WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.719 The Bible is always right. And if I have not 00:00:05.719 --> 00:00:10.199 answered the question according to the word of 00:00:10.199 --> 00:00:14.519 God, and you can prove to me that God's word 00:00:14.519 --> 00:00:19.640 teaches something differently than I have given 00:00:19.640 --> 00:00:26.399 to you, then I stand to be rebuked. Know that. 00:00:26.899 --> 00:00:31.820 No matter what you're taught, No matter what 00:00:31.820 --> 00:00:36.539 you read, if it's contrary to the word of God, 00:00:36.719 --> 00:00:44.479 God's word is always right. For his word is absolute 00:00:44.479 --> 00:00:57.899 authority. I am not infallible. But he is. There 00:00:57.899 --> 00:01:04.739 are two questions. I'm going to combine the 35th, 00:01:04.739 --> 00:01:11.359 the 36th questions. Because in reading them over, 00:01:11.459 --> 00:01:20.019 I feel that they both relate to faith. What is 00:01:20.019 --> 00:01:22.799 the most common ailment that people come to you 00:01:22.799 --> 00:01:28.000 with? Is there illness or handicap? that you 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:29.819 would not have the faith to pray to correct? 00:01:30.980 --> 00:01:35.239 The 36th question, how much depends upon your 00:01:35.239 --> 00:01:40.219 faith, your praying for an individual? Can a 00:01:40.219 --> 00:01:43.120 person be filled with the Spirit yet not have 00:01:43.120 --> 00:01:47.000 enough faith to be healed? I'm going to combine 00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:54.090 these two questions and answer them as one. Volumes 00:01:54.090 --> 00:01:56.030 have been written and volumes more have been 00:01:56.030 --> 00:01:59.189 spoken regarding this indefinable something that's 00:01:59.189 --> 00:02:03.150 called faith. And yet in the final analysis, 00:02:03.250 --> 00:02:10.009 we actually know so little of the subject. Faith 00:02:10.009 --> 00:02:14.629 is that quality, our power, by which the things 00:02:14.629 --> 00:02:21.270 desired become the things possessed. This is 00:02:21.270 --> 00:02:23.990 the nearest to a definition of faith attempted 00:02:23.990 --> 00:02:29.110 by the inspired word of God. You cannot weigh 00:02:29.110 --> 00:02:35.069 faith or confine it to a container. It's not 00:02:35.069 --> 00:02:38.409 something that you can take out and look at and 00:02:38.409 --> 00:02:43.870 analyze. You cannot definitely put your finger 00:02:43.870 --> 00:02:51.479 on it and positively say, now, this is it. To 00:02:51.479 --> 00:02:55.280 explain it precisely is almost like trying to 00:02:55.280 --> 00:02:59.319 define energy in one comprehensive statement. 00:03:01.460 --> 00:03:05.379 In the realm of physics, we're told that the 00:03:05.379 --> 00:03:08.599 atom is a world within itself, that the potential 00:03:08.599 --> 00:03:12.340 energy contained within this tiny world is such 00:03:12.340 --> 00:03:16.240 that it bewilders the mind of the average person. 00:03:16.599 --> 00:03:20.699 Attempt to define it? you run into difficulties. 00:03:22.960 --> 00:03:27.520 And so it is with faith in the realm of the spirit. 00:03:29.500 --> 00:03:34.080 But although it is not easy to define exactly 00:03:34.080 --> 00:03:42.740 what faith is, we know what it is not. One of 00:03:42.740 --> 00:03:45.539 the most common errors that we make in this regard 00:03:45.539 --> 00:03:52.800 is to confuse faith with presumption. We must 00:03:52.800 --> 00:03:57.319 be constantly alert to the danger of mistaking 00:03:57.319 --> 00:04:01.219 one for the other, for there's a vast difference 00:04:01.219 --> 00:04:06.060 between the two. There's a pebble on the beach, 00:04:06.139 --> 00:04:10.439 for example, but the beach is more than the pebble, 00:04:10.539 --> 00:04:14.960 and when the pebble asserts that it is the beach, 00:04:16.170 --> 00:04:22.410 then we say to it, you are assuming too much. 00:04:24.529 --> 00:04:28.009 There are many who mix the ingredients of their 00:04:28.009 --> 00:04:33.689 own mental attitude with a little confidence, 00:04:33.910 --> 00:04:40.910 a little pinch of trust, and a generous handful 00:04:40.910 --> 00:04:46.589 of religious egotism. And they proceed to add 00:04:46.589 --> 00:04:50.509 some belief along with many other ingredients. 00:04:52.269 --> 00:04:58.149 And then, mixing it all together, they label 00:04:58.149 --> 00:05:06.410 the total result faith. Faith is more than belief. 00:05:07.509 --> 00:05:10.870 It's more than confidence. It's more than trust. 00:05:10.949 --> 00:05:16.620 And above all, it is never boastful. If it is 00:05:16.620 --> 00:05:21.000 pure faith, Holy Ghost faith, it will never work 00:05:21.000 --> 00:05:25.480 contrary to the Word of God, and neither will 00:05:25.480 --> 00:05:30.680 it work contrary to His wisdom and His will. 00:05:33.879 --> 00:05:38.279 One of the cheap difficulties is our failure 00:05:38.279 --> 00:05:44.660 to see that Faith can be received only as it 00:05:44.660 --> 00:05:50.379 is imparted to the heart by God himself. You 00:05:50.379 --> 00:05:54.240 ask me a personal question. Catherine Kuhlman, 00:05:54.319 --> 00:06:01.879 do you have faith for the healing of that physical 00:06:01.879 --> 00:06:07.259 body, of that one who comes to you wanting the 00:06:07.259 --> 00:06:11.920 healing for cancer? And right now, I want to 00:06:11.920 --> 00:06:16.560 give you the answer to the first part of the 00:06:16.560 --> 00:06:20.180 question. What is the most common ailment that 00:06:20.180 --> 00:06:23.639 people come to you with? I would say cancer. 00:06:26.860 --> 00:06:33.860 This may startle you. But when the prayer requests 00:06:33.860 --> 00:06:38.920 come to the mail, the majority... of the written 00:06:38.920 --> 00:06:43.819 prayer requests are for the healing of cancer. 00:06:44.860 --> 00:06:49.699 In any miracle service, these may be startling 00:06:49.699 --> 00:06:55.699 facts. But I'm telling you the truth. I'm telling 00:06:55.699 --> 00:07:01.060 you from my own personal experience. The most 00:07:01.060 --> 00:07:06.430 common ailment that people come to me with whether 00:07:06.430 --> 00:07:09.870 it's in a miracle service, whether they approach 00:07:09.870 --> 00:07:12.709 me through the prayer requests that come through 00:07:12.709 --> 00:07:27.230 the mail, it's cancer. Cancer. If that person 00:07:27.230 --> 00:07:33.430 who is coming before the throne of God in prayer 00:07:35.689 --> 00:07:40.170 faith whatsoever, it must be a gift from God. 00:07:42.410 --> 00:07:45.970 If I stand there praying for someone to be healed 00:07:45.970 --> 00:07:51.410 of that cancer, if I have any personal faith 00:07:51.410 --> 00:07:56.389 in praying that prayer, and if there is faith 00:07:56.389 --> 00:08:01.089 accompanying that prayer, that faith that I have 00:08:01.089 --> 00:08:07.180 is definitely a gift from God. For the Word of 00:08:07.180 --> 00:08:15.399 God teaches that faith is a gift. And Jesus is 00:08:15.399 --> 00:08:22.139 the author and the finisher of our faith. One 00:08:22.139 --> 00:08:25.360 of the chief difficulties is our failure to see 00:08:25.360 --> 00:08:30.060 that faith can be received only as it is imparted 00:08:30.060 --> 00:08:33.419 to the heart by God Himself. Either you have 00:08:33.419 --> 00:08:37.240 faith or you do not. You cannot manufacture it. 00:08:37.320 --> 00:08:42.100 You cannot work it up. You can believe a promise 00:08:42.100 --> 00:08:45.919 and at the same time not have the faith to appropriate 00:08:45.919 --> 00:08:51.220 that promise. But we have formed the habit of 00:08:51.220 --> 00:08:57.000 trying to appropriate by belief, forgetting the 00:08:57.000 --> 00:09:03.529 while that belief is a mental quality. And that 00:09:03.529 --> 00:09:08.470 when we try to believe ourselves into an experience, 00:09:08.710 --> 00:09:15.429 we are getting into a metaphysical realm. And 00:09:15.429 --> 00:09:21.429 there is a difference. I repeat that statement. 00:09:21.990 --> 00:09:30.210 We have formed the habit of trying to appropriate. 00:09:31.600 --> 00:09:38.659 By belief. Forgetting the whole while that belief 00:09:38.659 --> 00:09:50.500 is mental. It's a mental quality. Yeah? And when 00:09:50.500 --> 00:09:55.360 we try to believe ourselves into an experience, 00:09:55.840 --> 00:10:01.820 we are definitely getting into a metaphor. physical 00:10:01.820 --> 00:10:13.120 realm. And there's the difference. Faith, as 00:10:13.120 --> 00:10:17.220 God himself imparts to the heart, is spiritual. 00:10:17.519 --> 00:10:22.500 It's warm. It's vital. It lives. It throbs. And 00:10:22.500 --> 00:10:25.440 its power is absolutely irresistible when it's 00:10:25.440 --> 00:10:29.059 imparted to the heart by the Lord. It is with 00:10:29.059 --> 00:10:32.629 the heart. that man believes unto righteousness. 00:10:34.929 --> 00:10:42.629 But heart belief is faith, or at any rate, opens 00:10:42.629 --> 00:10:46.409 the door of communication between us and the 00:10:46.409 --> 00:10:52.309 Lord, whereby a divinely imported faith becomes 00:10:52.309 --> 00:10:58.450 possible. Is it not a fact that with most of 00:10:58.450 --> 00:11:04.629 us, faith has been a struggle or an attempt to 00:11:04.629 --> 00:11:08.669 believe. It may be that with all of our struggling 00:11:08.669 --> 00:11:12.389 we come at last to the place where we do believe 00:11:12.389 --> 00:11:17.029 and then we have been bewildered by the fact 00:11:17.029 --> 00:11:20.049 that we do not receive the thing for which we 00:11:20.049 --> 00:11:25.429 pray. We must discern that such belief is not 00:11:25.429 --> 00:11:31.879 necessarily what the inspiration word calls faith. 00:11:36.299 --> 00:11:39.799 The 17th chapter of Matthew is a chapter of contrast. 00:11:40.720 --> 00:11:43.779 It climbs to the heights and then goes down to 00:11:43.779 --> 00:11:46.980 the depths. It talks about mustard seed and mountains 00:11:46.980 --> 00:11:51.440 of despair and transfiguration. But what a lesson 00:11:51.440 --> 00:11:54.379 the Holy Ghost would bring to you and to me on 00:11:54.379 --> 00:11:57.100 this great subject of faith through its priceless 00:11:57.100 --> 00:12:03.399 words. Down from the mountaintop came our blessed 00:12:03.399 --> 00:12:06.559 Lord. Down from the gates of heaven itself where 00:12:06.559 --> 00:12:10.759 the glory breezes kissed his cheek and the angels 00:12:10.759 --> 00:12:15.120 wrapped around his shoulders the robes that had 00:12:15.120 --> 00:12:19.840 been woven on the looms of light. Down from the 00:12:19.840 --> 00:12:22.179 place of holy communion and encouragement to 00:12:22.179 --> 00:12:26.470 the place of human defeat, perhaps despair. For 00:12:26.470 --> 00:12:28.909 at the foot of the glory mountain was a valley, 00:12:29.009 --> 00:12:34.750 and through it a trail of human bewilderment. 00:12:35.169 --> 00:12:38.129 There was sickness there. A crushed and bleeding 00:12:38.129 --> 00:12:41.389 heart was there. A father who had met an obstacle 00:12:41.389 --> 00:12:44.809 that had crushed him in spirit and in heart was 00:12:44.809 --> 00:12:53.230 there. Sure. Preachers were there, too. They'd 00:12:53.230 --> 00:12:57.120 gone through the formula. They had rebuked the 00:12:57.120 --> 00:13:02.019 devil. They had shouted and groaned, just like 00:13:02.019 --> 00:13:05.500 many of us have done a hundred times, and yet 00:13:05.500 --> 00:13:10.500 the things for which they had prayed had never 00:13:10.500 --> 00:13:17.860 happened, even as you and I. Then Jesus spoke. 00:13:19.659 --> 00:13:26.330 Oh, matchless words of authority. With him there 00:13:26.330 --> 00:13:31.309 was no struggle. There was no groaning. No battle 00:13:31.309 --> 00:13:34.769 that was fierce and long to bring about the answer 00:13:34.769 --> 00:13:42.190 to a broken father's prayer. Jesus spoke. The 00:13:42.190 --> 00:13:47.049 devil fled. A happy boy cuddled in his father's 00:13:47.049 --> 00:13:51.830 arms and sobbed his gratitude to God. A happy 00:13:51.830 --> 00:13:54.779 father embraced his boy. and looked with tear 00:13:54.779 --> 00:13:58.940 -stained eyes of love and adoration at the face 00:13:58.940 --> 00:14:02.899 of the man before whom devils fled. And then 00:14:02.899 --> 00:14:07.740 Jesus spoke. He said an answer to their question 00:14:07.740 --> 00:14:14.519 regarding their defeat. And I quote from the 00:14:14.519 --> 00:14:21.539 Bible. It was because of your unbelief. For verily 00:14:21.539 --> 00:14:25.590 I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of 00:14:25.590 --> 00:14:30.730 mustard seed ye shall say to this mountain remove 00:14:30.730 --> 00:14:36.830 hence to yonder place and it shall remove and 00:14:36.830 --> 00:14:43.809 nothing shall be impossible unto you what a statement 00:14:43.809 --> 00:14:52.980 what a statement from the lips of Jesus himself. 00:14:54.799 --> 00:15:03.179 And nothing shall be impossible unto you. All 00:15:03.179 --> 00:15:08.980 we need is faith as big as a grain of mustard 00:15:08.980 --> 00:15:14.159 seed and mountains will tremble in fear as we 00:15:14.159 --> 00:15:17.039 approach. Do you realize what Jesus was saying? 00:15:18.639 --> 00:15:23.059 He declared that the least amount of faith that 00:15:23.059 --> 00:15:29.340 he could give was greater and mightier than the 00:15:29.340 --> 00:15:36.860 largest amount of the power of the devil. Here 00:15:36.860 --> 00:15:42.480 were the David and Goliath in the realm of the 00:15:42.480 --> 00:15:47.220 soul. A mustard seed went to battle against a 00:15:47.220 --> 00:15:53.899 mountain. and slew it. But it required the faith 00:15:53.899 --> 00:16:02.899 that he alone could give and impart. Did those 00:16:02.899 --> 00:16:06.700 disciples believe? Yes, they did. They believed 00:16:06.700 --> 00:16:10.159 in Jesus. They believed in his promises. They 00:16:10.159 --> 00:16:13.759 believed in divine healing. Or never would they 00:16:13.759 --> 00:16:18.549 have held that healing meeting that day. And 00:16:18.549 --> 00:16:20.929 believing just exactly like you and I have believed 00:16:20.929 --> 00:16:24.230 in healing services. And in our church meetings, 00:16:24.490 --> 00:16:33.269 they prayed, but nothing happened. What they 00:16:33.269 --> 00:16:39.070 needed, according to Jesus, was faith. Not a 00:16:39.070 --> 00:16:45.960 carload of it, but just a little bit. As big 00:16:45.960 --> 00:16:51.360 as a grain of mustard seed. That would be enough. 00:16:53.279 --> 00:16:59.919 That would be all that was necessary if it was 00:16:59.919 --> 00:17:11.940 really faith. Mm -hmm. Let us face the issue 00:17:11.940 --> 00:17:17.819 squarely. Let us with open, surrendered hearts 00:17:17.819 --> 00:17:22.799 ask the Holy Spirit to send forth His light and 00:17:22.799 --> 00:17:31.400 His truth and lead us to that holy hill. Is it 00:17:31.400 --> 00:17:37.920 not evident that when we pray, what we thought 00:17:37.920 --> 00:17:42.240 was the prayer of faith and nothing happens? 00:17:43.950 --> 00:17:49.289 It must be that what we thought was faith was 00:17:49.289 --> 00:17:54.269 not faith at all. You understand what I'm trying 00:17:54.269 --> 00:18:04.900 to say? It's so simple. It's so simple. When 00:18:04.900 --> 00:18:07.859 we see the truth, we shall no longer be standing 00:18:07.859 --> 00:18:12.140 around hour after hour, rebuking, commanding, 00:18:12.140 --> 00:18:18.579 demanding, struggling. With faith, there is no 00:18:18.579 --> 00:18:24.880 struggle. There will be a place for intercession. 00:18:28.319 --> 00:18:35.259 Know that. But when God's... Faith is imparted. 00:18:35.700 --> 00:18:40.640 The storm dies down and there's a great calm 00:18:40.640 --> 00:18:46.839 and a deep, settled peace in the soul. And the 00:18:46.839 --> 00:18:50.420 only noise will be the voice of thanksgiving 00:18:50.420 --> 00:18:55.799 and praise. For then the full realization will 00:18:55.799 --> 00:19:00.460 steal like a morning daybreak over the soul that 00:19:00.460 --> 00:19:06.410 it was not our abyss to believe that made to 00:19:06.410 --> 00:19:11.650 stick this goal, but rather that the faith which 00:19:11.650 --> 00:19:19.809 is of God was imparted to us through His mercy. 00:19:21.710 --> 00:19:30.410 We can believe in healing. We can believe... 00:19:30.720 --> 00:19:33.319 in our blessed Redeemer and His power to heal. 00:19:34.180 --> 00:19:40.660 But only Jesus can work the work that will lift 00:19:40.660 --> 00:19:48.140 us to the mountain peaks of victory. Always remember, 00:19:48.759 --> 00:20:04.000 faith is a gift. And He, is the giver of that 00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:15.339 glorious something that we call faith. If I have 00:20:15.339 --> 00:20:27.519 any faith whatsoever, it is not of myself. It 00:20:27.519 --> 00:20:31.640 is something that has been divinely imparted. 00:20:33.099 --> 00:20:37.759 And when we come right down to trying to analyze 00:20:37.759 --> 00:20:46.319 faith, we know very little about it. But I do 00:20:46.319 --> 00:21:00.950 know much about His mercy and His love. the greatest 00:21:00.950 --> 00:21:06.269 possession that a human being can experience.