Growing up in church, I was taught that Christians are leaky vessels. Like a bucket full of holes, we must continually be “refilled,” and according to the average believer’s experience, this seems true. God touches our life and we become excited about it, but then—within a short period of time—we’re back to being just as empty and needing something special from the Lord as we were before.
This was clearly illustrated to me through a woman who had been listening to my teaching. She told me she had seen the Lord’s love for her greater than ever before. In fact, she was overwhelmed with God’s unconditional love for her. But then she concluded, “I know this won’t last long. It never does. In a month or so, I’ll be back to where I was—but I’m enjoying it now!”
Although this is what most people experience, it’s not what the Lord taught. He told us that we’re supposed to go “from glory to glory,” not pit to pit. (2 Cor. 3:18.) We aren’t supposed to just struggle all the time because God’s Word promises:
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.
Isaiah 40:4
Since this is the case, we ought to be enjoying some consistency in our Christian life. We don’t have to have a “yo-yo” experience with God.
Ever since the Lord revealed His love to me on March 23, 1968, I’ve been one excited and turned-on guy for Him. I’ve had much opposition and many bad things happen to me, but it’s never stolen what God said. Satan has definitely done his best to derail me, but I’ve never lost the joy of what the Lord did in my heart. In fact, it’s actually stronger today than it was back in 1968 when it first happened. My revelation and experience of God’s love is even better now than when I first had that awe-inspiring, life-changing encounter with Him.
Although this isn’t the experience of most believers—it can be yours. You can enjoy consistency and stability in your Christian life, too.
Romans 11:29 reveals that:
The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
Therefore, the Lord isn’t the One who comes and goes in your life. You do perceive His presence, anointing, joy, and other benefits that come from Him stronger at times, but it’s not God giving and then withdrawing from you. Very few people understand this.
Most Christians bombard heaven, crying, “Oh God, what’s wrong? Please touch my life again. I want a fresh touch from You. Lord, please come and do something new in my life today!”
When you pray that way, you’re insulting God. You’re assuming that whenever you feel dry and empty, whenever you lose your peace, joy, or whatever, that God is the One who withdrew from you. Not true!
Once you’re born again, God never changes toward you—ever. He’s always releasing—transmitting—His presence, blessing, anointing, joy, healing, prosperity and all that He is into your life. The Lord never changes, but you do. You must understand this as we begin looking into how to stay full of God.
Popular teaching today insinuates that the reason you aren’t walking in God’s love, peace, joy, etc., is because you’ve done something to displease Him. Therefore, it mainly centers on what you can do to “please” God and get His power flowing in your life again. This is never the case because the Lord has never withdrawn from you.
God isn’t the variable—you are. So, everything I’m going to share centers on how you can fix you. This won’t be a lesson on how to bombard the gates of heaven and “make” God do something. He’s already done everything through the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. God wants you blessed even more than you do!
Right now, you are as full of God as you believe to be. He doesn’t determine how full of love, joy, and peace you are. You do. God is always willing for every single person to be healed, delivered, and prospered. It’s never the Lord who doesn’t move in your life—it’s you who aren’t receiving from Him. That’s why I want to encourage you in how to receive.
Wherever you are right now, there are television signals around you. You may not be able to perceive them, but they are there. If you plugged in, turned on, and tuned in a television set, you could perceive the signal. When you turned on your receiver to experience the sight and sound of the picture, that isn’t when the broadcast began. It’s just when you started receiving.
That’s the way it is with the Lord. God is healing every person who ever needs to be healed. He’s giving love, joy, and peace to you constantly. The transmitters of heaven are beaming twenty-four hours a day, every day of the week. God is never the One who’s not blessing you. You’re the one who has either turned off or not tuned in.
I’m for revival, but the way most people are seeking it isn’t the way it’s going to happen. Praying, “Oh God, send revival!” and believing that it’s up to Him how much of it we experience is wrong. It’s not God’s fault that there isn’t more of an outpouring of His power and Spirit in our land. He hasn’t stopped pouring out the Holy Spirit upon believers since the day of Pentecost. We just aren’t very good receivers. We’re the ones who are short-circuiting God’s power and blessing in our lives. The Lord wants massive worldwide revival. He wants everyone to receive salvation. But since we aren’t turned on and tuned in to Him, we aren’t receiving like we should.
“Oh God, fix Your transmitter! Oh Lord, why aren’t You sending revival? What’s wrong with You? Don’t You care? If we get thousands of people to fast and pray with us, maybe we can twist Your arm and motivate You to do something.” What an ungodly attitude.
“The Lord is ticked off at America. He’s up in heaven with His arms folded, frowning and saying, ‘I’m not going to do anything else for you until you repent and grovel in the dirt some more.’” Wrong! People who say things like that don’t really believe that God is good.
These things I’m sharing would get me kicked out of many churches. Begging for revival and pleading for God to move are common attitudes and practices in American Christianity today. However, you need to know that God isn’t the One holding anything back. He’s transmitting everything Jesus Christ provided through His death, burial, and resurrection.
If you aren’t full of God today, it’s you who have chosen it. Even though you may strongly desire to stay full of God, you’ve made choices that have prevented you from receiving and manifesting His love, joy, peace, healing, prosperity, and other blessings. However, there’s good news.
God’s Word shows us four things we can do to fix our receiver. That’s why I wrote this book.
