The Bible is always right. And if I have not
answered the question according to the word of
God, and you can prove to me that God's word
teaches something differently than I have given
to you, then I stand to be rebuked. Know that.
No matter what you're taught, No matter what
you read, if it's contrary to the word of God,
God's word is always right. For his word is absolute
authority. I am not infallible. But he is. There
are two questions. I'm going to combine the 35th,
the 36th questions. Because in reading them over,
I feel that they both relate to faith. What is
the most common ailment that people come to you
with? Is there illness or handicap? that you
would not have the faith to pray to correct?
The 36th question, how much depends upon your
faith, your praying for an individual? Can a
person be filled with the Spirit yet not have
enough faith to be healed? I'm going to combine
these two questions and answer them as one. Volumes
have been written and volumes more have been
spoken regarding this indefinable something that's
called faith. And yet in the final analysis,
we actually know so little of the subject. Faith
is that quality, our power, by which the things
desired become the things possessed. This is
the nearest to a definition of faith attempted
by the inspired word of God. You cannot weigh
faith or confine it to a container. It's not
something that you can take out and look at and
analyze. You cannot definitely put your finger
on it and positively say, now, this is it. To
explain it precisely is almost like trying to
define energy in one comprehensive statement.
In the realm of physics, we're told that the
atom is a world within itself, that the potential
energy contained within this tiny world is such
that it bewilders the mind of the average person.
Attempt to define it? you run into difficulties.
And so it is with faith in the realm of the spirit.
But although it is not easy to define exactly
what faith is, we know what it is not. One of
the most common errors that we make in this regard
is to confuse faith with presumption. We must
be constantly alert to the danger of mistaking
one for the other, for there's a vast difference
between the two. There's a pebble on the beach,
for example, but the beach is more than the pebble,
and when the pebble asserts that it is the beach,
then we say to it, you are assuming too much.
There are many who mix the ingredients of their
own mental attitude with a little confidence,
a little pinch of trust, and a generous handful
of religious egotism. And they proceed to add
some belief along with many other ingredients.
And then, mixing it all together, they label
the total result faith. Faith is more than belief.
It's more than confidence. It's more than trust.
And above all, it is never boastful. If it is
pure faith, Holy Ghost faith, it will never work
contrary to the Word of God, and neither will
it work contrary to His wisdom and His will.
One of the cheap difficulties is our failure
to see that Faith can be received only as it
is imparted to the heart by God himself. You
ask me a personal question. Catherine Kuhlman,
do you have faith for the healing of that physical
body, of that one who comes to you wanting the
healing for cancer? And right now, I want to
give you the answer to the first part of the
question. What is the most common ailment that
people come to you with? I would say cancer.
This may startle you. But when the prayer requests
come to the mail, the majority... of the written
prayer requests are for the healing of cancer.
In any miracle service, these may be startling
facts. But I'm telling you the truth. I'm telling
you from my own personal experience. The most
common ailment that people come to me with whether
it's in a miracle service, whether they approach
me through the prayer requests that come through
the mail, it's cancer. Cancer. If that person
who is coming before the throne of God in prayer
faith whatsoever, it must be a gift from God.
If I stand there praying for someone to be healed
of that cancer, if I have any personal faith
in praying that prayer, and if there is faith
accompanying that prayer, that faith that I have
is definitely a gift from God. For the Word of
God teaches that faith is a gift. And Jesus is
the author and the finisher of our faith. One
of the chief difficulties is our failure to see
that faith can be received only as it is imparted
to the heart by God Himself. Either you have
faith or you do not. You cannot manufacture it.
You cannot work it up. You can believe a promise
and at the same time not have the faith to appropriate
that promise. But we have formed the habit of
trying to appropriate by belief, forgetting the
while that belief is a mental quality. And that
when we try to believe ourselves into an experience,
we are getting into a metaphysical realm. And
there is a difference. I repeat that statement.
We have formed the habit of trying to appropriate.
By belief. Forgetting the whole while that belief
is mental. It's a mental quality. Yeah? And when
we try to believe ourselves into an experience,
we are definitely getting into a metaphor. physical
realm. And there's the difference. Faith, as
God himself imparts to the heart, is spiritual.
It's warm. It's vital. It lives. It throbs. And
its power is absolutely irresistible when it's
imparted to the heart by the Lord. It is with
the heart. that man believes unto righteousness.
But heart belief is faith, or at any rate, opens
the door of communication between us and the
Lord, whereby a divinely imported faith becomes
possible. Is it not a fact that with most of
us, faith has been a struggle or an attempt to
believe. It may be that with all of our struggling
we come at last to the place where we do believe
and then we have been bewildered by the fact
that we do not receive the thing for which we
pray. We must discern that such belief is not
necessarily what the inspiration word calls faith.
The 17th chapter of Matthew is a chapter of contrast.
It climbs to the heights and then goes down to
the depths. It talks about mustard seed and mountains
of despair and transfiguration. But what a lesson
the Holy Ghost would bring to you and to me on
this great subject of faith through its priceless
words. Down from the mountaintop came our blessed
Lord. Down from the gates of heaven itself where
the glory breezes kissed his cheek and the angels
wrapped around his shoulders the robes that had
been woven on the looms of light. Down from the
place of holy communion and encouragement to
the place of human defeat, perhaps despair. For
at the foot of the glory mountain was a valley,
and through it a trail of human bewilderment.
There was sickness there. A crushed and bleeding
heart was there. A father who had met an obstacle
that had crushed him in spirit and in heart was
there. Sure. Preachers were there, too. They'd
gone through the formula. They had rebuked the
devil. They had shouted and groaned, just like
many of us have done a hundred times, and yet
the things for which they had prayed had never
happened, even as you and I. Then Jesus spoke.
Oh, matchless words of authority. With him there
was no struggle. There was no groaning. No battle
that was fierce and long to bring about the answer
to a broken father's prayer. Jesus spoke. The
devil fled. A happy boy cuddled in his father's
arms and sobbed his gratitude to God. A happy
father embraced his boy. and looked with tear
-stained eyes of love and adoration at the face
of the man before whom devils fled. And then
Jesus spoke. He said an answer to their question
regarding their defeat. And I quote from the
Bible. It was because of your unbelief. For verily
I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of
mustard seed ye shall say to this mountain remove
hence to yonder place and it shall remove and
nothing shall be impossible unto you what a statement
what a statement from the lips of Jesus himself.
And nothing shall be impossible unto you. All
we need is faith as big as a grain of mustard
seed and mountains will tremble in fear as we
approach. Do you realize what Jesus was saying?
He declared that the least amount of faith that
he could give was greater and mightier than the
largest amount of the power of the devil. Here
were the David and Goliath in the realm of the
soul. A mustard seed went to battle against a
mountain. and slew it. But it required the faith
that he alone could give and impart. Did those
disciples believe? Yes, they did. They believed
in Jesus. They believed in his promises. They
believed in divine healing. Or never would they
have held that healing meeting that day. And
believing just exactly like you and I have believed
in healing services. And in our church meetings,
they prayed, but nothing happened. What they
needed, according to Jesus, was faith. Not a
carload of it, but just a little bit. As big
as a grain of mustard seed. That would be enough.
That would be all that was necessary if it was
really faith. Mm -hmm. Let us face the issue
squarely. Let us with open, surrendered hearts
ask the Holy Spirit to send forth His light and
His truth and lead us to that holy hill. Is it
not evident that when we pray, what we thought
was the prayer of faith and nothing happens?
It must be that what we thought was faith was
not faith at all. You understand what I'm trying
to say? It's so simple. It's so simple. When
we see the truth, we shall no longer be standing
around hour after hour, rebuking, commanding,
demanding, struggling. With faith, there is no
struggle. There will be a place for intercession.
Know that. But when God's... Faith is imparted.
The storm dies down and there's a great calm
and a deep, settled peace in the soul. And the
only noise will be the voice of thanksgiving
and praise. For then the full realization will
steal like a morning daybreak over the soul that
it was not our abyss to believe that made to
stick this goal, but rather that the faith which
is of God was imparted to us through His mercy.
We can believe in healing. We can believe...
in our blessed Redeemer and His power to heal.
But only Jesus can work the work that will lift
us to the mountain peaks of victory. Always remember,
faith is a gift. And He, is the giver of that
glorious something that we call faith. If I have
any faith whatsoever, it is not of myself. It
is something that has been divinely imparted.
And when we come right down to trying to analyze
faith, we know very little about it. But I do
know much about His mercy and His love. the greatest
possession that a human being can experience.