I have to make a confession to you today. I have
a very decided dislike for negative people. A
dislike for negative preaching and negative writing.
I just dislike anything that's negative. And
it's just like that. Now, I've confessed it.
And you probably have known it a long time ago
because that's one thing that I've never been
accused of, and that is of being a negative person.
Oh, I'll tell you, no matter how black the clouds
are, I'm always dead sure that the sun's going
to break through. It's going to shine. That's
one of the things that have brought me through
to where I am today. Oh, sure, they can predict
a hurricane, but... Mentally, I'll think, well,
maybe it won't be, you know. Maybe the subtle
breakthrough or maybe it'll go in another direction.
And when it comes to preachers who are always
negative in their preaching. Now, you analyze
your own pastor for a minute. Let me ask you,
every time he gets up, it's always, don't do
this and don't do that. It's a negative thing.
You know, you can't do this and you can't do
that. Until before long, he drives more people
away from the church than he can get into the
sanctuary. It's like that. Now, it's not sufficient
for a speaker or an author to discuss the disease.
But to satisfy my soul and to satisfy my mind,
he must give me a cure. I don't want somebody
to tell me my bad point unless he can tell me
how to overcome it. What can I do? You say, Catherine
Kuhlman, you're a very selfish person. All right.
I... will admit my selfishness, but I want that
same person to tell me how I can overcome my
selfishness. Somebody may tell me that I have
a temper. All right, I will admit to the temper,
but I want that same person, don't tell me my
sin unless you can tell me how to overcome it.
Anybody doesn't take a brain to go around condemning
everybody. It doesn't take... an intellectual
person to go around and find fault with people.
A wife can find fault with her husband. But the
thing to do, my friend, don't tell him his faults
until you can give him a remedy and tell him
how to overcome his faults. Sometimes I think
everybody in the whole world can tell us what's
wrong with the world, what's wrong with the government,
what's wrong with the president, what's wrong
with the nation, what's wrong with Congress.
Everybody's talking about it, but nobody seems
to have the answer. It's just kind of like that.
And it's so easy to point out what's wrong, but
I want to know what's right. Sometimes that's
a little more difficult than one would suppose.
You and I are made in our innermost being for
positive achievement, to be outgoing, to master
our circumstances, to create. If we are not positively
creating and producing, then the machinery of
life will get out of gear. For we are geared
to creation. The personality breaks down under
negative attitudes. For we're not made for it.
You were not made to be negative. I was not made
to be a negative person. Know that. Understand
that right now. If you are a negative person,
you were not made for it. You were made to be
outgoing, to be creative. Now for just a few
minutes, I'm going to get right down to the positive
of the thing. To faith. The thing above all else
I want you to see is that you cannot generate
faith. You cannot work it up. You cannot manufacture
it. It's imparted and infused by God himself.
You cannot sit in your homes and struggle to
have faith. and struggle to be positive and affirm
that something is. Nor can you turn your hope
and desire into faith by your own power. The
only place you can get it is from the Lord. For
the Word clearly and distinctly states that faith
is one of two things. It's either a gift of God
or it's the fruit of the Spirit. Always remember
that. You read the Word of God. Faith is either
a gift of God or it's a fruit of the Spirit.
We cannot generate it of ourselves. 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. Look out of your window at that tree.
Just stop whatever you're doing. I'll give you
a moment. Just get up and look out of the window.
Look at that tree. Oh, it's lovely. Maybe you
hadn't noticed its beauty before sometimes, you
know. That's the way life is. You have to be
reminded of something. That tree's been there
a long time. And you knew it was there, but you
haven't really looked at it. Maybe if I were
to have told you you had a tree out there, maybe
you hadn't even noticed it. Oh, I tell you, people
are funny. They really are. We have to be reminded
of some things. So right now, look at that tree
out of your window. It's beautiful. It's lovely.
Only God can make a tree. We think we're so smart
we've been to the moon. Oh, we've come so far
in science. And yet, just consider one thing.
Only God can make a tree. There is beauty in
its twisted branches. There's loveliness in its
trembling leaves. Every leaf is a little world
unto itself. You grumble and complain when the
leaves begin to fall, and you have to rake the
leaves all you know. That person who is negative,
all that he can see about that tree is that when
fall comes, he's going to have to rake the leaves
and carry them away or burn them. He has seen
no beauty in that tree all summer. And yet every
leaf of that tree is a little world unto itself,
with its tiny veins carrying the life that God
supplies, which gives us all it possesses in
native realm. Yet there is something back of
the tree. Beneath the surface of the ground,
there's a great system of roots hidden away.
You never behold them. Yet without them, the
tree would die. It would have no life at all.
None. The roots are ugly. The hardy comparison
to the beautiful greenery above the ground. Yet,
the greenery is there partly because of those
ugly roots. Now let us call the top of the tree
love. You can see it. Oh, sure. You can contact
it. You can enjoy its fragrance. You behold its
beauty. It's there because of something which
is back of it. Something hidden away that causes
it. And that something is the roots. Now you
expect me to say that those roots are roots of
faith. No, indeed not. Faith is the light that
blows into the roots. It is that mystical quality
that only... God can produce and give. There
are roots that you could plant which will never,
never grow. You yourself, your inner nature,
are those roots. Know that. You, 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. All the world beholds is what you produce
and not you yourself. What Jesus meant when he
said, By their fruits ye shall know them. Ye
shall know that person. The fruit produced is
an index to what the tree really is. The only
way that you can see Catherine Kuhlman, the real
Catherine Kuhlman, is by the fruits that I produce.
You cannot look on the inside of me. only way
that you can really, really look on the inside
of Kathryn Kuhlman, and if you really want to
know what Kathryn Kuhlman is really like, you'll
know me by the fruits that I produce. You know?
Because a bad tree will not bear Good fruit.
Somebody says, now, what is so -and -so really
like? You think there's something hidden. You
think there's something, you know, locked behind
the door. Watch a person long enough. I don't
care who that person is. And you'll see the full
meaning of what Jesus said when he said, by their
fruits, ye shall know them. Oh, you can cover
up for a while. Sure. Yeah, if you're a real
operator, if you really are cunning enough, you
can cover up for a while. Uh -huh. Maybe during
that time of the engagement, you know. That's
the reason I'm old -fashioned enough to believe
in long engagements. Because sooner or later,
you'll expose yourself. Because what is really
on the inside will come out. That's what Jesus
meant. By their fruit, ye shall know them. The
fruit produced is an index to what the tree really
is. Now let me repeat something. The roots of
the tree are not faith. The roots do not produce
the life, but the life produces the roots. It
is the life that is faith. It is that wonderful,
that glorious quality, which is a gift of the
divine heart, which sustains us. This life of
faith will be manifested to the world by the
fruit we bear, Arms of love outstretched by the
things of grace and beauty which through God
are manifested day by day on the tree of our
lives. I wish I had the vocabulary. I wish I
had the ability to make it so simple that you'll
understand what I really am trying to say. How
foolish it would be for that tree to struggle
in an attempt to create the life which flows
into it. Leave that struggle. All it needs to
do is to function in obedience to the laws divine.
As the life is there, it simply manifests that
life in the fruit that it bears and the beauty
with which... It endows the earth. So it is with
faith. Love may be the greatest thing in the
world, but faith must of necessity be the first.
For without faith, it is absolutely impossible
to please God. But you tell me that you have
faith. I ask you, where did you get it? I pick
up a rosy apple from the tree. I hear it testify
from the core. of this little apple heart. It
tells me it has rosy cheeks. It whispers in my
ear that it's very, very good to the taste. It
invites me to taste its flavor. It testifies
that it has so many noble and beautiful qualities.
Then I ask it where it got them all. From the
branch? The shelter of the trees? The rain, the
sun, oh sure, all of these are true. But I knew
that way down in the hidden system, which you
cannot see, which I cannot see, the roots were
receiving something from God that no tree on
the face of the earth has ever seen. ever been
able to produce of itself. Know that. If I have
any fruit whatsoever, if I have any goodness
whatsoever, all of my goodness, all of my righteousness
must come from the root within, and God himself
is the source of that goodness. It's within.
You want to be a righteous person? You want to
be a good person? You don't start from without.
It has got to be within. It's so simple, and
yet sometimes it's the hardest thing to make
people understand what we're trying to say. And
yet something so thrilling. Never think that
it was your faith that received Christ as your
Savior. Never say that any act of yours was the
basis of your redemption. It's Jesus Christ who
imparts the water of which he spoke to the woman
at the well. It's Jesus who puts his arms of
love beneath the burden on your back and lifts
it from your tired, weary body. It's Jesus who
pours life and faith and hope into that broken
heart. oil of heaven's joy. It's Jesus who smooths
the wrinkles of care with the gentle touch of
a mother's hand. It's Jesus who brings you out
of the darkest night into the light of his own
glorious and wonderful day. If I have any goodness
whatsoever, it is not on myself. It's Jesus within
me. It's Jesus. If you see any... root, good
fruit from this life of mine. It's because inside
of me, I love Jesus. And Jesus has put that goodness
there. He is the root of my life. It's so simple.
Remember, it must come from him. He must impart
it, and he will. He will. I promise you. He will.
You and I are made in our innermost being for
positive achievement. For outgoing love. And
he is the one who put it there. But we have to
want it. Want it more than anything else in the
world. God bless you.