Timeless Faith

I haven't ask any questions in a good long while and I thought that I might ask a question, or two. Okay. We'll give you a chance to see who is going to ask the first question tonight. I've got a whole lot of questions that we haven't answered. Some of them we have. I've still got a whole listing of them over here. I want to get around to answering all of those questions, because people write in from radio and different things and they want to know. They want to understand. Has anybody got a question they'd like to ask? All right. Everybody is__ Okay, Mack. Can you talk a little louder? Uh huh. All right. Let's go to the book of Mark. I believe it's Mark. I believe it's the eleventh chapter. Now, if you'll notice here they passed a fig tree. You're familiar with this. We've preached on it how that they had gone off from the city and then were returning, and Jesus wanted figs and there wasn't any figs because it was out of season. So then, He cursed the fig tree. And in the morning as they passed by they saw the fig tree dried up from the root. It was__ Let's read right here so we can get it all straight in our minds. (Starting at Mark chapter 11, verse 11.) "(11) And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when he had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come," Now they used the terms when the tide, or the water gets even, they call it eventide instead of evening tide. "upon all things and now the eventide was come, he went out unto Bethany with the twelve. (12) And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry: (13) And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. (14) And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it. (15) And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; (16) and would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. (17) And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves. (18) And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people were astonished at his doctrine." And you might take notice there, all these people speak of not teaching doctrine, strangely enough He taught doctrine. (19) And when even was come, he went out of the city. (20) And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. (21) And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away. (22) And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. (23) For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. (24) Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye, receive them, and ye shall have them. (25) And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. (26) But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses." Now, see? He is saying here that if you do not forgive then this will hinder your faith. See? You can't carry anything in your heart. If you regard iniquity in your heart, the Bible said, then God will not hear you. So then, you've got to clear your heart, because it is with the heart that man believeth and you cannot have faith without the heart. There is no way to have faith without the heart. The Bible said as a man thinketh within his heart that's the kind of man he is, or so is he. So then, no matter what you do you must try to keep you heart. The Bible said, Do they diligence to keep thine heart for out of it comes forth the issues of life. I say again, like a daily issue of a newspaper, out of the heart comes forth that daily issue that declares as to what your life is going to be everyday. So then, you want to be sure that you don't let anything stand in the way between you and God. Paul said, I strive always to keep a conscience void of offense toward man and God. He never would let anything be in his heart toward any person, or toward God. See? Never feel bad toward God. So if you regard iniquity God won't hear you. So he tells us the secret here. John goes on to say that if we do the things that please God, hereby we assure our hearts before God, and we know that God heareth us. John said it's not a matter of receiving what we want, as to whether we think God will give it to us, or whether or not God will give it to us, or whether, or not we're good enough to receive it. He didn't say anything about that. He just simply said that hereby we assure our hearts, and he said, now when we do this then do we have confidence toward God that He heareth us. And of course, confidence is faith. Confidence toward God that He heareth us, and if we know that He hears us, then we know that we have the petition that we desire of Him. So when you pray what do you pray for? To make God hear you. When you fast what do you fast for? To make God hear you. When you live an overcoming life what do you do that for? To make God hear you. The Lord said concerning some of them in the Old Testament, He said, you do not fast this day as you have in the past. Or He said, When you fast will you then fast to smite with the fist of wickedness? or just to do evil? just to have a big program, as we would say in our day. To have fame and popularity, to have somebody to make a fuss over you, to be able to take a big offering to build some great enterprise. He said, Fast to make your voice to be heard on high. Fast to get in shape with God. Fast to humble your heart. David said, I humble my soul in prayer and in fasting. Fast so that you can humble yourself to where your heart will begin to take on confidence toward God that He hears you when you pray. And then if He hears you, because of your appropriation of those things that are given to us in Christ at Calvary, the Bible said that we just automatically know that we have the petition that we desire of Him. If we know that He hears us then we know that we have the petition that we desire of Him. If we know that He hears us. Jesus' secret was this: He said, Lazarus, come forth. But before He said that He said, Father, I know that Thou hearest me, and Thou hearest me always, but for the sake of them that are looking around I acknowledge that there is an eternal Father somewhere that they might not look to the flesh. For their sakes I have said it. So then, when we say faith in God__ I remember when Jimmy was sick. Brother Smith was sick. I was down in the basement and I was talking, and Jim at been, blood just flowing. I mean it was flowing. I had seen something happen to him, you know. I had heard that he was in bad shape, but I hadn't been there and seen it. But he was working one day on the plane, and there on the plane at the airfield, and all of a sudden he started and it just flowed just like you had turned a hydrant on. I mean a full flow from his mouth of blood. And he couldn't have lasted but a few minutes. And one day we were down in the basement and I was talking and I thought, Lord, now here's a good time to reach Brother Jim Smith; he's listening. I saw his heart was open, and I began to talk and I began to talk about faith, and I went around a certain way and brought a few things in to where I could clinch a thing in his thoughts, and cut off every avenue of doubt. And when I did it struck Jimmy just like that. Isn't that right, Jim? I felt it when it hit him. I said, Oh, my God! You healed him right there. Jimmy grabbed that thing just like a big fish grabbed the hook. And I mean he never turned a loose of it. And he boastfully, through Christ, walked back up to the doctors office and he said, If you don't come back here you won't be alive after a certain, certain time after a certain, certain time. He went back and told him he was much a live. So I said that to say this. The question is, does faith have a time limit? No. It very definitely does not. Listen to what Jesus says. See? Jesus says here, Have faith in God. When they marvelled concerning the fig tree, he said, Have faith in God. Now, I took a little round about thought there to kind of help you to understand how to have faith in God. See? If you don't work with God's system, if you don't work with God's way___ See? Faith cometh by the hearing of the Word of God. You hear the Word and that's what brings faith. See? So, I said those things to try to systemize your mind as to have faith. Jesus said have faith in God. And we know that God was the Word, or God is the Word. In the beginning was the Word. God is the Word, the same to a thousand generations. He never changes. His words never changed at anytime. His Word is never altered at any time. It is settled in Heaven. It is settled in Heaven. And I want you to think on this. Paul, our apostle, he made this statement. He said, When I come to you preaching the Word of God, I never came to you preaching yea and nay. I never came preaching yea and nay. The Bible said, Let you conversation be yea and nay, for what cometh up more than this is evil. That is if someone says you something say, No. Yes. You know, just have that kind of attitude. Don't go to trying to stretching it out and explaining it, whatever; you always get in trouble. Don't lean to your own understanding. Answer it by the Word of God. See? But Paul, when he speaks of the Word of God it's not yea and nay. He said, I didn't come to you preaching yea and nay concerning the Word of God. He said, I come to you preaching yea. Yea. For all the promises of God are yea and amen. Yea, if Jesus said it, yea and amen. If that's the way it is in the Bible, yea and amen. Whatever the Word of God says, yea and amen. If Jesus said be baptized for the remission of sin in the name of Jesus yea and amen. You know, speaking of the name of Jesus, just kind of running off on a limb here for a minute. Speaking of the name of Jesus, I was talking about the remission of sin in the name of Jesus the other night. I'm always talking about the name of Jesus, because it important that we magnify the name of Jesus and lift up the name of Jesus because the Bible says He should have the preeminence in all things. A lot of people kind of feel like Peter went out on a limb when he made the statement, be baptized in the name of Jesus, you know, that remission of sin shall be taught in His name. But if you'll go back and check the record you'll find out that the Lord Jesus Himself spoke of Himself and He said this to His disciples, said, and remission of sin will be taught in__ He didn't say in My name, says, in His name. This is the way He put it. Remission of sin, beginning at Jerusalem, and then to the uttermost parts of the earth. All right. I just run off on that because I wanted to say this. There is no need of you trying to bring anything to pass, or to get anything done, or to hope for anything from God unless you approach Him in the name of Jesus. You can say, Father, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost all day long until you turn blue in the face, you'll never get one thing. There are people that pray in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. That's the way they pray, by using the titles and not the name. The other day while we were over in Alaska, just a few days back, the Full Gospel Business Men's president of the chapter, he got up and begin to pray and ask God to give him certain, certain things in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. That's the way he prayed. Do you understand what I'm saying? That prayer didn't even go to the ceiling. It didn't even get to the ceiling. I sat there and listened. I thought, what ignorance. Pardon my expression. I'm countrified. I thought, what ignorance. Fine man. But to hold his own he had to say that. See? The name of Jesus is the name of the Holy Ghost. I've said that. That is the name of the Father. That is the name. There is no other name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost except the name Jesus Christ. So when you ask anything ask in the name of Jesus. Ask nothing wavering. The Bible said he that wavers he's like a ship on the sea. If he be double-minded, that is, in the mind of Christ, or the mind of the Bible one minute, and in his own reasoning, as to the next minute, let not that man think he shall receive anything of God. He's not going to get anything of God. He's unstable in all of His ways, but when you ask then ask in faith, nothing wavering. Ask in the name of Jesus. He said, Have faith in God. Now this is Jesus talking. Have faith in God. Could you imagine Jesus standing here telling you to have faith in God? You know where the Bible speaks it says, it shall not be the minister speaking, but the Heavenly Father speaking from within Him, and they shall all be taught of God. Supposing it was God that was here telling you this. And Jesus stood there and said, Have faith in God, for verily I say unto you, that whosoever, it doesn't make any difference, black, white, red, yellow, whosoever, man, women, boy, girl; it doesn't make any difference. For verily I say unto you, God is talking, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. Somebody says, Well, I've never seen anybody move a mountain, Brother Pike. Well, there's been a lot of things moved heavier than a mountain. But I have to confess, I've never seen anybody move a mountain either. But it's still there. That's what it says. Been there all the time. Still means what it says. Still there for the man that wants to attempt it. I have heard of this. I heard of a mountain being removed. A man had a mountain out in front of his house, or wherever it was, and he prayed and prayed and ask God to move it. And God moved it. They sent bulldozers and finally cut it all the way down because they needed the soil. So he did get the mountain moved. He might have gone about it a little different way, but he got it moved. All right. He said, Verily, I say unto you that whosoever shall say unto this mountain be thou removed and be though cast into the sea and shall not doubt in his heart. Shall not doubt in his heart. We're back to the heart program. Shall not doubt in his heart. You know, the Bible speaks of the heart many times. Medical science says the heart is the soundness of the body. The Scriptures says that a sound heart is the health of the body. So he says here, Shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he says shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. Now. What can you say to that? Yea and amen. Yea and amen. There's no nay about it; it's yea. See? Yea and amen. The Word is settled in heaven. It can't be altered. It can't be changed. That passage of Scripture has never been altered. Has never been changed. It will never be altered. It will never be changed. And someone would say, Well, why in the name of reasoning don't it work? It does work; you just don't know how to use it. It simply states here that if you believe that those things which you say will happen, then it will come to pass. How many of you today can walk up to a mountain and say, get out of the way, and believe it's going to move? Raise your hand. That's like Jesus looked at the folks and said, Oh, ye of little faith. We love to blame it on Him, don't we? We love to blame it on the Scriptures. You know, we're so brilliant in the day we're living in. We're such great people, so religious. My! we've just got all kind of things, you know. Everything from television programs to tents. But it says here, if you believe. It's like when I prayed for the release of the prisoners. I prayed for their release. People came against that. People said, it can't happen. Jimmy Carter with all of his brilliance couldn't get them loose. He only complicated things. But I prayed. I prayed earnestly and the Lord spoke to my heart and I went and told the Brethren, I said, God said He's going to release those prisoners and everyone of them is going to come home well. Well, they hit me, some of them hit me for that. But, nevertheless, I believed that and it happened. And when the massacre of the little children, little folks, you know, in Atlanta. It was such a horrible situation, and it went on for days and my heart got heavy. It went on for weeks, months. I don't know how long it went on. I guess it was a number of months, and my heart was heavy. So one night I went to God and I said, Lord, I am so tore up over those little children. I said, This man is mocking the police and they can't do nothing about it. And I prayed and I prayed. I stayed in there in my living room and I prayed until I got satisfied, and when I got satisfied I said, God, You've got him now. And I went out and told the Brethren. Well, consequently, after I told the Brethren they didn't get him. Two or three days passed and they didn't get him so I went back and prayed again and God assured me, I didn't have to worry that He was going to do exactly what He showed me. And in a few days they apprehended him. They had him. See? I've done that in asking for automobiles. I've done that in asking for things. I've done that in asking God to help us. I still do that, because I practice faith. So, like I said, if you can't move a mountain work on a hill. Whatever you can do, do it. Work on something until you can get to something bigger. If you can't get cancer moved then work on a headache. Don't give up your faith. Don't cast away your faith. Don't say, I don't have any faith. The Bible said, cast not away thy faith which hath great recompense of reward. It's like Abraham. The Bible said Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness. So then, it says concerning Abraham that He was fully persuaded. That's where we fail. He was strong in faith. And the Bible teaches that we are to strengthen that which remains, to be strong in faith. That's what God wants us to do. He was fully persuaded. He didn't have any other thoughts about it. He was fully persuaded that what God had said, just like we read it to you, that He was able also to perform. See? That's the first hurdle that we have to get over. Let's be fully persuaded that God said it. He's not going to alter it. He doesn't have to change it. He is well able to perform it. See? One of the things that Jesus would ask, like when the lepers came to him and they said, Lord, heal us. And He looked at some of them and He said, Do you believe that I'm able to do that? See? Fully persuaded that what God had promised that He was able to do. Jesus said, Do you believe that I'm able to do that? See? That was the first step. Do you believe that God is able to do it? Somebody says, Well, I believe that God does those things. You believe He did it for the prophets. You believe that was for that day back there, but I'm talking about right now. In the very day. In this very hour. In this very moment. Do you believe that God is able to do that? That's the first hurdle. Another thing that you have to settle concerning faith is, we are always harassed by the devil. He is the accusers of the Brothers, Sisters, and the accuses the Brethren day and night before God. He accuses you in your mind. He accuses you every way you go. He does every thing he can to tear your faith down so if you are a child of God he'll keep hammering on your mind so that a disease will kill you, or eat you up, because he doesn't want you around, you know. The world, he won't do them that way. He'll frolic with them. So he's always trying to trample down the mind of humanity, as to the children of God. Always. Always. This is why we should assure our hearts by living right, by doing every thing we can, by eliminating condemnation, and coming into the perfect mind of God. See? Because he is going to harass your mind and accuse you. That means that you are always going to be wondering if you are good enough, or, Lord, give me another week and I'll be better. Give me another month, and sure enough, you turn out worse. So you're always thinking, Lord, a little better, a little later and I'm going to get better and then we're going to make the rapture. You know, if You'll just give the church another two, or three, I just know that I'll be ready. But, you're not. You're going to be worse. Things are going to get worse, and you're going to get worse. See? The Bible said where sin doth abound grace doth much more abound. God is going to do it by grace. But, folks, we've got to do our best. Do our best. When we do our best that's good enough. I don't care how much we stumble. I don't care how much Satan accuses us, we are thus perfect by the blood of Jesus. Have been all the time and we're not eligible for that perfection to our behalf of getting what we want, or desire, because we've done our best, and that's all He requires. A dad or a mother wouldn't require anything out of a little boy, or girl, no more than their best. It would be so unfair if Brother Gabriel require anything out of Frances that she wasn't able to perform, because she is a little lady. She is a little girl. See? The same way with the little boys here. It would be so unfair to try to require something out of the little ones that they are not able to perform. Isn't that right? We're just God's little ones, that's all. Even the one caught up to the throne was a baby that ruled with a rod of iron. Still a baby compared to Almighty God, and the knowledge of Almighty God. When are we going to catch up with God. When are we going to graduate? As to say, Well, I finally made it; I know everything you know now. So you can see where we're at. This is one of the great hindrances of faith, is you're always trying to get good enough. But, until the day that you accept the Word of the Lord Jesus that He has perfected forever those that are sanctified, sanctified them once and for all by the offering up of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, you're never going to be good enough. Like Brother Branham in his day. Brother Branham said the one thing that was lacking in the church, even in his day, was they did not have rapturing faith. And said, before the church can go out it's got to get rapturing faith. And the only way you're ever going to get faith is by the hearing of the Word. And the only way you're ever going to have rapturing faith is for God to bring you a message that shows you that your sins are gone. So then, you've got to come to a place to where you believe that you are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, and that you are clean and holy and godly, and that He has cleansed us from all unrighteousness. The Bible said that God is faithful, that if you confesses your sins, John said, he will cleanse you from all unrighteousness. For, he said, all unrighteousness is sin. So we're going to pin this down just a little better here in a few minutes and let you go. What (Begin tape one, side two.) ...to believe that He is able to do it. Number one. Two, to believe that you are eligible for it because you have been born again, and that God loves you and through Christ Jesus has given you all things that pertain unto life. Exceeding great and mighty promises. That's the first two things. The third thing, you've got to come to the place to where you work with your heart, to learn to assure your heart, to do the things please God. Don't just flounder around. Don't just stagger. Don't make allowance for this and a little gossip over here, a little television over here, and a little movies over here, and a little frolic, and a little bit of six flags, and running along down the beaches nude, and dressing out and all these other things. Everything that you do you've got to give an account thereof in the day of judgment. Every deed that you do your spiritual man is going to give an account to God for what you did while you occupied this little body. So to assure our hearts let's do the things that please God. See? Salvation is of God. It's of the Lord Jesus. It's through the name of Jesus; by the works of Jesus. But where people are going to miss out, is that they don't realize that it's a serve yourself thing but doing the things that causes the heart to have confidence toward God to assure and reassure the heart to where it will believe in the things of the Lord Jesus Christ, as to His works toward us. Or His blessings toward us. All right. So then, that's the third thing. You've got to assure your heart. Then if you do that then you know that He hears you. If you know that He hears you, the Bible says, say what you will. Just as long as you don't doubt in your heart that you believe what you're saying is going to come to pass, say what you will and it will happen. There's nothing can stop it. You might say, Well, I don't believe that. I know that it's absolutely a fact, because I've done it over and over and over. I haven't been around telling any mountains to get out of the way. Haven't seen any that needed to get out of my way, but if it ever comes to that I believe I'll try it. Say, Well, you're crazy anyway. I know folks thinks I'm eccentric but if I had a mountain in my way and I felt like it ought to be out of my way, believe you me, I'd go to prayer and I'd pray. I'd say, Now, God, I want that thing out of the way. And I'd pray until I could believe it. I might have to stay all night, and all night, and all night, but I'll stay. I have stayed all night long until I'd convince my heart that what I was asking Him for He was going to give it to me. Stay right there, and He always hears. Never fails. Always works. All right. So we say here again now, For verily I say unto you (That's whosoever will.) that whosoever shall say to this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart (Now, leaving the mountain and bringing in everything else.), and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. See? If you don't want to talk about a mountain, talk about something else. Whatever you say, if you say it and you believe it. Now, why did it say, If you say it? Because He is the high priest of our confession. So then we believe with the heart unto righteousness, but confession unto salvation is made with the lips. Now, you can confess Christ and still not have Him. You can say I'm a Christian and it come from your heart, but you're lying. Or you can say, I'm a Christian. Whatever a man says comes from his heart; it could be true. See? So, you see what I'm saying? You believe that it's going to come to pass so you say it, and you don't doubt. Just hold that heart right there and you don't doubt. You say it and it will come to pass. Somebody would say, My God! Brother Pike, are you telling me the truth. Is it that simple? It's just exactly that simple. You say, With all these hundreds and millions and billions of people and they can't get that thing to work? Let me tell you, that just shows how wicked man is, as a whole. God looked down at the billions and He said He didn't find one of them righteous. Come on, folks. Let's give God a hand. He's righteous. He said He didn't find one of them righteous. Out of all the billions from the beginning of creation to the consummation of mankind He never did find one of them. So you can see where the problem is. All right. So when Jesus came He made us righteous. From now on if we want faith to work we've got to believe in His righteousness. That's the only way to do it. You can do all the fasting you want to, and you can waste your time, and you can pray, do all you want to but God isn't going to hear you. It's when you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and when you give glory to His name. And when you fast for one purpose, and that is to make God hear your voice so that you can ask, not amiss as to consume it on your own lust, but to ask for the sake of the lost and the dying and the needy and to do something for God. Somebody said, You've done spoiled the whole thing, Brother Pike. Here I was, I thought I could get what I wanted. See? Not interested in nobody else. He said you ask amiss to consume it on your own lust. See? You're greedy. Now you say, Well, does that mean that I still can't get my cadillac? No, you can have the cadillac. He'll give that to you. I've had numbers of them. Lincolns, too. But that doesn't satisfy. That doesn't pacify. That's not the answer. He'll give you all of that. You own it all anyway. I mean, you own the Roll Royces. If you want them you could get them, too. See? No problem. But that isn't the answer. See? I'm saying that when you believe God and you follow God and you seek the kingdom of God first, and you're desiring to do what's right, when you ask it doesn't matter what you want. It doesn't matter if it's land, houses, cars; it doesn't matter what you want, God will give it to you. That's God. Give you thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands; He doesn't care if you have billions. It don't make no difference to Him. All right. So then, this is what I'm saying: Therefore I say unto you, what things soever you desire. I'm talking about what you desire. What do you desire? When ye pray believe that you receive them. When you pray. Jesus said, when you pray believe. There's no need to pray if your not going to believe. When you pray. When you go to prayer you believe that whatever you desire that you're going to have it. Believe that. He said, Therefore I say unto you, not the disciples Jesus. What things soever ye desire, when ye pray believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them. That's what He says. And, when ye stand praying forgive if ye have ought. You know, to clear your heart. So, getting back to the original theme of our thought, does faith have a time limit? No. When God said to Abraham and Sarah, I'm going to give you a little one, it had a time limit. It wasn't the faith that had a time limit. God just said, I will return unto Sarah at the time of life. So God set a time, as to the coming of the little one. And at that time Abraham's faith took hold and believed like that and it came to pass. So, see? It's not the time limit on faith. You can set a time limit on faith, but it's not the time limit on faith. It's just whenever you believe; that's when it happens. See? If you're praying for somebody you're praying for them right then. If you believe for them to be healed right then, they'll be healed right then, if your faith registers with God. You make the proper contact with God, right then is when it happens. See? Now you can say, the Bible says you lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. You could put it recovering right now while I pray, or recovering out here x amount of days. You can always put it off in the future and never get it to happen. Or you can always be trying to get your faith to be strong enough to get God to answer and never get it to happen. But if you'll strengthen your faith, if you'll do the things that strengthens your faith__. All of you have faith. Somebody says, Well, I just don't have faith. That couldn't be. How could you be a Christian and not have faith? You're saved by faith. How could you be a Christian and not have faith? When you say that you don't have faith that means that you are not a child of God. You couldn't possibly be a child of God, unless you have faith. So, see? There is no such thing as saying, I don't have faith. Now, the thing is, they said, Lord, increase our faith. He said, If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed you could move a mountain. Now isn't that what we're talking about, is moving the mountain. Somebody said, My! How much faith does it take to move a mountain. I've never seen anybody do that. I won't ever be able to do that. Well, He said, if you've got faith as a grain of mustard seed. How many of you confess to have faith? How many know how big a mustard seed is? How many feel like you could move a mountain? I won't ask you to raise your hand on that one. Do you understand what I'm saying? I'm just telling you that Satan so easily beguiles. Satan so easily beguiled Eve and took her home away from her, the garden away from her. All of those great things away from her, just with a few words. The Bible said, You shall receive power when the Holy Ghost has come upon you, or after the Holy Ghost has come upon you. See? You already have power. How much power do you have? The Bible said, Power over all the powers of the devil. How many have got power over all the powers of the devil? Why do you let him bother you so much. See? Power over all the powers of the devil. You believe you've got it? You absolutely have it. You say, What kind of power is that? The Holy Ghost. How many of you have the Holy Ghost? When the Holy Ghost has come He has power over all the powers of the enemy. Do you understand what I'm saying? That's why Jesus went into the wilderness. He went into the wilderness, not to fast. He went into the wilderness to defeat the devil. That was the first leg of the war with the devil, to defeat him for you and I. He defeated. He came back saying, I've got power over all flesh. Because when you've got power over flesh you've got power over all flesh. Because all men's hearts are fashioned alike. So He conquered his flesh. That was the end of the devil. He did that for you and I. He prayed for you and I. He died for you and I. He gave that__ I'm not, you know, just saying something that's kind of a myth, some kind of a wild thing, some kind of a fairy story. I'm telling you the absolute facts. I'm telling you the gospel. I'm tell you of God. He has given you power over all the powers of death. He said, over all the powers of the enemy. That includes death. Death is the last enemy to be conquered. I've given you power over all the powers of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Now, I know He has to speak that directly to the spiritual man. Somebody said, Well, boy, he sure hurts me a lot. But, see? God is speaking to your spiritual man, that I've sealed your spiritual man to where you keep yourself by faith through this great gift of the Spirit, and the evil one never touches you. How is he going to hurt you if he never touches you? He never touches you, let alone hurts you. See? So you just let him beat on you because you're waiting for the change of the body so you let him beat on you. And you don't__ See? Jesus said, Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offense unto me. See? You don't put him in his place. You don't assure your heart to where you can take the shield of faith to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. You don't do that. That's the problem. It isn't God. It isn't the Word. It isn't the promise. It isn't what God appropriated for you. It's just man. That's man. He's in that laodicean, lukewarm age. All right. So then, I said that to say this in closing. And that is that there is no time limit. If you place a time limit on it, then there is a time limit. If you don't then there isn't. It's just whenever you believe. Jesus__ Let me give you one example here. Jesus met a man in the way. He needed healing for his little one and when he talked to Jesus, fear, frustration, all these things seizing the mans heart, Jesus consoled him and said, Don't be afraid, now. Said, fear hinders the work of God. He could have said it like that. Fear is an enemy of God. Fear is your believing in reverse. You're going to be baffled and you're going to be the enemy in the power instead of bring God into power. So He said, Fear not; only believe. So He prayed for the man's little one. When He prayed He went His way. The man went his way. And then somebody came running to him and said, the little one has been healed. Has been healed. Or that is, your child has been healed. And you know what he did? Quickly__ He probably didn't have a watch, but just using that, you know, as an illustration, in that you've got a watch, quickly, he said, What time did it happen? Can you imagine him asking that? Why I'd probably been jumping up and down hollering saying, Thank God! Thank God! Thank God! But he didn't do that. He said, What time did it happen? He said, certain, certain time. He said, That's exactly when Jesus said he would be whole. Exactly. So you see there's no time element. Said, that was exactly the time. All right. Let's stand together. That man was determined that God was going to get the glory. He was going to prove whether or not it was the healing from God, or something just took a change. Wasn't nobody going to tell him that he just took a turn for the better. All right, let's sing a little chorus, can we? Let's sing that little chorus, I Love Him. So you see, folks, you've got great and mighty promises. All these lovely promises. God wants to use you. Somebody would say, That great man of God. That great woman of God. That's true. But you know what makes them a great woman of God, or a great man of God? It's because they believe. They believe and great things happen in their lives. But they're not a great man of God, or a great woman of God, because they are a different kind of woman, or a different kind of man. The Bible said Elijah was a man of like passion. Same problems, same harassment of mind as you and I have, but he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it didn't rain for several years. And then when he prayed the heavens gave forth its rain. When the governor wrote the article in the paper, and said pray for rain. Pray for rain. When they gave out of water in Monroe, and they published the picture, even of Monroe ground where it was cracked all to pieces and things were severe, I wrote the man a letter. Dear Governor, I'm going to pray, and when I pray God is going give you rain, but I'm requesting such and such and such because God has touched my heart, and when I pray he's going to give you rain. The governor wrote back a nice letter immediately. Said, I'm a believer. My wife and I, we always pray. We believe God. We acknowledge the Lord. Whereas, the Bible said, acknowledge the Lord in all your ways and He'll direct your paths. I prayed and the heavens gave forth the rain. And it's been raining ever since until here just as of late there has been something happened, and I know what happened. But the thing is, he's still blessing us. The water tables were way, way down but we prayed and the water tables not only came up to normal, but they came way up above where they'd been. See? Elijah was a man of like passion as same as you and I, so then it is not that an individual that is great, it is God that is great, and when you become one with God then that makes you great in the sight of the people, because they're looking for the answer, and Christ is the answer. So, I said that to let you know that He wants to use you. He said just whosoever will, if they say it don't doubt. When I wrote the governor I didn't doubt. I'd done prayed about it. I didn't doubt. I said it was going to rain; it was going to rain. I remember standing out here one day. We were standing in from of the truck, or car. Somebody was setting in the seat of the truck, tornadoes just striking everywhere. Brother Taylor and I, we'd had the vision about it, I remember, coming back from El Paso, or whatever. Anyway, I was standing there and it said there was another tornado coming. Our people were was so weary. Everybody was weary. Dad and Mom was weary. Tornadoes were striking all over the nation, everywhere. According to the vision; we had seen it. Looked like the heavens had gone crazy. And I was standing in front of the truck, and I was listening. Somebody was listening to the radio and I was listening outside and it said a tornado is moving from Winder down the highway towards Monroe. We had already had tornadoes here that killed people, dismantled housed, tore up things, and I heard it. I said, God, in the name of Jesus, I command that tornado to turn and go in another direction. And all of a sudden the radio said, it's turning; it's going in another direction. I believed that He would do it. Somebody said, Well, that's coincidental. Well, praise God for the coincident; it turned and went another way. So when you pray just believe in those coincidents so you can be protected. I believe that it was the divine providence of God. I remember when the flood hit. I said, Betty, let's get out of Ohio. I said, I wouldn't be surprised if God didn't flood this valley, I said, the way these people have done in not receiving the Word. And we got out and the flood hit the valley and it came clear out of the banks, just filled the valley; hundreds of thousands of peoples lives in jeopardy. And it went on until one day I was riding down the road in the car and I heard this report, and I prayed. I said, Lord, for God's sake put that water back in the banks. And the radio said, the waters from the Ohio River are receding, and they're going back into their banks. Somebody came the other day and were telling us how they were down in the valley of Alabama, how that we spoke of the curse hitting the valley. Never before had they had this thing to happen like that. It had been many years that the river hadn't even been disturbed, but it came up out of it's banks and there were stores where the roadway was deep and you had to go up quite a flight of stairs just to get up to the sidewalk, but it came right on up above there and they had to get in row boats and it went right on into the stores. Many such things. We could write a book on the miraculous, or on the usage of faith. I've seen my wife use her faith. I've seen it happen. I knew it was faith. I've seen her utilize her faith in God. And she said, I know it. I know it. And sure enough it came to pass just exactly like she said. I remember sitting out in California, one day she got inspired and she started believing. We needed some money, and she said, We're going to get some money. Said, We've got to have some money. And she said, Right now. Right now. She said, We've got some, said, let's go down to the telegraph office, or whatever it was. She said, God's going to give us some money; let's go down there. And sure enough, we got down there and we went in and called for whatever, and this lady she came to the counter and she had a little paper in her hand, and she said__ She kept looking at it and she said, Praise the Lord, everybody. And Brother Ernie had sent us some money, you know, and praise the Lord, you know. And she didn't know hardly how to read it. She read it, but there it was. And I've seen that happen numbers of times. I've seen my Dale use her faith. I've seen my children use their faith. I've seen them use it. So you boys and girls, you ought to remember that. They used their faith. I've seen it happen. That means that you do have faith. You do have faith. Let's sing that little chorus, Brother Taylor, Faith In God. (Singing) Can you strengthen your faith? (Singing) Can you utilize your faith? (Singing) Don't you have faith for salvation? (Singing) Something came across my mind. I remember when Brother Floyd Owens had a hard time. He didn't hardly know how to serve the Lord, or follow the Lord, him and Jacqueline. He had a hard time and looked like every time he'd buy a car it'd get__ One time he came to me and he said something about it, and I prayed to God. I said, God, he ain't going to lose this car. Now, I don't want him to lose this car and he ain't going to lose this car. You make a way to where he can keep this car. And, Lo, and behold! if the people at the Ford place, or wherever it was, the office that had the title on it lost the title on the car and the car completely became his. They lost it lock, stock and barrel. God let him keep his car; that was it. See? God did that. Isn't that true, Brother Floyd? See? God did that, because we ask Him to do that. I told Floyd, I said, pray and believe, and so he did. See? That's all we've got to do right now. You may have a problem right now. I may have a problem. A lot of us might have problems, but there is one thing about it, if you'll join with me and let me join with you, the Bible said that if any two agree as touching anything it will be done. If you will agree with me, and I'll agree with you, you don't doubt in your heart, I don't doubt in my heart, then it will come to pass. It will come to pass. So while we sing this little chorus, Have Faith In God, remember you've got faith. But you want to strengthen your faith. You want to be like Abraham; you want to be strong in faith, giving glory to God, being fully persuaded. Not of a doubtful mind, but being fully persuaded that what God promised He able also to perform it. All right. Let's sing it together. (Singing) The altars are open. (Singing) Sing it again. (Singing) We've been almost off of the mountains. We've went off into the creek. We've turned over and rolled over and rolled back up. We've turned over, been hit by cars and been pulled out on the side. We went through many, many things, but always by faith__ I said, by faith, we're going to make it through this. I can remember times when those things struck, immediately when it struck, I would immediately say, By faith we're going to go through this and my wife, my children and I are not going to be hurt. By faith God's going to do it. We always came out, no one hurt. See? Financially, whatever it might be, you've got to believe. You've got to believe. You've got to believe. There's some of you standing here that have had problems. You've had accidents. If it had not been for faith in your heart you'd have been killed. Been some of you that have had sicknesses. Had it not been for faith you'd have die. I was down at the house last night, I went in my room. Dale and Susie had driven off somewhere. Rode off. Little Holly was real sick, and Andy was sick. Both of them was real sick. And I got them out and set them on my knee, and Betty and I, we rocked them a little bit and talked with them. Give them a little consolation. You know, children need a lot of love and consolation. Don't need to be screamed at and hollered at. You need to correct them, but their little hearts get tore up. You need to reassure their little hearts over and over, a security and confidence to where they will be healthy and they'll be well. But, anyway, I walked into my room and I looked and laying on the dresser I saw a little clipping from a newspaper, and the newspaper said, Death. And it really disturbed me, because sometimes God will speak to me through different things. And I walked over and I looked at it, and I turned it over. It said, Of a star. Death of a star. And it struck me like that__ I thought, Them babies are sick and his name is Dale Starr, and this was a clipping I had out of the paper where it showed the consummation of a star, the life of a star, and I'd left it laying there. So I got Betty. We got real concerned and I really began to pray, and Betty worked with the babies. I prayed and this morning they were just as well and healthy as they could be. See? God undertook. The little fellows were really sick. Both of them vomiting. A bad situation. All right, let sing this song (Begin tape two, side one.) together. Only Believe. Can you sing with me? (Singing) Sing it like this now. (Singing) Believe it, you receive it. (Singing) Don't that sound beautiful? (Singing) I remember how I said to Brother Floyd and Sister Jacqueline, I said, your son Randy is going to be saved. Randy was going the other way as hard as he could go and all of a sudden something happened, and that snake bit Randy. Randy, he came over to the house. You know, you would wonder. You'd say, Well, why in the name of reasoning didn't that boy have enough sense to go to the doctor? Well, Randy has a good understanding. He probably would have done that, especially knowing that he wasn't living for the Lord. But he had had, Joey I believe it was, or one of them had had a vision. And in the vision one had gotten bit by a snake, and instead of going to the doctor they came to me and God healed them. And according to the vision if they hadn't done that they could have died. So he came straight to me and we prayed. He was healed. God immediately done away with it, and God healed him. And Randy came to Lord. Still trying to serve the Lord. As a matter of fact, he was here tonight somewhere. He might have had to leave. All right. Let's sing that again; Only Believe. When you think about believing, only believe. That is so beautiful. That is so sweet. That is so thrilling when you think, Only believe, and you think, now I'm standing here; I'm doing the believing. Have you ever stopped to think that you can live your whole life, pass off of the scene, and then look back in sad regret and think, Oh, my God! Look what an opportunity I had as a human being, just to believe. Just to believe. As a human being I had this great opportunity just to believe, and have all these great, wonderful, miraculous things to fill my life and I didn't do anything about it. I ate and drank, ran after the hamburgers and milk shakes, after frolics, money, prestige all my life, and threw this heavenly thing down the drain. Never did work with my faith. Never did give it an opportunity. Never did try. Never did search out the things of God. Isn't that a disaster? Now to me, you speaking of a calamity, that's a calamity. All right, let's sing that again. You think on what I'm saying now. (Singing) All right, now, we're going to sing it like this and I want you to really think now. If there is something that you really want, something you've ask God for, something that you'd like to have, I'd like for you to right now purpose it in your heart. The Bible said decree a thing in your heart and it will come to pass. Believe and don't doubt. Decree it in you heart now. Whatever you want. Whatever you want decree it in your heart right now. Decree it in your heart. There are many things that I know that you want. Decree it in your heart right now. And we're going to sing like this. (Singing) Are you receiving right now? Are you accepting it? Are you accepting it right now. Are you accepting it right now? You say, Oh, my God! It's mine. He gave it to me. Hallelujah! Can you praise God and believe that? Glory to God! Jesus said, If thou canst believe in thine heart. Don't doubt. He's already took care of it at Calvary. Canst thou believe? If thou canst believe; all things are possible to them that believe. Can you believe? What do you want? Anything that you desire. Whatsoever ye desire, when you pray believe that you receive it and ye shall have it. Have you got any ought against anybody? Get it out of your heart right now so that you can just believe in God. (Singing) Are you receiving? (Singing) One more time now, like this. (Singing) I want you to bow your heads with me now in humble submission and confidence in God believe. Don't doubt now. Don't doubt. Jesus said, Believe. Believe and all things are possible to them that believe. You must believe. If Sister Ann will come up here with Brother Len. They ask for prayer just before they go into Alaska. You pray for me. You pray for these people. We must believe. When we're flying on the plane we must believe. Many planes go down. Like Brother Terrell said one time, somebody was just happy because he was on there. He said, that don't mean nothing, said, we still might crash. So it is a true fact. It doesn't matter who's on the plane, but there is one thing about it, if you believe, that is the answer. If you believe. Hallelujah! I feel God. When you take off you say, Hallelujah! Glory to God! I'm going up in the name of Jesus. I'm going to make my trip in the name of Jesus, and I'm going to land safe in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah! I never will forget the man in the Church of God when I was just a young boy, he was singing. He was a bald headed fellow, real husky type fellow. He'd been a hard worker. Very prominent person in the Church of God. Sing like a canary, but I remember, they were sending him somewhere. He was going into a mission field. My! He literally set my heart on fire. He sang a song, I'm not going under; I'm going over. And he testified with the same boldness; I'm going over! Glory to God! He went over. He did his work. So that's the way it is, folks. We can inspire one another's heart. I'll never forget that. He had a staunch conviction that God was going to be with him. I'm going to pray right here for these two, and while I'm praying I want you to life your hands up toward us, I want you to believe with us. (Unable to hear the prayer. Singing.) Can you sing it with me, now? (Singing) One more time. (Singing) I want you to lift your hands up with me, close your eyes. I'm going to ask Brother James Isaac if he'll come up here and pray with us. And while James is coming to pray with us let's believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and let's trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And let's give glory everyday of our lives, making melody in our heart to the Lord Jesus Christ from the early morning. You know the thing that pleased God about Jesus? Said, In whom my soul is well please, for He will call upon my name from the going forth of the sun unto the setting thereof. Or until it goes down. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Wouldn't it be wonderful if Brother Pike would start in the morning, and you would start in the morning, and we would call on the name of Jesus from the going forth of the sun and we'd never stop all day long. Mediating in His laws day and night, giving glory unto the Lord Jesus. While our Brother comes and prays with you remember us as we go on our journey. Remember the Lundebos in that you have given to help, you've got a part in it and let's remember one another, to pray for one another. Remember the people around the world tonight that need your prayers.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

Founder and first President of Jesus Christ’s Eternal Kingdom of Abundant Life, Inc.

Holiness Unto The Lord