In episode 271 of the "No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe" podcast, host Greg Ryan delivers a devotional on "spiritual audacity," urging believers to pursue the extraordinary works of Jesus. He references his ongoing "Water Walking Wednesday" series, recounting dozens of failed attempts to walk on water as a tangible illustration of striving for greater works. Ryan grounds his message in John 14:12, asserting that believers who trust in Christ can perform the same miracles Jesus did, and he ties this promise to the believer’s identity in Christ using Galatians 2:20. He warns against a complacent, "wimpy" Christianity, citing Matthew 7’s narrow gate and Matthew 25’s parable of the wise and foolish virgins to illustrate that many claim faith without true relationship, leading to lawlessness. Ryan emphasizes daily practice, discipline, and a genuine relationship with Jesus as essential for living out these greater works. He shares his personal conversion story (January 10, 1993), his ongoing study of Scripture, and concludes with a prayer for listeners’ personal connection with the Holy Spirit.
Welcome to episode 271.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I am continuing to talk about spiritual audacity, and I am doing this as an audio only at 271 because I did the Water Walking Wednesday on YouTube. And so I'm just going to take a break from having that camera on today. It's a pain in the backside, and I'm just not going to deal with it. So I am here on audio only. If you were listening and did not get a chance to go watch the video, it was an object failure. I fell through the water again, and it is— I don't even know, I quit counting after 100, but I'm sure it's 150, 200 times that I've tried to walk on water. And I understand that I'm a little bit weird, and I understand that, but to be a Jesus fanatic, I think you have to do things that are out of the ordinary to what the world, how the world is doing things. And I may be all wrong, and I know I'm all wet because I walked through the water and I made up my mind that I was not gonna change my shoes or socks or pants. So I'm getting to walk around all day today with my wet socks and wet shoes and wet pants, and I've got to tell you, I hate it. I I don't know if you like wet socks. I don't know anybody that does, but I've got wet socks on and it's a pain in the backside. But I want to do that to remind me that I messed up or that I failed because it keeps my mind aware that, hey, you got to do something different next time. That didn't work. And so I am continuing to meditate on John 14:12 where Jesus told his disciples, most assuredly I say to you, he that believes in me The works that I do, he will do also, and greater works will he do because I go to my Father. And Jesus walked on water, Jesus raised the dead, he healed the blind eyes, he healed deaf people, lepers, everything that Jesus did. I believe John 14:12 opens up a whole world for you and I. I believe that we can do what Jesus did, not because of anything that we're worthy of or that we can do, but because the Word of God is the truth. Jesus would not have said it to his disciples if he didn't mean it. There's not a few verses in the Bible that are hard to deal with. No, the Bible is clear. It may take you a minute to get it all in, but it is a spiritual book written to spiritual beings, and you and I have a spirit man on the inside of us that's 100% just like Jesus. So our spirit man is just like Jesus. I believe it's in Galatians where it talks about being crucified with Christ and yet we live, and that is in Galatians 2:20. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. That is an incredible scripture, that when we accept Jesus, we die. I mean, I don't know if you've ever thought about this, but your person is dead. The old Greg Ryan is dead, when I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, and I became a new creation, a new creature, and I am now alive, and the life that I'm living, it says right here, it's not I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I just, with that in the backdrop and John 14:12 running around in our heads, I want us to understand we have got Christ living on the inside. So if we've got Jesus on the inside of us And Jesus walked on water. And Jesus said, "Greater works we would do." I'm not even gonna talk about the greater works. If we see Jesus doing it in the Bible, I believe we can do it here. Now, that don't mean we're gonna do it first time, and that don't mean we're ever gonna do it. I believe that is why we just need to continue to just dig into this thing and just stay in the Word of God. And I don't mean you gotta become a monk and you gotta just sit in a room, quiet room, and just stay in the Word of God. I just mean, do something and try to figure out why it didn't work instead of blaming God or saying that God doesn't want us to do that. Most of the church has gone to the wimpy, easy route, and I wanna encourage you to read Matthew 7 one more time. We're gonna do it, we do it all the time. We read this scripture a lot, but Matthew 7:13 and 14, enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. And then I wanna go up the same chapter, and you know, men put chapter and verse, but Jesus is still talking to the same people. Matthew 7:22, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name? And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.' When you start looking at the Word of God and you start seeing many and narrow, and you start seeing difficult and broad that leads to destruction, you are just gonna have to come to the conclusion that there's not a lot of people that are going to make heaven. Now maybe he's just talking about everybody on the whole planet, and most people are just not gonna accept Jesus. If you start reading in the gospels where Jesus is talking about the last days and where he's using, it's the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, and you find that in Matthew 25. But I'm not gonna read that. I just want you to look at it, and it's Matthew 25. Again, I'm not sure I can give you homework, But there were 5 of the 10 who were wise, and there were 5 of them who were foolish. And that to me— and since I'm a math guy, I'm better with math than I am with English, as you can probably attest to if you've listened to this podcast for any length of time— but the 5 wise and 5 foolish of the 10, that's 50/50. So in my mind, that means half of the church, the church that, quote, thinks they're the church, half of them are not going to make it. That— this is after Jesus was talking about the coming of the Son of Man and the Great Tribulation. This is talking about Jesus shutting the door on the foolish virgins. And I think that's the church. I really do. I, you know, I don't think people in the world— and I'm gonna go back to 22. Where the people answered and said, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name? That sounds like the church to me. No, I don't think the world is prophesying in Jesus' name. I don't think they're casting out demons, and I don't think they're doing many mighty wonders. So just because you can do that, and just because you have faith in the name, it's all about relationship with Jesus. You have got to be in a relationship with the Lord Jesus, not only do you know who he is, Jesus must know who you are because he says, "Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. I never knew you." And that is a crazy, scary verse, and it's one that makes me just pause and make sure, man, I don't think I want to practice— and I'm putting air quotes up— practice lawlessness. And I think that's the key. Again, I've got— I lean over towards the sports side, but to be good at something like in sports, like in golf— I've used to play golf a lot— and in order to be really good in golf, you've got to practice. You've got to wake up in the morning thinking, man, I need to work on my putting, I need to work on my chipping. And that's if you're going to be good at something. You've got to get up and you've got to practice it. And I think that's kind of similar if you're waking up every morning thinking about how you can, quote, sin, or how you can do something lawless. And lawlessness is just going against the Word of God. This is not the same as being trapped in sin. I believe we all sin. The Bible is clear: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So he died for our sins. So sin is no longer the issue. But if you continue to sin, I don't know that you may have, may or may not need to revisit your faith acceptance of Jesus, because just saying words don't get you into heaven. It is dying in your spirit man, have to become a new creation. You can't feel your spirit coming to life, but I sense something January 10th, 1993. I sense something has changed. And when I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, then I started reading the Bible. I started understanding the Bible. I started praying more. I started hanging out with people that enjoyed listening to the Bible. I didn't try to make excuses for the Bible, and I still don't. I still don't understand a lot that's in this book, but I stay in this book to try to understand it more, and I ask the Holy Spirit for help. And that's what I want to encourage you to do. And I just looked up at the clock and realized that I'm past 10 minutes on this podcast and I still have not talked about King David when he killed Goliath. And so I'm gonna have to push that to the next episode. But I thought maybe I was gonna do the Water Walking Wednesday and just use YouTube audio off of the video, and I just can't figure out how to get— rip that audio off of there. So I just made a brand new podcast episode. If you are listening to this on an audio device, then it's brand new. And if you're looking for this on video, it's not going to happen. The video is going to be my Water Walking Wednesdays. Let's pray real quick. God, I thank you so much for this listener. I thank you for your word. God, I thank you for challenging us to just consider our position in the body of Christ, to make sure and ask you, Holy Spirit, if we are there, if you know us. God, we know you, but do you know us? God, I pray that you would know each person listening to this episode, and I pray that if you don't know, that you would start drawing this person to yourself. God, we thank you. We love you. We ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you for being a part of this, and I look forward to visiting with you in the next episode.
Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.
