Have
Faith in God
"For
verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain,
Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt
in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith
shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I
say unto you, What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that
ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mark 11:23,24).
These
are days when we need to have our faith strengthened, when we need to
know God. God has designed that the just shall live by faith. Any man
can be changed by faith, no matter how he may be fettered. I know
that God's word is sufficient. One word from Him can change a nation.
His
word is from everlasting to everlasting. It is through the entrance
of this everlasting Word, this incorruptible seed, that we are born
again, and come into this wonderful salvation. Man cannot live by
bread alone, but must live by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God. This is the food of faith. "Faith cometh by
hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."
Everywhere
men are trying to discredit the Bible and take from it all the
miraculous. One preacher says, "Well, you know, Jesus arranged
beforehand to have that colt tied where it was, and for the men to
say just what they did." I tell you God can arrange everything
without going near. He can plan for you, and when He plans for you,
all is peace. All things are possible if you will believe.
Another
preacher said, "It was an easy thing for Jesus to feed the
people with five loaves. The loaves were so big in those days that it
was a simple matter to cut them into a thousand pieces each."
But He forgot that one little boy brought those five loaves all the
way in his lunch basket. There is nothing impossible with god. All
the impossibility is with us when we measure God by the limitations
of our unbelief.
We
have a wonderful God, a God whose ways are past finding out, and
whose grace and power are limitless. I was in Belfast one day and saw
one of the brethren of the assembly. He said to me, "Wigglesworth,
I am troubled. I have had a good deal of sorrow during the past five
months. I had a woman in my assembly who could always pray the
blessing of heaven down on our meetings. She is an old woman, but her
presence is always an inspiration. But five months ago she fell and
broke her thigh. The doctors put her into a plaster cast, and after
five months they broke the cast. But the bones were not properly set
and so she fell and broke the thigh again." He took me to her
house, and there was a woman lying in a bed on the right hand side of
the room. I said to her, "Well, what about it now?" She
said, "They have sent me home incurable. The doctors say that I
am so old that my bones won't knit. There is no nutriment in my bones
and they could never do anything for me and they say I shall have to
lie in bed for the rest of my life." I said to her, "Can
you believe God?" She replied, "Yes, ever since I heard
that you had come to Belfast my faith has been quickened. If you will
pray, I will believe. I know there is no power on earth that can make
the bones of my thigh knit, but I know there is nothing impossible
with God." I said, "Do you believe He will meet you now?"
She answered, "I do."
It
is grand to see people believe God. God knew all about this leg and
that it was broken in two places. I said to the woman, "When I
pray, something will happen." Her husband was sitting there; he
had been in his chair for four years and could not walk a step. He
called out, "I don't believe. I won't believe. You will never
get me to believe." I said, "All right," and laid my
hands on his wife in the name of the Lord Jesus. The moment hands
were laid upon her the power of God went right through her and she
cried out, "I'm healed." I said, "I'm not going to
assist you to rise. God will do it all." She rose and walked up
and down the room, praising God. The old man was amazed, at what had
happened to his wife, and he cried out, "Make me walk, make me
walk." I said to him, "You old sinner, repent." He
cried out, "Lord, You know I never meant what I said. You know I
believe." I don't think he meant what he said; anyhow the Lord
was full of compassion. If He marked our sins, where would any of us
be? If we will meet the conditions, God will always meet us. If we
believe, all things are possible. I laid my hands on him and the
power went right through the old man's body; and those legs, for the
first time in four years, received power to carry his body, and he
walked up and down and in and out. He said, "O what great things
God has done for us tonight!"
"What
things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them,
and ye shall have them." Desire toward God, and you will have
desires from God; and He will meet you on the line of those desires
when you reach out in simple faith. A man came to me in one of my
meetings who had seen other people healed and wanted to be healed,
too. He explained that his arm had been fixed in a certain position
for many years and he could not move it. "Got any faith?" I
asked. He said he had a lot of faith. After prayer he was able to
swing his arm round and round. But he was not satisfied and
complained, "I feel a little bit of trouble just there,"
pointing to a certain place. "Do you know what is the trouble
with you?" He answered, "No." I said, "Imperfect
faith."
"What
things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them,
and ye shall have them."
Did
you believe before you were saved? So many people would be saved, but
they want to feel saved first. There was never a man who felt saved
before he believed. God's plan is always this, if you will believe,
you shall see the glory of God. I believe God wants to bring us all
to a definite place of unswerving faith and confidence in Himself.
Jesus here uses the figure of a mountain. Why does He say a mountain?
Because, if faith can remove a mountain, it can remove anything. The
plan of God is so marvelous, that if you will only believe, all
things are possible. There is one special phrase to which I want to
call to your attention, "And shall not doubt in his heart."
The heart is the mainspring. See that young man and young woman. They
have fallen in love at first sight. In a short while there is a deep
affection, and a strong heart love, the one toward the other. What is
a heart of love? A heart of faith. Faith and love are kin. In the
measure that that young man and that young woman love one another
they are true. One may go to the North and the other to the South,
but because of their love they will be true to each other.
It
is the same when there is a deep love in the heart toward the Lord
Jesus Christ. In this new life into which God has brought us, Paul
tells us that we have become dead to the law by the body of Christ,
that we should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from
the dead. God brings us into a place of perfect love and perfect
faith. A man who is born of God is brought into an inward affection,
a loyalty to the Lord Jesus that shrinks from anything impure. You
see the purity of a man and woman when there is a deep natural
affection between them; they distain the very thought of either of
them being untrue. I say that, in the measure that a man has faith in
Jesus, he is pure. He that believes that Jesus is the Christ
overcomes the world. It is a faith that works by love.
Just
as we have heart fellowship with our Lord, our faith cannot be
daunted. We cannot doubt in our hearts. There comes, as we go on with
God, a wonderful association, an impartation of His very life and
nature within. As we read His Word and believe the promises that He
has so graciously given to us, we are made partakers of His very
essence and life. The Lord is made to us a Bridegroom, and we are His
bride. His words to us are spirit and life, transforming us and
changing us, expelling that which is natural and bringing in that
which is divine.
It
is impossible to comprehend the love of God as we think on natural
lines. We must have the revelation from the Spirit of God. God giveth
liberally. He that asketh, receiveth. God is willing to bestow on us
all things that pertain to life and godliness. Oh, it was the love of
God that brought Jesus. And it is this same love that helps you and
me to believe. In every weakness God will be your strength. You who
need His touch, remember that He loves you. Look, wretched, helpless,
sick one, away to the God of all grace, whose very essence is love,
who delights to give liberally all the inheritance of life and
strength and power that you are in need of.
When
I was in Switzerland the Lord was graciously working and healing many
of the people. I was staying with Brother Reuss of Goldiwil and two
policemen were sent to arrest me. The charge was that I was healing
the people without a license. Mr. Reuss said to them, "I am
sorry that he is not here just now. He is holding a meeting about two
miles away, but before you arrest him let me show you something."
Brother Reuss took these two policemen down to one of the lower
parts of that district, to a house with which they were familiar, for
they had often gone to that place to arrest a certain woman, who was
repeatedly put in prison because of continually being engaged in
drunken brawls. He took them to this woman and said to them, "This
is one of the many cases of blessing that have come through the
ministry of the man you have come to arrest. This woman came to our
meeting in a drunken condition. Her body was broken, for she was
ruptured in two places. While she was drunk, the evangelist laid his
hands on her and asked God to heal her and deliver her." The
woman joined in, "Yes, and God saved me, and I have not tasted a
drop of liquor since." The policemen had a warrant for my
arrest, but they said with disgust, "Let the doctors do this
kind of thing." They turned and went away and that was the last
we heard of them.
We
have a Jesus that heals the broken-hearted, who lets the captives go
free, who saves the very worst. Dare you, dare you, spurn this
glorious Gospel of God for spirit, soul and body? Dare you spurn this
grace? I realize that this full Gospel has in great measure been hid,
this Gospel that brings liberty, this Gospel that brings souls out of
bondage, this Gospel that brings perfect health to the body, this
Gospel of entire salvation. Listen again to this word of Him who
left the glory to bring us this great salvation, "Verily I say
unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou
removed, . . . he shall have whatsoever he saith." Whatsoever!
I
realize that God can never bless us on the lines of being
hard-hearted, critical or unforgiving. This will hinder faith quicker
than anything. I remember being at a meeting where there were some
people tarrying for the Baptism - seeking for cleansing, for the
moment a person is cleansed the Spirit will fall. There was one man
with eyes red from weeping bitterly. He said to me, "I shall
have to leave. It is no good my staying without I change things. I
have written a letter to my brotherin- law, and filled it with hard
words, and this thing must first be straightened out." He went
home and told his wife, "I'm going to write a letter to your
brother and ask him to forgive me for writing to him the way I did."
"You fool!" she said. "Never mind," he replied,
"this is between God and me, and it has got to be cleared away."
He wrote the letter and came again, and straightway God filled him
with the Spirit. I believe there are a great many people who would
be healed, but they are harboring things in their hearts that are as
a blight. Let these things go. Forgive, and the Lord will forgive
you. There are many good people, people that mean well, but they have
no power to do anything for God. There is just some little thing that
came in their hearts years ago, and their faith has been paralyzed
ever since. Bring everything to the light. God will sweep it all away
if you will let Him. Let the precious blood of Christ cleanse from
all sin. If you will but believe, God will meet you and bring into
your life the sunshine of His love.
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