It's Supernatural

SID: Hello, I’m here with Larry Sparks and I’m going to tell you something. There’s so many people that have been hurt. They’ve been in a congregation that goes too far in the faith arena. They’ve been in other congregations that go too far away from the faith arena. They been in congregations that have gone into error, and what they’ve done is, they’ve thrown the baby out with the dirty bathwater. Well, Larry Sparks was like that and he went through that season. He finally said, “God, there has to be more. God, show me the truth about breakthrough faith.” What did God show you? What is breakthrough faith? Let’s start with that.

LARRY: God gave me a very clear definition and actually gave me a picture of what it looked like, and I like to operate in pictures and illustrations because it clearly shows us, what does this look like? He took me to Mark, chapter 2. There’s a story in the Gospels where there are these four men who have a paralyzed friend and they come to Jesus. It says they heard that Jesus was in town. They heard that He was around, so that tells me, well, we need to be talking about what God is doing, because the testimony is actually what drew them to hear Jesus. They heard Jesus was a miracle-worker, so they bring him…

SID: You know, we don’t need this high-powered PR. All we need is the goods! The world is crying out, ‘I wanna see the goods! I wanna see the real thing!’ I’m not gonna be happy ’til the 7 p.m. and 6 p.m. news, rather than having the junk we see, I want them to say, ‘Someone’s leg just grew out! I mean, it was amputated! It just grew out! We got it documented!’ Now, that is news! That’s good news!’

LARRY: Yes, yes, and the testimony drew them to this house and they saw Jesus there. These four guys had their paralyzed friend, carrying him, but they couldn’t get to Jesus because it was too crowded. So what did they do? This is where I had my breakthrough moment, watching what these four men did with their paralyzed friend. They climbed to the top of the house, they broke through the ceiling, and they lowered their friend down to Jesus. That situation, I mean, could you imagine if that happened in the modern church today? If people brought people, sick people, into the church, broke open the ceiling, lowered them down? If anybody had something to say worth hearing, it was Jesus. If anyone shouldn’t have been interrupted from preaching, it was Jesus. But they interrupted Him; they lowered down their friend, and we know the rest of the story. Jesus said, “Well, your faith has made you whole.” And that really gave me a picture and a definition of faith.

SID: So, when someone says, when the Bible talks about one prayer, only one, that says, “If it be Thy will,” what would you say to them?

LARRY: I would say look at Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ; the same yesterday, today, and forever. Jesus has never changed, and also we see that the Bible says Jesus is the expressed image of the invisible God. What does that mean? It sounds very theological. All it means is that Jesus did everything God showed Him to do. Jesus revealed the perfect will of God. What did Jesus do? He healed all who were sick. He forgave those who had sin. He delivered all who were tormented. Jesus reveals what God’s will is, and so you know, Sid, so many people came to Jesus, even in the Gospels, and said, “Master, if it be Your will, heal me.” I think of a leper, a man who was stricken with leprosy, who came to Jesus and said, “If it be Thy will,” and Jesus said a statement to me that just gives me the answer of…on this. “If it be Thy will”, Jesus said, “I am willing. Be clean.” And I believe the same Jesus today, for those of you who are afflicted and sick and just dealing with things that you know, it’s like, ‘This is not God’s will for me!’ Jesus is speaking to you right now. He says, “I am willing. I am willing to heal. I am willing to deliver. I am willing to remove you from that…take you out of that place of bondage, fear and anxiety.” He is willing, Sid. I believe it.

SID: I have a question. I’m reminded of a young man…you’re young already. You’re 31, but I mean, before that, a very young man that got burned out on religion, and that’s what happened. How in the world do you have passion today? How in the world do you keep pressing in today?

LARRY: There are actually very practical things that I do in my everyday life that help me to sustain passion for God, because I don’t feel like this all the time. There are days I’m sure we all feel it; words like, ‘I feel like my faith is dry, I don’t want to spend time with God, I don’t want to spend time in the Word.’ I’m just being honest, but what I found, and I teach about this all over the place and I see amazing breakthrough, is that there are keys, that when we do these certain things, that fire for God and that hunger for God is immediately, immediately ignited. For one, connecting with testimony. When we actually connect ourselves, when we read or watch videos or expose ourselves to what God is doing…

SID: Time for a commercial. Watch, It’s supernatural! That’s what he’s saying. Go ahead.

LARRY: Oh, it’s true! It’s true! We need to actually feed on the testimony of God because like you were saying, Sid, we’re inundated. We’re inundated. This culture is inundated with hopelessness and bad news, but we are supposed to be constantly feeding ourselves, nourishing ourselves on testimonies of God’s power, of His healing, of deliverance, because they remind us He’s real, and the same God who did in one situation will do again. He’ll do it again.

SID: Do you know what I find? When someone shares a testimony, what God did for them, other people get it!

LARRY: Yes.

SID: It’s sort of, like, it’s contagious. Tell me some other things we can do.

LARRY: Another thing, very simple, and I’m very grateful God did this for me, is, we need to align ourselves with people of like faith, you know, for those close intimate relationships; our spouse, our best friends, those people that we allow to speak deeply into our lives. They need to be people who are pushing us toward God, not pulling us away from God, because there are days and there have been situations in my life. I know I’m talking about faith here; I’ve had seasons where I’ve experienced obstacles and resistance, where I didn’t have faith, but my wife had faith and she is the one who just reminded me of God’s goodness, of who He is, of what He said. She was a person of strong faith. What…I was dealing with weak faith, and having…

So we need one another. We need…we’re desperate for one another!

SID: You teach on declaring and decreeing. What is that?

LARRY: We need to say what God is saying. You know, one definition I give to faith because faith is simply imitating God. What does that look like? There’s a very quick process. It starts with intimacy. It doesn’t start with a principle. It doesn’t start with some formula. It starts with knowing the Father, knowing God, knowing what He’s like, being, just, captivated by His beauty and His person. When we know who He is, we spend time in His presence in intimacy, then we become able to imitate Him. We’re able to say what He’s saying. Our minds become renewed. What does it mean to renew our mind? To think about the things that God thinks about. What does He think about? We just read the Bible. It’s filling our mind with the truth of the Word of God. We say what He says, we think what He thinks, and when we speak what He says, Jesus said, “My Words are Spirit, and they are Life.” I believe that when we actually speak the Word of God, we’re not just stringing together sentences and grammar and verbs and nouns. When we actually speak the Word of God, what He’s saying, power is released. “My Words are Spirit, and they are Life.”

SID: I want power released when we come back. Larry is a student of past revivals, and I tell you, God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. What He did then, He wants to do today, and some of these principles have been buried and lost, but we’re going to bring them to the surface when we come back. Don’t go away.