I have never been more honest with you in my
life than I have been in these heart -to -heart
talks we got into question as to why some people
are not healed. I have been so dead honest with
you that I have told you sincerely that I do
not have the answer. I do not know. And when
somebody comes along and says that they have
the answer, they know why, I'm afraid I'm a little
skeptical of those who claim they know. No one
can understand God's reasoning. No one can understand
the ways of God. No one can fathom the mind of
God. You and I have been really getting down
to rock bottom. We have gone into the word of
God. And the day has come when we need to get
back again to Bible teaching. And the Bible does
not teach that faith is a condition of the mind.
It is not. No person in the whole world can ever
make me believe that faith, the kind of faith
that Jesus was talking about, was a condition
merely of the mind. It is not. It is a divinely
imparted grace to the heart. And very often,
our emotions are mistaken for faith. And then,
you know, it's so easy to blame God when there
are no results from something that has been purely
of the mind and not of the heart. Mm -hmm. Oh,
I know, beloved. I may be upsetting some of your
theology, some things that you've been taught.
But remember, if the Bible teaches one thing
and you have been taught another, the Bible is
always right. The Word of God is the final authority.
We can believe in healing. We can believe in
our Lord and His power to heal. But... Only Jesus
can work the work that will lift us to the mountain
peaks of victory. We need faith, a product of
the mind, when all of the other gifts of the
Spirit we have attributed to God. Too many people
believe that faith is still their own ability
to believe the truth. and is often based on their
struggles and their ability to drive away doubt
and unbelief through a process of continued affirmations.
But watch something. There is belief in faith,
but faith is more than belief. If you want to
get the mind of God, study the Bible. If you
want to get close to the Lord, study the word.
If you want the answers to your questions, go
back to God's holy word. Again I repeat, if you
want understanding, search the scriptures. There
is belief in faith, but faith is more than just
mental. It's more than something of the mind.
It's more than belief. Faith is a gift. And Jesus
is our faith. He is the giver of every good and
perfect gift. He is the author and the finisher
of our faith. How often we... quoted that scripture.
A thousand times you have repeated it. He is
the author and the finisher of our faith. And
yet so few of us have realized the full meaning
of those words. Faith isn't something that we
can work up. Faith isn't a result of emotions.
Faith isn't a product of the mind. Faith must
come from Jesus. He is the author and the finisher
of our faith. If I have any faith, he's the one
who's given it to me. If you have faith, he is
the one who's given it to you. If you are a Christian,
he is the one who has given you the faith to
believe that you've been born again. I am a Christian
this hour because he has given me the faith to
accept him as my personal savior. He's the author
and the finisher of our faith, whether it's faith
for salvation or whether it's faith for the healing
of our body or for the faith of anything that
we receive from him. Active faith is unquestioning
belief. It's complete trust and reliance upon
God with all confidence. And faith can become
as real as any of our senses. When we receive
his faith, we also receive understanding. And
we receive both from the word because he is the
word and he is truth. And that's the answer.
It's that simple. Everything that God has for
his children. he puts within the reach of faith
and then he turns around and gives them the faith
to appropriate the gift that's what he's like
and yet lo these many years we've missed it then
jesus spoke with him there's no struggle the
waves of doubt and anxiety and worry all fade
away and suddenly a glorious and marvellous calm
and peace enters into the heart and the mind
of the one who has received that which only he
can give and the only noise that will be heard
will be that of praise and adoration from the
lips of the one who has just been healed by the
great physician be no loud demanding. No. No.
There be praise and worship and adoration. I
told you in our last heart -to -heart talk that
one of the greatest secrets that I've learned
through the years is that when i had realized
my own helplessness and had acknowledged it to
him without a struggle oftentimes i was too tired
to struggle there'd been more than once that
i had been too tired to utter an audible word
i mean that the words would not And yet, I have
received some of the greatest manifestations
of this power. I have received some of the greatest
anointings of my life when I have had to lean
completely on him. And he always comes through.
You are nearest your possession of this great
imparted grace when you realize your own helplessness
and your complete and entire dependence upon
the Lord. You know, I'm reminded the young lady
who in describing faith used this illustration.
I hope you'll never forget it. She said, you
know, when I was learning to float on water,
i realized i had to completely relax and without
fear trust the water to hold me up it worked
i floated in the same way i faithed if you forget
everything else that you've ever heard me say
in our little heart -to -heart talks regarding
faith remember what i have just said i repeat
she said when i was learning to float on water
i realized i had to completely relax Without
fear, trust the water to hold me up. It worked.
I floated. In the same way, I faced it. That's
my life. Day by day. I have to trust him to hold
me up. But as long as I struggle, then I'm not
trusting. You and I would never learn to float
on water if we went about it the same way that
the majority of people go about trusting the
Lord. All they say, they... Trust them, all right.
Oh, sure, but I'm telling you something. They
never relax. They're never without fear. There's
always anxiety and worry. Well, if they did that,
believe me, they'd drown as sure as shooting
if they were learning to float. Relax. And you,
too, will know what real faith is. We receive
nothing by demanding of God. It's a part of his
great love, compassion, and mercy that he gives
us. How often we lose sight of the fact that
not one of us can claim any righteousness of
our own. Not one is worthy of the smallest blessing.
But we are the receiver of his blessing because
of his mercy and his compassion. It's the sovereign
act of God and not something that we have merited
or something that we have obtained through our
own goodness. I'll make an admission. When I
was... Oh, let me think. I would say my late
teens or 20 years of age. I could have given
you all the answers. Had you come to me when
I was 20 and asked me any question, believe me,
I wouldn't be... Talking to you then as I am
now. I would have told you now. If you want to
receive your healing, I have a set of rules.
There's number one, there's number two, there's
number three. I want you to know my theology
was straight. And I was sure that if you followed
certain rules, and if you walked hard enough,
and if you obeyed all the commandments and had
yourself in a certain spiritual state god would
heal you oh i was sure of it but lo and behold
my theology came tumbling down was crushed into
a thousand pieces when one day a man who had
just entered the auditorium doing a miracle service
stood silently against the wall and after not
more than five minutes, and I'll never forget
it, I can tell you exactly what the man looked
like. He walked boldly to the stage and freely
admitted, without any emotion, he just looked
me squarely in the face and said, my ear has
just been opened, and I don't believe it. Just
like that. My word? Think what that did to my
theology. I put that man through the third degree.
I had everything at stake. My theology was at
stake. Everything I believed as to how to receive
your healing was at stake. But the more I questioned
him, he held his ground. He never recanted. He
was honest, seeing the crowd, out of curiosity,
came in. He didn't know whether he was going
to a giveaway program. He didn't know. He was
sure something was being given away by the crowd,
and he wasn't going to miss it. He didn't know
what it was, so he came in. He was standing there,
a spectator. And I found out he hadn't been inside
of a church for 25 years. he had put himself
in the category of an atheist and yet his ear
that had been deaf for years was instantly opened
it was possible for me to relate many many cases
where people had been healed who were amazed
who freely admitted that they did not expect
to be healed some of them with the tears streaming
down their cheeks stood before the crowd and
said, I can't believe. I just can't believe it.
You know, until we have a better way of defining
it, all that I can tell you is that these are
mercy healings. They've been healed through the
mercy of the Lord. And in every... instance without
exception the one healed has always accepted
christ as his personal savior before he left
the stage always we forget the mercy of god we
forget his great compassion we forget that we
do not earn our blessings, neither do we merit
his goodness. Were it not for the mercy and the
compassion and the grace and the love of God,
not one of us would be a Christian today. And
the same holds true when it comes to physical
healing. How often I have thought that God knows
very little about man's theology. And we're so
prone to get dogmatic about things that we know
so little about. In the final analysis, let me
ask you, how much do we really know? Only that
which is in his word. His word is our basis.
let's get back again to the word of god let's
forget that it's a matter of the mind isn't it
much simpler to just take god at face value isn't
it much simpler to acknowledge the fact that
he is the author and the finisher of our faith?
Isn't it much simpler to lean on his understanding,
his mercy, his grace? And if you really want
to know what he's like, he'll reveal himself
through his word get back to the word his word
may he give you the desire of your heart