You and I have been having a series of heart
-to -heart talks on something that's very personal.
It's personal with me. It's something very personal
so far as you are concerned. Why are we following
Jesus? What is your motive? Why do I work as
hard as I work? And you've heard me say over
and over again, nobody could pay me enough in
dollars and cents. There's not enough money that
anyone could offer me as a salary to work as
hard as I work every day of my life. No. no organization,
no institution could offer me a paycheck big
enough to make me work the way I work. And those
who are associated with me know it better than
anyone else and know how hard I really work.
Why, Catherine Kuhlman, do you work the way you
do? I have been called a fool for working the
way I do for my consecration to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Why? What is my motive? What is my purpose?
Why am I following Jesus? Out of choice. I am
not compelled to do it. I am not forced to do
it. I'm doing it out of choice. I have made the
decision. What is your motive for following him?
Today will be my last heart -to -heart talk in
this series of messages, and I pray that before
I will have left you, you will be able to give
the answer. God knows. I do not know. You may
not fully understand yourself, but one thing
I know, God knows why. I have made this choice.
Knowing you better than you know yourself, he
knows your motive for following him. The day
after having fed the 5 ,000, and they were still
following him, he suddenly turned and said to
them, Ye seek me not because you saw the miracles,
but because ye did eat of the loaves and were
filled. He was saying to them, very frankly,
I know your motive, I know your purpose in following
me. You're following me for the loaves and the
fishes. Labor not for the meat that perishes,
but for that meat. which endureth unto everlasting
life. Let us not deceive ourselves. The fact
that thousands press their way to the scene of
miracles is no sign that they're hungry for God.
I know that. I'm very conscious of that fact.
What a God they were! Would the God that every
person that crosses the threshold of worship
or every time the doors are open to a great service,
that every person who sits in these great auditoriums
were there because they were hungry for God,
hungry for the spiritual, hungry for the word
of everlasting life. I'd give anything in the
world. If I knew that there was a spiritual hunger
in the heart of each one, but I know better than
that, there are still those who are following
him for the loaves and the fishes. When the miracle
fails to lead one past the satisfaction of human
hunger or spiritual relief, And does that bring
him in touch with the bread of life? It has lost
its purpose. And it's just like that. Remember
that wonderful scripture? When Jesus said to
the seven day that day, Behold, I give unto you
power to tread on serpents, and scorpions and
over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall
by any means hurt you. That was power. That was
real authority. But he knew the weakness of human
nature. He knew that they could be just weak
enough to glory in that power. that was theirs
as heirs of God and joint heirs with himself.
Therefore he quickly added, Notwithstanding,
in this rejoice not that the spirits are subject
unto you, but rather rejoice because your names
are written in heaven. Now, the fact that power
was given to the Seventh -day to triumph over
sickness and disease was wonderful. Oh, it was
truly wonderful. It was divine. But this is what
Jesus was saying, and you and I have to get back
again to the spiritual vision. Sometimes I think
that there are still those who are following
him because they are being attracted to him.
through their senses. To triumph over man's nature,
his sin, his moral condition, was far more lasting
than just something that was temporal. Go back
again. Even the sick whom Christ healed died
at last, you cannot find where there was even
one who was healed during the ministry of Jesus.
Continue to live and live and live. Sooner or
later, every person, even though that one was
healed, By the supernatural power, everyone,
sooner or later, had to meet death. And after
death, there was the life beyond, there was eternity
that each one had to face. A miracle upon the
physical, the natural plane is, after all, fleeting,
vanishes. but not so in the realm of the spirit.
The miracle wrought every time a soul is born
again. Well, when God by his spirit triumphs
over the old creation and he brings a trusting
heart into a fuller realization of divine life
is something that's lasting. It endures forever
and ever and ever. I shall never forget. The
experience I had one night while I was preaching
in Sweden. The thousands had come. They'd filled
the great sports arenas. And there they were
on one side. The press. The photographers. The
reporters. They were there from the television
station. They were there from the radio station.
And suddenly, as the Spirit of the Living God
came upon me, and I knew that there were thousands
there waiting for the miracle to take place in
the physical body, I turned to a little lady
who was on a stretcher. I shall never forget
it. The experience was almost overwhelming, and
I do not believe that I'd ever done it before.
I do not know whether I shall ever be led of
the spirit to do it again. But under that wonderful
anointing, I turned to that woman lying there
on that stretcher and I said, there's something
far greater than the healing of that physical
body. One touch from the master's hand, one touch.
By the power of the Holy Spirit. And he can lift
you from off of that stretcher. And you can be
instantly healed physically. But there's a healing
that is far greater. The healing of that body
of yours is something that's only temporal, that's
all. It's something that's as fleeting as this
earthly life. But he gives to you something that's
far greater than the physical healing. He'll
give you life eternal. He'll give you that eternal
water. The water that I shall give unto you is
eternal life. You and I can afford, beloved,
to go through this old life with pain and suffering
and disease. We can afford to go through it.
But there is a healing that's far greater than
the healing of the physical. There is a spiritual
healing that's far greater. To rejoice in the
fact that God has touched my physical body and
wrought a miracle is one thing, and that's glorious.
I appreciate it with every atom of my... being
I appreciated, I would not minimize that for
anything in the world. But to know that my name
was written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and that
I am born of the Spirit of God, is greater, is
far greater than that. At the close of the Great
Service in Toronto, Canada. And the reporter
may be listening to me this very moment. But
when the very first things that was asked me,
after the service had ended and I was being interviewed,
Miss Kuhlman, what about those who left the great
service today and were disappointed because they
were not healed? What about it? I said, sir,
if you noticed very carefully. I made a very
definite statement after the miracle service.
I said, we're coming now to the greatest part
of the service, something that's far greater
than the healing of the physical. Jesus said,
ye must be born again. I said, sir, there's a
miracle that's far greater. than the healing
of the physical. That is the reason there is
never a miracle service without that altar call.
And giving men and women a chance to accept the
Christ as their Savior, that's the greatest healing
in the world. Even those who were healed during
the ministry of Jesus had to die sooner or later.
And then the only thing that mattered was their
spiritual healing. Why is it that it's harder
to realize this truth and to enter into the spiritual
phases of the subject of miracles as Christ desires
us to do? I wonder if it's not due to the fact
that, even as Christians, we're too much... Creatures
of sense. God has given us the body in which
we tabernacle are, in which we dwell. We're given
five senses which act as reporters to us concerning
the world in which we live. We see, we hear,
we smell, we taste. And somehow the natural man
conducts his life accordingly. He orders his
steps, lives what we call the natural of the
physical life. These senses were in the original
purpose of God. We know that. Sure, that's true.
But sometimes I think we become prisoners, servants
to the natural. We become prisoners to our senses.
Man is held a prisoner to a sense life. And this
is a hindrance which we have from our ancestors
and sometimes we call it our old creation. It
is governed by sight or the report. of our senses.
But the spiritual life, the supernatural life,
the life of a consecrated man or woman is above
the natural. We're now as Christians introduced
into another realm elevated by the spirit. onto
another plane where faith is the governing law
or the governing power. It's the work of the
Spirit in our lives today to bring us out from
the bondage, out of the natural, controlled by
the Spirit of the living God. It's one of the...
hardest things in the world to get men and women
to see it. It's one of the most difficult things
in the world to tell you how to enter into this
spiritual realm. But I can tell you one thing.
You will know when you have reached this spiritual
realm when you can honestly Look yourself directly
in the face and say, my motive for following
Jesus is simply because I love him. I'm not following
him for the loaves and the fishes. I'm not following
him because of the reward that is mine in the
hereafter. I am not following him because of
what he can give me and what it is profit unto
me. Oh, somehow I pray the Holy Spirit can make
this real to your heart. If for just one minute
I can take the lid off of my own heart and tell
you something, I do not know how better to...
Say it. Not for one minute do I ever think of
the reward beyond the grave. I mean exactly that.
I tell you very frankly, I have my reward here
and now. Every time I stand by the side of a
man who's been delivered from liquor, every time
I stand beside a little family who have accepted
the Christ as their Savior, every time one has
been wonderfully healed by the power of God and
I just look in their faces and see the joy and
the satisfaction there, I have my reward. Ask
for nothing more. As God is my judge, if Jesus
were standing here right now, I can look into
his face and say, I'm following you because I
love you. I work the way I do because I'm grateful
for what you've done for me. I'm so glad that
my sins are forgiven. I'm so grateful that I've
passed from death unto life. I'm so grateful
for peace of mind and for peace of soul. I'm
so grateful for the privilege of knowing the
love of God. I'm so grateful for the communion.
that I have with the Holy Spirit. I'm so grateful.
Whatever is for me, after the heart takes its
last beat, I would be so contented with. But
I'm not serving you for the reward. I'm serving
you Simply because I love you.