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THE FORCE OF FAITH – BY LES D. CRAUSE (TAKEN FROM: The Way of Blessing)

The Force of Faith

BY LES D. CRAUSE

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The Force of Faith

By Les D. Crause

Copyright © 2000 by Global Ministry Resource Network. All rights reserved. P.O. Box 502208 San Diego, California 92150 United States of America Published by G.M.R. CHRISTIAN MARKETING E-mail Address: [email protected] Web Address: www.gmr-marketing.com

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CHAPTER 1

Misconceptions of What Faith Is ···

et us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left [us] of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.For the gospel was

preached to us, as well as to them: but the word preached did not benefit them, not being mixed with faith in those that heard [it].

For we who have believed enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he spoke in a certain place of the seventh [day] in this way, And God rested the seventh day from all his works. And in this [place] again, If they shall enter into my rest.

Seeing therefore it remains that some must enter into it, and those to whom it was first preached did not en-ter in because of unbelief:Again, he limits a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a [chronos] time; as it is said, To day if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.

For if Joshua had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.There remains therefore a rest to the people of God.For he that has entered into his rest, has also ceased from his own works, as God [did] from his.

~ Hebrews 4:1 – 10 ~



We have looked in the Way of Blessing series at principles that are involved in walking in and entering into the blessing of God. We looked at some basic and some practical principles. And then we looked at a whole structure of things that we can apply, understand and put into our lives to make sure that we walk into the blessing of the Lord and into everything that is available to us in Christ and that God has made available to us.

As you apply these principles they will always work, because they are not my principles, but they are based on the Word of God. They are God’s principles, and God works by principles. God works according to His Word. He will never work contrary to His Word, and He has revealed Himself to us in His Word and through His Spirit, and He has indicated to us how He works. He works in accordance with what He has taught in His Word, and what He has revealed by His Spirit.

Misconceptions About God Unfortunately a lot of people have the idea that God, being sovereign, can do as He pleases when He pleases. They think that He can change His mind when He pleases, and that today He may want to go in a certain direction, but tomorrow He might decide to do things a little bit differently. We become like little children who think that today it is okay to do this, but tomorrow mommy gets mad at me for doing that, because to-morrow she doesn’t feel like letting me do it.

And so today it is right for me to do it and I should do it this way, but tomorrow when I do it the same way it is not right anymore and so I get into trouble. So I get to the situation where I don’t really know what I am supposed to be doing and what I am allowed to do. I don’t know how my mother and fa-ther are going to think, and I really don’t know where I am at!



God is Consistent That doesn’t work too well in the natural home, and it doesn’t work too well in a natural relationship between parents and children. How much less is it going to work with our heavenly Father. Our heavenly Father is not fickle like us human beings. He doesn’t get up on the wrong side of bed in the morning in a bad mood. He doesn’t get up not feeling like doing something today. He is consistent. He is always the same and He never changes! He says, “I am the Lord, I change not!” Yesterday, today and tomorrow, Jesus is always the same and He always works the same way.

People have this idea that says, “Well you never really can tell how God is going to work.” Then we come with this famous quotation based on who knows what, certainly not the Word. It says, “God works in mysterious ways.”

So mysterious that sometimes He doesn’t even know it Him-self! Certainly we can’t know it, so how will we know how God works? The guys who formulated this obviously were married to a regular type of woman who changes, and who tries to keep her husband in a position where he never knows what is going on.

You know that old saying that says, “Guys, you never can tell what a woman is thinking. Man she changes from day to day. No man can understand a woman. She’s too deep.”

Women are God’s wonderful creation, and men you are wrong. God understands a woman. He made her. But you see, God is not a woman. He isn’t a man either thank goodness! God is consistent. He doesn’t change according to the weather. He doesn’t change according to the way He feels. He doesn’t change on purpose just to confuse us and to throw us into a situation where we don’t know what to do next. God is consis-tent, and when He says He is going to do something He will



always do it. When He says He will do something in a particu-lar way He will always do it.

Granted there are different ways to do things, but you cannot predict what method God will use to answer your faith. One thing is for sure though. He will respond to your faith, your hope and your love. And when you speak His authority and His Word and power into the earth, that authority and that power will go out and it will accomplish that for which it is sent. How the answer will come you cannot tell. God has many means available to Him that we don’t have.

Misconceptions of Faith In this chapter I want to get into the kind of mistakes that we make in applying these principles, because the principles al-ways work. If they are not working it is not God who has de-cided that today He is not going to work that way anymore. It is you who have failed to understand God’s ways. It is you who have failed to correctly apply the clear principles that God has revealed in His Word, and you who have tried to squeeze God into a mold that He never was in. It is you who is trying to make God do something that He never promised to do in His Word.

We need to be very clear on this, and we need to understand very clearly how God does work and how the forces of the rec-reated spirit operate. We saw that there were three main forces in the spirit - faith, love and hope. We looked at them briefly as we looked at the Way of Blessing on the spiritual forces. I covered faith, hope and love, each in a fair amount of detail, but not that much. So in this chapter I will go into a lot more detail.

I want to start with the first foundation and the most powerful force of the lot, which is the force of faith. We will look at faith and try and understand a little better exactly what faith is and



how it works, what faith isn’t and how it doesn’t work. Then we will begin to understand a little bit more clearly exactly how God does work, and how we should operate, function, and flow in and with the Spirit of God. Then we will have some clearer understanding as to why, if you have begun to apply these principles and they have not worked, there will be a reason why they haven’t worked.

No Striving Firstly, the Scripture that I covered at the beginning quite clearly says that God has a rest for us. So I want to look at the first misconception of faith, and that is that faith involves an effort, and that it is hard work.

You say, “It’s easy for you to talk about believing, but man it is so difficult to believe! It is so difficult to have faith. It’s a strain. It’s hard. I get up in the morning and I don’t feel like having faith. I’ve got to force myself to have faith. I have to grit my teeth and pluck up all that I have and believe!”

That is not faith. Faith is a rest. How do I know? Let’s look at the Master of faith. In Matthew 8:24 the Scripture says this: And a great storm arose on the sea, so that the ship was cov-ered with the waves: but he was asleep.

Jesus was asleep. Wasn’t He afraid they would drown? Didn’t He stand up there and make sure He got His faith in gear to keep that ship afloat? No, He just went to sleep. It was very careless of Him wasn’t it?

When the disciples came and they woke Him and said, “Lord, save us. We’re drowning,” He turned to them and said, “Why are you afraid, oh you of little faith?”

You say, “Well if you had to face the problems that I have, you would be afraid too.”



I am sure I would, and we are! But you see if you are afraid then faith is not there, because faith has a rest. Faith has a confidence. It can go to sleep in the middle of the storm.

You say, “What if the boat sinks and we drown?”

“Then I go to heaven.”

“What if I don’t get well? What if my sickness gets worse and I die?”

“Then you go to heaven.”

“What if the money doesn’t come in and we can’t pay our debts?”

“Then they don’t get paid.”

“There’s no food in the house!”

“Then fast. You’ll probably get more spiritual.”

That is not the kind of answer you were expecting was it?

You say, “But if I believe, surely those things won’t happen? Surely if I am believing I won’t get sick and die. Surely if I am believing the finance will come in?”

You said it - that little two-letter word ‘if’. You are quite right. If you are believing, the provision will come. If you are believ-ing, healing will come to you. If it doesn’t you were not believ-ing.

You say, “Well, I’ve got to get in there and start believing!”

We will look shortly at how you can increase your faith and how you can come to the place of believing. But I want to tell you this. If you don’t have the faith, tossing and turning and worrying all night will not produce it! Wringing your hands in despair will not produce it. Gritting your teeth and trying to



fight through will not produce it either. You cannot create faith with effort. Faith is a rest.

You need to grasp it and get it firmly in your spirit right from the word go. If there is no peace in you, if there is no rest, or if you cannot go to sleep at night without worrying about your circumstances, then you are not in faith. That is a hard one isn’t it? Faith knows that it knows that it knows. And if I know, then what am I worried about? What am I afraid of if I know that I know that I know? Faith is not there if you are having that problem.

The Obedience Issue Then there is the next mistake that we make, and that is the idea that faith is based on our obedience.

I am sure you have heard people say, “Well God led me to do that. He led me to give up my job and to go into ministry and wait on Him. Therefore I’m in the will of the Lord, and if I have done what God has asked me to do, surely He will provide? Surely He will not let me go down?”

I know you are looking puzzled and saying, “But that’s right. It’s not wrong.”

Let’s look at a passage of Scripture here. In Matthew 14:28 to 30 Jesus came to the disciples and He was walking on the wa-ter. They looked out and they were afraid until they realized that it was Jesus walking on the water. It says: And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it is you, tell me to come to you on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter had come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw [that] the wind [was] strong, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried [out], saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth [his] hand,



and caught him, and said to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt?

I want you to see something here. Peter had his theology quite right. It was very much in order, just the way we think.

Peter thought to himself, “I would like to walk on the water the way Jesus is doing, but I can’t do that unless it is His will, right? After all, how can you do something that is out of the will of God? Surely you need to know His will first?”

And so Peter tried to find out the will of the Lord. He said, “Lord if that’s you, you tell me to come out to you, then I’ll walk on the water with you.”

Jesus said to him, “Come. Yes it is my will. Come on Peter, walk on the water.”

I can see Peter getting out onto the water and saying, “Wow, the Lord’s told me to come and walk with Him on the water. If He can do it, so can I. Here we go. Let’s walk!”

Was he in the will of the Lord? Was he obedient? Absolutely. Did he walk on the water? Absolutely not! He looked at the winds and the waves and he was filled with fear and doubt. He was in the will of God. He was obedient. He was doing exactly what the Lord had told him to do, but he was not doing it in faith. And if Jesus wasn’t there to save him when he cried out and said, “Lord help. Save me!” Peter would have drowned - in obedience.

Don’t ever think that because you have done what God told you to do that now it is all up to Him. It doesn’t really matter whether you believe or not. Unfortunately a lot of people have this idea that God is sovereign and He will do what He wants to do. As long as you have obeyed His will and are in His will and have gone and done what He told you to do, as long as you have done that God will take care of everything else. You don’t



need to worry. If you are afraid that is okay, as long as you are obedient! It is not true, because God works through faith, and faith and obedience are not the same thing. Yes obedience is absolutely necessary, but faith is absolutely essential!

Not Affected By Sin Faith is not based on our commitment or on our faithfulness. As you begin to trust God and exercise these principles to look to the Lord for His provision, for a miracle of healing or for a provision of any kind and it doesn’t come, the first thing that you think is that perhaps you have sinned. You think that per-haps you have failed the Lord, and because you have failed Him, your faith isn’t working.

So you come to Him and you confess your failure and your sin saying, “Lord, please forgive me for doing that.”

But it doesn’t make any difference! Things still don’t happen, and you think, “The Lord’s mad at me. He’s forgiven me, but He is still mad at me.”

Let me show you how I know that this does not affect your faith? I want to go to Luke 22:31 to 34. The Lord is speaking to His favorite disciples, Simon Peter. He said: And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has desired [to have] you, that he may sift [you] as wheat: But I have prayed for you, that your faith does not fail: and when you are converted, strengthen your brothers. And he said to him, Lord, I am ready to go with you, both into prison, and to death. And he said, I tell you, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, be-fore you shall three times deny that you know me.

You know the story. Three times Peter denied that he knew Je-sus. Three times he refused to acknowledge that he was part of Jesus or related to Him in any way. He failed miserably - about as miserably as a person can fail in sin.



But Jesus said, “Peter I have prayed for you that your faith will not fail.” He was saying, “Peter, the devil is going to sift you as wheat, but I want to tell you something. Your faith will not fail! You are going to fail Peter. You will fail miserably tonight. But Peter your faith is not going to fail. And because your faith is not going to fail, when you come back into the flow again Pe-ter, then take that faith that you will have and strengthen your brethren. Take the leadership and pour into them what I’ve given you.”

Condemnation Robs Faith Faith is not based on our commitment, on our faithfulness and our sinless-ness or righteousness. Faith is never based on our personal righteousness or holiness. This is one of the biggest stumbling blocks that Satan throws at us when our prayers are not answered, when our faith is not answered, and it is the biggest weapon that he uses to steal from you. As the Scrip-ture says, “Beloved if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence towards God and we receive the things that we ask of Him.”

This means that if your heart does condemn you, then you do not have confidence towards God and you cannot come to Him and receive anything from Him. The enemy will rob you of your faith by condemning you and bringing you under condemna-tion. I want to tell you though that even when you have failed and even when you have sinned, you can still have faith. It is your faith that will keep you going through. It is your faith that got you saved in the first place, and it is your faith that will keep you saved.

It is your faith that will take you through to the end, because you will fail miserably along the way, maybe even every day. You will keep tripping and falling, but your faith will hold on - and it will persevere. You just hang onto it. Even when you have failed and the enemy comes with his accusation you just



hit him in the teeth with the Word and say, “So what devil! I haven’t failed as badly as Peter! But his faith didn’t fail, and my faith will not fail, so don’t think you are going to come and steal it from me.”

My faith will not fail. I will fail. I fail all the time. I admit it freely. I’m a useless miserable failure. I have messed up eve-rything I’ve put my hands to, I admit it. I can’t do anything right. I open my mouth and put my foot in it. I upset people and rub them up the wrong way, and I don’t have the courage to stand for the Lord at times when the pressure is on. But I believe Him. I believe His Word and I trust Him, and my faith will remain strong throughout!

Faith Can Increase Another misconception that people have is that faith is of one measure only. You will find this amongst many even who claim to be faith teachers. They will take the passage in Romans 12 where Paul says, “...according as God has given to us the measure of faith.”

They say that God has given us a measure of faith. That there is only one measure of faith, and that if you are a believer you have that measure of faith, and that your faith doesn’t grow, but it is constant. You just need to learn how to use it and re-lease it.

Well I am afraid the Scripture doesn’t say that, and the meas-ure of faith that Paul is speaking about there is the measure of faith or the amount of faith that is required for you to fulfill the ministry that God has given you. If you read the context of what he was speaking about, he is speaking about how God has given to each person a different ministry.

He says, “Whether you teach or exhort or encourage or what-ever you are doing, do it according to the measure of faith that has been given to you. Don’t try and exercise a ministry that



you haven’t been given enough faith to do. When God moves you into a new ministry He’ll give you the faith to do that new ministry.”

In 2 Corinthians 10:15 Paul says: Not boasting of things beyond [our] measure, [that is], of other men’s labors; but having hope, when your faith is in-creased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly...

Paul told the Corinthians that their faith could be increased. It was not a fixed measure. He told the Thessalonians the same thing. In 2 Thessalonians 1:3 he says: We are bound to thank God always for you, brothers, as it is fitting, because your faith is growing exceedingly, and the [agape] love of every one of you all toward each other is abounding;

He said, “Your faith is growing.” Don’t ever think that your faith will stagnate and reach the point of growth that it cannot develop any further.

Now I want to tell you something. You don’t have to make it that big. A little grain of mustard seed could blow the nearest mountain into the sea! You don’t need a lot of it, and you do not need a lot of growth. Of course, the other aspect of the mustard seed is that if you want it, it grows automatically. So just take your grain of mustard seed and get working on that. Plant it in your heart and let it begin to grow, expand and get bigger and bigger. We have looked at this in so many of our messages and teachings, how that our faith will grow to a level according to the thing that we are trusting for.

We saw the birth process and the incubation and all of the principles that are involved there. Don’t ever stop growing in your faith. Don’t ever think that your faith has reached a level



that is good enough. Because as soon as you have reached a level of faith, what will happen is God will lead you into a situa-tion that will require more faith than what you were using be-fore.

Faith for Finances I remember when the Lord first did this to me. I had trusted Him and He had provided a phenomenal amount of money, enough for me to pay off all my debts. Now I had packed up my job and I was waiting on Him and trusting Him, and my faith had grown because I had learned more. I had been in the Word and I had been in the Spirit. My faith was greater than it was at the beginning, but I could not even get enough money to put food on the table for the next week.

I said, “Lord, what is going on here? You gave me that large amount before when my faith was small. Now my faith is much bigger, and I can’t even get my basic needs provided!”

The Lord said, “It is because your faith isn’t big enough.”

I said, “What do you mean Lord?”

He said, “Sure, you have more than enough faith. You’re right. You have a lot more faith than what you had before, and you have more than enough faith to get what you need. But what I have called you to will require a lot more faith than that.” He said, “I’ve brought you into a situation now where you will have to make your faith grow before the release will come. So instead of sitting and waiting, make your faith grow. When your faith reaches the level that it should be it will be like the scales. The balance will swing and your provision will come.”

You must make your faith grow. Faith is never stagnant.



God’s Will and Faith People also believe this other misconception that faith is based on God’s arbitrary will, and that as I said at the beginning, God will change His mind. Paul uses an interesting little phrase in Romans 3. He says in verse 27: Where [is] boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? No: but by the law of faith.

Faith is a law just like the law of gravity, and just like Newton’s laws of motion and all the other scientific laws and the great big long formulas that you learned when you did physics at School. It always works the same way. We looked at this under the Laws of the Spirit. Faith is a law of the Spirit. It will always work, and it will always work the same way. God will not change His mind.

You need to try and grasp these misconceptions, and if you have been failing in applying these principles, then have a fresh look at yourself and your own heart and see what thoughts have been going through your mind. I will guarantee that one or more of these misconceptions have been there in order to steal your faith and to get you out of what God has for you, and to steal from you the provision that He has for you.

And so that is what faith is not about. So what does faith in-volve? We saw what faith is as we studied this originally, but what really is involved with faith? How do I use it? How is it expressed and developed, and how does it function within me?



CHAPTER 2

What Faith Really Is ···

Mutter Away!

irstly, faith involves muttering to yourself.

You say, “But that is the first sign of madness isn’t it?’

Well you have to be mad to have faith, don’t you? It is totally contrary to the world. You step out in faith and peo-

ple think you are mad. You pack up your job and your business to go overseas to a foreign land where you can’t work and there is no income to do the work of the Lord.

They say, “Are you mad?”

“No I’m going in faith.”

“But you’re mad!”

“Yeah, probably. But I’m going in faith.”

I can imagine what Abraham’s relatives said to him when God said, “Now I want you to leave your family, your home and your country, and I want you to go out to a land that I will show you?”

“Where is it Lord?”

“I’ll show you when you get there.”

“Okay Lord, if you say so. I’m off.”



I can imagine him calling his wife and saying, “Hey, we’re moving.”

“Where to?”

“Well I’m not quite sure just yet.”

“You mean we’re moving out of town?”

“No, a little bit further than that.”

“So where are we moving?”

“We’re moving to another country.”

“Another country! Which country?”

“I don’t know.”

I can see her looking at him skew and saying, “He’s lost it. He’s lost it, he really has. All this religion has gone to his head. He’s gone mad.”

God said to Abraham, “You go out and I will show you where to go.”

The Scripture says that by faith Abraham went out. God had made him a promise and he obeyed.

So when you start muttering to yourself, don’t worry if people say, “This guy is nuts. He’s mad.”

Just say to them, “Oh, I’m just being a faith guy! I’m just be-ing a faith person here. I’m muttering to myself.”



Woman With the Issue of Blood Well what should you mutter to yourself? Let’s look at a couple of Scriptural examples. In Matthew 9, a woman who had suf-fered with a flow of blood for twelve years came behind Jesus and touched the hem of His garment, “...for she said within herself, ‘If I can just touch His garment I will be healed.’ “

I can see this woman walking in the crowd and she is saying, “If I can just touch His garment I will be healed. If I can just... touch His garment I will be healed.”

She is muttering it. She is speaking to herself. She is saying it in herself over and over again. She is seeing it, she is visualiz-ing it and she is saying it. “If I can touch His garment I will be healed.”

Joshua Now let me show you another person who muttered the Word. He is in the Old Testament. Joshua 1:8 says: This book of the law shall not cease [to come] out of your mouth; but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it: for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

I can see Joshua muttering to himself and saying, “I’m going to take Moses’ place. I’m going to lead the Children of Israel. I’m going to go and destroy that big giant. I am going to take away his land. I’m going to get in there and I am going to take all that wonderful fruit instead of this miserable manna that we have to eat every day. I’m going to do it! I’m going to put my foot on the land, just like God said to me. I’m going to drive the people off and I’m going to conquer them.”



I could see him saying it over and over again. He kept the Word in His mouth. He kept muttering it, meditating on it, thinking it, visualizing it and picturing it. It became so real to him that in the middle of the battle when he could see that they needed more time he just turned to the sun and said, “You will not go down until I say so!”

He was nuts. He was mad. How could a stupid little man talk to the sun? Didn’t he know anything about the solar system? Didn’t he know about the circuits of the earth around the sun? Didn’t he know it had nothing to do with the sun going down, but that it was the earth that was turning? How could he tell the sun that it would not go down? But you know what? It didn’t go down!

That puny little madman stopped the earth in its rotation for almost a complete day. Why? Because he had been muttering Scripture to himself, and if he had the New Testament he would have muttered passages like, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. With God all things are possible to him who believes.” He had been muttering to him-self until it was so real to him and he was just so full of it that nothing was impossible to him.

Positive Talk Do you want faith to operate in your life? Try talking to your-self. Try muttering to yourself continually, all the time. As you go through the day say, “I’m going to do this. I’m going to succeed. I’m going to do great things for the Lord. I’m going to receive what I have desired of the Lord. My God will provide my needs.”

Speak it over and over and over and keep speaking it over and over, so that when you stop speaking it carries on speaking. You know what it is like. Have you ever reached the point where you stopped speaking and are quiet and you can just



hear this voice talking and talking inside of you? Sometimes you just wish you could tell it to shut up! Most of the time when it talks it is negative.

It says, “You’re going to fail. You’re going to die. You’re going to starve.”

Change the voice! You have been running the wrong recording. It is only playing back what you put in there though. You keep putting the wrong thing in there and what do you think is go-ing to play back? Start muttering the Word of God. Start mut-tering good things and start saying, “I will do this. I put my foot on the land. It will... it is... it’s mine!” Say it over and over.

You say, “But I can’t do that during the day while I’m work-ing.”

I didn’t say talk out loud. I said mutter to yourself. You can do it. You can mutter to yourself most of the day within your heart even while your mind is busy with something else. Begin to program it in and program it in, until your heart is full of it and until that voice begins to talk back to you again as you lie in bed at night. When you wake up in the middle of the night it is talking to you. When you wake up in the morning it is talking to you.

It is rising up in you and says, “Today my needs are provided. Today I have what I asked for. Today I walk in victory! Today I walk in prosperity. It is mine. I will succeed. Today is going to be a wonderful day!”

Is that what you hear when you wake up? I think probably not. You have been muttering the wrong thing.

You hear, “I don’t know what we are going to do. If money doesn’t come in soon we’re in trouble. What am I going to do?”



That is what you have been muttering. That is what you have been building.

Persist Faith involves humble persistence. There was a woman who came to the Lord. The Scripture says she was a woman of Ca-naan. She was not an Israelite. She was part of the heathen nations and she came and said, “Have mercy on me, Lord. My daughter is troubled with a demon.”

The Scripture says, “He answered her not a word.”

The disciples came and they said to Him, “Lord send her away. She’s nagging us too. Please, get rid of this woman. She’s a pain!”

Jesus turned to her and He said, “I was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

In other words He said, “No.”

She came and begged Him to heal her daughter and He said no. Why did He say no? Because she did not have a legal right to help. She was not under the Covenant of Israel.

Israel was in Covenant with Almighty God and Israel had a right to say, “I desire this deliverance and this victory.” It was part of their Covenant, and if she was walking in this Covenant and obeying the terms of it, God was obligated to give her what was His part and responsibility of the Covenant. This woman was not in Covenant with God. She was not of Israel and she had no right at all to ask the Lord for anything.

The Scripture says she came and worshipped Him and said, “Lord help me.”

He turned to her and He said, “It’s not right to take the chil-dren’s bread and cast it to the dogs. You’re a dog.” That is



what He was saying. “You’re not one of my children. You’re one of the dogs. You expect me to take my kids food and give it to the dogs?”

That really seemed nasty didn’t it? But the Lord was just stat-ing what was a truth. She had no right under the Covenant at all.

She said, “That’s true Lord, but the dogs eat from the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

This woman would not take no for an answer! There was no way she was going to take no for an answer.

He said, “You can’t have the food.”

She said, “Okay, I’ll take the crumbs. Hey, you can’t deny me the crumbs. Nobody wants to eat them. You drop the crumbs on the floor and you don’t pick them up and eat them. They’re dirty. I’ll have the dirty crumbs thanks.”

She was persistent and she was humble, and she was prepared to receive from the crumbs that would fall off.

Jesus answered her and said, “Oh woman, great is your faith.”

She was so convinced that the Lord was able to give her that she reached out and she took it. And do you know what she did? She moved back to the original Covenant that God had given to Abraham where God said that in him all the nations of the earth would be blessed. And although she didn’t have a right to the Covenant blessings under the Covenant of Israel which came down through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the Mosaic Covenant, she went back to the original Covenant with Abraham where God said, “In you everybody who believes and every nation will be blessed!”

She tapped into that part of the Covenant and by faith she reached out.



Jesus responded now, not as a Jew. He did not respond as one who was coming under the Jewish Covenant. He came as a Son of Abraham and He said, “You’ve got what you asked for!”

Determined Faith In Mark 2, four people came to bring their friend to Jesus. The house was so crowded they couldn’t get in so they broke a hole in the roof and dropped him down right in the middle of the people. The Scripture says in verse 5: When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the [one who was] sick of the palsy, Son, your sins are forgiven you.

We know the story of how Jesus healed him. Jesus saw their faith. Their faith was so strong that they put it into action through persistence, through insisting, and through not taking no for an answer. You see, when you believe, you don’t let go. When you believe you don’t give up. Faith is persistent. Faith is continuous, and faith never gives up.

If you are giving up I will tell you what has happened. You have run out of hope. That means you never had faith in the first place. You were walking in hope. You had this picture, and an anticipation in your mind. It was an earnest hope, an ear-nest expectation. And yes, that is another force and we will look at that as a complete separate study, but it is not faith. Faith persists. Faith continues. Faith insists. It will not take no for an answer!

Blind Bartimaeus I will give you one more example - that of blind Bartimaeus. In Mark 10 we see him sitting at the side of the road begging and he heard that Jesus was coming. He began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David have mercy on me,” but they warned him that he should be quiet.



“Sssh! You’re making a noise!”

But you know what he did? He shouted louder and louder and louder. The more they told him to be quiet the louder he shouted. He was planning to get what he wanted! He was not going to let go, because he believed. He had faith that Jesus would give him what he wanted.

Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called and He said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?”

He said, “Lord, I want to receive my sight.”

Jesus never even laid hands on him. He said, “Okay go. Your faith has healed you. Off you go.”

He was healed instantly. That is faith that will not give up. It is faith that does not listen to everybody saying, “You’re mad. It will not happen. Do you honestly think that God will provide that for you? Are you crazy?”

Faith will not give up. Faith persists and hangs in there like the bulldog that bites on and it doesn’t give up, because it knows that it knows that it knows. How can I give up when I know? When I know something is mine and I know that it belongs to me, how can I let it go? I can let go of my hope but I cannot let go of my faith. True faith never gives up. It always hangs in and persists through to the end.

Speak It Out Of course faith involves speaking out loud. Jesus said that whoever will speak to the mountain and tell it to be moved and does not doubt in his heart, he shall have whatever he says. And in 2 Corinthians 4:13 it says:



We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;

Romans 10:9 and 10 says: That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes to righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made to sal-vation.

Faith always speaks. It can’t shut up.

You say, “Be quiet already. I’m tired of always hearing these big tales of what you are believing for and what God is going to give you. I have heard that one before. You’ve been telling me for years that God will provide that for you. I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Well, it is just as well it is not dependent on him isn’t it? But faith keeps speaking it.

Faith says, “God has given this to me. You’ll see. I will be driv-ing in my new car one of these days. I will be working on that new computer one of these days. I will be flying overseas one of these days. I will be going on that wonderful holiday cruise one of these days, because God has given it to me!”

You say, “Haven’t you given up hope on that one yet?”

“Yes, I have given up hope a long time ago. But you see it’s not based on hope. It is based on faith. I believe it! God said it; I believe it and that settles it! My faith will not shut up. My faith will open my big mouth.”



You say, “You still want to carry on preaching all these princi-ples of faith when there is no food in the house and you’re starving?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because my faith is not based on my condition! My faith is not based on my circumstances. My faith is not based on my kind of results. My faith is based on the Word and on the Spirit of God and on the rhema word that He has given me, and I will not shut up.”

I tell you who had that kind of commitment. It was the three Hebrew children as they stood there and the king said, “You will bow down when the music plays, otherwise we’ll throw you into the fire.”

They said, “We will not bow down.”

“Well you’re going to get thrown in the fire.”

They said, “Listen, our God is able to deliver us even if you put us in the fire. But I want to tell you something, I don’t care if He doesn’t. We will still not bow! We won’t.”

“You’d better shut up and bow.”

“I won’t! I don’t care what you do to me. I will not let go of my faith, because I believe.”

We all know what happened to them. All that got burned were the ropes that bound them, and the angel of the Lord came to sit in the fire with them. Deliverance came to them. The trou-ble is that the fire could come - and for them the fire did come. They were not delivered. They were thrown into the fire and deliverance only came at the end. We will be looking at that



shortly, because there is a little bit more involved in standing in faith.

Use the Name Faith involves using the name. Remember Peter and John as they stood by the Beautiful Gate? As they came in there was the beggar sitting there, lame from birth. He sat there every day begging. As Peter and John came up there at the hour of prayer he looked at them and said, “Please, have you got any money for me?”

We all know what happened as Peter looked down at him and said, “I don’t have silver or gold. I have no money. Sorry. But I tell you what. I’ll give you what I do have! In the name of Je-sus Christ, rise up and walk,” and he grabbed the guy by the hand and picked him up.

He started running and leaping and praising God and every-body ran together and said, “There’s been a miracle! It’s won-derful! Boy you guys are so spiritual. You must walk so close to the Lord. You must live such holy lives. You’re so wonderful.”

Peter said, “Don’t look at us. We are not so special. But the name of Jesus, His name, through faith in His name has made this man strong. Yes, the faith which is through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.”

His name, through faith in His name. What is involved in faith in the name of Jesus? What is involved in believing in the name of Jesus? The name of Jesus is the name above every other name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth. And when you have faith in the name of Jesus you have faith in the authority that there is in the name that was given to Jesus and in the name that was given to you, because you are in Jesus. You are standing in His name. You are walking in His name. You are functioning in His name. You have power



and authority in His name, and you have the right to use that power and authority and to use that name.

You have the right to speak to circumstances and say, “In the name in which I stand, the name of Jesus, I command and I order you, and you must obey!”

Confidence in the Name If you don’t have confidence in the name I would not do that. If I were you I would not go to a shop and tell them that you have been sent by so-and-so because he gets a discount. You better not do that unless you have some way of proving that you are related to that guy and that he has given you authority to use his name, otherwise you are in trouble.

But you see, when you know and you have confidence in the Lord and in His authority, and you have confidence in the fact that He has placed His name and His authority in you and that you have the right to act in His place and be just like Him in this world, then you can do that. You can act in His name and you can use the authority that is in His name.

You say, “Well Peter must have really been in the Spirit there. I guess as he stood there the gift of miracles and the gift of healing came down upon him, and the anointing of the Spirit was in him and flowed through him, and so God healed the man.”

It sounds nice and spiritual doesn’t it? But you know what Pe-ter did as he came to the beggar. He didn’t say, “My brother I don’t have any money and I don’t have any healing power, but God will heal you. I am going to pray for you and I’m going to ask God to heal you. Father in Jesus’ name heal this man.”

It doesn’t say that. It says that as they got there Peter looked at the man and said, “Look at us! Just look here.”



Shouldn’t he have said, “Don’t look at me. Look to Jesus. I’m too humble.”

No, he said, “Look at me.”

The man said, “Huh, you’ve got some money?”

“I don’t have any money, no. But what I do have I give to you. I am choosing to. I am, by a deliberate act of my will, going to give to you what I have in the name of Jesus,” and he im-parted it to him.

Peter was so confident that he grabbed the guy by the hand and yanked him up. That is what it is to walk in faith in the name. It means that you have such confidence in the fact that Jesus is in you and that you are in Jesus that you have the gall to act just like Jesus. You have the audacity to pretend you are Him! The early disciples were crazy, they really were. They were all mixed up. They were so used to being with Jesus they thought they were Him. But they obtained results didn’t they?

Today we are too humble and too ignorant I am afraid, to think that we can walk in anywhere and just do what the early disci-ples did and do what Jesus did, even though Jesus said, “Greater works than these shall you do.”

It takes faith. Let me tell you, if you are walking in faith you should have the confidence, the ability and the gall to say, “In the name of Jesus be healed. Stand up and walk!”

You say, “What if he doesn’t walk?”

There is no faith if for one moment you believed that he would not walk.



Act on It I want to show you another one. In Acts 14 Paul was preach-ing. It says: And there sat a certain man at Lystra, lame in his feet, being a cripple from his mother’s womb, who never had walked:

He heard Paul speaking and Paul was constantly looking at him. The Scripture says that Paul recognized that he had faith to be healed. So Paul was preaching away there and he kept looking at this guy. The Spirit of God began to move. You can see the look in the guy’s eyes. You can see when people are listening to you. Paul could see it. He could see the glow that showed that the guy was just taking it in.

Paul continued preaching, and suddenly in the middle of his sermon he gave everybody a fright. As he was preaching sud-denly he stopped and said, “In the name of Jesus rise up and walk. Stand to your feet!”

I think the guy got such a fright he jumped up and walked. He leapt up and walked, the Scripture says. You see, faith has to be released through action. It has to be there.

You say, “Well if I act, will it happen?”

No, not if there is no faith. But if there is faith and you act, it will always work.



CHAPTER 3

What Faith Brings ···

Confidence in His Ability

aith recognizes the Lord’s ability and has full confidence in it. The Scripture tells us that in

Capernaum a centurion came to Jesus and said, “My servant is lying sick.”

Jesus said, “I’ll come and heal him.”

He said, “No Lord. You don’t need to come. I understand how this thing works. I’m also a man in authority. I have a servant and I tell him, ‘Do this,’ and he does it. I tell him, ‘Go there,’ and he goes there. I know he will obey my word. I know the power of authority that I have. I don’t have a doubt that when I give a command it will be obeyed, and I know you have the same kind of authority. Now Lord, you just speak the Word and I know that he will be healed.”

This man was not a Jew. He was a Roman centurion, but you see he tapped into that faith branch again. He had the fullest of confidence in the Lord and His ability. The trouble with us is a lot of the time we kind of see the Lord as helping us and we think, “You know I really don’t know if God can do this. This is a difficult one. There are just too many factors involved here. Is it really possible that God can provide in the current circum-stances that we are in?”

Or do we have enough confidence in the Lord to say, “Okay Lord, you speak it. I’ll believe it. You don’t have to move. You don’t have to come and visit me, but I’d like a feeling please.



I’d like to have goose bumps on the back of my head here. I want that nice warm feeling that goes down my spine or gives a little chill there. Just give me some kind of confirmation to make me feel good and then I’ll believe you.”

That is what we do. We say, “But I didn’t feel anything when I came to the Lord.”

Did you have to feel something? Does the Lord have to come down and touch you? Does the Lord have to manifest Himself to you? Do you have to get a vision of Him standing with His arms outstretched? Do you have to hear an audible voice speaking to you before you believe His Word, or do you have enough confidence in Him to say, ‘Lord speak the Word. I know you’ll speak the Word. I’ll accept it, thank you. Speak the Word and I know that it will happen.’ “

You say, “But you know the Lord has to come down and do a few things. You have to get the angels involved and you have to do this and do that, and you have to sort this guy out over there.”

We try and work out the whole plan and we try and tell the Lord how to do it. We say, “Okay Lord, you’ve got to provide and the obvious way for you to provide is through my busi-ness, or you will have to provide through my rich cousin or relative there, because he has a lot of money. Lord, let him not sleep at night. Let him toss and turn. Let him wake up in the middle of the night and hear you say, ‘Give Les ten thousand dollars tomorrow.’ “

Can’t you just trust the Lord to speak the Word and do it? Don’t you have enough confidence in His ability that you think you have to try and dictate to Him how He must do it?



Faith Produces Power What does faith produce? What happens when it comes? Faith brings power – terrific, unlimited power. In Acts 6 we read of a man called Stephen. He was just a little deacon and was not even one of the apostles. But it says, Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles amongst the people. How do you know when faith is there? There will be power! How do you know when faith is not there? There will be no power. That is quite a simple yardstick isn’t it?

You say, “But I came against the devil! I stood against him and I rebuked him. I got angry with him and I spat and...”

“But nothing happened.”

“I prayed, Lord, in Jesus’ name heal him!”

“So what did you feel? Are you okay? Did something happen?”

“No the pain is still there.”

“Oh dear. Maybe I didn’t shake hard enough.”

There is no power. You may have been very zealous, very emotional, very anything, but if there is no faith there will be no power. Faith always brings power.

You say, “But I’m not an apostle.”

Neither was Stephen. He was just a little deacon. He had faith and he had power. In fact he had such power and wisdom that eventually they stoned him to death because they just could not take it anymore. That power was so strong that they could not resist it.



Brings Results Faith always brings results. In Acts 11 we read about Barnabus. There was a church that started up in Antioch all on its own. The Scripture says in verse 22 and 23: Then news of these things came to the ears of the church that was in Jerusalem: and they sent out Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch. Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and encouraged them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave to the Lord.

Here is what it says about Barnabas. It says: For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith:

Barnabus was a good guy. He was a nice guy. They called him ‘The Son of Consolation’. He was a nice guy to be around. He is the kind of guy you liked to be with and to chat with. But you see, nice guys don’t produce results unless they have faith. The Scripture says, “And many people were added to the Lord.” It was not him being Mr Nice Guy. It was the fact that he was full of faith. He went out there and whatever he did, whatever he touched prospered. People just came in to him.

Are you getting results in your ministry? You are not? Check your faith level. If you are not getting results check the faith meter. You may find that it has run a bit low. That is why you are not getting any results.



Produces Joy A lot of people seem to think that faith is a very serious and awesome and strenuous thing, but do you know that faith is a joyful thing? Faith brings joy. How can you rejoice if you are worried and if you are down? How can you rejoice if you are concerned about the future and about what is about to hap-pen? How can you? Paul says to the Philippians, “And having this confidence I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith.”

We can have a party when we believe. If I know my needs are provided and there is nothing in the house we can have a cele-bration.

You say, “Well what are we going to eat?”

“Nothing. There’s nothing in the house.”

“What are we going to drink?”

“Water.”

“We’re going to have a party? On what?”

“I don’t care. We’re going to have a party. We’re going to re-joice in the Lord.”

You say, “How can you rejoice when you’re down and out and don’t know where your next meal is coming from? How can you be full of joy?”

You can do it because of faith! I know that my God has pro-vided my needs. I don’t care if there is nothing in the house. Paul said, “I have learned to abound and to do without. I’ve learned to have a lot and I’ve learned to have a little. It doesn’t make any difference. My joy is not based on that. It is based on my faith and my confidence in the Lord.”



Faith and Warfare Faith also gives you confidence for warfare. Paul says to Timo-thy in 1 Timothy 6:12: Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal [zoe] life, to which you are also called, and have professed a good profes-sion before many witnesses.

Faith overcomes Satan. The Scripture says, “Above all taking the shield of faith with which you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” When Satan comes against you with his fiery darts and he attacks you with his accusations, with his fear and with his torments, you just pick up your shield of faith, hold it up and say, “Next! Is that all that you have? Those stupid, puny little fiery darts? Surely you can do better than that?”

I love to laugh at the devil and mock him a bit. I like to mock him and say, “Okay devil, load ‘em up. Ready? Come on. Shoot them. Give me all you’ve got. Come on, do your thing. Go for it!”

Now I can see him pulling out his big one there, loading his bazooka and letting me have it. Then I just take my shield of faith and say, “Okay, next.”

I can see a look of total frustration on his face. He is saying, “But that was my big baby! I don’t get it. That one was meant to have blown a hole in you. I just don’t get it!”

You had better have your shield of faith before you try that otherwise you are in trouble. When he shoots his bazooka at you, you had better get your faith in gear before you try it, but it so simple when you have the faith. There is nothing that he can throw at you that can touch you.

Faith also overcomes the world.



You say, “Well, I’ve got the pressure of the World System com-ing down on me. I’ve got the pressure of responsibility and the pressure of finances. I’ve got debts and commitments. I have responsibilities in the world that I have to fulfil.”

John said, “Whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.”

Authority in Faith Then faith also brings authority. In Matthew 17 a person brought their child to Jesus and said, “Lord, my child is pos-sessed by a demon and your disciples couldn’t cast it out. Now please, if you can do something, will you help us?”

Jesus said, “Sure,” and cast the thing out instantly, and it was gone.

Afterwards the disciples came to Him and said, “Lord, why couldn’t we cast it out?”

Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief.” Then He said, “If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed you will say to the mountain move and it will move, and nothing will be im-possible to you!”

Now I want you to notice something. The disciples had been sent out. Jesus had given them power before to go and heal the sick, to cast out demons and even the raise the dead if necessary. They had done this before, and now they thought this was a simple case.

“Please, can you help us?”

“Sure. Bring your child. We’ll cast the demon out. Come on, bring him in. We’ll show you how it’s done – us disciples. We know how to do this one. We’ve actually done it plenty of times. It’s nothing new to us. Just watch this. Devil come out!”



“No.”

“What? I said, Come out!”

“No!”

I can see a look of puzzled confusion on their faces.

“But hang on. This always used to work before. Come out, devil!”

“No.”

I think the disciples were really confused. They thought, “This must be a tough one. I guess this is a demon that can’t be cast out!”

Then they watched Jesus come and just say, “Come out,” and out it went instantly!

They must have been puzzled and said, “Hang on Lord, you’d better explain this one to us. How come we couldn’t cast this demon out, and you just did it with one word and it went straight out?”

Jesus said, “Because of your unbelief.”

“Unbelief? What do you mean Lord, by unbelief?”

He said, “You haven’t got enough faith. That’s why you couldn’t cast it out.”

“I didn’t know I needed to have faith to cast out demons. I didn’t know that I needed to have faith to exercise authority.”

Yes you do, and the greater the level of your faith, the greater your authority. As your faith increases so does your authority.

Jesus said to them, “Nevertheless this kind does not go out ex-cept through prayer and fasting.”



This is a puzzling Scripture. Does that mean that in order to cast out demons I need to spend time in prayer and fasting? No. It means if you want to increase the level of your faith you had better be spending some time in prayer and fasting, be-cause it is the higher faith level that will give the higher au-thority to be able to cast out the demon.

You say, “But I thought faith only came by hearing and hearing by the Word of God? What does prayer and fasting have to do with it?”

It is a puzzling Scripture this. It seems to go against every-thing that we have taught concerning faith coming from the Word. And I will tell you what. This word ‘fasting’ is a very dangerous one for Satan. He hates it with a passion. I want to tell you that this particular verse – verse 21 of Matthew 27 - was left out of some of the recent manuscripts that they dis-covered and on which the newer translations of the Bible are based. You will not find verse 21 in the revised versions. It has been left out.

There is one other verse in another one of the gospels which deals with the same incident and in that case the verse was still left in, and it said, “This kind only goes out with prayer.” It is interesting that suddenly these verses begin to disappear from some of the translations. Was it man that put the idea in, and were the original manuscripts that they discovered cor-rect? Or could it be that somewhere along the line people kept stumbling over this idea.

You say, “Prayer and fasting – oh come off it! What do I need to cast a demon out for?”

We will be looking at this subject in detail and we will be de-voting one complete message to dealing with the subject of prayer and fasting and how it is involved in walking in blessing and releasing the power of the Lord.



I want to tell you though that your level of authority is based on your faith.

If you want greater authority in the earth.

If you want greater authority in the Kingdom of God.

If you want greater authority to command.

If you want to be able to speak to sickness and disease and command them to flee

If you want to be able to speak to demon powers and com-mand them to come out and to leave.

If you want to speak to a dead body and command it to be raised from the dead.

If you want to speak to the weather and command it to change, as Jesus did.

If you want to speak to water and turn it into wine.

If you want to exercise any kind of authority and power over the elements of this earth

That authority will have come by faith, and the greater your faith level, the greater your authority level. Jesus had authority because He walked in faith. Faith always brings authority.



CHAPTER 4

How Faith is Developed ···

Increased Through Pressure

nd now finally, let’s see how faith is developed. We looked at it before, but we are going to look at a few more Scriptures and a few more concepts here.

Firstly, faith improves when it is tested. It is like gold. You put it in the fire and it comes out better. It doesn’t

get worse. Now hope is something different. Hope sometimes collapses under the pressure and we will look at that sepa-rately - but not faith. Peter says in his first epistle in 1 Peter 1:6 and 7: In which you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if nec-essary, you are in heaviness through many temptations [pei-razo]: That the trial [dokimazo] of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried [doki-mazo] with fire, might be found to praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

You say, “I’d like to develop my faith. I’d like it to be stronger. Lord, I would like to have greater authority. I’d like to have greater power. I’d like to have that kind of faith to do the sort of things that you did. Lord you said, “Greater works than these shall you do.” I want to do it! I want to have that faith. Lord, develop my faith!”

And so the Lord puts you in the fire!

You say, “What did you do that for?”



The Lord says, “I thought you said you wanted to increase your faith?”

“Yes I did Lord, but couldn’t you have just sent a thunderbolt, or send a special anointing that I could just feel come all over me like fire and power – and suddenly I would have more faith?

Well you got the fire all right - just not the kind you expected. You got the kind that hurts! It burns and it’s hot! It is painful and you don’t like it!

You say, “Lord, I want to increase my faith.”

“Okay, here are some more problems!”

“I didn’t ask for problems Lord. I asked to increase my faith.”

Well, if you want to develop your muscles, you have to pick up a heavier weight, that’s all. If you want to increase you faith I has to be tested. It will have to be tried with fire, because that is how your faith will increase. If not, it will stay the same. If you do the same amount of exercise every day you just never get physically fit.

I remember when we were still in South Africa, Daphne used to walk to the shops every day. She used to do a lot of walk-ing, she really did. We figured that she must be really physi-cally fit from doing all that walking, but when it came to doing a long, strenuous walk she couldn’t cope. She began to realize that walking every day didn’t increase her physical capabilities.

You have to apply more pressure to the walking. You have to make it more strenuous. You have to carry a heavier weight while you’re walking. Anybody who does exercise knows this. It is not the number of miles that you run every day that makes you fit. It is whether you are running uphill or downhill and whether you are carrying a heavy backpack while you are



running. It is not the number of times that you lift the weight that develops the muscle, but the fact that you keep increasing the weight more and more as the muscle gets stronger. You begin to put more and more pressure on it, and that is how you develop it.

If you want your faith to be increased then more pressure has to be put on your faith. It must be tested, and you will have to trust against your circumstances. You will have to face circum-stances that your faith cannot handle in order that it can come up and grow to that level.

And so if you have been trusting God and have been applying the principles and the result hasn’t come yet, it could be the Lord saying to you, “What you have asked me for requires a far greater level of faith than what you have right now. There-fore I have put a slightly heavier load on you in order that you can flex your muscles and push it and increase your faith. It will cause your faith to grow and become purer, in order that you can obtain the things that you have asked me for.”

Prayer Power And of course faith is improved with prayer. Jude 1:20 says: But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,

You are to ‘build yourself up in your most holy faith.’ How do you build your faith? How do you get it built up? By praying in the Spirit, or praying in the Holy Ghost. How many hours a day are you spending praying in tongues? Okay – how many min-utes, or seconds? Did you even pray in tongues today at all? Be honest now, did you?

I like to pray in tongues all the time. Even when I sneeze I pray in tongues. Why not? Instead of losing your temper and



letting out a few expletives when you stub your toe and get mad, why not try speaking in tongues?

If you stub your toe instead of saying, “*&^%^&*!,” why not pray in tongues? Turn it into something spiritual. Build your faith every time. That is not an easy one I know, but you need to pray in the Holy Ghost.

Jesus said, “This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” Prayer and fasting add an extra power to your faith, and help it to grow. They are like water added to the seed. It will cause it to sprout and grow.

Faith in Everything! And so in conclusion, as we look at the subject of faith, I want to look at Paul’s statement to the church at Rome. In Romans 1:16 he says: For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the [dynamic] power of God for salvation to every one that continues to be-lieve; (to everyone who has faith); to the Jew first, but also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is being revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

‘From faith to faith…’ It starts with faith and it ends with faith. It originates with faith. It comes out of faith and it heads to-wards faith. Faith is the goal and is in between. It is the start and it is the end. Faith is the past and the future, and it is in the middle. There has to be faith all the way through.

‘The just shall live by faith.’ Every single thing that you do must be by faith. Now I want you to think about some of the things that you do every day, and think about some of the things you do every night. Do you do them by faith?

You say, “But there are areas of my life that are private. I mean, I give the Lord a certain amount of time in my life, but



hey, there are private things that I do too. I’ve got to have time for fun and for play and pleasure.”

Are you doing it by faith?

You say, “How can you have fun by faith?”

I don’t know. You work that one out, but if it is from faith to faith, if faith is in between, and if the just shall live by faith, then the just shall also play by faith. The just will also have fun by faith. Whatever the just do will be done by faith! When you sit down at the dinner table to eat, do you eat by faith? Well I suppose it depends whether you have faith in your wife’s cook-ing. That is why we say grace.

We say, “Father, bless this food. It could have been poi-soned…”

But think about it. Faith should be part of everything that you do. It should be part of the air you breathe. Faith should be with you when you get up in the morning and go out, and when you come back. Faith should permeate every part of your lives. That is what it means for the just to live by faith.

When you can live like that, do you know what? You will work better. I’ll tell you what else will happen. You will also sleep better. You will have fun better and play sports better. You will enjoy your recreation more, and whatever you touch will be better. You will minister better. Whatever you do will be better, because you will be entering into the fullness of power that God has given us – that powerful force of faith in our spirits, from which the power of God is released.



Other Books by This Author... The Pattern for the End Times Church

“Les D. Crause has dared to challenge the existing church system, slaughter some sacred cows, and present concepts which many have only hoped and dreamed.”

The Way of Blessing “What do you think of when you hear the word Blessed? This very question is the central point in this teaching. You will learn what bless-ing is, how to walk in it and how to become a source of blessing to others.”

The Way of Freedom “Everywhere the cry goes out for freedom. Will Psychology help? Will medicine help? Will the wisdom of man help? NO! Only in the Lord can true freedom be accomplished.”

The Way of the Anointing - The Double Portion “Experiencing and receiving of the anointing on these lectures will make a powerful impact on your Christian walk. Set out now from a life of 'ordinary' to a life of power and anointing in Jesus Christ!”

The Way of Revival & Healing “It is time for you to break out of your spiritual plateau and to experi-ence the power of God in your life. If you are yearning to experience God in a real way, then The Way of Revival and Healing will be your travel guide!”

...and many more!

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