Heaven on Earth

You won't be able to keep your mouth shut. You won't be able to keep it to yourself. You won't be able to hold it in. Dr. Tony Evans talks about how we'll react when by faith we see God bring a miracle from.

Heaven down to earth. You're gonna believe like you never believed before. Your confidence will be great because you will see his glory. This is the alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans.

In the Bible, it seems like miracles happen all the time. But for many of us today, not so much. Let's join Dr. Evans as he talks about the connection between our faith and our experience, and what we can do to see more of heaven on earth. I would like to suggest to you that The supernatural is not as far from you as you may think.

But it is predicated. On faith. And in our story today We find this principle Of believing is seeing. being brought to light again. Jesus is on his way to Galilee and Yeah.

comes across Philip. And he tells Philip, Philip, follow me. Philip says, okay. Philip has a homeboy named Nathaniel. Nathaniel is there and Philip says, Nate.

We have found him. The one who the whole Old Testament prophesied about. Nate, we have discovered him. He's here. Nate says, um Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?

Philip says I'm in C. Don't take my word for it. Don't take my word for it. Check him out for yourself.

So Nathaniel says, okay. I'm gonna come and see. Jesus sees him coming and says, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit. In other words, Nathaniel, I heard what you just said about me. Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?

At least you're honest. Nathaniel had questions. Is this thing real? Can this thing be? I heard what you told me, Philip, but I'm not sure I'm buying it.

Nathaniel said to him, How do you know me? I've never met you. We've never talked before. We've never interacted. It's my first time.

How do you know? How do you know my background? How do you know what I was talking about that you could claim that I was being honest about it? How do you know me? Jesus continues.

Before Philip called you. When you were under the fig tree. I saw you. Hold it now. You weren't there when Philip came to see me.

You weren't in the vicinity. You not only know that Philip came and got me. You know where I was sitting when he showed up. I was sitting under the fig tree.

Now in a minute he gonna tell him what he was thinking.

So so this thing is building. We gone from I know your character because I know what you said to Philip I also know where you were sitting before you ever left to come to me. In other words. Me? I know everything about you.

Well Nathaniel is blown away. That Jesus knows who he is, knows where he's from, knows what he's sitting, and get ready. Tell him what he was dreaming. We tell him all of that.

So that leads Nathaniel to conclude In Verse 49, Rabbi. You are the son of God. You are the king of Israel.

So stay with me. We have now Nathaniel Moving from a big question mark. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? And in lickety split, He now is confessing. You are not just an ordinary man.

You are. God incarnate, you are the Son of God.

Now watch what happens next. Jesus says to him, because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree. I just talked to you. You heard my word and I said it to you. Do you believe question mark?

you will see greater things than these. He's doubting one minute. He's confessing Christ the next minute. And he says, if you keep this bleep thing going, you ain't seen nothing yet. You will see greater things than these.

You think me hearing your conversation when I wasn't around Seeing you under the fig tree when I wasn't there. You think that's something? Yeah. You ain't seen nothing. Cause I got some stuff to show you.

that will blow your mind. But in order for you to see it. Your faith has to be operating.

So do you believe before you can see. If you've gotta see. Before you believe, There'll be nothing to see. He says, you will see. It won't be a theory.

It won't be something somebody told you. It'll be something that you experience within your own life. What you're going to see is heaven open. And what you're going to see are angels. Descending and ascending On the Son of Man.

He just told Nathaniel what he was thinking. You see, he's under the fig tree. He's a man with no deceit. And he's gonna say. Angels going up and down.

Well, that comes straight out of Genesis chapter 28. When Jacob was running from his brother Esau, terrified he was going to get killed by his brother, he finally comes to a place where he's too tired to go any further. He lays down, puts his head on a rock, and the Bible says Jacob had a dream. And Jacob had a dream and he saw a ladder going from earth to heaven and heaven to earth and he saw angels going up and down the ladder. And when he saw the angels going up and down the ladder, God said to him, I'm going to be with you.

I'm going to take care of you. I'm going to provide for you. I'm going to fulfill my covenant with you. And even though your life is messed up right now, heaven has got an answer for the mess you have put yourself in.

So, Nathaniel You're under the fig tree. Jacob is called a man full of guile. You're a man of no guile. Deceit means guile. That's because you're up there meditating on how am I gonna get connected to heaven?

You're gonna get connected to heaven the same way the one you were thinking about got connected to heaven on a ladder. But it won't be a ladder with rungs in it. It'll be a son of man ladder. In other words, Jesus Christ is your link. to experiencing the supernatural.

From heaven to earth, Or, as the scripture says, we have one mediator between God and man, and that is the man Christ Jesus.

So, it is your opportunity. Operating faith in Christ, not your intellectual faith, not your emotional faith. It will be, as you'll see in a second, your operating faith in Christ, where you get to see heaven move.

Now, I ain't talking about hearing somebody give a testimony that you're not a part of. I'm not talking about hearing a preacher talk about how much heaven can do. I'm talking about something you can see.

Something that enters into your life, your experience, and you know that that didn't come from something ordinary, that came out of something supernatural.

Okay, so we have a question on the floor. When am I gonna say this? Where am I going to see this? Come on, Jesus.

Well, first of all, it's contingent upon Your belief and your willingness to confess. You must believe enough to act on what he says. and to confess identification with him. He confesses Jesus to be the Son of God.

So let me tell you now how to keep heaven closed. Be embarrassed to be identified with Christ. Heaven will shut up on you. Because God is glorifying his son.

So if you're a secret agent, Christian, spiritual CIA representative and covert operative. Don't expect heaven to open. Heaven will stay. Totally closed if you're embarrassed about being a Christian. I'm not talking about believing in God.

No, I'm talking about identification with Jesus Christ. On your job, if they accused you of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you, or would you be found innocent of all charges? Because it's just not clear where you stand in terms of Jesus Christ. Christ. The Bible says in Matthew chapter 10: if you deny me before men, I will deny you before my Father who is in heaven.

So you ask him for this miracle. But you deny association with me, I will deny you before my Father. Heaven will stay closed and angels will not. Come down the ladder, they will be on holiday.

So there must be the identification and confession of Christ. For you to see it. With operating faith. Because he's already expressed faith, but Jesus raised the question.

Now do you believe? Do you believe enough to operate and follow me?

Now That's the end of the chapter. Chapter's over. We've got to verse 51. There are no other verses in this chapter, so we're stuck. I like it.

I'm excited about it. I want it. But the chapter is over.

Okay, nice principal, I got it. What now? What now is to note that when the Bible was written, there were no chapter divisions. Chapter divisions were added by men in order to make it easy to find places. Because if you didn't have a chapter, you'd be looking all day to find out what point was being referenced.

So chapters and verses were added as a mechanism of being able to locate places in the Bible quickly.

So let's go back. to when there were no chapter divisions and chapter two becomes a continuation of chapter one. He says on the third day So he wants to connect. What happened with the timeline? Three days later.

So this story is continuing. There was a wedding in Cana of Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there and both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding.

So, Jesus and his disciples, which now includes the guys he's been talking to, have now been invited to a social event. Jesus loved to go to social events. And when he went to this social event, a wedding, you have to understand, these Near East weddings were like days long. It was not like, you know, two-hour weddings. This was, you went for days because people travel for a long way and all that.

So you had to have a lot of stuff to have a wedding, okay?

So when they went to the wedding, when the wine ran out, verse 3, the mother of Jesus says, they have no. Why? We got a problem. They don't have enough wine. It says uh Won't have enough juice.

The wine has run out. In other words, Jesus, what you going to do about it? You were invited to the wedding. Wink wink. I know who you are.

I gave birth to you without a man. You can take care of this. I know who you are. Jesus said to her, Woman. What does that have to do?

With us. My hour has not yet come. Mm, interesting. What a way to talk to your mama. Woman.

He told me the wine just ran out. What that got to do with anything? My hour has not yet come. And why would he say this to his mother? See what mother wanted Was the Jesus to show off?

Do your thing. Come on. You can turn this thing around. Do your thing. That's what a lot of folk want Jesus for.

They want him to solve their problem. apart from his purpose. But God's agenda always comes first. And Dr. Evans will explain more about that in just a moment, as he continues today's lesson from his current series, Believing is Seeing.

This eight-part collection is designed to help you deepen your trust in the Lord, see more of His supernatural work in your life. and stop unintentionally blocking the blessings He wants to give you even in the midst of life's storms. Right now, we are offering this complete faith-building series as our thank you gift when you make a donation to support the alternative ministry. And for a limited time, we'll include an extra bonus, Dr. Evans' brand new devotional and prayer guide, Anchored by Faith, a book that'll help you stay grounded and grow in confidence as you walk in the Lord.

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Here's Dr. Evans. When God does the supernatural, he does it. In accordance to his will, based on his timeline, my hour, that's time. has not yet come.

So when you are expecting, because you're operating in faith and confessing him, if you're not doing those two things, you can't expect the supernatural. But if you're doing those two things, you have to understand he operates according to his will and based on his timeline. It's got to agree with his hour. And it's gotta be consistent with his purposes. My hour has not come.

So mother backs off. Mother says to the servants, Whatever he says to you. Do it. Watch the change in language. She started out with, we need some wine.

She backs off and says, whatever he says. You and I would say, not my will, but thy will be done. I need a miracle. We're out of wine. But I'm going to let you do your will on your timetable.

So, whatever he says, I don't know what he's gonna say, I don't know when he's gonna say it, but whatever he says, I'm gonna submit my need for a miracle to his sovereign purpose and to his sovereign timeline.

So God's miraculous is not because you need a miracle a day to keep the devil away. His miraculous, which he does do because he says you're going to see it, has to be done according to his will and in concert with his timeline.

Now when she backs off And gives Jesus the freedom to do it his way and not demand that he does it her way. Jesus says It says in verse 6, there were six stone water pots. Each one could hold 20 to 30 gallons each. And he said to them, fill the water pots with water, so they are filled up to the brim. Mm-hmm.

Before you get to that verse, It sounded like Jesus was going to do nothing. Because he says, woman, why you ask me to do that? My hour is not yet not yet come.

So it sounds like he's telling her. Forget it. I ain't trying to do that. When she backs off.

Okay now here's what I want you to do. He says, I want you to fill these water pots up with water.

So the servants went and they filled these 20 to 30 gallon pots, six of them. They fill it up with water. When they fill it up with water He said to them, draw some out now and take it to the head waiter.

So they took it to him. When the head waiter tasted the water, which had become wine, Watch this now. And did not know where it came from. But the servants who had drawn the water knew. The head waiter called the bridesgroom and said to him, every man serves the good wine first.

And when the people have drunk freely, then he serves the poorer wine. But you have kept the good wine until now. The signs Jesus did in Cain of Galilee manifested his glory and the disciples believed in him. Whoa. Stay with me here.

as we bring this to a head, look. He says Waiters? Servants? You see those big water pots? Filled up with water.

So I guess Fill it up with water. And she said, we need wine. He comes up with filling up with water. Let me explain something. Oftentimes, when you're on the verge of the supernatural, Jesus requests the ridiculous.

I am For wine, I need wine. You talking water. What's water got to do with what I'm talking about right now? Apparently, absolutely nothing unless Jesus told you to do it. Because faith will involve action.

So they fill it up with water. He says, now dip it.

So they dip it. And they take it to the hand waiter, and all of a sudden, what they put in is not what they got out. Because it says it had turned into wine. If you spend a lot of time trying to figure out how God is going to do this thing, All you're gonna do is give yourself an Eccentric P.M. headache.

All right. The only thing you can say is whatever he says to do, I'll do that.

Now I'm going to let him figure out how water is going to become wine and all that. I ain't going to try to figure all that out because there's no way you can figure out the unfigure outable. The water becomes wine. Oh. Interesting.

The head waiter Taste it. He says to the bridegroom, look. Our policy, as in every wedding, is to bring the good wine out first. And the leftover wine out last.

So when we get the folk drunk enough, they don't know the leftover wine is that bad.

So we give them the good wine first, and we give them the leftover wine last, so that they will accept the leftover wine because they've enjoyed the good wine. That's how we roll up in here, up in here. But you done gone out. And you done saved the best stuff. For last.

Let me tell you about something when God does a supernatural thing. Whatever that is, because you confessed. and you operate in faith. Even though things may look empty right now. The pots were empty.

Even though it looks like there's nothing there. Even though It looks like There's no hope. Even though it's empty, whatever he says to you, even in your emptiness, do. I don't feel like it. I'm tired.

I'm worn out. I'm depleted. I'm empty in spite of the emptiness. In the Bible, wine was a symbol of joy. Whenever wine is used, it was a joyful occasions, typically.

He says, fill it up to the brim, because even though it's empty, when I get finished doing my thing, Oh, that's gonna be all the joy you can handle up in here. Even though it's empty. Not only that. But he goes on to say. He saved me.

The best. For last. It may not be the best right now. But you haven't come to the last. Because sometimes God waits till the last second.

to pull off what he wants to do.

Sometimes he waits till there's no other option to pull off what he wants to do.

Sometimes he waits till you don't think you can make it any further to pull off what he wants to do. Why would you take your time when my pot is empty, Jesus? It says, because his disciples believed in him. But wait a minute. They had already believed in him.

How do you say they're believing in me now when they've already believed in me before?

Well, when you see the supernatural enter into the natural, that's a whole nother level of belief. You may believe in him in church, but when he breaks through for you, oh, that's another level of belief. You're going to believe like you never believed before. Your confidence will be great because you will see his glory. Now you know why he did not let his mother's request go through up front.

He did not let his mother's request go through up front because this miracle wasn't for the crowd. It was for the disciples. He wasn't ready. It says the bridegroom didn't know how it happened. The headmaster didn't know how it happened because God wasn't trying to do it for everybody else.

He was trying to do it for his followers.

Now, why was he trying to do it for his followers? Because when his followers got the message about the glory of Jesus Christ, he would have no problem having representatives out there in the public. Because now his reps are gonna tell what Jesus was able to do. What are the reasons God can't get? His church folk.

To be his representative, is they have not yet seen his glory. But if you ever see his glory, you won't be able to keep your mouth shut. If you ever see his glory, you won't be able to keep it to yourself. If you've ever seen his glory, you won't be able to hold it in because you will have seen what God can do when he breaks through supernaturally and turns your water. In the wide.

Dr. Tony Evans, talking about how we can see more of heaven's power at work here on Earth.

Now, today's lesson was part of Tony's powerful teaching series, Believing is Seeing. Don't forget, for the next few days, you can receive the full-length messages included in this eight-part series as our thank you gift. when you make a contribution to support the ministry of the alternative. And for a limited time, we'll include an extra bonus, Tony's brand new devotional and prayer guide, Anchored by Faith, designed to help you stay grounded in God's Word and grow in confidence as you approach each new day. We want to invest in your spiritual growth, and your financial support allows us to continue bringing this teaching to listeners everywhere.

So visit TonyEvans.org today to make your contribution. or call our resource team at 1-800-800-3222. We are here twenty four seven to help with your request. That's 1-800-800-3222 or online at tonyevans.org.

Some people think when they're in God's will, everything will go smoothly, and when they're not, it won't. But tomorrow, Dr. Evans shows why following the Lord is a risk worth taking. even if things seem to be getting worse before they get better. I hope you'll join us.