Faith #03 *

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…allowing us to come together to meditate upon Thy Word. Lord, to know what Thy Word doth say, particularly we may apply It, for Thou has said, “That he that heareth the Word and doeth It would be like a man building his house upon the solid rock and then when the storms of life come, that life will be stable, able to stand against all the calamities, exigencies, the vicissitudes, no matter what it is, they will not only survive but be strong in the Lord.”

Now Father, we pray that every Word spoken shall be directly of Thy Word, O God, shall be spoken exactly as You would have It said. Would be heard exactly as It was meant to be heard, and then Lord, may It be in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

Bring every thought into captivity to Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. Bring every thought into subjection, because He alone is worthy to have the supremacy of our minds.

Grant now, Lord God, that everything be done, particularly at this moment on, for Thy glory. For we have that alone in mind, and in Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen.

Now tonight we have come so far as to understand the importance of faith. Because it says, “Without faith it’s impossible to please God, for he that cometh to God must believe that God is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”

Now this goes back, of course, to Genesis 15, where God said to Abraham, “I am Thy shield and exceeding great reward.”

In other words, I am your Protector and your Provider. When God demands of His children that He be their Protector and their Provider, and when we do not allow Him to become our Protector and Provider, then of course, He is very, very greatly displeased.

You see, the majority of us do not really understand God. We do not understand Him as to who He is and His Ways. Only Moses understood the ways of God, but multitudes of Israelites died in the wilderness because they never understood the Ways of God.

And I’m a little bit concerned tonight because I think the majority of us major in the understanding of God as a Creator and that is fine, because He is Creator. But we do not go as far as we ought to go from the creatorial aspect, because we ought to go on to the maintainer aspect.

Now, anybody can sire a child. You can have almost a half-wit can bring a child to birth. But he’s not capable to maintaining the child. And any two people can get married and have a dozen children. That is nothing to be happy about. It’s can you maintain those children the way they ought to be maintained.

And I say tonight the majority of us have never learned beyond the fact of God is Creator. We do not understand that He is Maintainer. And as a Maintainer He is much more important than a Creator, and that’s what we’re trying to get across tonight on the grounds of faith.

That God is not pleased with those people who know Him only as Creator. As the great Savior who called to be born again. As the One who gave you life, He’s the One now providing for you and taking care of you and if that is not foremost in your heart and mind as a Christian, you’re not pleasing God at all.

It’s no great testimony to come and say, “Hallelujah, I thank God I’ve been born again.” So what? I mean it. So what? Thank God, I’ve been born. So what? So what? You’re only born again because of election.

From that moment on now, are you’re going to walk as a child of God, to trust Him and let Him provide for you and fight your battles? There’s the criterion. You didn’t have a thing to do with being born in this life.

You had nothing to do with being born again. “Not of him that willeth or of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. For the children were born and neither one had done either good or evil; He said, ‘Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated’.” You see?

So, it’s to understand that God is the great Provider and the great Protector. That’s what a husband is for. That’s why God says He’s the husband of the Bride.

That’s why the church is designated as a woman; God demands that He be our provider and our protector. And if we don’t allow it; He’ll bring us to a place where we would to God we’d allow Him to be our Protector and Provider, because you don’t fool with God. When God says, “I will,” don’t say, “You won’t,” because He will. See?

Now, we must understand that God wants us to use our faith because faith will allow God to do it. Not we doing it. See? But God doing it. Faith is nothing more than a submissive spirit.

And remember, faith is a Spirit. We have the spirit of faith. It’s a spiritual thing. And that spiritual thing gives you the ability to let God do it, which is we’ll describe as ‘the rest of faith’.

Now this faith which we speak of, that God wants us to use, has been given to us in a measure. And it’s a measure of the faith of Jesus Christ Himself. “By grace are you saved through faith and that faith is not of yourself, it is the gift of God.”

And since “Every good and perfect gift cometh from above,” and since this is from above, then truly it is a good and perfect gift and it’s been given to you in a measure. Now this measure of faith was given to you, as we say, sometime before you were born again.

“By grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourself, it is the gift of God.” God hath dealt to every brother the measure of faith.

And James said, “My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory with respect of persons.”

And again it is also said in Galatians, “I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” And you will notice in each case it is not faith ‘in’, but it is faith ‘of’.

In other words, it is that which comes from as being a product, or that which issues forth from. It is not human faith; it is the faith of the Son of God, it is the faith of Jesus Christ.

Again in the Book of Acts, the 3rd chapter, verse 16, where they said, “How was the miracle performed upon the man at the Gate Beautiful?” And Peter said, “It was faith and Jesus’ Name.”

It said, “It was Jesus’ Name and yea, the faith that is by or from Him, which is Jesus.” And so therefore, we have three witnesses in the New Testament speaking absolutely perfectly concerning this faith.

And also, we have John, the Revelator speaking concerning the faith of Jesus because the Spirit says, “Thou hast kept my faith.”

So we’ve got four complete witnesses in the New Testament, that the measure of faith which is resident in each one of the children of God, is the measure of the faith of Jesus Christ, is the measure of the faith of the Son of God. Who which of course, is the measure of the faith of Almighty God Himself.

Now, we mentioned to you last night that Jesus Christ predicted the availability of this faith. Because when he came, I think it was from Bethany on his way to Jerusalem, he saw a fig tree and he looked upon it to see if it had figs. It did not have figs upon it and so he cursed it.

Now he knew there were no figs upon it, but he was doing this for an object lesson. So when they came back from Jerusalem, the disciples looked at that tree and they recalled that Jesus said. “Let no man eat fruit henceforth, hereafter.”

And so therefore, they said, “Well, look, the tree is dead.” And of course, the question arose how was it done?

And Jesus said, “Have the faith of God.”

Now remember, he wasn’t saying, “I have the faith of God and you’ll never get it.” What he was doing was revealing to them the availability of the faith of God and he was showing them that with the faith of God a certain particular principle would be manifested in their lives concerning prayer.

And so we can turn to that 11th chapter of the Book of Mark and just check it through.

In verse 22,

Now you’ll notice here, please, that Jesus is connecting the faith of God with this particular principle. He said, “Have the faith of God.” He declared it. He made it known.

He showed it was available because he said, “I say unto you concerning this faith of God which I had which enabled me to curse the fig tree and cause it to do exactly what I said.” Because remember, it did exactly what he said.

Do you realize the faith of God and only the faith of God gives you the ability to have what you declare come to pass? Now, you know that human faith can’t do this.

There isn’t any man living has the ability to declare a thing and say I know that’s going to come to pass. He can’t do it. In fact a lot of people get fooled by prophecy.

I was up in Lebanon, Pennsylvania not too long ago, and a man said to me, “That a certain brother came by one time and prophesied a thing, and it came to pass.”

I said, “Now, hold on, fellow, you’re acting as though the fellow’s prophecy made it come to pass.”

He only told you what was going to come to pass and it would have come to pass anyway. Prophecy doesn’t make anything come to pass.

Now, let’s be honest. Does it? No, certainly it’s a revelation of what is going to come to pass. Now, there isn’t anybody has got the ability within himself to say anything that will come to pass. He’s got to have something supernatural.

And the measure of faith is your ability to command a thing to come to pass and it will because of this faith. Now Jesus said the faith of God gives the human being the ability to call a thing to come to pass, and it will come to pass as exactly as he said.

Now… notice he said, because this is the principle or the power of the faith of God, he said,

Now, in other words, I might be saying to you, something like this. Now, you say, “Well, Brother Vayle, I think that’s a very beautiful color of paint you’ve got on your wall.”

I say, “Yes, that’s a very beautiful color of paint. If you want to know how I did it, I mixed three colors together and I produced that.”

In other words, I’m explaining to you, exactly what took place. So I say all you need are these three pigments here, and you take this pigment, and this pigment, and this pigment, and you mix it together and you produce this color.

Therefore, if you want this color on your wall, you go ahead and take these three pigments and mix them up and paint your walls. Do you follow what I’m driving at? You see? You’ve got to see what Christ was saying here.

He didn’t say, “Oh, this is a very mysterious thing. I happens I’ve got the faith of God which of course, you don’t have, well, well. Course if you had it you could go around moving mountains, too. But you see, well.”

Now do you think He talked like that? God doesn’t talk that way. Why would He reveal this thing?

The Scripture said, “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those things which are revealed unto us belong unto us.” Now the faith of God being revealed to us now belongs to us. “By grace he is saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is a gift of God.”

The faith that you have is a measure of the faith of Almighty God Himself. It isn’t the faith of God without measure. It is the faith of God by a measure. God has dealt to every believer the measure of faith.

Tonight you have a measure of the faith of God. You have the measure of the faith of the Son of God. You have the measure of the faith of Jesus Christ.

Of course, God and Jesus Christ are one person because He said, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” So we have no problem here. We understand tonight, if we’re born again we have the measure of the faith of Jesus Christ or God Himself.

Now, if we can find in Scripture as I mentioned last night, somebody who had this measure of faith and understood the usage thereof, we could understand a little better how our own faith from God would work, if we had him as an example, as an example of this precept that the faith of God gives people the ability to know that some certain things will certainly come to pass when you ask God.

This is the ability that we have from God to cause the things which we should have from God to come into existence in our lives.

Now, we have such an example in the Book of Romans, the 4th chapter. In Romans, the 4th chapter, we find Abraham who was the father of the faithful, in whose steps we are told to follow. And you notice in verse 17,

Now you will notice in here, and here is something every student of the Bible must understand, that every single thing in this Scripture is for a specific reason. And this portion we’re talking about tonight is on faith. God doing something for those who use the faith which God has given  them.

And it says here, “That God quickens the dead and calleth those things which be not as they were.” Now, why is this certain Scripture written in this certain way? Well, let me explain it to you this way. We are talking about faith and we are reposing that faith in God.

Now as I explained last night, this is a microphone. I cannot repose any faith in this microphone to give forth music. It is not a musical instrument.

I could pick it up and try to play it. Rattle my fingers over it. It wouldn’t produce any music. It wasn’t meant to produce any music. It can’t produce any music. It doesn’t have the qualities resident in it to make it produce music. You see?

Now, I’ve got a wristwatch here. I have a right to look to that timepiece to tell time. Why? Because it has the qualities resident in it to produce time.

However, to be absolutely, the object of my faith to produce the time or to tell the time, this watch must have two abilities within It, or two characteristics. It must have the ability to tell time and to always tell time, because if this watch goes dead, every… hour or two, I can’t trust it to give me the time.

So, when you think of God, a prayer answering God, a God who is going to do something for you, you come to the conclusion that He is going to be the object of your faith. He must have reposed within Him certain characteristics which make Him worthy of your faith.

And the two characteristics which God must have, in order for you to repose your faith in Him, so that He certainly will produce for you, are two things: ability and immutability. He must be able to do it and He must always do it.

See, because if there ever came a time when He couldn’t do it, you just would be out of luck. Or if there came a time when He didn’t feel like doing it, you’d be just as much out of luck.

You’ve got to have a God who doesn’t change: an immutable omnipotent God. And those are two qualities that God in His Word in Hebrews, I believe it’s in the 6th chapter, tells us that He positively does possess: ability and immutability. This God is omnipotent and He does not change.

Now, this is exactly what we found out that God Almighty described Himself to be in the 1st chapter, of Genesis. The very first word that we have concerning God as Elohim or El Elah. And in there it says, “The Strong One bound by an oath.” The Strong One who never changes.

The immutable God who has produced and has never ceased producing. See, awhile ago I told you it’s not right to believe in a Creator God, because God is not simply a Creator; He is a producing Creator. He’s a maintainer. God didn’t only make, but He maintains.

The very Word which created is the very Word which upholds all things right tonight. So we’re dealing with a God who wants to do things for us.

But we’ve never learned to the depth which we ought to have learned that in the faith light, in order for this God to continually produce in the realms in which we would desire Him to produce.

Now, we say that God has ability and immutability. He has the power to do it, and He will do it because He wants to do it. Now, you notice in this revelation here of God in verse 17 we read it now.

Now you will notice here, that according to English composition, you could read it this way. “As it is written, I have made thee a father of nations before him whom he believed even God.”

And you could leave out, ‘even who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.’ You could leave that out. And that’s what everybody does.

And that’s where they make their mistake. Because these words were put in here by the Holy Ghost and they have to do with a person believing and following in the steps of Abraham.

So you don’t dare leave them out, because when you do, you’ll never become strong in prayer. Because these two phrases are what you call, I would call qualitative adjectival phrases.

You don’t say, “There goes a car down the road.” You could say it, but if you wanted to be accurate, you could say, “There goes a blue or a red or a green 1964 Chevrolet four door, so on.” Then you’d be getting exactly right.

So when you talk about praying to God, you don’t say, “Oh, great Creator God, oh great some other God,” You don’t have an understanding of God concerning your faith except concerning these two phrases.

And when we talk about faith in God we must know that this God has certain peculiar qualities which you’ve got to respect concerning your faith. Now I mean this seriously, because if you don’t get this you’re going to be all mixed up. And believe me, people are mixed up.

Let’s just take a thought tonight that God is the Judge of all the earth. Is He the Judge of all the earth? He sure is. But does He judge the Bride? No sir. The Bride can’t be judged. She shall never come into judgment.

But you try to convince people. Oh, sure, you know more than God, go ahead. Have your bellyaches and I hope you enjoy them. Get your nervous breakdowns. I hope you have a good time having it. You’ve got it coming to you. The majority of preachers don’t know this. They never preached a sermon on it.

Look, if this weren’t necessary then God’s Word would have said, “I am God,” and let it go at that. He said, “I’m a jealous God. I’m a God of love. I’m a righteous God. I’m a healing God. I’m this kind of a God. I’m that kind of a God.”

And He meant it in order that people would be able to receive from Him in a specific way exactly what God had for them. You see?

Sure, God is a judging God, He judges the world and He’s going to judge the world in righteous by One, Christ Jesus. But God can’t judge God. And when you have the righteousness of God, how can you come into judgment? There’s nothing to be judged for. See?

So, when Scripture speaks of a God who raises the dead and calleth things which are not as though they were, and is describing the outworking of Abraham’s faith toward God, then we better sit up and listen.

Why? Because we want to understand how to get from God the way Abraham got from God.

Now, what does it mean for God to raise the dead? Well, listen to me. The supreme act of God showing His omnipotence and power is to raise the dead.

You know, a lot of people are going around saying the greatest thing in the world is… to see if science can produce life.

What a stupid asinine statement; we’re producing life. Got so much life we got a population explosion going to ruin the whole thing. But who can raise the dead? Nobody, but God. You see what education does. It sure fouls you up, doesn’t it?

Educated theologians coming out of their cemeteries; a bunch of ghouls preying on the pocketbooks of poor deceived people. Talk about life. Who cares about life? We’ve got so much now.

The world is so full of people if we don’t stop producing we’re going to be standing on each other’s shoulders within a hundred years. But you find somebody who can raise the dead. Nobody but God can raise the dead.

Now, the term ‘raising the dead’ has a very, very specific and definite connotation. I say “connotation,” because that’s what it is. So, we turn to 2 Corinthians 1:8-10, read exactly what it means.

Isn’t that what James said? “My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory with respect of person.” Well, you better not even trust yourself if you’re respecting people, too. Notice what it says.

The very same statement here as is found in Romans 4, who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust He will yet deliver. What did Paul mean when he said, “God raises the dead?”

He meant that God has reserved to Himself the right to place every single child of God in such a position that he is absolutely helpless within himself and he’s got to trust God or it will never be done.

In other words, if God raises the dead, somebody’s got to die. Well, let’s just pretend we’re dead. Oh, no, you don’t pretend with God, you got to die, because God doesn’t play “let’s pretend.” He plays for real and for keeps.

A lot of people don’t realize that, they say you can go out and get lost. Well, great if you can go out and get lost; you never were born again, because my Bible says, “That not one of His sheep ever get lost. He loses none, but He will raise every one up.”

You just try to change that if you want. You go ahead. I can tell what kind of spirit you got if you’re in the spirit that wrote the Bible. Because He said, “I won’t lose one of them.”

If you want to make God a liar, you go ahead; I’m not in that business. I don’t have to make Him even truthful, because He is truthful. I’d just wish He’d make me truthful. See?

God raising the dead. What does it mean? It means this, that there are no limits to you or to what may happen to you, but what God will take you through. Now let me show you what this means exactly.

Years ago in Ohio when I was preaching in a little town called, well, it was near Van Buren, Ohio, which is near Finley, now you might know Finley, Ohio, so therefore, you’d know Van Buren is three miles up the road north. On old highway 25 we were just a little bit west; if you don’t know Ohio, you’re out of luck. But that’s where I was.

We were praying for the sick every Sunday because we talked along the lines of faith and God doing things for people and people were being healed by scores, well, over a period of time, many, many people were healed.

A lady came one afternoon service, she was wearing great big heavy glasses; she didn’t look very well. And I laid hands on her and the Lord showed me she had problem in her shoulder and I said, “I’m going to pray for your arm so you can raise it,” and so I prayed and she raised it.

She said, “I didn’t come for that.”

I said, “Well, I know because it doesn’t take any revelation to see your glasses are so thick you’ve got eye trouble.”

She said, “That’s exactly true.”

“Well,” I said, “it’s all right God healed your arm now we’ll pray for your eyes.” So I prayed for her eyes and nothing happened. It was just like I was praying against a thick blackness, I thought, “Well, this is strange, but I’ll pray the second time because it’s scriptural to pray many times.”

You know the Lord prayed twice for a man before he got healed, so I thought I could pray many times. And I prayed the second time and it got worse.

I prayed the third time and it got darker still and suddenly I just stood back and I said, “Lord, I don’t know what’s going on here. What is going on here?”

And like a conversation between me and the Holy Ghost to her, something like this came out. The conversation was, “Sister, you have been to a doctor.”

She said, “That’s right.”

“The doctor said you’re going blind.”

She said, “That is correct.”

I said, “In fact you will be blind unless something happens.”

She said, “That is true.”

And I said, “Now, sister, listen to me. When you are prepared to believe God that you will be well, as thoroughly as you have believed the doctor, you will be blind; then you will be healed.”

Now I said, “Listen to me, you pray this week and come back next Sunday and I’ll pray again.”

She never came back. You know why? Because she said, “The doctor said, ‘I’m going blind and when I’m blind it will be all over.’”

Now you see she was wrong. You see, because God raises the dead. In other words, God heals blind eyes.

And that’s what’s wrong with Christians today, all over the world. They are saying this. “I’ve got arthritis and I’m getting worse, and when I go to the wheelchair it will end it all.” I’ve seen them get out of wheelchairs.

They say, “Well, my business is going bankrupt.” When it goes bankrupt, it’s all over.” No, you let your business go bankrupt; God will give you a new business.

Why, you say, I’m going deaf and when I grow deaf… God gives… deaf ears hearing. In fact, I prayed for a man not too long ago and he had no eardrum at all and God gave him an eardrum, because he hears from that ear and I don’t know how you hear without an eardrum, so he must have an eardrum.

You see what I’m showing you, look. The trouble with people is this, when you’ve got this measure of faith which moves mountains, then God gave you mountains to move.

When the army put the cannon in the hands of soldiers, it doesn’t then issue a bunch of slingshots and say, “Take your choice.” It says, “You use that cannon or else.”

And that’s what’s wrong with Christians. You don’t realize when God gave you this measure of faith that He meant business. And you’re going to be pressed out of measure.

You’re going to come to the place where death faces you. You’re going to come to the place of failure and here is where every single child of God backslides, is because he doesn’t understand this.

And he says, “Just let that preacher say that once more and I’ll walk out.” He’ll say it once more within five minutes and you’ll walk out. “Well, well, just let this thing happen once more. I’m through.”

It’ll happen and you’ll be through. Because God has reserved to Himself, the right to press you right unto death and we don’t want that.

We say, “Well, you see my faith was given to me in order so that I wouldn’t lose my business.”

Well, I’ve got news for you. You haven’t believed God’s Word at all. You believed the devil’s lie and you’re going to lose your business if God wants you to lose your business. But you’ll get something back better than what you had.

You see if God’s going to raise the dead, somebody’s got to die, and that’s all there is to it. And if you’ve got faith that moves mountains, you’re going to have to come to the place where some mountains got to be moved.

Now look, it may be that just the tablespoon, or a little wheelbarrow that mountain load will go today and maybe within a mouth there’ll be, maybe a wagon load or two gone, but hold steady, the mountain has got to go.

But you see this is the thing about faith in God that people don’t realize. They say, “Well, I pray. The thing’s got to be now.” No sir, it might be twenty years from now, like with Abraham.

“Well, I’m going to keep this thing from happening.” You are not going to keep anything from happening. “Well, I don’t want my home to go to pieces.” Yes, your home may go to pieces.

You say, “I don’t want any divorces in our family.” Your family may have a divorce, and you may be right in the middle of it. There is no family in America that is not touched by divorce, not one.

You say, “I don’t want this thing to happen in my job.”

That thing will happen because God will make it happen. And if you’re ignorant you’ll stand back and say the devil is doing all this. Like fun the devil’s doing it all. God is doing it all.

Because, “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh.” When Jacob’s wife said to him; “Give me children, I die.” He said, “I’m not God.” Jacob was smart.

People, you got to realize tonight when we’re dealing with the measure of faith and God doing things, God is going to do it in such a way that He gets all the glory.

Just like he said to Moses, “When you go down to lead out Israel, I’m going to harden Pharaoh’s heart, he won’t let you go, and I’m going to make it so rough on you, until He lets you go, and you’ll go out with great spoil.”

And Moses went right down there forgetting every single thing that God said, and said, “Pharaoh, let the people go, we want to go on a religious holiday.”

And Pharaoh said, “What did you say?”

“I just told you.” He said, “We want to go out and worship God.”

“What God?” he said.

“Jehovah-God: one God.” He’d never heard of Him.

“No, no.”

He said, “You don’t?”

He said, “No, I don’t want to know. What’s this business of wanting to get away for a three day’s pass?”

“Ho,” he said, “Why you lazy bunch of scoundrels down there. I can see I’ve been altogether too easy, from this moment on, you go find your own straw and produce the same number of bricks.”

“Ohhhh,” the elders said, “my God, my God, Moses, you made us a stink before Pharaoh. What kind of deliverance is this anyway?”

And Moses went back and he said, “Oh God, oh God, oh God, You didn’t only let us make Pharaoh let us go; You made it worse.”

“Well,” He said, “Come, come, now, Moses, isn’t that what I told you?”

He said, “Is that what You really said?”

He said, “That’s what I said.” Huh? Sure. People say, “Well, this God doesn’t answer prayer. He sure does. You just don’t know how He does things, that’s all.

You’ve been sold a bill of good on deliverance. Hmm, sure. And when you …?… all delivered up, was your pocketbook and your senses, spiritually I mean.

I’ve been to so many deliverance campaign where they advertise signs, wonders and miracles, and all the signs, wonders and miracles you see; you wonder where the miracles are, and the only signs are dollar signs. And they got the nerve to say that God works by averages.

I never knew a God that worked by averages yet. If God works by averages, then He’s a failure. Right? He’s got to be a God that works.

What’s wrong with it, it’s the people don’t understand, and then they get panicky, because somebody’s got to die. I don’t mean literally, you’re going to die and go in the ground.

I mean to say that you got to come to the place where you’re as good as dead. You can’t do a thing, it’s got to be God. “Oh, we hate that. My, we don’t like that.” Huh? Sure, that’s our trouble.

What happens in church? A little trouble comes in; they all run like a bunch of… scatter like a… well, what do they scatter like? They’re like leaves in the wind. Huh?

You’ve got a wrong conception of God in your faith life. Your faith life conception of God is a God who raises the dead. That means He’s all powerful, He’s got all ability, but somebody’s got to be in a place where it requires the ability. Huh? That’s the trouble.

We’re too much like the Scotsman, they say, in the First World War, that… he prayed just as the Zerah going over the trenches, he said, “Lord, didn’t it be on their side, and didn’t it be on ‘oor’ side.”

He said, “Just stand bock.” And he says, “You’ll see the twoiest fight ever spoken.” In other words, you’ll see the best fight you ever saw.

Well, God doesn’t want to stand back and watch you fight. He wants you to stand back and watch Him fight. Doesn’t want you scrambling and scraping, making your way; He wants to get you let Him make your way.

It says, remember, “The meek shall inherit the earth.” The rest of them get put under six feet of earth, because they die of ulcers trying to get it. Huh? Certainly, it’s the truth.

See what we’re driving at now? We’re talking about? We’re talking about, you got to face up to the fact, my brother, my sister, don’t worry about anything happening. Let it happen. It’s going to happen anyway.

You’re going to be put in a hard place. You’ve got to be. We’ve been sold a bill of goods by this false cultism of… called positive thinking, that keeping away the wolf away from the door, the wolf is going to come to the door.

Listen, I’ve preached for years, I know what I’m talking about. There’s no use saying, “Oh God, don’t let the cupboard be bare,” because our cupboard was bare. There wasn’t a cent in the house and there wasn’t a drop of food, but God brought it; I never starved, missed one meal yet.

“God, don’t let my kids go to the dogs,” my kids are going to the dogs. That’s right. What are you going to do about it? Going to backslide? Going to scream at God? Going to fuss? No? No.

Poor old Job every day went out to sacrifice for his kids, and said, “Oh God, maybe they’ll come in. Lord, in case they done something wrong, I’m going to sacrifice and maybe they’ll come in.” They didn’t come in. God killed them all.

Then He gave him a new family by his same wife. Yeah. Huh? God’s not vulgar. People got an idea when Brother Branham came back and said, “God forgave their sins.”

They thought he came back and said, “God legalized their sin.” And then the men always say, “I can divorce my wife because she cuts her hair.” The truth of the matter is you can, legally. But God said, “You’re joined together, no man puts you asunder.”

You stay; you made an oath till death do you part and you’re bound by that oath. God never legalized sin; He forgave it, honey. Huh? I don’t like that kind of a religion; that’s the kind of religion you got, because there’s only one religion and that’s God.

You want to be strong in your faith? Then you better realize that God has reserved to Himself the right to place you in an extreme position where you can’t see up, you can’t see out, you can’t see forward, you can’t see backwards.

Remember, the frog has his eyes on top, they said, to see where he came from. We don’t look backwards. Just keep going on.

I know I’m not preaching the way a lot of people like, but I’m preaching the truth and this is going to help you. Because it’s time we faced up to the fact that God Almighty never, ever did put His children in protective custody whereby they went to heaven on a flowery bed of ease, He put them in the fiery furnace.

Took them through the Red Sea. Put them in a dungeon, compassed about with armies. But you know something? Let me tell you how good God is.

Every year in Israel, ever male had to go up three times a year to Jerusalem to a feast, and profane history proves that never once was Israel attacked on a feast day when all the males were in Jerusalem, never once. That’s history.

You’ve got a measure of faith tonight, brother/sister, and it’s God’s own faith. He’s going to see that you use it in God’s own way. Oh yeah. You’ll be pressed against the wall. Sure you will.

I’m not here and saying you won’t be. You will be pressed against the wall. Honey, you got it coming. The afflictions of the righteous are many, they’re many. Man’s born into trouble; like the sparks fly upward.

You’re going to be tried. You’re going to have a mountain, and you don’t stand back and say, “I’d like to see that mountain go, well of course, it doesn’t bother me. But it’d be fun to see it go.” That’s our attitude, isn’t it? Oh sure, it is, that positive religion idea. No sir, this is real.

It’s a mountain, brother/sister, that’s choking you up, that’s encroaching on you, destroying you. It’s on your shoulders, it’s pressing you down, breaking every joint in your body, crushing every bone, squeezing out your breath, you’re saying, “Oh God, oh God.”

Have faith in God. You’ve got something in here that will move that mountain. But before a mountain can be moved, there’s got to be a mountain to be moved.

Even a Chinese restaurateur up in Canada knew that because he said, “In order to eat a good meal; you must have a good meal to eat.” Ha, so. I bow my head to that Chinese sage. Christians who have the wisdom of God don’t even know that.

They say, “Wasn’t it cute when he said, ‘We can move mountains’.” It wasn’t cute at all. It was a fundamental statement of fact. You’ve got to have a mountain to move.

If God is going to save from the uttermost to the uttermost, all that come unto Him by Jesus Christ then there’s got to be an uttermost to be saved from. Huh? Now let’s get this settled once and for all; we’re in a battle. We’re in a battle. We’re born unto trouble.

You’re counted as sheep for the slaughter. You’re killed all the day long. But in all these things you are more than conquerors. We’ve got to understand this, brother/sister, because there’s nothing else I can teach.

I studied every book I can get my hands on, I prayed and fasted, and I looked for the great short-cut. There isn’t any. Yeah. You say, “I’m going to lick this thing another way.”

You’ll not lick it any other way, than to stand up to your Golgotha, to your Gethsemane, to your Red Sea, to stand up to it just like Israel had to. The Mountains of the Moon to the right, the Sahara Desert on the left, Pharaoh’s army behind them, and the Red Sea in front of them.

And God said, “Now, you’re going to see My salvation. Moses, stretch forth your rod.”

You say, “I don’t want any Sahara Deserts, I don’t want any Mountains of the Moon, I don’t want any Red Sea.”

You don’t? You don’t talk like a child of God. Sorry to say that, but you don’t. Well, come on now, if you had a million dollars you sure wouldn’t talk about going down unless there’s something wrong with your head.

You wouldn’t talk about going… “I got a million dollars, I’ll go down and buy a package of bubble gum, and a lollipop. I’d go down and get the finest house in town, I’m going to go down and get the biggest car for the biggest garage, I’m going to plan the biggest trip around.” Oh, you would!

Now God gives a measure of His faith and we say now, “Lord, don’t let it happen.” Now a little cold in this nose is okay, but not cancer. Lord, it’s okay for my daughter; she could get kissed on her first date, but don’t let her fall into sin.

Yeah, she’ll come home pregnant, don’t worry. Sixty percent of your teenage daughters right now are pregnant on their wedding day. There’ll not be one virgin left within a few years. Don’t… trust the birth control pill. It’s going to kill you. You want to know about the birth control pill?

I don’t feel much like preaching. We’ll just talk. Anybody here ever read the book of Jasher? There’s two books of Jasher; one is a phoney and one’s real.

In the book of Jasher describes what took place in Sodom before it fell. You know what took place in Sodom? Complete sodomy. We’ve got it today; homosexuality. Wanton killings, they kill for the fun, they’re doing it now and the oral birth control pill.

How far is He away? He’s up there somewhere just waiting to be made manifest. And He said, “Will He find faith when He comes?” Soft, soft people; we don’t want the ruggedness of Christianity.

God has been training me for years and I hate the training, but I thank God I’m getting it in spite of myself. To have to learn to trust God and nobody else because I haven’t got anybody to lean on but God and I’ve done it for years. I’m not a pastor. I have no assembly behind me.

But in ‘57, ‘56 really, that’s ten years ago, when I knew I was not called to pastor but to get on that road, I went down that road and I’ve been going with God one step at a time. I haven’t missed one meal. I’ve slept in a good bed. I’ve had the best friends. I’ve had the choice of blessings. I have certainly been chosen and honored by God and He’s done it all.

You say, “Has it been tough?” Not really. Oh, I thought it was at the time. Not really. Pressed out of measure. Oh, we don’t want it. You say, “My husband can’t die.” Yes, he can die.

Don’t… see, what I’m trying to get to you tonight, folk? I’m trying to get you to see this, that your faith is used in the battle, it’s not used outside of the battle. And you don’t stop battles by using your faith; you walk toward the battle with your faith.

Now, what does it say as we read the other day? Well, before we read these verses, remember that Abraham believed in God who raised the dead. What did he do? God said, “Take now thy son, thy only son, and offer him upon Mount Moriah.” What did he do upon Mount Moriah?

He was going to kill the boy, sprinkle the blood, and burn him up to ashes and bones and then say now, “God raise him.” Why? Because God does the raising of the dead. You say, “Brother Vayle, my life is ruined.” God will raise your life up. “Well, Brother Vayle, I’ve never used my faith.”

“God will start helping you to use your faith.”

“Well, we’re in such a terrible mess.”

“God just loves to reach down and take care of messes.”

See? Don’t preach this soft religion, because there’s no soft religion in the Bible. It’s a ‘God is a mighty warrior’; He’s a God of battle. His voice is spoken of as thunder. Even the heathen understand that. There’s a rough deal coming ahead for this church.

Sure, there’s a rough deal coming ahead from all the members of the independent. It’s already spoken of by your head men in government; within two years time they figure there’ll be only six major denominations in America.

And the NAE has proclaimed, Dr. Taylor, with the NAU stated in Washington, has declared, and it’s true. And they were the ones that stopped Bobby Kennedy from wiping us out. You go ahead and vote Democratic, if you want. But you’re cutting your own throat.

But you can vote Republican; you’re still cutting your throat. You’ve got no choice. You’re hated. They have made a concerted drive to wipe out the independents.

Chicago, in New York and Jersey City, and your major cities are right now, they are looking at every little independent work and they’re trying to close them down.

They’re not going to survive, in the sense that, survive without a battle. It won’t be long till they say the churches that are truly in the Bride, they’re going to close them down.

You’ll be forbidden to call your place of worship, a church. You might call it a conventicle or something, but you can’t call it a church. It’s on the move. And you might as well make up your mind to face it and get ready for it.

And just before He comes, it’s going to be the most diabolical of all. Because the anti-Christ is already here but he’s not revealed as to who He is, but the forces are here.

And the devil will soon be cast down in the earth. And that’s going to happen before the Rapture. I’ll show you by Scripture. And there’s going to be a lot of trouble.

Now don’t worry about it. “Hey, oh, I wish…” Don’t wish; you’ve got faith. You say, “I wish I had Polycarp’s faith.” You’ve got Polycarp’s faith. He had God’s faith and you’ve got God’s faith.

You’ve got Polycarp’s faith. You say, “I wish I could have the faith to be taken to the pit, to the stake and be burned.” I wish you got it. You just haven’t been called upon.

Don’t underestimate your faith. Remember, Dr. Bosworth said, “If you must doubt, doubt your doubts. They’re unreliable.” But don’t doubt your faith, because it’s real. It’s God’s faith.

When Jesus came here with the faith of God, did He come down here, but he said, “Yes, Jesus. Yes, Jesus. Love you Jesus. Amen, Jesus. We’re glad to serve you, Jesus.”

Did they? They said, “Get him.”

And he said, “They said, ‘Get me without a cause,’ but he said, ‘they’ll have a cause to get you, so don’t worry, they’ll get you’.”

Huh? And you know where they get you? Right in the church. Didn’t the church members get Jesus? Huh? The same ones that will get you, the fellow sitting beside you, and the fellows you associate with and all. They’re all out to get you and they’ll get you.

Those organized bunch of scamps. They love the devil and the anti-Christ work. They got their names on their record, they belong to a devil’s hierarchy. They’ll get you or you’ll join up with them.

“Oh, Brother Vayle, I’m a real seed of God.” We’ll see in the very near future, if you are or not. Get your name off that church roll. Got no business being on a church roll. Get it off. Let’s see what happens to you.

You say, “Vayle, I won’t survive.” They’ll survive. And I’m living good. If you get too rough shape I’ll buy you a steak, honey. Ha, ha, ha, ha. It’s His steak so I might as well offer it to you.

People buy me steaks. This little widow lady gave me a steak the other day. It was real sweet of her. Said, “I don’t want to take that.”

She said, “I can afford it. I want to buy you a steak or I wouldn’t ask you for me to buy it.”

I said, “All right, I’m glad to eat with you, honey, let’s eat.”

God’s good. That’s what He says here. He said we had the sentence of death in ourselves, we were pressed out of measure, we went to the place where there was nothing but death looking us right in the face.

But he said, “That’s all right, that’s what we’re here for. That’s what it’s all about. What are you doing down in Egypt? I’m making it tough for you. And I’m going to lead you out with great possession.” See?

You follow what we’re talking about now? The measure of faith moves a mountain. There is nothing impossible to you because of your faith.

Now if there’s nothing impossible, then God reserves to Himself the right and He does do it, if you do not put yourself in a position to believe God in extreme position then God will put you there. And we hate it but we ought to learn to love it.

Paul said, like an eager wrestler, “I just can’t wait to get in that ring and just go at the enemy.”

And we say like an eager coward, “I just can’t wait to scoot off in the corner and forget all the fight.”

Come on now. This may not be popular, but it’s sure the truth. We are engaged in a battle. And it’s not with men; it’s with that force behind men. Not with flesh and blood, and you know if you’re fighting a thing that you can’t see, you’re in trouble.

You know how it is when you go into a dark place and a dog starts barking and you can’t see him? Oh, ho, boy.

Yes sir, I’ve been in that many a time, living back in the prairies of Canada where dogs come out and growl at you and bark at you and chase… five dogs would tear a leg off you. It’s not any fun.

It’s no fun in the daylight but it’s a whole lot worse in the dark. And if you can’t fight against somebody you can’t see; you’re fighting against principalities. You see, what is it? Believe God. God will take care of those things.

Now, what’s the next thing the Bible says here about God raising the dead? About these tough places we’re in? About this God that does certain things that has to do with our faith? He’s a certain kind of a God.

All right, it says here, that he calleth things which are not as though they were. Now, what’s that mean? Well, turn to Genesis 17, because that’s the life of Abraham we’re dealing in.

Remember, Abraham reckoned God could raise the dead. Now in this case here, it’s in the 17th chapter 5 and 6.

Now, you’ll notice that God did something peculiar here. He said, “See, I have made you a father of nations.” And He hadn’t done it at all. See.

Now that’s the funny thing about God. You know that? That is. That’s the quality or a characteristic about God that most people don’t want to listen to. They want to ignore it.

Because God said, “See, I have made you a father of multitudes.”

And he was a father of nothing. People say, “Well, I’m not going to say God did it but didn’t do it.” Well, bully for you. Why don’t you go and tell God how to run things? Huh?

You know more than Abraham; do we? Here’s this man Abram. Abram means ‘high father’ and he’s a father of nothing.

Now listen in the old days, they used to name people by certain characteristics physical about them or place they live. Like John lived by the brook. John who lived on the mountain, John who lived by the pine tree, John who lived by the gate. John who lived by the forest and so on.

They’re all name of John but they were designated a certain John because of location. Now this man Abram was called Abram, because he was a son of the king of the Ur of the Chaldeans, if I understand history, maybe history was wrong, but I understand that they worshipped the moon god, and that his home was lined with gold.

That Abraham was a great potentate in his own right. And therefore, his father, the king would call him Abram, a mighty father, figuring that he would have sons to propagate the race.

And now here is this great man sitting in the gate. And people would come by and they’d say, “Isn’t that a dignified handsome man?”

And they’d say, “What is your name?”

And he’d say, “My name is Abraham.”

“Abraham, well, father of multitudes. How many sons and grandsons do you have?”

“Well, I don’t have any.”

“You don’t have any?”

“Well, how is your name ‘father of multitudes’?”

“Well, God said that’s what I was, a father of multitudes. In fact I even changed my name.”

“Well, what was your name?”

“My name was Abram, ‘high father’.”

“Shhh, this guy’s got to be a kook. He… just got to be, something wrong.”

Here he is sitting in the gate close to a hundred years old talking about a God that said that he was a father of multitudes and he hasn’t got any children.

Now you see, God would not recognize the son of Hagar, because when Isaac came, He said, “Take now thy son, thy only son.” See?

God will not recognize anything that you produce unless it’s in the Spirit of God and that’s in faith. And he’d sit in his gate and say, “I am Abraham.”

You say, “I don’t think he should have said that.”

Well, God told him to say it, He said, “You shall not from this moment on ever call yourself Abram again because I have made you Abraham. And I will manifest it.”

And this man called himself what he was not, because God said so and he became what God said he was.

Now a lot of people don’t know that God has said certain things about Christians, and so therefore, they don’t understand this part of Scripture.

They say, “I’m not going to say, ‘bless God, that I’m healed,’ and anybody can see I’ve got this condition.” Well, that’s fine. “I’m not going to say God provided for me, if He hasn’t provided.”

See, they’re missing the whole picture; missing the whole picture because I want to tell you one thing, you were healed two thousand years ago. In fact, you were healed even before that.

The atonement, merely, manifested the price that God had paid before the foundation of the world. Because in Exodus he said, “I am the Lord who is continually healing you.” See?

There’s a strange language that God demands of faith. And that strange language is this; I have asked God. He has said it is mine, I have given Him my faith, it is mine, and it will be manifested. It is just like when you order out of Sears Roebuck catalogue.

You send them a check for what they said is available, and you say, “Well, that’s mine now, it will be here on the train.”

And when you put your faith in God and you have sincerely prayed in faith, the faith that God gave you, you have what God says is yours and it will be delivered. It didn’t say what day it would be delivered but it will be delivered.

And this man called himself what he was not yet manifested. Why? Because God calleth those things which are not as though they were and that has to do with your faith, because that’s what Abraham said. That’s what Paul said about Abraham.

You know something? If I read the Book of Revelation right, I think I read it right, that everything in the future was put in the past tense. Every future thing was put in the past tense, because it was by vision what would happen. It was past tense.

And we’ve got to learn to put things in the past tense and leave them there because that’s the rest of faith. Most people never enter into rest.

They’re agitated. We’re nervous. We’re distraught. Because we will not use this faith of God in the way that God gave it. Put it in the past tense.

That’s what it says in the Book of Mark concerning it. It says, “You say to this mountain be thou removed.” You can’t say that within yourself; it’s the faith of God within you giving you the ability to say it.

And you say, “Be thou removed and cast into the sea. And you don’t doubt.” Why? Because it’s God’s faith, human faith will doubt, but God’s faith does not doubt. See?

And then you put it in the past tense, he said, “Therefore whatsoever things you desire, believe that you have them and you shall have them.” See?

Abraham believed that he was what God said he was and he became what God said he was. And when you and I will believe that we are healed, we will become healed.

When we believe we’re provided for, we will be provided for. When we believe we have been protected, we will be protected.

See, you say, “You talk Christian Science.” I don’t talk Christian Science. Christian Science ignores what is in the world. They say it doesn’t exist. I know that these conditions do exist but I know we’ve got something bigger. [Blank spot on tape]

And then after saying that’s the devil’s lie by his having healed, one day that old leg shot out like that straight as a poker and she went up and down stumping up and down America like a female Finney.

See, she knew what she was talking about. See? You see, what I’m showing you. People don’t like to be pressed out of measure; they don’t like to go that limit, see? with their back to the wall.

They don’t want a hard case, they want it easy. God, I can believe You for a cold, but not for cancer. I can believe You for five dollars debt but not to lose my house.

I can believe that, you know, the kids get caught by the truant officer playing hooky from school, but not where they get thrown in jail because they stole something.

And Lord, I can believe that my husband, well, he might drink a little bit and booze a little bit, you know how it is and once in awhile, you know, well, go down and play poker with the boys, but Lord, not if he plays with that woman down there, that harlot and then he goes out and gets caught.

And gets you know, for bootlegging liquor and get put in the poky for three years and all that. Yeah, you…

Just don’t talk that way. Let’s be honest. What will happen tonight, where will you stand, what will be your attitude if something calamitous does take place?

Come on. See. You see what I’m trying to show you? That fear. “Oh God, oh God, don’t let it happen, oh God.” Why? Because you don’t think you can take it. That’s where you’re wrong.

With the faith of God you can more than take it, through the licking. See. Prayer must never be, “Oh God, don’t let it happen.” Prayer, must always be, “Lord, let me know I am fortified when it does happen.”

Huh? You think you can’t lose your shirt? You can lose everything you got.

I remember a dear old lady in Canada; oh, she was about seventy years of age. She loved the Lord. She was one of those crazy Full Gospel women and her son didn’t like it. But old Grandma had a few bucks.

Now he said, “Ma, look, tell you what I’ll do,” he said, “we need to build a new house,’ he said, “you don’t have a place to live,” he said, “we know you got a little bit of money,” he said, “I’ll tell you what to do, you give us the money, and we’ll build a house and you can come and live with us.”

And she said, “Ain’t that sweet.” He’s a good son. He wanted to do something nice, so she gave him the money.

And then he got the house and then he said, “Ma, look,” he said, “it’s beneath our dignity to have you going down to that crazy church. “Now,” he said, “either you quit going there or we kick you out.”

So he kicked her out. She went to church that night and she just went there with a blind stagger, she knew her blood pressure wasn’t so good at sixty-nine years of age anyway, white haired old girl, she had about thirteen operations for cancer, what have you, God had healed her.

So you know she had something to talk about, something to yell about, something to even dance about if she wanted to, although I wasn’t quite in favor of it. But she went to that meeting that night and her head was reeling, “Oh my God, I got kicked out and Lord, what will I do now?”

And a young fellow got up and prophesied and he said, “When I know people forsake thee and thy children shall cast thee out, I, the Lord thy God will pick thee up and provide for you.”

Nobody knew a thing about the old girl having been kicked out and before that night was over; she had a home to live in.

You listen to me; I’m going to tell you something. I don’t like talking about myself because I haven’t got much interesting to say about myself.

Once in a while it may be humorous but that’s about all. You can look at me and laugh as far as that goes, I don’t even have to be talking to you. If I would have had your …?…’s ability, if I’d got his nose, I’d have a fortune.

But you know, I’ve always wanted things, you know, like a home and all, and I was very, very unhappy, and it’s not unhappy, I mean not very, very desirous of a home and you know though, the Lord took it out of my heart to want a home.

I went down into Seattle, Washington area. I was preaching from Canada and I went down with a man named Henning, who was a contractor with quite a bit of money.

He said, “Brother Vayle,” he said, “I like your ministry.” He gave me a compliment which I wasn’t worthy of. He said, “It’s the closest to the apostle Paul I’ve seen.”

He said, “The way you pray for folk and tell them things and help them, and preach the Word of God and all.” And he said, “I’ve got a home,” and he said, “it’s a brand new house and the key’s yours if you just come down and live here.”

I said, “I don’t know. I don’t know if God wants me to take your house.” God didn’t want me to take his house.

But I went and God gave me a house. He didn’t give me a house to keep, because I don’t need a house to keep. He gave me a house to live in and year after year God has given me a house. It’s for the last year is the only year about that I’ve ever had to pay any kind of rent and that’s immaterial.

But I don’t need God to give me a house, in the sense of being without rental, because I’ve got enough money to pay the rent. See. You see, God doesn’t let you down. See.

If He’d take it away, in order that you’ll trust Him, that He’ll give it back. See. You don’t need to be afraid. I don’t need to be afraid. God will do it, but He’s awful peculiar the way He talks. He puts it in the past tense.

He said, “I want you to do it, too.” See. Count it done. Put it in the past tense. See. We’ve got to learn that tonight, brother/sister, because that’s a characteristic about God. It goes in the past tense.

Now, that’s what we said over here in the Book of Mark. And I’ve got to give you one illustration and let you go: 11th chapter of Mark, about the 24th verse. And the way it is written in the Greek is…

Now let’s turn and prove the truth of this in Luke the 13th chapter. Let’s read verse 11.

Now let’s… act the picture out. Here is this daughter of Abraham and she’s all bowed over. And Jesus sees her and he said, “Woman, you’re a daughter of Abraham, you’re a child of God.” Now he said, “You’ve been bowed for eighteen years.” He said, “You have been loosed.”

Now if she was like us, she’d say, “I heard he was a quack, telling me I’m loosed. Ha, I’m all bowed over. Now he shouldn’t say things like that. He wants to make a liar out of me. Now Lord, you know I haven’t been loosed so don’t you say that.”

Is that what she said? Now come on. Did he or did he not say, “Woman, you are loosed.” Not you’re going to be, but you have been. Why? Because he was God and He had to say it that way, because God calls things which are not as though they were because they got to be.

Because He’s immutable; He can’t change. He can’t lie. But we have never learned to talk that way and to act that way, and that’s why we never get from God the things we want and the things which are available to us. See.

God said to her, “You have been loosed.” And she wasn’t, manifestly loosed, but she was and she became loosed, because when He touched her, she was healed.

You all know the story I believe how that Brother Branham prayed… for a blind man. And he said, “THUS SAITH THE LORD you’re healed.” And the fellow wasn’t healed at all. He went out of the line very much wondering why.

He said, “The prophet of God said I’m healed, and I can’t see a thing.”

So he went back the next day and he got a hold of Billy Paul or somebody and he said, “Brother Branham said I was healed of my blindness and I can’t see a thing.”

They said, “Did he say, ‘THUS SAITH THE LORD’ you’re healed?”

“Absolutely.”

“Well,” they said, “there’s got to be a mistake, because if he said THUS SAITH THE LORD it never failed.”

So, he said, “Well, I know what he said because he said it to me.” And so they went and got Brother Branham. He said, “Play the tape and find out.” So they played the tape and the tape said, “THUS SAITH THE LORD you are healed.”

So, Brother Branham said, “Sir, don’t you fret, don’t you doubt, THUS SAITH THE LORD by vision never fails, you will get your eyesight, you are healed.”

And the fellow went down the street corner selling his papers like usual; he’d meditate upon God and he’d say, “Read all about it. Such and such happened in China, maybe Nebraska, or somewhere.”

And then once in a while he’d say, “Praise the Lord, I sure thank God for my healing.” It got to be kind of a joke.

And one day he went, this is a true story, and you know, you’ve heard the joke about it but this really happened. You heard it years ago, he went to the barber, sat in the barber chair, the village barber being kind of a wag, he said to the fellow, he said, “I hear there’s a man in town who prays.”

“Yeah,” he said, “Brother Branham was praying in the town. And bless God, I went there and got prayed for and bless God, I got healed.”

And the minute he said that his eyes popped open and he saw, and that’s when he jumped out of the chair and the barber had to run down the street to get… retrieve his material. See. You see, my brother, my sister, faith puts it in the past tense. See, I prayed to God, therefore, I have it.

T. L. Osborne went down to Mexico. They brought a little girl, deaf and dumb. He prayed for her, casting the spirit out, nothing happened. He prayed the second time, nothing happened. He prayed the third time, and nothing happened.

And he said, “Hold it; if I had cast it out according to God’s Word, it is cast out. She is healed.” He said, “Woman, your daughter is healed.”

You say, “That man shouldn’t tell a lie.”

He didn’t tell a lie; she was healed two thousand years ago, up on Calvary. Within a week the girl was chattering like a chipmunk. See.

Put it in the past tense. That’s what your faith allows. Why? Because when you write a check as a payment on a debt, you know that’s as good as taken care of.

There is a peculiar thing about God; He puts it in the past tense. He calls things which are not as though they were. See. Abraham became what God said he was. If you’ll do that tonight, you will become what God said you are which is healed, provided for or whatever.

You know, I know a man from Canada; he’s a very tough customer. See, if you think I’m a hard preacher, you ought to hear him some time because he is rough. He growls at people.

Person may come up and say, “I have a problem in my body and I’ve got so and so.” Show what it is or he’ll tell them what it is.

And he’ll lay hands on and he’ll pray in the Name of Jesus Christ and he’ll say, “Are you healed?” And they better say, “I’ve been healed.” Or he really lands on them.

“We prayed in Jesus Name, didn’t we? Where are you? You’re healed!” That’s just how he talks and he didn’t flinch.

But that’s the kind of a guy, although I did not really appreciate him or do I have any real great respect for him, because he’s more dynamic in faith than anything else in his life.

And therefore, he failed in many, many ways to prove it. But that same fellow went into a church where a little girl who was born with no knee caps, the hip bone, and the leg bone were welded in one solid piece.

And he prayed, and he said, “Now, little girl, listen to me, God’s healed you. And when you know it the same as I know it,” he said, “you get off that bench and run as hard as you can down the aisle.”

And within one minute she was galloping down that aisle, bending both knees which she didn’t have before. You see, people, we’re too soft. If anybody looks at us cross-eyed we go to pieces. God puts us through a trial, we can’t stand it, but you know it’s time we realized we’re in an army.

I prayed for a lady in Canada, said, many years ago now. Before I went to this city in Canada, which was Calgary, Alberta where Mrs. Black was, I had prayed for a man with tumor on the brain.

As I laid hands upon him, my eyeballs began to flutter and I had pain in my head or something like that, some kind of thing hit me, I began to feeling his symptoms. I said, “Lord, what is it?”

He said, “Tumor on the brain.”

And I said, “Sir, you have tumor on the brain.”

He said, “I know it. I’m dying of it.” I prayed for him; the man lived, he was completely healed.

I was praying for Mrs. Black; I used to know her years ago when I was much younger. I laid my hands on her and my eyeballs began to flutter and I said, “Sister, you have a tumor in the vicinity of your brain.”

I cursed the tumor and then I laid hands on her again, I felt the same fluttering, I took my hands off, I stood back and looked at her, I said, “What’s the matter with you?” I said, “Aren’t you going to use your faith or didn’t you believe what I said you got a tumor in the vicinity of your brain?”

She looked at her pastor and she said, “Pastor, the doctor said, ‘I have a tumor on the eyeball.’”

I said, “So what? My eyeball’s near my brain. Isn’t yours?” Just like I’m looking at you now, I looked at her because I was impatient with her what I thought was stupidity or something.

And I said, “We’re going to pray now and it’s going to go.” I laid my hands on her and prayed; she went to the doctor, there’s no trace of that tumor on her eyeball, completely gone.

See, what I’m trying to tell you? I’m not trying to tell you to get tough and to get mean. I’m just trying to tell you that this faith is a measure of backbone, instead of wishbone. It’s a measure of courage instead of coward. It’s a measure of valor instead of dishonor.

And you’ve got to learn how to use it. And the first way to learn to use it is to learn what God says about Himself in relation to this faith.

He raises the dead which means He has reserved to Himself the right, because of His gift to the measure of faith to put you in any position He wants to put you into and strangle you, straddle you, push you right down until death scares you or in other words, complete disintegration in a problem where you can’t do anything, you’re shut up.

You say, “Oh God, it’s all over.”

And God says, “No, it isn’t because I’m right here to make it all work out right.” Do you follow me now tonight?

Now look, get reoriented in your thinking, get lined up because you’re never going to make it work until you do. You know why? Because you’re always going to start thinking, “Oh, this thing isn’t going to happen, I’m going to use my faith, oh God, don’t let it happen.”

Listen, what would you think of a woman who saw her husband, a good fine man, nice boy, getting up in years, nervous, of course, perplexed.

What would you think of being in her boots if she saw him come home from a meeting and he began to talk to her like the Spirit of God had moved into him, so that he was an incarnation.

Say, “Lord God, don’t let it happen. God, don’t let my husband have that breakdown, oh Jesus, don’t let him get like this.”

But what if the next day he goes out and about with a friend and stands up and loudly screams out, commanding the fish in Jesus’ Name to come to the boat, so he can pick them up. See, it happened.

Now come on, be honest. How many prayers have you prayed to God, don’t let it happen? “Oh God, don’t let it go this far. Oh, Lord, I can’t take it if it goes that far.” You’ve been wrong. You’ve killed your faith.

Now listen to me, you wouldn’t pray and say, “Oh God, that oak tree of mine out there, I tell you Lord, I’d like an oak tree that… well, I’d like an oak tree that breaks in a five mile an hour gale.” You wouldn’t pray that, would you?

You’d say, “God give me an oak tree that stands up against the fury of a hundred mile gale and everything is cracking and popping and that old oak tree just a flashes back and forth, okay, wind keep on a blowing.”

Oh, you’d pray that way, wouldn’t you, huh? Sure, you’d pray that way. Now that’s the way faith prays. It doesn’t ask God to bring a little five mile wind on; it says, “God, let a hundred mile gale blow, but I’m ready for it.”

Paul the apostle stood on a deck of a boat and that old boat was being tempest tossed, and the people couldn’t even swim, a lot of them, and they said, “Oh Lord, don’t let the boat go down.”

And God said, “Sorry, I got to get rid of that boat.”

“Oh Lord, no, no, no, not the boat or we’ll drown.”

“Yes, yes, yes, and you won’t drown.”

“Oh, but I can’t swim.”

“You don’t need to swim.”

“One teeny weenie boat?”

“No!”

“Half a boat?”

“No! No boat!”

The ship goes to pieces and you get in that water and the water goes over you, you get a lungful because you got a mouthful, choking and spluttering,

“Oh God, am I going to drown?”

No, you may be a bit tossed up on that reef out there, half dead, but you’re going to make it to land. You say, “I didn’t think it was going to be that way.” That’s the way it is.

Now you know I’ve told you the truth or do you want to read the story of Dr. Robertson. “My father was rich, but a bootlegger. We really didn’t like the fact that he made his money that way but he did.

And I was a nice boy, so they sent me to seminary, and I was so clever I became president, and I went around building churches through people that were so nice, ho, ho, ho.” Nauseate you. Huh?

But you loved the Hudson Taylor. You loved the Dr. Lake. You loved the Kauffman. You loved the Judson. You loved those men, like a Brainer.

You loved those men that turned the world upside down for God because they went out in the wilderness and they stopped the storms and the battle because they knew they were more than conquerors. Huh?

Where do you find in the Bible about a man that God raised up? “Oh, here’s a dear sweet fellow. Yes, wasn’t he nice, his mother made him a little pinafore.

And the Lord said, ‘Son, you sit here and nothing will happen because I’m going to surround you with a hedge and it will be so sweet.’”

Where do you find that in the Bible? That’s right. That’s the 11th chapter of the book of Macaroni which is right by the book of Baloney. But it sure isn’t in the Word. Huh?

Oh, here’s the story of Ezekiel. “Oh, He was good to Ezekiel and Jeremiah, wasn’t that nice about Jeremiah. Put him in a king’s palace and these three little girls came by with fans, fanning and dropping grapes in his mouth. Oh, I love that.”

And over here, here’s Daniel, and he said, “Daniel, notice Daniel, I don’t ask you to put anything in the past tense, you know, everything is just right.” Is that how it is?

You don’t find that in the Word? Do you? Huh? What kind of faith you got? Mountain moving faith: raising the dead faith. What kind of prayer you got? I believe God; put it in the past tense. Huh? I’m a warrior.

Here comes John the Baptist. “Oh, I love John the Baptist. I liked him because he wore little slippers with little frills on them, and he had the cutest little hat that kept the sun off him and little Lord Fauntleroy pants, oh, he’s an original Blue Boy.

And Jesus said, “Isn’t he sweet, now there’s… a cute one.” Huh, John. I sure loved him. I thought it only right to put him in nice clothes and put him in a king’s palace and he had such a soft sweet voice, he never bothered anybody.

Oh I love John. John you’re so sweet. You know, John, you’re just so sweet and you understand things so good, I think I’ll make you a greater than any prophet born of a woman.”

Is that what He said? Then why do you read it that way? You say, “Well, I really don’t read it that way.” No, but you read it that way for yourself, don’t you? Huh? If you were John the Baptist, little Lord Fauntleroy, huh, nice little sand slippers, oh, come on now.

Let’s be honest, it’s time we repented, right? Time we confessed our sin, our sin of unbelief. Confess what we’ve been before God; time to get back to virility and ruggedness.

Bless God! Time to get back. If there’s not a wilderness to enter; to make our own wilderness and enter it. You follow me? In other words, go out there and blaze the trail.

My God, I hope we’re ready for that day when all the power of darkness comes upon us. I hope we’re ready for it. Friend, listen to me, as I stand here tonight. We will be near the verge of the day when you cannot buy or sell, without the mark of the beast.

We may not be in that day and we won’t be, in that day with the rest of them, but just before we may have to go through that very thing because of persecution. Then where are we going to be? Where’s it going to be? If I can’t lift one pound tonight, I doubt if I’ll lift ten tomorrow.

May God help us to see this and I’ve taken a lot of time, more time than I wanted, but I’ve got to show you this, here is where we are failing. We don’t understand when we deal in faith exactly what God said about Himself. I raise the dead, somebody’s got to die.

Somebody’s got to go to the place where it takes God to do it, because you can’t do it. See? And “He calleth the things which are not as though they were, I’ve shielded you, I’ve provided for you.” Say, thank God, it’s mine and march on. You follow me?

All right, let’s rise and be dismissed.

Gracious Heavenly Father, we know Lord, that we’re a little bit too much like Israel, who not only didn’t know what belonged to their peace but didn’t even understand what little they thought they knew about what belonged to them.

And Lord tonight, I’m not standing here because I’m preaching as though I were in judgment upon my brothers and sisters in this building.

For God I’ve only preached out of my heart, what I know to be my own frustration because I’ve been so guilty of crying out when the way was dark, when the way was steep, when the way was rugged, when the thorns were so sharp, when the rocks were so cruel, when the dogs were so loud in their baying and their tearing at my garments.

And Lord, I have not wanted to go near the valley of the shadow of death, let along walk through it, even when You said, “I’ll be with you.” I have not wanted to put my feet in the water when You said, “Fear not, for they’re not going to overflow you.”

Many times I’ve run from the enemy, O God, when You said, “I’ll raise up a standard against them.” I’ve Lord, hated it when people have criticized, when I knew that You said every tongue that rises against you, I’ll condemn because this is the heritage of the saints.

And their defense is of the Lord. And Lord, I haven’t been honest with You. I’ve been wrong and I repent. No wonder we haven’t seen this faith manifest. And Lord, I haven’t put things in the past tense in the way that I ought to. To count them done, because that’s what Your faith does.

O God, forgive us all tonight, I pray. And help us from this moment on Lord, to never shun, to never shirk, to never turn back, without a qualm, without a quiver, without quailing, without complaining and murmuring, and they’re the worst of the works.

May we face up to reality. We who are more than conquerors, even though we’re counted as sheep for the slaughter, even though we’re killed all the day long. We only bear about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ that the life also may be manifest.

God, tonight, forgive us, because we wanted manifested life apart from death. We’ve wanted a victory apart from a battle. We’ve wanted healing apart from a sickness. We’ve wanted provision apart from a need.

And we’ve been wrong and we repent and we confess it tonight, O God, and humble ourselves and say, “Forgive us and wash us in Your Blood, because we’ve been altogether wrong, and Thou hast been altogether right. And Thou art God and we respect Your right to do with us as you want to do and how you want to do it.”

Forgive us for not understanding and enjoying, let alone enduring Your authority. We’ve so glibly said, “Our Lord reigneth,” and then we’ve denied it by our action.

Forgive us tonight, O God, I mean it, Lord, I’m sincere as much as I know within me. Forgive me, and forgive this people, O God, tonight in the Name of Jesus Christ. Forgive us, O God, because we’re unworthy, sacred vessels, so unworthy.

God I’m burdened about myself, Lord, burdened, oh God, burdened, oh God, burdened, burdened, oh God, because I saw a man like Your servant, the prophet walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

And he knew, feared no evil for Thou were with him, forgave his enemies, who made peace with those who would destroy him, prayed for them and loved those. And when the chips were down in the greatest and hottest battle, he shone the brightest because his conception was so perfect.

O God tonight, let that same Spirit rest and abide upon each of us tonight, because we have that same Spirit of faith. Lord tonight, from this moment on, somehow we’re believing. And we believe, Lord God, something I believe is happening, I know. From this moment on we’re looking. Hallelujah!

Not only let the enemy come in like a flood but shout, “Enemy come in like a flood because I’m ready for you.” From now on like Paul, an eager wrestler, chaffing at the bit, ready to enter into the arena, from now on because we understand this faith, hallelujah.

Surely that’s it Lord, we do understand. And thank You for understanding. Oh Holy Spirit of God who resides in us, we open our minds and our hearts to retain forever, indelibly imprinted upon our very souls, the truth we’ve learned tonight.

So that from this moment on, every venture of faith becomes a joy, a delight, not to prove our God, because He needs no proving, but to prove our faith which is worthy.

Now unto the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the only wise God be all power, and honor and glory, in these lives here as we become for truth, the Word Bride living epistles read and known of all men, and thank You for it, O God, Amen.

God bless you. I trust every heart tonight prayed with my heart, it’s the only way I know how to pray, that’s the only prayer I could pray, the prayer I could pray, may God forgive us for our unbelief, may we from now on understand what it’s all about.

God bless you, you’re dismissed. The Lord bless you; I’ve been so glad to have you.