By M. Gazowski
Tonight I want to talk about something as unromantic as bounced checks. I do not think there is anything as embarrassing as bouncing a check. Have you ever bounced a check? There are many things that cause bounced checks. One is the bank taking out whatever they want from your checking accounts for additional checks. They also take money out for someone else bouncing a check.
I made a deposit in San Jose at the Seven Trees Branch. I deposited 275 dollars, but it was never credited to the West Postal Branch. They lost the deposit slip. The check bounced and I felt so stupid. I went to the bank and informed them I had enough money in the account to cover the check. I told them I had the money in the San Jose Seven Trees Branch. The West Postal Branch informed me they had no record of the deposit. The bank finally found the deposit slip. They sent a letter to the store where I had written the check. The store owner came over with the letter; the bank president came over from the West Portal Branch. He was so embarrassed. He said, “Reverend, I am so sorry that we lost your deposit.”
Did you know the disciples bounced a check one day? The trouble is, we write a check and then we try to get a deposit in the bank before the check gets to the bank. That is the way a check usually bounces.
Matthew 17:14-18 says, “And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down and saying, `Lord, have mercy on my son; for he is lunatic, and sore vexed: for oft times he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought him to the disciples,
“O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to me.’ And Jesus rebuked the devil, and he Departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.”
Then came the disciples to He who set the stars in Heaven. He lit up the sun. He put that reflecting in heaven. He made the world. The disciples came to him and said “Why could not we cast him out?” I would have said, “Brother, because you were not God. He is. That is the way I would have felt about it. However, Jesus did not do that. He said,
“Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place: and it shall remove: and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” However, it does not stop there. It has a contingent on it. For it states, “Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” They prayed, but they bounced a check. I have prayed for many people and bounced a check. I have prayed for some and the check got cashed. That made me feel there was much faith. I always used to say, “Honey, you have to have just a little more faith.” I am afraid that is not the way it comes!
There is no sense in us living on the edge of the Pentecostal experience. We, as ministers, have received the truth from God. He has given it to us. I am not saying we have all the truth, but I say we have a good share of it.
If there is more truth, then I want it if I have something that is not truth, then I want to get rid of it.
I am not saying that everything I have, think, and know is absolute truth from Heaven, but I know I have a lot of it. It works!I want to learn every day and I want to reach for God everyday.
Being raised in Pentecost, I have not been very good at prayer. I could pray all night long when I was in distress. I was not really praying. I was only having a pity party. “Oh God, help me, you know what I’ve been through today. Please lord, undertake!” I felt so sorry for myself and I cried for myself. However, I was not communing with
God. Preachers that preach on prayer would preach on how much prayer could do. I wanted to say, “Shut up! I want to pray. Come on, put an end to your sermon!” I felt like praying so much. When I would get down to pray, I would say, “I’m gonna pray for an hour. O Glory to God, I’m gonna pray for an hour. Hallelujah! Glory to God! Glory to
God! God, I love ya! God, I love ya! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Glory to god! Glory to God!” I thought if I made noise for an hour, I would be praying. I would make noise for an hour. Then I would look at my watch and had only been 15 minutes. Then I would say, “Oh Lord, I’m gonna make this hour. God oh God!” I had been there 20 minutes. Then I would cry a little bit and it was 25 minutes. Finally, 30 minutes came and I just had to give up. It was horrible. Then I would ask the Lord for something and somebody would want Prayer.
I would pray and say, “Oh Lord, please undertake for this person. In the name of Jesus, please undertake.” Then they would walk away and I would say, “Well, they should have had more faith.”
Remember this statement: Please do not let your ego write a check your consecration can’t cash. “Oh sure, I’II pray brother. I’II pray, brother.” How much do you have in the bank? Come on, how much- do you have the bank? “This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” Have you ever fasted seven days? It is beautiful. The first three days
is hard. It takes three days to get rid of drugs. The Holy Bible, Matthew 17:21. It takes three days to get heroine out of your system. It takes three days to get LSD out of your system. It takes three days to get cocaine out. There may be a few flashbacks later, but to get rid of the drugs, it takes three clean days. The body can adjust in three days. The first day is a problem, and the second day is still a problem. The third day gets pretty dry. The fourth, fifth, sixth, and
seventh days are angelic. You no more want to eat anything than the man on the moon. It is absolutely glorious and if you have never fasted seven days, then you do not know the absolute thrill of fasting. You have got to pass over those first three days.
Here were these apostles and they could not do the job. There was no way they could do the job and Jesus said, “These kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” You remember, they did not fast because the bridegroom was still with them. They did not pray either. I could not find one place in the four gospels when the disciples prayed. I find where they went to sleep, but they never prayed. You say Jesus did not walk with the church. He did not walk with anyone who was born again. He walked with carnal men. He really walked alone. He was laying the foundation for the church, but ye could not be born until Calvary. He could not finish his birth until the day of Pentecost. Jesus had to walk without his disciples being born again. When Jesus went up there to pray on mount transfiguration, they went to sleep. A scripture in the Bible tells me that Jesus went up alone in the mountain to pray and the disciples were with him. I laughed out loud. He had all those twelve with him and it says he went up in the mountain alone to pray. He knew he was going to pray alone even though they were tagging along. He was praying away. The disciples were sitting around him and when he was done, they said, “Master, teach us to pray.” Why didn’t they get down and do what he was doing? They were just sitting there looking. You see, they did not have a bank account. Even though Jesus was the God of the universe, he prayed all night long. He had a job to do. The day he came walking out on the water, he was up in that mountain. The disciples already sent the thousands away that Jesus fed. Then they got
in a ship to go to the other side. Jesus went up in the mountain to pray. While he was up there praying, he looked down and they were in a storm. There was so much glory on him that he walked on the water. That prayer did something to him. As Jesus ministered, he prayed. He tried to teach them to pray, but he prayed instead.
Now, when he was crucified, they were not believers. He told them many times that he was going to die. They buried him and three days and nights later, he was coming up out of that tomb. They were not believers. Now the Bible, if you search it, says the angel came with the sound of a great earthquake and rolled away the stone so the women
could see in. Where Jesus came out of that tomb, we are not sure. They did not roll back the stone so he could come out. He did not need that stone rolled away so he could come out. He did not come out in the clothes he was wearing because the grave clothes were folded up in the tomb. He came out in those glorious robes that we are going to wear
on the streets of gold. It made believers out of them. After he ascended, they were continually in the temple praising and blessing God and praying to the Lord. Now they were believers because he made an appointment with them. It was ambiguous. He did not say in seven and a half days you are going to be endued with power from on High. He said to pray until you are endued with power from on High. They were praying “until” because they knew it was coming. Three days before they did not feel any closer then they did seven days before. They did not feel any closer
24 hours before. One hour before they did not feel any closer. My bible says suddenly there came a mighty rushing wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting. There were 120 who were believers.
They knew how to pray.
It is the most beautiful thing when you connect with him and you are not saying words, but you are telling him what is on your heart. It is so glorious. It’s not just the first hour. Wait until the second hour of prayer and God begins to talk to you. You need your bible. You have got to have it open on your lap. He begins to talk to you and you see those little things in the Word. When you get in the third consecutive hour of prayer, you go into another realm that is somewhere between heaven and earth. As God takes you in that spirit world, you learn what it is all about to be in perfect order with Him. You see, Peter and John were going up to the temple in an hour of prayer. They were going to make a deposit. However, it wasn’t necessary for them to make a deposit to cover this check. When that lame man asked for alms, they said: “silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, I give unto you.” He knew what he had in the deposit in the bank up in Glory. All he could say was, “Brother, what I have, I can give you. In the name of
Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”
Why don’t we live in that realm? Why don’t we walk in that realm? We pray when we have a need, but we need to pray in case somebody else has got a need. We need to put a bank account there so maybe somebody else will need a withdrawal.
Peter had so many deposits in the bank, that he did not have to stop to pray. People just made withdrawals on the account as his shadow passed by them. In Acts chapter 5, the Bible says, “they laid them on the street and all of them were healed.” In the seventh chapter can give themselves to the study of the Word and prayer. He’s got a bank account that his shadow heals. However, he is still wanting to make deposits. We have got to give ourselves to the study of the Word and prayer. We have got to give ourselves to prayer. God has filled you with the Holy Ghost and you are his child. You are as much his child as the Children of Israel. However, they did not always do what God wanted them to do. They did not live in the realm that God wanted them to live in. A few of the prophets did, but not the children of Israel as a whole. We need to do more of that fasting and more of the prayer. If God’s people do not fast and pray, somebody will do the job. Why don’t we latch on to it? It belongs to us! We are supposed to crucify the
flesh with the effects and lusts. You need to prepare yourself to worship the Lord. You need to prepare yourself to fast. You prepare yourself by dwindling what you eat until your stomach shrinks and you are not very hungry. Then you have to set your mind. Your mind can cause you problems. You can be working diligently and then all of a sudden say, “Oh, it’s noontime. Oh, that’s right. I’m fasting.’ Then your mind says, “You’re fasting. You’re fasting. You’re dying for 9. The Holy Bible, Acts 5:15 food! You’re dying for food!” Shut up mind! I need a bank account. I don’t have one! I need to put some more deposits in the bank. It has got to be done!
It’s when you can fast and pray and you don’t have a reason that you really chalk up. Many times we pray for someone and then we must pray all night to make a deposit so it will work. Lord, help us. Your prayer matters much. First of all, the Bible does not say, “God thought, let there be light and there was light.” The Bible says, “God said, let
there be light. And there was light.” I used to wonder why we couldn’t pray silently on the way to work and it would work. That spoken prayer gets out. Remember, the devil is the prince and power of the air and he worketh in the children of disobedience. Now God gave mankind dominion over the earth. So if the world says, “Devil, you can have your way,” the devil has his way. We are the boss. However, when some of us rise up and say, “You’re not gonna have dominion,” in your prayer, you stomp on the devil. You’ve got to pray a hole through the prince and Power of the
earth. you pray for a long time and you think you’re never going to get an answer. However, the reason is, you haven’t chalked up enough. You chalked up enough for God to talk to that person you wanted saved, and then you didn’t have any more in the bank. If you want the job done, it’s going to take a bigger bank account. God will do it.
In conclusion, I would like to read from Revelation the fifth chapter starting with the eighth verse and stopping at the tenth verse. “And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. And they
sung a new song, saying, thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests; and we shall reign on the earth.” You did not know that Heaven has safety deposit boxes make of gold for your prayers. Now I want to read Revelations chapter eight and verses three through six. “And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand. And the angel took the censer, and filled with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth, and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.”
Don’t tell me your prayers don’t amount to anything. Heaven is waiting for our prayers. They wonder when you’re going to make a deposit. They wonder when you’re going to get in the spirit. They wonder how God can use you. They wonder how God can do something with you. He’s wanting to do something on this earth and He wants to do it through you. He’s going to call you. Let him call you. Do you know what healings do? They get the attention of the world. God can only work through us when we take that time to clear everything out. Everything is out when we take those hours of prayer and commune with Him. He’s dying so much to talk with His Bride.
