Upper Room Discourse

God has given us wonderful promises in the Gospel of John. He has promised us that we can do the things that Jesus did, that He will work through us with power and signs and wonders to do works that will bring glory to God the Father. And He has promised us that as we obey Him, He will show Himself to us and reveal Himself to us. That is the most awesome type of revelation you can have, because it is not simply information -- it is a personal encounter with the living God. He wants us to encounter Him in that way. And there are many other wonderful promises that Jesus gave us in His upper room discourse in John chapters 14 to 17.

But here is the problem. The promises that He has given us in the gospel of John are so wonderful that we don't really believe them. They seem too good to be true, so we behave as if they are not really true. It's not really that we don't believe them, it is more that they haven't sunk in for each of us personally. They haven't become a part of our reality. Do you understand what I'm saying?

Of course we "believe" the Word of God, don't we? But there is a difference between when we say, "I believe the Word of God is true" and when we say "I expect to experience that." And we need to start expecting to experience these promises. I am not talking about what we believe as positional truth, or doctrinal truth. I'm talking about an expectation to experience that kind of belief.

God wants us to live in intimacy with Him. Let's take a look at what Jesus said about intimacy in John 14:23. "Jesus replied, 'If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him and We will come to him and make Our home with him." Look at what He says here: love, obedience, intimacy. We can experience the Father and the Son by the Spirit in our lives when we love Him and when we obey Him.

Marriage is a great example of intimacy, isn't it. But when a couple is in their home and there is no communication, is that an intimate time? Of course not! You know relationships are a little strained when people are giving each other the silent treatment. Lack of communication is not good for intimacy, is it?

The same thing holds in our relationship with God. God lives in us by His Spirit. He is usually in a good mood and He is a bit of a chatter box -- He likes to talk a lot more than we think. How do we think He would come and abide in us and not talk to us?

The problem really isn't He is not speaking; the problem is we are not listening. We misunderstand prayer when we think it to be only us talking to God and not us listening to God. If we pray that way, then we are missing a lot. Jim Goll, one of my friends and a prophet, wrote a book about prayer called "The Seer." It talks about contemplative prayer, where you just dial yourself down and you just focus on Him. You basically don't say hardly anything, you're just listening. And a lot of revelation comes from that. The point I have been making is that intimacy produces revelation, even revelation of Jesus Himself. That revelation might come as seeing Him, or it might come as hearing Him speak to you. But either way, you are aware that He has taken residence in you.

We have been taught for a long time that we are to base our relationship with God on faith, not on feelings. Have you heard of 'The Four Spiritual Laws' by Bill Bright? What's the engine? Fact. What's the middle car? Faith. What's the caboose? Feelings. Which pulls the train, the engine or the caboose? The engine does, of course -- that is the point Bill makes in his book. I think that is a reality and we can have it that way. However, real faith in the fact should produce feeling. God wants us to experience Him!

Christianity is not agreeing to prepositional truths, it is being indwelt by a Person Who wants to listen to us and speak to us. There is a realm of revelation that God wants us to walk in more than we are. I include myself in this statement.

In 1994, the night before I went to Toronto I got this word from a friend of mine, a Baptist businessman at that time. He said, "Randy, this is the second most clear word I've ever had for you." I said, "What is it?" He said, "The Lord says 'Test Me now. Test Me now. Do not be afraid. I will back you up." That changed my life. Then the rest of the prophecy was, "I want your eyes to be opened to see My resources for you in the Heavenlies even as Elijah prayed for Gehazi's eyes to be opened. And do not become anxious, because when you become anxious, you can't hear Me."

It's like what Wimber said, "If you're ministering, stand on the platform of peace and don't step off of it." And so the first part and the last part of that prophecy changed my life. I got it and took it into my spirit. I believed God was going to back me up. I was going to minister out of peace. I was really going to try to do that because it really doesn't do any good to get anxious.

But the middle part of the prophecy went over my head for a whole year. I didn't hear it or I missed it. And then about a year later, I keep getting all these other prophecies from people: God wants you to see. God wants you to see. Well this is ten years later. I still don't see as much as I want to.

I've got to quit saying that because I realize I'm beginning to. I've got a goal in my life. You want to know what it is? It is to see. I want to see into the spirit realm. I want to perceive the truth God has. And not just doctrinal truth -- I understand doctrinal truth. But I want to perceive the nuances of His leading. I used to be one of these guys who said, "I just want God to come with a ten foot angel and clip me and the knees." That is not my goal any more. My goal now is that I would pick up even the gentlest breeze of His leading. I don't want to be so dense that I need an angel ten feet tall with a baseball bat to knock me down before I know that God is with us. That's where I started at eleven years ago. Now I want to know just the slightest change, I want to be picking that up, I was to be sensitive to His most gentle leading. I'm not there. But I want to grow.