You know, I have a very decided dislike for negative
preaching. And I mean just exactly that. Those
of you who follow this ministry will have to
agree that very few times do I ever bring anything
negative in any of our little heart -to -heart
talks or in my preaching. Oh, sure, my friend.
I believe in hell with every atom of my being.
As surely as there is a heaven, there's a hell.
The Bible teaches it. We've got to believe in
it. But instead of preaching about hell, I'd
rather point men and women to heaven. The positive.
There have been literally hundreds and hundreds
of men and women who have been delivered from
liquor to this ministry. And yet, I dare say
that there is not one person who can bear witness
that Catherine Kuhlman has ever preached a sermon
against liquor. Not a man who has been delivered
from liquor to this ministry. can say that it
was some sermon that I preached against liquor
that brought him to the Lord Jesus Christ or
that made him aware of his drinking. No. I have
always felt that if I preach the positive and
lifting up Jesus is the positive, And when we
preach the positive and we get that new birth
experience, then these other things will just
naturally fall off and we become a new creature
in Christ Jesus. There have been literally hundreds,
and I say that conservatively, many women who
have been delivered from smoking. in his ministry.
And yet, I have never made an issue at any time
regarding smoking. And I resent it when I see
folk who make a big issue over smoking when it
comes to a new born again child of God. And they'll
point an accusing thing at that one and say,
if you've really been born again, you won't touch
that old cigarette. I say, my friend, you left
that young convert alone. The Holy Spirit has
convicted him of his sin. Jesus has bought...
given him his sin. Now let the Holy Spirit do
the rest of the work. And the Holy Spirit will
reveal to that one the deliverance there is in
Christ Jesus. And it's just like that. Now, I'm
only telling you my conviction. I repeat, I have
a very decided dislike for negative preaching.
There's some preaches that all they can talk
about every time you go to church. It's against
everything. Against a certain kind of dress.
Against the way a woman should look against the
way a woman should wear her hair. Now, all these
things, I know these things are very much involved.
I know it. I agree with you. But I still contend
that when you get the heart changed, all these
things must begin on the inside. And when it
begins with in, then the outside will be taken
care of too. You see what I mean? It's not sufficient
for a preacher or a speaker or an author to discuss
the disease. That's not enough for me. To satisfy
my soul and my mind, he must give me the cure.
Oh, we've got a lot of politicians running around
today who's telling us everything that's wrong
with the world. Everything that's wrong with
our government. Everything that's wrong with
the Democrats. Everything that's wrong with the
Republicans. There's... Bouting off on television,
the radio. Every time they'll get in somebody's
ear, they talk about everything that's going
with the world. Sure, we all know it. Every American
living knows that things are wrong. Things are
going badly. I want to listen to the person who
will give me a kiss. cure for the thing. Not
the negative. Anybody can stand on a soapbox
and tell the world what's wrong with it. Any
politician can get up on a soapbox and tell the
whole world what's wrong with the condition today.
There it is, hubby. I'm waiting for the person
to come and Tell me how to right the things that
are wrong. To give me an answer. Give us a solution.
You see that? Oh, there's so much popping off
these days. And so few people who come up with
the cure. It's the easiest thing in the world
to point out what's wrong. But I want to know
what is right. Sometimes that's a little more
difficult than one would suppose. However, when
at last, Arm's mistakes had been rectified. and
we're back on the path of truth, it may be that
in the providence of God, the wrong trail will
leave us a heritage of blessing. Think it over
for a moment. To know that you're on the right
road is a fine thing, but to return to it after
being on the wrong one multiplies its blessing.
And it's the big person who will say, I have
been on the wrong road for a long time. I will
now come back to the right road. It's after the
rain that we appreciate the sunshine. After the
cold and icy blasts of winter that we appreciate
the bursting buds. the delicate green of the
early spring. Us Phyllistan clouds, we appreciate
the calm of a blue sky. And it's just like that.
And the thing above all else that I want you
to see is that you cannot generate this thing
that's called... And there had been thousands
of sermons preached on faith. There had been
volumes, literally volumes, written on faith.
You have your idea of faith. I have my idea of
faith. Our ideas of faith may not be the same.
And as you well know if you've been following
this ministry, I say very little about faith,
even though this is a faith ministry. And you
will probably see more faith exercised in this
ministry than in many ministries. And yet, I
say so very little about faith, because I still
contend that you really can't analyze faith.
You really can't tell another what faith is.
It's something that's so indefinable. When I
put it all in a nutshell, as I told you before,
Jesus is our faith. So I'm going to ask you in
this little heart -to -heart talk, Whatever your
preconceived ideas had been regarding faith,
will you just sit there with an open heart and
an open mind? And maybe you'll find out that
you have been on the wrong road regarding this
thing of faith for lo many years. You'll be a
big person when you will admit that you have
been on the wrong road and you'll... Come and
travel the right road. I repeat, the thing above
all else that I want you to see in the heart
-to -heart talk is the fact that you absolutely
cannot generate faith. You cannot work it out.
You cannot manufacture it. It is impossible for
you to manufacture faith. It is imparted and
infused by God himself. It must be given you
by the Holy Spirit. It is literally something
that must come from God. I still think it is
something that is so simple that most folks miss
it, and yet it's supernatural. You cannot sit
in your homes and struggle to have faith and
affirm that something is. Nor can you turn your
hope and desire into faith. By your own power,
you can't do it. See, that's one of the things
that has brought such reproach on divine healing.
Somebody says, I was healed of a tumor. And yet,
the tumor is there. It's just there. You say,
well, it's there. Oh, I know it's still there,
but by... space, I've taken the healing for that
tumor. But any intelligent person will say, but
how can you say that you're healed when it's
still there? I still contend, my friend, that
if you're healed of a tumor by the power of God,
that Tumor will not be there. Faith isn't something
that you can just close your eyes and say, it
isn't there. I'm not going to acknowledge it.
I'm going to act like it never happened. And
you close your eyes. Well, everybody else has
their eyes open. You're the only one who has
your eyes closed. Everybody else can see. You
absolutely cannot sit there in your homes and
struggle to have faith and affirm that something
is when it isn't. Nor can you turn your hope
and desire into faith by your own power. You
can't do it. You can't just say, now I'm going
to have faith. It doesn't work that way. The
only place you can get it is from the Lord. For
the word clearly and distinctly and definitely
states that faith is one of two things. It's
either a gift of God or of fruit of the Spirit.
And we're told in Paul's epistle to the Corinthians,
Now abideth faith, hope, and love. But the greatest
of these is love. While love might be the greatest,
it certainly is not the first. It must be preceded
by faith. Let me give you an example. Look out
of your window at the tree on the outside. Oh,
what a thing of loveliness it is. That's right,
literally. Look out of your window. See that
tree out there? It's lovely. It's beautiful.
only god can make a tree that's what i like to
say to the old infidel all right you have no
faith in a god higher power only god can make
a tree only god can make a human hand four fingers
one thumb If you're so smart and you try to do
away with the deity and divinity and the existence
of God Almighty, just take your hand out of your
pocket and look at those four fingers and one
thumb. If you should lose that hand, all the
wealth in the world could never buy you a new
one. You can buy most everything else, but when
you lose a limb, when you lose a hand, only God
can create that hand, that limb of your body.
Look out of your window. Only God can make a
tree. Beauty in its twisted branches. There's
loveliness in its trembling leaves. Every leaf
of the little world unto itself. With its tiny
little veins carrying the life that God supplies.
That gives it all that it possesses in its native
realm. Yet there is something back of the tree.
Beneath. the surface of the ground, there is
a great system of roots. You will never behold
them. Even while you're looking at the tree at
this very moment. You see the beauty of the tree.
You see the leaves. But you are not looking at
the roots. But without those roots, tree would
die. It would have no life at all. The roots
are ugly. They're hard in comparison to the beautiful
greenery above the ground. Yet, the greenery
is there partly because of those roots. Now,
let us call the top of the tree love. You can
see it. You can contact it. You can enjoy its
fragrance. You behold this beauty. It is there
because of something that is back of it. Something
that is hidden away that causes it. They are
the roots. Now you expect me to say that those
roots are the roots of faith. No. Faith is the
light that flows into the roots. It is that mystical
quality that only God can produce, that only
God can give. There are roots that you could
plant and they will never, never grow. You yourself
and your inner nature are those roots. Your senses,
your avenues of approach to the expressions of
life itself are buried below the surface where
People cannot see them. I am a different person
than probably thousands and thousands of people
know. You see me as I stand on the stage. You
visualize me as I am speaking to you now. But
inside of me, the real me, the me that God knows,
inside of me, you've got to be a good person
on the inside of you before you'll be a good
person in extending your love. It's like that.
Do you want to know why some people are bad in
their actions? Because they're bad on the inside.
Because they're mean on the inside. Your senses,
your avenues of approach to the expressions of
life itself are buried below the surface where
people cannot see them. They can only see the
result. They can only see the fruit of that which
is the real you inside. All the world beholds
is what you produce and not you yourself. What
did Jesus mean when he said, By their fruit ye
shall know them? shall know them. The fruit that
is produced is an index to what the tree really
is. Let me repeat something that's vitally important.
The roots of the tree are not faith. The tree
can grow its own roots. but it cannot grow its
own life. And what I mean by that is just this,
that the roots do not produce the life, but the
life produces the roots. It is the life that
is the faith. It's that wonderful and glorious
quality that is of gift. of the divine heart
that flows into us when we need it and for the
purpose that this life will be manifest. And
manifest to the world by the fruit we bear, by
the arms of love outstretched, by the things
of grace and beauty that through God we grow
day by day on the tree of our lives. How foolish
it would be for that tree to... in an attempt
to create the life that flows into it. It need
not struggle. It does not struggle. All it has
to do is to drink it in. All it needs to do is
to function in obedience to the laws divine.
And if the life is there, It simply has to manifest
that life in the fruit that it bears and the
beauty with which it gives to the world. And
for me to live is Christ, and Christ is love.