Your Heavenly Father Knows — Joshua Daniel

The Heavenly Father Knows Our Needs

And let's turn to Matthew chapter 6. You know, the Sermon on the Mount, I am trying to understand it. You know, I committed this to memory years ago. But, oh, the depths in this scripture. Sixth chapter and 31 on, Therefore, take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed?

For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your Heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. Your Heavenly Father knoweth. You know, these words kept me awake half through the night.

My Heavenly Father knoweth. You know, when we talk about our Heavenly Father, we do not even credit Him with the kind of human love to which we are accustomed. Isn't that sad? Now, if a father is aware that he has nothing to set before the children in the morning, I tell you, any normal father will feel very unhappy and incapable of sleep.

What am I going to feed my children with? Your Heavenly Father knoweth. You know, this is a concept which is so wonderful in Jesus. People without Jesus. I once spoke to one of my professors. He was a history professor.

I happened to be traveling with him, and a preeminent college of the university, and he was the head of their department. When I gave him my testimony, his comment was, it shocked me. I do not believe in a personal God.

That's all that a heathen man can comprehend. You see, I can quite well understand where he is coming from. The myths and the fables that he was brought up with in his native religion has no room for a personal God.

You see, it makes all the difference. We talk about stepmotherly treatment. I came across a stepmother who amazed me. Well, when the husband lost his wife through death, this woman became the wife and had a little child to take care of who had been left behind by the dead wife.

And she said, I resolve never to have any children lest I should treat this child in a stepmotherly way. I was amazed. And she was a woman with a very strong heathen background, just coming into the light.

All right. But still the phrase exists, you know. And blessed are those women who are able to love children far more than the natural mothers would have ever loved them. That is one of those features that comes from Christ.

God’s Complete Knowledge and the Life of Prayer

All right. Look at that limited knowledge of that erudite man, highly read man. I do not believe in a personal God. Your heavenly father knoweth what a world of difference that is. Even the hairs of your head are counted as God.

I wonder if there is any mother who has been capable of that in spite of, you know, half-bald husbands. If any wife, doting wife ever said, let me count your hair. Well, of course, that's an impossible task or given up as an impossible task.

But your heavenly father knoweth. Excuse me. 7 and 8. Verses 7 and 8. But when you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do. Now there is a question. Do people believe in their prayers? Do they believe what they are praying?

We are asked to believe. Now, my dear friends, my whole life, you see, when a person loses a dad like my dad was, a mighty man of God who had nothing but always had a rejoicing heart, a trusting spirit, and can-do attitude, must be done faith.

You see, I was only 35 and I was hoping to learn a great deal more from my dad when God called him home. Well, I know him and he hated to put heavy burdens on me. He would not allow me to deal with certain cases, occult cases, that required great spiritual strength and faith and the possibility and also with it carried the possibility of a retaliation from those dark spirits.

My dad used to say, Joe, keep away from this case. It's not for you. And he would deal with it. And I know too well that he hated to put heavy burdens upon me, but as he was on his way to heaven, he didn't talk to me about money.

He could not even sign a check. For some reason, a check needed to be signed. So I said, Dad, would you please try to sign this check? He tried. He couldn't. I had to enter into the various burdens that there were.

There was a court case. A very unworthy man, a wicked man had sent a contribution for one of the retreats. My dad said to the missionary there, an Englishman, if that man comes and hears the word of God, then only receive the contribution.

Otherwise, send it back to him. So his check, which other churches would just grab because he was such a rich man. He was infuriated. And it so happened that he was in the high court when the matter of our house came up there for sale.

He just put in the money and bought the place. And said, I'll drive these people out. With that resolve, he had applied to the high court to evict us. And where could we go? It was not just a case of my little family.

I had probably two little ones at that time. Yes. But there were so many others. Two had to be taken care of. There was the literature ministry. There was the magazine ministry. There was the ongoing work of God on Sundays, Wednesdays, Saturdays.

And we had to leave the place pronto. Where could we go? This was just about 400 yards from the U .S. consulate, which is a very big establishment. Right in the heart of the city. Where could I find an alternate accommodation?

You know, I never went to my relatives. I had no rich friends. I learned to go to God. The Lord provided an excellent place just about 200 yards away. And I did not even know that the place existed. It belonged to a British company and was the residence of their general manager.

God had to teach me faith, folks. And I'm still learning. I need to learn a great deal more. I want to learn. My Heavenly Father knoweth. Yes. And little by little, the work had to be built up until there was no room for our retreats, even in the big institutions, which we used to hire in their vacation.

Those big institutions could not hold the people. So where could we go? Your Heavenly Father knoweth. The Lord had a place of nearly 40 acres close to the highway, but just at a convenient distance so that the noise of the traffic is not heard, nor the pollution carried to that place.

There from scratch, you know, I had no money to purchase the place. And I told the owner, I don't have the money, but every penny will be given to you. He took his sailboat down. I promised him nothing, but he's probably believed me so completely.

A hard businessman who was known for his hard-nosed deals. Every penny was paid and more land was added to. Now, I am just telling you a few things, but my whole life has been full of these interventions of God.

If it were not for the Heavenly Father, who knoweth, where would I be? Your Heavenly Father knoweth. You see, we have got a completely, we are on a different gear today. We are so programmed that we feel we know it all, and we can manage our affairs, wangle our way through.

Rejecting Self-Reliance and the Blame Game

So, all the time it is a gamble. I don't know how happy a gambler can be, you see, but I heard a gambler say, one day, for just some $2 ticket or whatever he started with, he got the sum of $40 ,000, and he said, I need more.

And the result was that he lost everything. You see, we are on a different gear today. We have on the one hand, now listen, the early church, if it was in the blame game, it would have stayed there. All the Roman Empire and its restrictions are beyond our strength to face.

We don't like imprisonment. We don't like this persecution. We don't like to live underneath in the tunnels that run below Rome. Now, catacombs, we don't want to be dwellers here. If they had been in the blame game, they would have never gone anywhere.

You and I are not in the blame game. If the president were here on this seat, with all due respect to him, I would tell him, you're running this country into the ground. The founders of this nation had a clear objective, and all the early chapters were for the extension of the kingdom of God and for the glory of God.

And sir, do you believe in another God? A God of your own making? See, blame game is no game at all for you and me to play. We must cry to the Lord. What is this sad situation where there's no room for God?

You know, it's no wonder that one of these days you may hear a public prayer in the name of Allah or something, and you will have to sit through it like a pillar of salt. My dear friends, your heavenly father knows it.

We are not cultivating faith. You see, our education, of course, is not to be blamed. Technical education has its advantages, and you cannot blame your education and say, I don't have that simple faith.

Your heavenly father knows it. You mean to say you're without a father? You were born without a father, and you don't care who your father was? That's exactly where we stand today. There is a strong disconnect between our father and ourselves.

Your heavenly father careth. He knoweth that you have need of these things. Your heavenly father knoweth. You know, when Mr. George Mueller had to sit his, what, 1 ,000 orphans, were they at that time, or more, at their breakfast tables with empty bowls before them, no milk, and the knock which came, saying, our milk wagon has broken down.

We have to unload the milk, and the baker came in saying, I could not sleep. I had to wake up earlier than usual and bake, bake, bake, and God wanted me to give that whole consignment which I baked over to the children here.

And they were just ready to praise the Lord for their breakfast with empty plates. You know, my dear friends, if a few, if the jingle of a little money in your pockets is going to satisfy your heart, I want to tell you, your heart is an unregenerated heart.

The Church as a Visible Witness in Society

You know, unfortunately, real estate has become so expensive, and you know how people like to put Christian work in some corner where nobody hardly notices it. I don't believe that. I believe that we should be as a city set on a hill, not that we are going to advertise ourselves like McDonald's, but we want to be as accessible as McDonald's.

People can fill their hearts to their heart's content with McDonald's and possibly die of clogged, clogged blood vessels. You see? But nobody is going to die when the word of God is declared to them plainly.

You see, even the tastes of people appear to have gone wrong. When you go to a doctor, why do you go to a doctor? Oh, I need a diagnosis. I was just told what the diagnosis, my wife says, this is high, eosinophils are very high, and the doctor rang me up and so on.

That's... You go to a doctor because you don't, you want to know the why behind your condition. Now, my dear friends, nobody seems to want to go to church to know their true condition. What's that? It's just to have a kind of emotional high.

Holiness, the Holy Spirit, and True Spiritual Blessing

You know, this kind of thing began in New York. When I was preaching in New York, I came to hear of the charismatic movement. And lo and behold, I went to visit one of the leading pastors in the movement.

And that pastor, a Presbyterian pastor, was such a humble man. And he saw that I had a message. I was a very young fellow at that time. In New York, he asked me to come and preach. And then he wanted me to go and go with him to preach in a number of churches.

And what did I preach? Holy Spirit, holiness. And all these leaders, other pastors, who are leading lights in the movement, they would just drink in the message. The Holy Spirit will not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that will he speak.

He will show you things to come. He shall take of me and show it unto you. He shall testify of me. He shall glorify me. Well, they were drinking the truth. All right. I suppose many of those dear brethren are now dead.

You know, they were generally older men than myself. I was a mere stripling before them. But what a humble man. All that they wanted was that their churches should be blessed. But my dear friends, you mean to say that there is a blessing which never spills over?

There is a kind of Christianity that never leavens the whole lump? What kind of Christianity is that? What kind of blessing is that? The kingdom of God is as a leaven which a woman putteth in three measures of meal until the whole is leavened.

Where are we leavening anybody or anything around us? You see, leavening society today, don't tell me it is so hard. I have fought age-old customs, heathen customs, that are so deep-rooted that godly missionaries just abandon the hope of ever dealing with those customs.

Let's leave the culture of the people. What? If you leave the culture of the people, what are you going to have? You are going to have a sea of murderers. You mean to say that the Islamic culture is going to teach you love for your neighbor?

No. God is merciful. In the name of merciful Allah, I bomb this full aircraft that it should go down in flames. What? Your God warranties such a thing? My dear friends, I'll hold no truck for such things.

Christian Witness as Light and Salt

And after all, as you well know, I am a public speaker. And our telecasts are carried by cable TV in various languages. And some of them popular channels, expensive channels. Why? We have to change the world.

You are the light of the world. You are the salt of society. Are we doing our work? You know, I don't see comfortable Christianity in the Bible. I find when I go to the Bible, I have great reason, good reason to humble myself.

Nobody needs to tell me that. You know, some people find it so difficult to humble themselves. When I used to, you know, hear after my addresses certain general prayers in England, I would say to the people, now come on, get off that, you, that normal type of prayers.

What about the first person singular? What has happened to that? Why can't you pray first person singular? I have every reason to humble myself. My faith is so small. I sometimes, I feel, Lord, it looks like I'm not fit for the job.

You raise up these people. You use them. So, my dear people, be not like unto them, for your father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask it. How amazing. Before you ask it. Of course, that's a father.

Prayer for Faith and God’s Sufficiency

And a knowing father says, I knew that you would run into this particular need and I am well prepared for this demand or for this occasion. He is well prepared whatever you are facing today. May the Lord help you.

Let's pray. Let us tell God, Lord, I need this kind of faith. I need this kind. Please, Lord, let me not draw a small circle around myself and my possessions and say, hey, nobody dare touch this. Now, Lord, let the cross sanctify everything in us, everything that belongs to us.

Our heavenly Father knoweth. Loving Father, at a time of great need, oh, why have you kept us alive at such a time as this? Do not allow the lonely pastors to get so embroiled in the economics of running their church that the heavenly Father is left altogether out of the picture.

Oh, my Father, let it not become a tough proposition to declare the truth in this country where once truth was desired and revered. Oh, Lord, our God, you can stem the rot in commerce, in business houses, in banks, in administration, in bankrupt cities, bankrupted by their own mayors, deceitful mayors and other functionaries.

Gracious Father, take away the fear as though the mafia is behind us or mafia is after us. That they would pay some killers to put a bullet into our heads. Lord, our God, the sacrifice is worthwhile. We can see a nation that produced such great missionaries, such lovely men and women of God going down and in neighboring Canada as we hear Arab and Hindu and other fellows are being made into members of parliament.

Oh, my Father, when truth has become such a casualty, oh, won't you give to us faith. Let faith increase, Lord. I plead with you, give us faith. Give these dear people faith. My God will never let me down.

My heavenly Father knoweth my need. He is all sufficient. And my Savior ever whispers in my ears, my grace is sufficient for me. Oh, please give us faith, true faith, not just emotional tantrums and gyrations.

Oh, my Father, we want true faith that renounces and denounces all evil. We are thine and thou art ours. Jesus, Savior, pilot us through these turbulent waters. We ask in Jesus' holy name. Amen.