Transcript of a published conference session by Michael Williams, transcribed from video. An attributed primary source — not Acts 2:38 Life doctrine text.
Summary
Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the transcript below — the preacher’s words follow in full.
"Can God Furnish a Table in the Wilderness?"
- He greets the morning congregation and poses what he calls perhaps the most dubious question ever uttered about God: "Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?"
- The question came from Israel in the wilderness — the same people for whom God had divided the sea, led them with a cloud by day and a fiery light by night, split the rocks and made water run down like rivers — and the Almighty was not amused by it.
- Some three thousand years after that record was written, his answer stands: God can — mend a marriage, bless a business, supply a need, heal a hurt, save a soul.
- He catalogues the wonders: God can make a bush talk, a mountain smoke, an iron axe head swim, bring water from a flint rock and fire from on high; He is above all, through all, and in you all.
Greater Than Time
- Modern society, intoxicated with itself, has shrunk God — His ear imagined too heavy to hear, His arm too short to help — and even believers are not immune to the diminished picture.
- God stands astride the eternities, His feet planted in the future and in the past; He is greater than time, and on top of whatever is on top of us — sin, sickness, sadness, sorrow, physical pain, financial strain, family, friend or foe.
- He cites the prophecy of the one who would come forth from Bethlehem, whose goings forth have been from everlasting, and the Hebrew letter's word that He was made not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.
- Martha, hostage to the clock and the calendar, lamented that her beloved brother Lazarus had been dead four days; still he came forth when Christ summoned him from the grave.
- Duration counts for nothing: the woman bent low eighteen years, the cripple at Bethesda's pool thirty-eight years, the blind beggar sightless from birth, Israel seventy years in Babylon and four centuries in Egypt — God delivered them all, because He is greater than time.
Scriptures: Hebrews (book-only, as spoken)
Greater Than Place and Space
- "Where shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?" — if I ascend into heaven, Thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, Thou art there; if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Thy hand leads and Thy right hand holds.
- The heralding angel foretold Immanuel — not only God with us, but the with-us God; we can run, but we cannot hide, for wherever we go God is already there.
- He sees us when we do not see Him, hears us when we cannot hear Him, and reaches us when we cannot reach Him; He is able to the uttermost.
- Paul assured the Stoics and Epicureans at Mars Hill that God is not far from every one of us; feeling far from God has nothing to do with where we are and everything to do with where He is.
- He is greater than time and space, greater than man and beast, earth and heaven, greater than physical pain, emotional strain and spiritual stain — He is greater than you.
Settle It in Your Soul: God Can
- This must be settled in the heart as well as the head: we must know God experientially as well as intellectually, because our perception of God determines His performance in our life.
- The discipline is daily: get up, look in the mirror, and say, "God can."
- Job — in what he calls perhaps the Bible's oldest book — confesses without qualification, "I know that thou canst do everything"; the record adds that God is almighty, that nothing is too hard for Him, and that with God all things are possible.
- According to Romans 13, there is no power but of God; and in the Revelation the saints will say, "Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth."
Scriptures: Job (book-only, as spoken); Romans 13; Revelation (book-only, as spoken)
Power Over Nature and Over People
- He has power over nature: He parted rivers and seas, fed the hungry with Moses in the wilderness and multiplied the loaves with the Master, stilled the storm that threatened His friends, and made the sun stand still and held back the night while His armies finished the fight.
- When millions of His children crossed the desert and needed water, they did not have to dig — that would be natural; He made it run out of the side of a dry rock, because He can.
- He has power over people: even the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, and He turns it, as the rivers of water, whithersoever He will.
- He took Moses the murderer and made him earth's meekest man; stopped Saul the persecutor on his way to Damascus and made him Paul the preacher; broke Pharaoh's refusal until he begged Israel to leave when the death angel passed over; met Jacob at the brook Jabbok and sent him away limping with a new nature and a new name; and let the same Simon Peter sleep through the eve of his own execution.
- The evidence is in this house this morning, in changed lives all around: old things really have passed away and all things really have become new — He has power over your son, your daughter, your brother, your sister, your husband, your wife, your friend, your folk.
"I Am the Lord, I Change Not"
- That power and ability have not changed and never will: He assures us through Malachi the prophet, "I am the Lord, I change not," and the Hebrew letter calls Him "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever."
- We must do more than give intellectual assent to this truth — we have to own it, practice it, and live it.
- Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill made low, the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.
- If our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart; if our heart condemns us not, we have confidence toward God, and whatsoever we ask we receive, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.
Commanded to Come and Ask
- We are not only invited, we are commanded, to call on Him from anywhere, at any time, about anything: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
- To the believer beset by circumstance beyond our control: be careful for nothing, but in everything — by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving — let your requests be made known unto God.
- Whatsoever things we desire, when we pray we are to believe that we receive them, and we shall have them; we have not, as James said, because we ask not.
- The record of what He can do runs long: Israel brought out of Egypt with plagues and miracles, Jericho's formidable wall fallen flat, Elijah answered by fire on Carmel, and an earthquake at Philippi that shook open the prison, freed two singing preachers, and saved the jailer and his family.
- Ravens fed Elijah, the axe head swam, manna came down from heaven, water flowed from a flint rock, a widow's oil multiplied, the tax money was in the fish's mouth, a lad's lunch fed thousands, the sundial moved backward, the moon halted, lepers were cleansed, the lame walked, the dumb talked, the deaf received hearing, and the blind received their sight.
Promises, Prayer — and God's Time
- We hold exceeding great and precious promises: ask and you shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you, seek and you shall find.
- Among the promises: God will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh, and sons and daughters shall prophesy, old men dream dreams and young men see visions; the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world; and upon this rock Christ will build His church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
- More than the promises, we have the power and prerogative of prayer: we can pray anytime, from anywhere, about anything, for as long as we like; where two agree on earth touching anything they ask, it shall be done for them; and the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
- More than the promises and more than the prayer is the timeless truth captured by David the psalmist: "It is time for thee, LORD, to work: for they have made void thy law."
- We are a prophetically predestined people living at a prophetically predestined time, the generation upon whom the ends of the world have come; He gives us power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy.
Scriptures: Psalms (book-only, as spoken)
Because He Can: Two Testimonies and a Prayer
- Several weeks after a chuck hole appeared in the church's paved parking lot, a stranger began showing up on Wednesday nights; sick of hitting the hole, he had fetched his truck and what he needed and fixed it himself — and heard a voice inside him say, "I just put that chuck hole there, so you'd have to park in this parking lot."
- The stranger asked to meet: if the pastor could prove to him that he had to be baptized in Jesus' name, he would do it; a few hours after their lunch, the church phone rang — it was Steve Coley: "I'm ready to be baptized. Let's meet at the church."
- A premature baby in the church, very sick in the hospital's NICU, contracted salmonella there; the church was called and notified, and the next day, when the doctors came in to check the baby, the salmonella was gone.
- He calls the whole house to its feet to shout, "God can! God will, because God can," and leads them — hands grabbed and raised high — to pray a miracle prayer, voices like thunder, believing the Holy Ghost will come into the house.
Scripture index: Hebrews (book-only, as spoken); Psalms (book-only, as spoken); Job (book-only, as spoken); Romans 13; Revelation (book-only, as spoken).
Each of us who have gathered here this morning to reach Into the heavenlies and to experience our great God I say Blessings to you on you and that God will Richly manifest himself to us and through us today is my prayer and everybody said a man You may be seated
maybe the most Dubious statement Or indeed question ever uttered about God in all 66 of These anointed books was when someone among those Motley millions wandering with Moses in the wilderness Rhetorically asked can God Furnish a table in the wilderness Not coincidentally in the same chapter and narrative Chronically his people's trek Through that trackless desert where we are told he did marvelous things In the sight of their fathers divided the sea and calls them to pass through Made the water to stand up as a heap led them With a cloud by day and a fiery light by night he claved the rocks and Gave them drink and caused water to run down Like rivers still yet for all this somebody shouted for all this This sacred record says that Despite what he had done still yet Someone had the temerity to ask Can God and the Almighty was not amused Some three thousand years after the Psalm is first recorded it. I have come to say on this morning worship God can Whatever it is God just can't he can mend your marriage Bless your business supply your need Heal your hurt save your soul he can somebody say he can He can make a bush talk He can make a mountain smoke. He can make man a fall. He can make an iron head swim. He can He can bring water from a flint rock. He can bring fire from on high He is above all through all in you all all in all God bless forever You may want to shout it he can
Sadly our society so intoxicated on itself that to some the Almighty Appears more pygmy than Prometheus and more gnome than giant his ear too heavy To hear them his arm too short to help them the misguided Lives of billions and you and I are not immune give silent witness To the shrunken souls and convoluted concepts that many have of our maker and and they or God forbid we are poor For the making thus do I come to this sacred place and time to Disabuse us if need be of any notion that anybody in this room may have a putting can in front of God I've come to say again here and now that he's on top of whatever is on top of us with her sin sickness sadness sorrow physical pain financial strain Family friend or foe he is eminently able for it all and God just Standing astride to eternities his feet planted in the future and in the past God is greater than time
Prophet Michael was right when he wrote out of the Bethlehem effort to show he come forth whose Goings forth have been from a bowl from everlasting according to the Hebrew letter He was made not after the law of a carnal commandment But after the power of an endless life Isaiah promised that he'd be a hiding place from the wind and a cover from the tempest that he'd be like Rivers of water in a dry place and the shadow of Iraq in a weary land the salt are called him a Very present help in trouble and when a frantic father pleading for his son Vex by Satan spoke of the horror. He had endured those long years He was powerless against Christ's command was that devil that was in his son when Christ said come out of him and Enter into him no more. He's greater than time if the question is can God then the answer is God can hostage Hostages she was to the clock and the calendar Martha Lamented that her beloved brother Lazarus had been dead four days and said she he stink it But he came forth When Christ summoning from his grave case because he's greater than time
How long have you suffered? How long have you sorrowed? Struggle sin how long have you doubted or denied? It means nothing at all. It matters not one whit to God because God can't Think of Lazarus Lazarus is dead four days the pause in woman's bent low 18 years There's a cripple by Bethesda's pool that's been there 38 years as a blind beggar who is sightless from birth for a lifetime Israel is in Babylon 70 years Abraham seen is in Egypt four centuries But God delivered them all out of their situation Because he is greater than time and if the question is can God then the answer is still God can Somebody shouted say oh, yes, God came Greater than time
He's greater than any place or space God's everywhere everybody say always Where the shall I go from thy spirit or with a shall I flee from thy presence if if I ascend up into heaven now Are there if I make my bed and hell behold our there? If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea Even there thy hand shall lead me and thy right hand shall guide me because he can The heralding angel foretold it his name shall be called Immanuel God with us more correctly. It is the with us God We can run, but we can't hide wherever we go. God's there already He's able to the uttermost He sees us when we don't see him he hears us when we can't hear him He reaches us when we can't reach him Paul Assured the stoics and the epicureans patronizing those pagan images atop Mars Hill that they should seek the Lord if happily They might feel after him and find him though he be not far from every one of us He's near us all all the time close Within reach unless anyone to spare feeling yourself far from God It has nothing to do with where we are it has everything to do with where he is He's everywhere all way, which is why God always can greater than time Space greater than man and beast greater than earth and heaven Greater than heavens holy host or hell's Diabolical fiends. He's greater than our physical pain our emotional strain our spiritual stain He is greater than you God can
We've got to get this in our hearts as well as our head We must know him Experientially as well as intellectually and no beyond shadow of doubt that God is always able and God always Our perception of God determines his performance In our life, that's why you want to walk around every day That's why you want to get up and look in the mirror and say by the way God can Perhaps the Bible's oldest book Job Tells us unequivocally. I know that now can't do everything Now that's a rather inclusive statement that now can't do Everything we're told again and again in the biblical record that he is all mighty Possessing all power in heaven And in earth the prophet asked rhetorically is anything too hard for God The Lord himself said with man it's impossible, but with God All things are possible God-taken fact according to Romans 13 There is no power but of God in The revelation the saints will say alleluia for the Lord God omnipotent Rainy we have to get this in our hearts. We have to settle this in our soul that greater than time Greater than space He's greater than nature
Think of it when he decided that certain rivers or seas needed parting. He just parted poor hungry in the wilderness with Moses In the meadow with the master Manifel and loaves multiplied he can When a storm threatened the lives of his friends he stilled it because he can When his armies needed time to defeat their foe He linked them today He held back the night and he made the Sun stand still and he did it because he can When millions of his children are moving like a glacier across the desert and needed water They didn't have to dig in the ground. That's natural. He made it run out of the side of a dry rock That's supernatural and he did it because he can't what do you think's gonna happen when you turn a generation of Apostolic young adults loose on this world who know God can he has power over nature? Who is this? The disciples asked incredulously That even the elements even the elements obey him when our faith isn't perfect When we're acting more out of hope than out of inspiration to believe still God has power God's always able he He can
He has power over people Say any people Say all people The wise man opined even the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord and he turned it that with us So ever he will as the rivers of water every man's heart is in God's hand He takes the murderer of Moses and makes him earth's meekest man because he can't He'll stop Saul the persecutor on his way to Damascus and make him Paul the preacher And he'll help him bend the axis of Asia around the cross of Christ because he can't Pharaoh will belch out his threats and then his anger and refuse to let God's people go But then he'll beg him to leave when the death angel passes over and God's clock goes off because he can't Wily the seatful old Joe Jacob will find himself by the brook Jabok and lose a fight with an angel He'll limp away with a new nature and name a prince who has power with God because he can't The same Simon Peter who takes Christ by the neck and accuses him of not caring if they perish will sleep Through the eve of his own execution because he's content in the knowledge that the devil can't kill what can't die
Look around you in this holy house This morning There's evidence everywhere That God has power over people We're surrounded literally with changed lives Old things really have passed away All things really have become new he has power Over your son your daughter your brother your sister your husband your wife your friend your folk God can God always can And I say thank God for all of those in this room today that he has already God can
He has demonstrated his power over nature over time over Circumstance over people proving beyond all doubt that he can do anything for anyone at any time and that power that ability Has not nor will it ever change everybody say he's immutable He assures us through the Malachi the prophet I am the Lord and I change not the Hebrew letter calls him Jesus Christ the same yesterday today and forever We we must do more Than just give intellectual assent to this truth we've got to own it We have to own it. We have to practice it. We have to live it The knowledge that God always Can't Every valley shall be exalted Every mountain and hill shall be made low the crooked shall be made straight the rough places will be made plain The glory of the Lord shall be revealed in all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it If our heart can dim us God's greater than our heart if our heart can dim us not We have confidence with God that whatsoever we ask somebody shout it we receive Because he keeps his commandments and we do those things that are pleasing in his sight
We're not only invited everybody say we're commanded To come to call from anywhere at any time about anything To that man here this morning beset by sin God says coming to me all you that labor and a heavy laden and I Will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly and heart and you shall find rest Until your soul to the believer beset by circumstance beyond our control be careful for nothing But in everything somebody shout everything By prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your request be made known because he can And whatsoever things you desire when we pray believe that you receive them and we shall have them you have not James said because you ask not God can
Think of it now he brought Israel out of Egypt with plagues and miracles He made that formidable wall of Jericho fall flat when Joshua's Motley millions were marching about it He sat in silence while the heathens prayed and then Elijah He answered Elijah by fire on caramel He sent an earthquake to Philippi shook open the prison doors and freed two singing preachers and saved the jailer and his family And God did all those things because he can long as I have breath. I pray I never forget hear me Ravens fed Elijah The axe head did swim our fellow on caramel seas roll back Manna came down from heaven water flowed from a flint rock a with his oils multiplied The tax money was in the fishes mouth a lads lunch fed thousands the sundial moved backward the moon halted in the Valley of Agiland Leppers were cleansed the lame walk the dumb talk the deaf received a hearing the blind Received their sight that caused God Let's get this in our God. Let's get this in our soul
We have promises you and I do Seating great precious promises like asking you shall receive Knocking it shall be open Seeking you shall find we have promises It shall come to pass afterwards that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters Shall prophesy your old men shall dream dreams and young men shall see vision somebody shouted say we've got promises The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God Pulling down strongholds casting down imaginations every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God promises we have promises He that is in us is greater Than he that's in the world The knowledge of the glory the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea we have promised we have promises Like upon this rock. I will build my church and the gates of hell She'll not prevail against it. We have promises, but but we don't we don't have just promises
We have the power of prayer somebody shouted say I can pray I Can pray anytime I can pray from anywhere I can pray about anything and I can do it for as long as I like Whatsoever things you desire when you pray believe you receive them and you shall have them Barely I say in the you that if two of you shall agree on earth is touching anything they shall ask It shall be done for them and my father, which is in heaven I have I have the privilege and the power of prayer at my disposal and and and the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man It's not without consequence, but it availeth much we have we have promises and We have the prerogative of prayer or than the promises More than the prayer is this timeless truth captured by David the psalmist when he said it is time For thee Lord to work For they have made void Thy law more than the promises more than the prior power and prerogative of prayer somebody shout it's just time Say it's God's time
We're prophetically predestined people living at a prophetically predestined time The generation upon whom the ends of the world have come the Bible said That's what makes it time for God To work they hold I give you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy And there shall by no means anything
We're in the city We're in the city we live on a paved road and I mean our church is on a paved road, but It got a chuck hole in it got a chuck hole in it and so Several weeks after the chuck hole appeared a Stranger started showing up on Wednesday night Nobody knew he had never been to our church didn't say much sat in the middle quiet didn't participate until One day we got to talking to him and he said I Got sick and tired of hitting that chuck hole So I took my truck I went home and got what I needed and I came back and I fixed it and he said I Was parked on your parking lot when I jumped in my truck to leave He said I heard a voice inside me say I just put that chuck hole there. So you'd have to park in this parking Amen So he started showing up at church. Nobody know knew him nobody. He didn't know anybody at church no connection Cause pastor one day and he says if you can prove to me I have to be baptized in Jesus name. I'll do it Pastor Caleb said let's meet for lunch About two hours after pastor Caleb got back from lunch the church phone rang and it was Steve Coley and he said hey I'm ready to be baptized. Let's meet at the church Because he can that's why Just because he can
We had a premature baby in our church a few weeks ago very sick in the Nick unit contracted Salmonella in the Nick unit in the hospital They called us and notified us God be my witness at the office On this day on the next day when the doctors came in to check the baby to Salmonella was gone You know why God does that cause he can I?
Wish everybody in this house would jump up on your feet and let's just start shouting God can God can God can God will because God can Come on, let's clap our hands Let's raise our voice praise God Hey, I Don't I don't know who you're standing near I Don't know who you're near but there's not anybody anywhere that doesn't have a need Ladies ladies men the men grab somebody's hand Stick it high up over your head in the heavens raise your voice like thunder and let's pray a miracle prayer Let's pray that the Holy Ghost comes into this house right now Come on. Let's pray Let's shout it out. Let's believe it Let's know that God will do it
Scripture references as spoken: Hebrews (book-only, as spoken); Psalms (book-only, as spoken); Job (book-only, as spoken); Romans 13; Revelation (book-only, as spoken).