Life Works through Faith
We need to understand the principle upon which life works. Our faith is like a conduit. If you take a small wire and try to use an electric iron pulling 1200 watts, the wire will burn up. Sometimes, our faith is just like a small wire trying to carry a large current. It is able to light a small bulb, but it is not a high-powered light to bring forth deliverance.
You have to believe God in such a way that nothing at all can touch your belief. If you do not believe, then do not pray. If you are asked to pray for somebody’s healing and you do not have the faith for it, then do not pray. For when you pray and you know that you do not believe, it will destroy the faith you have. The life that comes into you through faith is what you impart. We have seen this work time and time again.
Let us look at the story of Jesus Christ and the woman with the issue of blood. It is written in Luke 8:43-48, “And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched. And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately. And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.”
This story clearly outlines the principle that lies behind the impartation of life from one person to another. Jesus Christ is the great life source. When we are connected to him, we draw life from Him and dispense it to others.
The faith to believe must come from God. There are some things you cannot believe at the moment. For example, to get up and fly (to be translated), we cannot believe it as of yet. We cannot force ourselves to believe a thing out of our own minds. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for…” (Hebrews 11:1) It is a substance. When you hope for something, you must first receive the substance before faith works.
I have a friend who was translated out of prison and from execution and found himself standing out in the busy street. You can believe God and He will perform His will in you. That is what Enoch did – he believed God and it was done.
In my life, when I cannot believe that, which I know I should believe, I give myself to fasting and somewhere down the line in the fast, the reality of the thing comes to me. Fasting brings my faith to a peak, where impossible things take on new perspectives. After we have received the faith, we should pray according to the will of God. You know you can do it but will not do it unless you know God’s will in the matter.
God told Jesus Christ to go down to the pool of Bethesda. He found many sick people lying there waiting for the moving of the water and for someone to throw them in. Jesus did not heal but one of them, because this was the will of the Father. God wanted just one man to be healed at that pool that day. That one man was a key to the deliverance of many. In other words, God is in the business of preaching the Gospel. God is not in the business of healing bodies. The major thrust of the healing ministries is to heal people and the preaching of the Gospel becomes secondary to miracles and healing. God would rather see the souls saved than the bodies healed. Of course, if God can save you by healing you, that will He do.
I was in Texas once and a sister came to me and said, “Brother Ces, I am absolutely grieved over a situation that I saw today.” She told me of a case where a white man in a restaurant shot a black boy in the head because he stepped on his toe. She wanted me to go to the hospital and pray for this boy. She was so burdened and grieved over the situation that her grief was transferred to me. So I went to the hospital.
The boy was in intensive care, lying on his face on a kind of net and I could see him through the net. When I requested to see him, the nurses laughed and nonchalantly led me to the room where he was. He was not yet dead but unconscious and I knew that he could hear me.
I told him that God had sent me there to offer him life. The Spirit of prophecy came upon me and I was able to tell him that God had called him, but he had turned his back upon God and was now at the end of the road. I said, “If you do not accept this offer I am bringing you today, you will die and go to hell. But if you accept Jesus Christ now, God will deliver you and you will walk out of here.”
I waited for two or three seconds. As soon as I got up and walked to the door he called out, “Thank you.” I wondered if it were my imagination so I went back and went over what I had said before. This time I saw his lips trembling. With a great effort, he said, “Thank you,” again. I went home and the boy with the bullet in his head lived. God gave him life.
You do not really know what you have! But you have the power to draw someone back from the grave if you only believe!
