In Romans four, this is a great
faith chapter. Do you have any verses marked in
here? Romans 4:16 it says, "Therefore
it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise
might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the
law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is
the father of us all, (As it is written, I have made you a
father of many nations,) before Him whom he believed, even God,
Who quickens the dead, and calls those things which be not as
though they were." Does that stir you up just
reading that? "Who against hope believed in
hope, that he might become the father of many nations;
according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he
considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an
hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb: He
staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was
strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded
that, what He had promised, He was able also to perform." Hallelujah! Glory be to God. Notice verse nineteen it says,
"Being not weak in faith," and in verse twenty but he, "...was
strong in faith." The title of this series now we
are calling Exceeding Growing Faith, which is the scripture
we're about to read. Exceeding Growing Faith. He wasn't weak in faith, but he
was strong in faith. So apparently you can be weak in
faith or you can be strong in faith. Which one you want to be? Congregation: Strong! Good choice. Second Thessalonians 1:3. Does this look familiar to
anybody? Second Thessalonians 1:3? It's on the front of the
building out here. You might notice when you go
out. It's on the front of the
building. It says, "We are bound to thank
God always for you, brethren, as it is meet," or fit, "because
that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity,"
or love, "of every one of you toward each other aboundeth." Say it out loud: "Your faith
grows exceedingly." That means it's growing not just
a little bit, but a lot. The Young's Literal
translation says, "... increase greatly does your faith." And then God's Word
says, "...your faith is showing remarkable growth." Your faith is showing remarkable
growth. That was the God's Word
translation. You know, you may think, "You
talk a lot about faith." There are reasons why. If you are a serious Christian,
then you want to please God. Right? And without faith, it is
impossible to do so. And He has set everything up so
that it requires faith. Faith is not optional with God. He requires it. Faith though, is not this
mysterious thing that many think it is. And you hear some people say,
"God gave them faith. I wish I had faith like
so-and-so. But you know, God didn't give me
faith like that." Now you done gone to lying on
God. And of course, that's mighty
convenient that they have stretched themselves and
believed God, but you don't have to do anything because God
didn't give you that kind of faith. No, something is wrong with
that. No, your faith, my faith in God
is either increasing, or growing stagnant and decreasing,
depending on what we're around, what we are hearing and thinking
and saying, and what we are doing. And so if you never hear the
Word, if you never speak the Word, if you never act on your
faith, it's not just going to stay where it once was. This is such a trick of the
enemy. It's why so many people don't go
to church. The enemy, through their flesh,
because maybe they're not as strong spiritually as they
should be, through their flesh pressures them, "Don't go today. Just today." But what's going to happen next
time service comes around? "No need to go today. You'll go maybe next week." But then days turn into weeks,
turn into months, and it's been three months and you haven't
been to church. It's not just about going to
church, it's about being fed. And you are not reading your
Bible or you're not praying, what's happening? Your faith is being starved and
it will shrivel and weaken like anything that's not fed. We're already getting into how
does faith increase, how does faith enlarge? One, the first point is it's got
to be fed. Faith must be fed. And not just anything will feed
your faith. Right? Not just anything will feed your
faith. Not all preaching is the same. I don't claim that mine is
perfect, but not all preaching is the same. Like one fellow said one time,
he said - I'm trying to think when I said that. I might have been the one that
said that, so - like I said one time... What are y'all laughing about? I straightened it up. I think every sermon, it would
be interesting if it had a spiritual nutritional label on
it. That's why I said I was trying
to think who said that. I thought, well, I said that. If it had a spiritual,
nutritional label on it like the stuff in the grocery store does. Nutritional label. And who would be qualified to
label it? I don't know. I don't think most anybody
would. And if it was honest it would
say: ten percent tradition, twenty percent filler, just
hoopla and stuff. It's like a big wad of cotton
candy. It's bright colored and it looks
big and tastes sweet, but when you get through eating it, you
don't have a thing. Eight percent fear and unbelief. Sure. Sure. And then maybe you get down to X
amount of percent of the Word of God. But, tradition of men won't feed
your faith. People talk in fear and
unbelief, just natural stuff, not only not feed your faith, it
can rob you of your faith if you listen to it. So it is very important what you
hear and what you feed on week in, week out. So important to read your
chapter, right? Because what is that? What is this? You don't need a label for this. This is one hundred percent pure
Word of God, pure faith food. Spirit food. One hundred percent. Nobody else's book or message
is. Everybody likes to imagine, but
this is, and that's why you feed off of this primarily, and then
you also need now anointed ministry. That's why God gave gifts to
men: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers. You need those. That's why course we minister to
you, Phyllis and I, and Dave and all the other guys. Why we bring in other folks like
Brother Savelle and different ones, and host other meetings. You hear other gifts. Hallelujah. And hasn't it been good some of
the other? Brother Doug Jones a while back
and some of these others. I mean, we have been blessed. Well, if you missed that
service, your faith missed a big booster shot. Didn't it? The Lord raised up that man or
woman and has trained them and put into them all these years
and decades, and sustained them, and brought them here for you. Is that right? And gave utterance and
ministered to you. It's supposed to edify, and
build up, and strengthen our faith so that you might have
come in dragging a little bit, but you leave with expectation. You leave with this confidence:
it's going to be alright. It's going to be better than
that. Hallelujah. You might have come in with some
confusion, but you leave with clarity. And it's not because of a man or
woman, it's because of the Spirit of God. It's because of the Word of God. It has fed your spirit, it has
fed your faith. And you can't get your faith too
much good faith food. That's one good thing about
God's Word, you can't overdose on it. There are no evil side effects. None. You can't get too much faith. Have you ever met somebody who
was just too encouraged? Just too encouraged? Too positive? Too encouraged? Too much hope? Too much joy? Too much peace? You never met anybody like that. Because it just keeps going up
and up, and more is better. You can't get too much. It's like saying you can get too
much of God. And you can't. But he said to these people, the
saints at Thessalonica, "Your faith is growing exceedingly. Your faith is showing remarkable
growth." And that's what I have in my
spirit about your faith and the faith in Sarasota, and the faith
of everybody watching us online all over the country and other
countries, that your faith is growing, but it's going to
really grow some more. We are going to experience
remarkable growth of faith. I'm talking about you. I'm talking about you, so don't
play with me on this, don't be messing around. Come to church, read your
chapter, remember this past Sunday afternoon. I'm talking about every week. And let your faith rise. (Praying in the Holy Spirit) "For there are many things I've wanted to talk to you about, but
you were not able to hear it (Praying in the Holy Spirit) because your faith was weak, and
your vision was small, and for Me to begin to share it with you
would have only seemed too overwhelming, too big. (Praying in the Holy Spirit) As the time goes in the next
weeks and months your faith will come up and up and stronger, and
then I can speak to you about it. Then I can bring up to you what
I've had planned for you long ago. And you will be able to see it,
and you will be able to hear it, and you will be able to receive
it, and like Abraham staring into the depths of space, you'll
say, 'I believe You, Lord. I believe it can be.' Like Mary, you will say, 'Be it
unto me according to Thy Word, oh God.'" Hallelujah! Praise God! Lift your hands. "Lord, we thank You. Lord, we give You glory. Lord, we give You honor." Oh, my. Oh, my. You are so good to us. You have such good plans for us. So many good and great things. Oh, hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Wow. Ha ha ha. That's a good Word. That's a good report. Hallelujah. Thank You Lord. Looking back, even though God
had a plan for Phyllis and my life and a call to the ministry,
but there was a time when I did not know this. I did not plan to be a preacher. The Lord dealt with us. Phyllis and I got married really
young, and I had one of the best jobs in our little, tiny little
community. And I had a beautiful, wonderful
wife. And I had a fast motorcycle, and
a hot rod, and a dog that caught my Frisbee. For a country boy I was doing
alright. Man, I got to where - well, let
me back up. Phyllis was working for a doctor
and he had some tapes by preachers. We had never heard of such a
thing. Kenneth Copeland tapes. And so he just kept trying to
get her to take some home. And she said, "Well, thank you. But no, I guess we don't need
any." But after a while, he's her boss
and he keeps saying, "Why don't you take some of these home?" So she did. And we listened to one. And we listened to another one. And another one. And another one. And it became our lifestyle. After work we would come home to
our little trailer and sit down on our plastic couch with our
red shag carpet and play our battery-operated tape player and
listen to the Word. Changed our life. And looking back now, I didn't
realize it, but within just a couple of years He dealt with us
to go out - after a while I ran out of Brother Copeland tapes
that he had. And of course, we listened to
them more than once some of them. But he said, "Why don't you take
some of these Kenneth Hagin tapes." And Phyllis told me and I said,
"I don't know. I know Brother Copeland. I like his stuff." Funny isn't it? She said, "No, I think he said
some of the things he got, he got from Brother Hagin." I said, "Really?" So I listened to them. The rest is history. But anyway, at the end of about
two years, the Lord dealt with us to go out to the Camp Meeting
in Tulsa, Oklahoma which was like going to another country
for us. And while we were out there, we
took a tour of the school, it was free. And while we are going to the
buildings, the Lord dealt with both of us, "You are supposed to
come here and go to school." And looking back now, He
couldn't have even brought that up to us if He hadn't been
putting faith in us for the previous two years. Because actually, about a year
before that since I had gotten acquainted with Brother Hagin's
ministry, and we sent him a little offering and they sent us
their publication, The Word of Faith publication. And on the front of one of them
was the graduating class of RHEMA and they were all in red. And I got that and I was going
to work one day and it was laying on the little coffee
table and I saw that and just for a split second the thought
crossed my mind, wouldn't that be something to be a part of
that? I mean, briefer than a half of a
second. And immediately I thought, no. And I was gone. See, looking back, why did that
come up to me? He was trying to talk to me
about that then, but I couldn't hear it. I wouldn't even pay it any
attention because my faith wasn't there. "What do you mean?" Just couldn't see it happening. Couldn't see how. We're little country folks,
don't have any money. How are you going to move across
the country and pay for all that? It just - it went away. But, after another year of
getting fed on the Word of God, the anointed Word of God,
hallelujah, every day, every day, every day, when he dealt
with us to come we didn't blow it off. We didn't just blow it off. We thought, hmmm. Really? Glory to God. And we talked about it all the
ride back home, and within a few months we were there. Believing God for the money for
tuition - I mean, registration. We didn't know if we would be
able to even register or not. But, just days before it
happened we had enough to register. And so we started. And then when it came time for
the next semester, had just enough, and then just enough. We thought we would go one year,
go home. Twenty years later, we were
still there. Can you see what the Spirit of
God is saying? There are some things I wanted
to talk to about, but I hadn't been able to bring it up to you. Because it does no good for Him
to bring up something for you to do and you won't even consider
it. Now you're responsible for
something He told you to do and you are in disobedience. And so what's the key? Yeah, but time is going on. If you don't get your faith
built up, your window of opportunity is passing. Come on, can you see this? How many would agree we do not
have any time to waste? Oh, the enemy is such a liar. He will try to get you to be
lazy and goof off, and a week turns into a month, turns into a
year, that you will never get back. We have no time to waste. We were exhorted to redeem the
time. Hallelujah. Somebody say: "My faith is
growing. My faith is increasing. My faith will grow exceedingly!" Hallelujah. Hallelujah! Hallelujah. And then after that twenty years
of our faith being fed, he dealt with us about starting a church
here in Branson with no people. Or no money. And then thing after thing after
thing, don't have any of it, don't know how to get it, but if
He tells you to believe for it - faith comes by hearing. Nothing's too hard for the Lord. But it's not just according to
what God can do. People try to leave the
impression, "God can do that if He wants to." That's only part of the
equation. Sure He can do anything. But not for anyone. Now His will is going to get
done because He is not limited to one or two people. Y'all with me? And if you won't do what He
wants you to do, He's merciful. He will give you time, He will
give you space, but if it gets to a point where it's got to be
done and you're still dragging your feet after twelve years, He
may use somebody else. Somebody say: "I don't want that
to happen." No, you don't, because they will
get your reward. But, some things don't happen
overnight. If you don't let the Lord help
you to build your faith up over this year and this year and this
year and this year, you won't be at a place - you understand what
I'm talking about? Now, He's merciful and very
merciful and He will help you catch up on some things, but if
you don't care and you don't try, you can miss out. But I'm not talking to folks
that don't care and don't try. I'm talking to believers,
hallelujah, with exceeding growing faith. Hallelujah. My, my. Wow. Didn't intend to go all that
way, but I believe that was what we should do. Look with me in two places if
you would, talking about faith. Titus one, and then I believe we
will go to 1 Corinthians twelve. In Titus 1:4 he said, "To Titus,
my own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace,
from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour." What kind of faith? The common faith means common
from me to you and every other believer. We all have this same kind of
faith. Say it out loud: "Common faith." Now look in 1 Corinthians
twelve, they'll put it up on the screen for us. Verse nine, talking about the
gifts of the Spirit. Actually, back up to verse
eight. First Corinthians 12:8 "For to
one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom," notice it
didn't say wisdom. It says the word of wisdom. This is different from just the
wisdom of God. Some people have tried to make
it that, and you hear people say, "God gave them the gift of
wisdom." There is no such thing. If you're talking about this,
it's the gift of the word of wisdom, which is a supernatural
manifestation of the Holy Spirit, giving you revelation
and understanding of the mind and the will and the plan of
God. It has to do with the future
primarily. Wisdom does, has to do with the
future. "To another the word of," what? "Knowledge by the same Spirit." This is not knowledge, it's not
the gift of knowledge. It's not a page of knowledge. It's not a paragraph of
knowledge. It's a what? A word. The Holy Spirit in you and me
knows everything about everything. He has all knowledge, all
understanding, and all wisdom. Well, you certainly don't and I
certainly don't. And He requires us to walk by
faith, so He's not purposely going to show us everything; He
expects us to trust Him and just do what He said, even when we
don't understand. But, He also will reveal to us a
word of what He knows supernaturally. When this happens, it's
knowledge you didn't learn, nobody told you this, He reveals
something about something that is true about a person or a
place or a situation. You know, He told Ananias where
Paul was. Is that right? And gave him the address and all
that. How could you know the address
of some place you've never been? That's a word of knowledge. And when you get there, this is
going to happen and that's going to happen; this is the future. How could you know something
about the future? That's a word of wisdom. I'm just differentiating to say
this is not wisdom that all of us can develop in or knowledge
or understanding that all of us can grow in. This is supernatural by the Holy
Spirit. And if you are honest with
reading this chapter, all of these are supernatural. He talks about gifts of
healings. Some people have tried to make
that the doctors and the nurses and medicine. No, no. Thank God for doctors and
medicine and nurses, thank God. Thank God. But, that's not what this is
talking about. This is supernatural. Not natural. "To another," what? "Faith by the same Spirit." And some translations,
Weymouth's translation which I like on this, it says, "... by
means of the same Spirit, special faith." Weymouth said "special faith." The Living Bible also says, "He
gives special faith..." So what is this talking about? The reason I'm reading this to
you, I want to differentiate between common faith and special
faith. Because you will hear people say
and misquote and say wrongly, "See God gives some people
faith," and the implication is that He didn't give that to
everybody. But that's not what He's talking
about any more then you say some people have knowledge and
understanding, but everybody else God didn't necessarily give
them any. No, I like the use of the word
here "special" because it distinguishes it from "common." Right? And when we say "common faith,"
we're not saying it's no big deal, common, we're saying it is
common with all of us. Come on, can you see that? Go to Romans the twelfth chapter
please. Romans 12:3 he said, "I say,
through the grace given to me, to every man that is among you,
not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think;
but to think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man
the measure of faith." Now the Young's Literal
translation says, "... as to each God did deal a measure of
faith." The BBE talks about the same
thing. "God has given to every one a
measure of faith." Now, at the same time, you will
see the Scripture talking about that not all men have faith. Just put it on the screen for
us, just stay there Romans, if you would. Second Thessalonians 3:2, if you
would put that on the screen for us. Second Thessalonians 3: 2 he
says, "And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and
wicked men: for all," and the other is added, "have not
faith." The NIV says it like this:
"... not everyone has faith." So, how do we understand that? Some people read some of this
and they go, "See, there's contradictions in there." No, it's just lack of
understanding on the reader. It's arrogance to try to pull
this Book down to your intellect and go, "If I can't understand
it, it must be wrong." Who do you think you are? Whoever you think it is, it
ain't, you ain't. It's just a matter of not
understanding. Have you walked with the Lord
long enough, fed on His Word long enough that something that
didn't look like it agreed to you, later on you went, "Oh. That's what that means." Well, anything else that looks
wrong to you, same thing will happen if you go long enough
with Him. It's just a matter of lack of
understanding. There are some things you can't
explain to a two-year-old. You could explain it perfectly,
three-year-old, you could explain it perfectly and they
will look at you and don't have a clue what you're talking
about. They have to grow up some to
even understand the answer. I mean, there have been things
that I asked the Lord sincerely, I wanted to know, I wanted to
understand. I said, "Lord, what does that
mean? Tell me what that means." And He answered me - ten years
later. Ten years later. I'm going along doing something
else, not even thinking about it and He just starts talking to me
about that thing I asked Him ten years ago. Not might seem like a long time
to you, but how long is ten years to God? That wouldn't be what? A few minutes God time. Because to Him a thousand years,
a millennia, is like a day is to us. And He perceives it right. As He began to communicate to me
about it, helped me to understand it, I saw why He
didn't answer me before. It would've done no good. I had to grow. I had to develop to even
understand what He was talking about. How many think if you grow some
more, the things He could share with you could be very exciting? Could be life-changing. You believe that? And this all goes along with
your faith growing. It all goes together. Well, what does he mean God has
dealt to every man and measure of faith and then on the other
hand not all men have faith? I like to call it like this:
when you get born again, you get starter faith. Common to all of us. We all have what I would call
starter faith. Now get this, it is a measure of
the same faith that God created the heavens and the earth with. Potent stuff. But, here's the thing. If that's the case, how can you
then say some people are faithless? Well, keep that in mind. Go to Mark the fourth chapter. Let me give you just a little
bit more. You remember where I was right
here? Remember where I am right now. Later I'll ask you. I'll say, "Where was I?" We're talking about how is it
that if God gives you a measure of faith, that you could say,
"Well, they don't have faith." How could that be true? In Mark four, in the account of
Jesus walking on the sea, walking on the water to come to
the disciples in the boat during the storm - excuse me, I said
that wrong. Let me just read it. Mark 4:38, Jesus wasn't walking
on the sea in this situation. He was on the ship, asleep on a
pillow. "They awoke Him, and said to
Him, Master, don't You care that we perish?" Anybody know what that sounds
like? Whining. Right? Now if you don't know, we talked
about that in the previous two weeks. Faith is not a whiner. "Don't You care that we perish?" Verse thirty-nine, "And He
arose, and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea," He's talking
to wind. He's talking to water. Well, all it was created by the
Word of God, why wouldn't it respond to the Word of God? It does. "Peace, be still." Somebody needs to practice that. Together: Peace. Be still. When you see things calamitous
and destructive and raging, especially if it's anything that
you have authority over, you speak to it. You say, "You stop it. Peace. Cease. Stop in Jesus' name." "And the wind ceased," anybody
believe that? Man, this thing was howling and
blowing and Jesus said, "Peace. Be still!" And then you could have heard a
pin drop. Ha ha ha! There was a - why did I say pin
drop? "There was a great calm." I mean, a minute after that they
heard blip. The little fish that went by. Verse forty, Jesus said man, I'm
so glad you woke Me up? Because that could've been bad? You know, don't try this at home
because I'm Jesus, the Son of God? No. What did He say? "Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no
faith?" Now, let's just stop right here. Have they been traveling with
Him in His meetings? Have they been hearing Him
preach? And He's going to tell them how
is that you have what? Now you'll find, we're going to
see this, that in the Gospel accounts you'll see the term "no
faith," you will see the term "little faith," and you will see
the term "great faith." So you have great, small, and
none at all. And is that God's choice? And that is the key word there. Faith is a choice. That's why it's our
responsibility when a situation arises, you can choose to fear,
you can choose to doubt, you can choose to cry and be scared. Somebody said, "I didn't choose
this." Yeah, you did when you yielded
to it. Yeah, you did. Because you don't have to act
like you feel. That's one of the greatest words
you will ever hear. Come on, are y'all with me? You don't have to act like you
feel. You can choose to believe
something else other than what is scaring you. You can choose to listen to
something else other than what is bothering you. You can choose to think on - and
instead of lying there crying and feeling sorry for yourself,
you can choose to get up and praise God by faith. Is that right? And since it's your choice and
my choice, then it's our responsibility, it's our fault
if we had no faith when we could have had faith. Which is why Jesus told them
what He did. How many believe Jesus is not
unkind? He's not unfair. So there is good reason why He
said this to them. If you look at this with other
accounts, He is saying, "Where is your faith?" Look at it again. He said, "Why are you so
fearful?" So full of fear. They chose to yield to the fear. Now, I'm not throwing any rocks. Why? They are out there on the water,
at night. There's a storm. The boat is filling up. They are fishermen, they are
seamen, they are boatmen. They know this is bad. They know people have not made
it back home in situations like this. They know that. But it's no excuse for fear. No matter how bad it is, there's
no excuse for it. There's forgiveness for it, but
there's no justifiable excuse. When the Lord says, "Why didn't
you believe Me? Come on. Why didn't you trust Me?" And you explain it over the next
half hour and Him go, oh. Well, yeah. I mean in that situation. Never. Never will there be a
justification for not trusting Him, not resting in Him, not
resisting fear. I didn't say it was all easy,
but if you want victory, it's the only way. It's the only way. If you want some different
outcomes than what most of the world is getting, you have to do
something different than what they are doing, screaming and
crying. Is that right? Being depressed. You can't do that if you want to
get a different outcome. And so He says, "Why are you so
fearful?" Put yourself in their place now. You have just seen a miracle. This storm was raging, it looks
like everybody is about to end. Ain't no Coast Guard to call. Ain't no help out here. You talk about dark. Before electricity? It was dark. And it's dark. Ain't no moon, ain't no stars,
because it's a storm. And the wind is blowing and the
water is filling the boat. You can't see it all, but you
can feel. The water was on my foot, now
it's halfway up my knee. And you feel this salt water
slapping you in the face. And you know just any minute -
so they went back and they shook Jesus and they said, "Don't You
care? What are You doing? Get up. Don't You care? Don't You care? Don't You care?" He got up... "Peace! Be still!" And it was. The wind stopped and the last
little wave slapped up against the boat. He turns around. "Why are you so full of fear? How is it that amongst the whole
bunch here, we have no faith?" Well, He's the same yesterday,
today, and forever. And we're certainly not finding
fault with them. We just want to learn the
lesson, and that's why it's in the Book for us to learn the
lesson. Faith is a choice. Would people say - I've had
people look at me and say, "I'm sorry, I just can't believe
that." Well, that's not true. You could believe it if you
chose to, by very nature of what faith is. What you should have said is,
"I choose not to. I choose not to believe that." Faith is a choice. Anybody remember the twenty
third Psalm? Put it on the screen for us. Psalms 23:1 says, "The Lord is
my Shepherd," I'm going to try? No. "I shall not," is that a choice? That's not based on your
experiences. I shall not, "Want." Somebody say: "I shall not
want." Not because I'm so great, it's
because the Lord is my Shepherd. Verse two, "He makes me to lie
down in green pastures: He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul: He leads me
in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will," try? Because after all, it is the
valley of death. The valley of the shadow of
death. But I'll do my best. No, no, no, honey. It's a choice. It's a choice. Are you going to feel some
things walking through the valley of the shadow of death? Yeah, you are. Are you going to see some
things, are you going to hear some things? Yeah, you are. But you have to make up your
mind, am I going to focus on this? Or am I going to focus on Him? Am I going to choose to just
yield to fear? Have you ever seen people yield
to fear? You can see it. It's a lot like a little one
that pinches their finger or scrape their knee or something
and you look at them and they look at you, and then there is
something building. And it might not even be that
bad, but what's about to happen? They are about to yield to
something. Crying. Or yelling or hollering. Now, we learn as you grow up,
you don't have to yield to that. You can feel it, but you don't
have to yield to it. And this is true with every kind
of fear, every kind of doubt. He said, "Where is your faith?" He said this, "How is it that
you have no faith?" And in Luke eight was why I
brought that up on the other situation, same thing. Luke 8:24, "He arose... rebuked
the wind and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and
there was a calm. And He said to them, Where is
your faith?" Where is it? What's the implication? There should be some faith in
this boat. Is that right? You have been with Me on the
last tour of ten cities. Right? You have heard preaching,
sometimes six hours a day. Sometimes they were out of those
hillsides, is that right? Sometimes they were there for
three days. Nobody went home. You could enjoy a service like
that. You could. When the Spirit of God is
moving, you lose track of time. And He is saying, "Where is your
faith?" Friend, you can be around the
Word and about strong people of faith for decades, and yet when
it comes time for you to believe, have no faith. Even though you have heard all
kinds of things, and you have a closet full of tapes, and a
bookshelf full of books, because it is a choice. Somebody say: "It's a choice." Faith is a choice. So, you choose to believe. But then another thing is, if
you choose to believe on a regular basis, your faith
develops. This is exciting. Because what used to be seeming
impossible to you, after a time of feeding your faith, you look
at it and go, "That's doable." With God, all things are
possible. I want to read something to you
from a man who lived back in the eighteen hundreds. A lot of you probably are
familiar with his life and ministry, and some of his books. A man by the name of George
Mueller. I think I said that correctly. A lot of times it said Mueller,
but I think he pronounced it Mueller. It's German. And I probably got it wrong too. But George Mueller, we'll call
him George, how about that? God used him back in the
mid-eighteen hundreds to build orphanages for boys and girls
and to take care of them and teach them and give them a good
education, and just an amazing, amazing work. But he did it completely by
faith. If you read after him, there was
no denomination, there was no business people or anything of
that nature, he didn't ask anybody for anything, and they
lived by faith. And I want to read an excerpt
from some of the things he said about this. He said when he began doing this
ministry, he had two shillings, this was in England. And that was about fifty cents. And at the end of - I guess it
was over from that time it took over twenty years they built
those buildings, he experienced seventy years of ministry
overall, but when they finished on the building they had five
granite buildings on thirteen acres that accommodated two
thousand orphans. He started with fifty cents. And he said, "In all the years
we never missed a meal." He said, "Always," I'm reading
his words now, "He has never failed me. For nearly seventy years, every
need in connection with this work has been supplied. The orphans from the first until
now have numbered nine thousand five hundred, but they have
never wanted a meal. Hundreds of times we've
commenced the day without a penny. But our heavenly Father has sent
supplies the moment they were required. There never was a time when we
had no wholesome meal. During all these years, I have
been enabled to trust in the living God alone. Seven million five hundred
thousand dollars have been sent to me in answer to prayer." And this was way back. We're talking by today's
standard hundreds of millions. At least scores of millions. "We have needed as much as two
hundred thousand dollars in one year," I know that may not sound
too big to you. We're talking about eighteen
fifty. "And it has all come when
needed. No man could ever say I asked
him for a penny. We have no committee, no
collectors, no voting, no endowment. All has come in answer to
believing prayer. God has many ways of moving the
hearts of men to help us all over the world. While I am praying, He speaks to
one, and another on this continent, and on that to send
us help. Only the other evening while I
was preaching a gentleman wrote a check for a large amount and
handed it to me when the service was over." He gives an example of how God
met their needs. He said, "One morning the plates
and cups and bowls on the table were empty." They have these houses full of
orphans. "There was no food in the
larder," this is British, "no money to buy food. The children were standing
waiting for their morning meal." When Brother Mueller said,
"Children, you know we must be in time for school. Lifting his hand he said, 'Dear
Father, we thank You for what You are going to give us to
eat.'" No fear. No bad talk. Come on, can you see this? Father, we thank You for what
You are about to give us to eat. Could they have done something
else? Could they have been upset? Could they? Could they have talked bad? I don't know what we're going to
do. I don't know what we're going to
do. Somebody say: "Faith is a
choice." Faith is a choice. He said, "I said, 'Dear Father,
we thank You for what You're going to give us to eat,' and
there was a knock on the door. The baker stood there. He said, 'Mr. Mueller, I
couldn't sleep last night. Somehow I felt you didn't have
bread for breakfast and the Lord wanted me to send you some. So I got up at two a.m. and
baked some fresh bread and have brought it to you.'" Brother Mueller thanked the man. "No sooner than this had
transpired there came a second knock on the door. It was the milkman. He announced that his milk cart
had broken down right in front of the orphanage, but he would
like to give the children his cans of fresh milk so he could
empty the wagon and take it to repair it." Is that your Father? Is that your faithful Provider? Oh, glory to God. So, he talked about how that he
believed God for the provision for these thousands of orphans
in these five different buildings and acreage and
everything. And that was just part of what
they had. Man, they had missionaries, they
had all kinds of stuff. And he says this. He said, "One thing more. Some say, 'Oh, I shall never
have the gift of faith Mr. Mueller has got.'" He said, "This is a mistake. It is the greatest error. There is not a particle of truth
in it. My faith is the same kind of
faith that all God's children have had. It is the same kind that Simon
Peter had and all Christians may obtain the like faith." That's what we just read about,
common faith. Now listen, "My faith is their
faith, though there may be more of it, because my faith has been
a little more developed by exercise, than theirs. But their faith is precisely the
faith I exercise, only with regard to degree; mine may be
more strongly exercised. Now my beloved brothers and
sisters, this began in a little way. At first, I was able to trust
the Lord for ten dollars. Then, for one hundred. Then, for one thousand. And now with the greatest ease,
I could trust Him for one million dollars, if there is the
occasion." Wow. Somebody say, "Glory to God." He said, "But first, I should
quietly, carefully, deliberately examine and see whether what I
was trusting for was something in accordance with the promises
and His written Word, and if I found it was, the
amount of difficulties would be no hindrance to my trust. Fifty-one years at the time of
this writing and my God has never failed me. Trust Him for yourselves and
find out how true to His Word He is." Oh, hallelujah! Glory to God! Somebody say, "Glory to God." Stand on your feet, if you
would.
