. What a precious gift, isn't it? Who's the head of the church? Jesus. We as the body have played the head. We've tried to tell God when to do it, where to do it, and how to do it. We've missed it. It is Christ executing his word. It is Christ executing his word. The body, we simply abide in him and let him work his will in our life. And when the Holy Spirit deals with us about something, we give it to God. We surrender. We give it to him. We offer it to him. Deals with sin. Whatever he deals with, we offer it to him. And in exchange, we receive more of him. We give him our temper. He gives us his patience. Oh, how precious to walk with him, in him, by him, and through him. And this is the cry of our hearts. Let's pray. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Father, we ask that you would make your word real to our hearts tonight. Lord, open the eyes of our understanding, I pray, and help us to see your sufficiency. Teach us, Lord, to draw from your sufficiency. Show us our need, and in response to our need, may we turn to thee, and there find all that we need. Lord, we believe your word, and we ask you, Lord, to come to the rock. We ask you, Lord, to take us to the rock where we can draw from the healing, from the fullness of who you are and what you are. Thank you, Jesus. God, open our ears that we may hear your word. Lord Jesus, we recall that wherever you went as a man, whenever you spoke your word, something happened. Lord, teach us to hear your voice, a voice of another one we will not follow. Lord, as we look to your word, the word of God, the Bible, Father, teach us to read the word with our ears open, not our natural ears, but our spiritual ears, that we may hear you breathe the life upon thy word for a certain promise, and then we know the certainty of it, Lord. God, open our ears that we may hear the word of God spoken to our hearts. Hallelujah. Now, the Holy Spirit, everyone can keep praying, the Holy Spirit is moving in our hearts now. And you know, sometimes God gives us the faith to pray for the sick and they're healed. But see, you don't just pray. It's not my faith that can heal sick people. It's His faith. See, this is the secret. It's following the Savior, flowing in His will. He's the head. Now, I feel like God has filled my heart with faith to pray a prayer, and I want to pray it. And I want to pray and ask God to perform the miracle of imparting into our souls the rest of trusting in Him and waiting for Him. The miracle of being able to grasp with your spiritual understanding the need to come to Him and let your soul be taught by Him how to wait, how to trust, then how to act when His faith rises in your heart. I believe this is what He wants. And I just want to ask one time, if there's anyone here, special prayer for this particular prayer. If you feel this is stirring in your heart, I want to invite you to come up to the front here. I want to pray for you. Only if the Lord should move you, I want to pray for you. Sometimes we pray for sick people and they're healed. We pray for people to be filled with the Spirit and they do receive. But now the Holy Spirit is saying, rest, my beloved. Rest, my beloved. Stop striving. Come and sit at my feet and learn of my ways. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, I thank you for the miracle that's occurring right now in Lori's heart. Thank you, Father. Do a complete work, Lord. May you wrap her in your arms, O Lord. And reveal to her soul who her lover really is. May this miracle, Lord, be the beginning of an adventure with Lori and you that will lead her into your bosom. Thank you for that miracle of rest and faith. Who else? Anybody else? Hallelujah. Oh, it's so precious when the gentle dove of the Holy Spirit performs a miracle. I thank God for the miracle. Thank you, Father. Sweet Holy Spirit, thank you, Lord. Christ would rise within him. People were healed and baptized in the Holy Ghost. But he said, I don't possess this gift. I don't turn it on. I don't turn it off. It's something God does. And a lady came up to him and she had a little girl who was terribly sick. And he laid hands on the girl and the faith of Christ left him. And he stood there empty. And he said, Woman, who are you? Where are you from? She said, I'm from a Methodist church. And my daughter goes to the Methodist church. And she needs to be healed or she'll die. And then the Lord gave someone on the platform the gift of discernment. She was lying. She was a hypnotist. And she was going to the meetings in order to try and prove that they were not of God. Now could you imagine this is the conclusion this man came to. Can you imagine if he had control of the gift and he could heal at his own will what would have happened? But as a result of him being totally dependent upon God and if God moved him he prayed and knew something would happen. But if God didn't he stood dumb. Because he was sensitive to the Holy Spirit and didn't put on any kind of show and try and play and make people think that he was some special person. This woman repented in the meeting was cleansed, accepted Jesus Christ as her personal Lord and Savior and her daughter raised up from the sick bed and the whole meeting was set free. And God moved in a great and mighty way. Why? Because God had somebody there who could say this is God. Not emotion. Not a man. Not music. This comes from Him. Not from the resources of my mental confession. Not from positive affirmation. I believe. I believe. I believe. I believe. I believe. I believe. I believe. It's gotta happen. Hallelujah. No, beloved. You know what that is? Metaphysics. That's Christian science. Trying to create within your psyche the power to see God work. Beloved, stay far from it. That's the religion of hell. Not heaven. Heaven's religion is all glory and honor to the person of Jesus Christ and except ye abide in me ye can do nothing. There's heaven's religion. And there are presently legions of teaching demonic spirits who are corrupting the minds of many, many Christians whose attention has fallen from the headship and glory of Jesus Christ and who try and concoct by human creation the faith and the power to do the works of Christ. And beloved, the end is ruin and destruction and every evil work. So what we're doing is we're all coming together under the head. We're learning to be shepherded by Him. We're lifting Him alone up. We're loving His Word. We're feasting on His Word. And we're letting Him perform it. We believe God can do anything. But it's only God who can do it. And if I can pray for someone and they can be healed it's only because the faith of Christ is rising within me enabling me to move but yet it's not me moving but it's Him. I wept in prayer having seen these things as my poor wretched heart is beholding these things and I wept out a prayer Oh God, please I beg you forever in time and eternity keep me with proper perspective don't ever let my poor heart be deceived as to think that any good thing that is happening is originating from me. My God, keep me from such a snare. Keep me from such a curse. Keep me from such a pitfall that will bring my soul into ruin. And I'll die an unhappy man. God, keep me from the greatest lie this side of heaven that there's something good in me. And beloved, it's easy when you walk in the victory of Christ and you have victory after victory it's easy for the slippery serpent to come and somehow, someway get your heart off the attention of the richness of Christ and the poverty of self and begin to make you think that it's coming from something within your own making. Pray for a thorn. Pray for something to keep you understanding you are nothing and He is everything. You are poor and He is rich. And the mystery of that union the coming together of those two opposites is where God can work in a believer's life. And this is what I pray for all of us. Amen. Don't want to keep you much longer. It's already quarter to nine. Appreciate you all and love you. Appreciate our visitors back there. God bless. Amen. Amen. Well, we have copies of our Christmas schedule. We do. Well, I don't need to read it. It's in the back if you need it. The back there. God bless everybody.