"Faith an Imparted Grace" & "Experience Changed My Theology of Healing" Kathryn Kuhlman

I have never been more honest with you in my life than I have been in these heart -to -heart talks we got into question as to why some people are not healed. I have been so dead honest with you that I have told you sincerely that I do not have the answer. I do not know. And when somebody comes along and says that they have the answer, they know why, I'm afraid I'm a little skeptical of those who claim they know. No one can understand God's reasoning. No one can understand the ways of God. No one can fathom the mind of God. You and I have been really getting down to rock bottom. We have gone into the word of God. And the day has come when we need to get back again to Bible teaching. And the Bible does not teach that faith is a condition of the mind. It is not. No person in the whole world can ever make me believe that faith, the kind of faith that Jesus was talking about, was a condition merely of the mind. It is not. It is a divinely imparted grace to the heart. And very often, our emotions are mistaken for faith. And then, you know, it's so easy to blame God when there are no results from something that has been purely of the mind and not of the heart. Mm -hmm. Oh, I know, beloved. I may be upsetting some of your theology, some things that you've been taught. But remember, if the Bible teaches one thing and you have been taught another, the Bible is always right. The Word of God is the final authority. We can believe in healing. We can believe in our Lord and His power to heal. But... Only Jesus can work the work that will lift us to the mountain peaks of victory. We need faith, a product of the mind, when all of the other gifts of the Spirit we have attributed to God. Too many people believe that faith is still their own ability to believe the truth. and is often based on their struggles and their ability to drive away doubt and unbelief through a process of continued affirmations. But watch something. There is belief in faith, but faith is more than belief. If you want to get the mind of God, study the Bible. If you want to get close to the Lord, study the word. If you want the answers to your questions, go back to God's holy word. Again I repeat, if you want understanding, search the scriptures. There is belief in faith, but faith is more than just mental. It's more than something of the mind. It's more than belief. Faith is a gift. And Jesus is our faith. He is the giver of every good and perfect gift. He is the author and the finisher of our faith. How often we... quoted that scripture. A thousand times you have repeated it. He is the author and the finisher of our faith. And yet so few of us have realized the full meaning of those words. Faith isn't something that we can work up. Faith isn't a result of emotions. Faith isn't a product of the mind. Faith must come from Jesus. He is the author and the finisher of our faith. If I have any faith, he's the one who's given it to me. If you have faith, he is the one who's given it to you. If you are a Christian, he is the one who has given you the faith to believe that you've been born again. I am a Christian this hour because he has given me the faith to accept him as my personal savior. He's the author and the finisher of our faith, whether it's faith for salvation or whether it's faith for the healing of our body or for the faith of anything that we receive from him. Active faith is unquestioning belief. It's complete trust and reliance upon God with all confidence. And faith can become as real as any of our senses. When we receive his faith, we also receive understanding. And we receive both from the word because he is the word and he is truth. And that's the answer. It's that simple. Everything that God has for his children. he puts within the reach of faith and then he turns around and gives them the faith to appropriate the gift that's what he's like and yet lo these many years we've missed it then jesus spoke with him there's no struggle the waves of doubt and anxiety and worry all fade away and suddenly a glorious and marvellous calm and peace enters into the heart and the mind of the one who has received that which only he can give and the only noise that will be heard will be that of praise and adoration from the lips of the one who has just been healed by the great physician be no loud demanding. No. No. There be praise and worship and adoration. I told you in our last heart -to -heart talk that one of the greatest secrets that I've learned through the years is that when i had realized my own helplessness and had acknowledged it to him without a struggle oftentimes i was too tired to struggle there'd been more than once that i had been too tired to utter an audible word i mean that the words would not And yet, I have received some of the greatest manifestations of this power. I have received some of the greatest anointings of my life when I have had to lean completely on him. And he always comes through. You are nearest your possession of this great imparted grace when you realize your own helplessness and your complete and entire dependence upon the Lord. You know, I'm reminded the young lady who in describing faith used this illustration. I hope you'll never forget it. She said, you know, when I was learning to float on water, i realized i had to completely relax and without fear trust the water to hold me up it worked i floated in the same way i faithed if you forget everything else that you've ever heard me say in our little heart -to -heart talks regarding faith remember what i have just said i repeat she said when i was learning to float on water i realized i had to completely relax Without fear, trust the water to hold me up. It worked. I floated. In the same way, I faced it. That's my life. Day by day. I have to trust him to hold me up. But as long as I struggle, then I'm not trusting. You and I would never learn to float on water if we went about it the same way that the majority of people go about trusting the Lord. All they say, they... Trust them, all right. Oh, sure, but I'm telling you something. They never relax. They're never without fear. There's always anxiety and worry. Well, if they did that, believe me, they'd drown as sure as shooting if they were learning to float. Relax. And you, too, will know what real faith is. We receive nothing by demanding of God. It's a part of his great love, compassion, and mercy that he gives us. How often we lose sight of the fact that not one of us can claim any righteousness of our own. Not one is worthy of the smallest blessing. But we are the receiver of his blessing because of his mercy and his compassion. It's the sovereign act of God and not something that we have merited or something that we have obtained through our own goodness. I'll make an admission. When I was... Oh, let me think. I would say my late teens or 20 years of age. I could have given you all the answers. Had you come to me when I was 20 and asked me any question, believe me, I wouldn't be... Talking to you then as I am now. I would have told you now. If you want to receive your healing, I have a set of rules. There's number one, there's number two, there's number three. I want you to know my theology was straight. And I was sure that if you followed certain rules, and if you walked hard enough, and if you obeyed all the commandments and had yourself in a certain spiritual state god would heal you oh i was sure of it but lo and behold my theology came tumbling down was crushed into a thousand pieces when one day a man who had just entered the auditorium doing a miracle service stood silently against the wall and after not more than five minutes, and I'll never forget it, I can tell you exactly what the man looked like. He walked boldly to the stage and freely admitted, without any emotion, he just looked me squarely in the face and said, my ear has just been opened, and I don't believe it. Just like that. My word? Think what that did to my theology. I put that man through the third degree. I had everything at stake. My theology was at stake. Everything I believed as to how to receive your healing was at stake. But the more I questioned him, he held his ground. He never recanted. He was honest, seeing the crowd, out of curiosity, came in. He didn't know whether he was going to a giveaway program. He didn't know. He was sure something was being given away by the crowd, and he wasn't going to miss it. He didn't know what it was, so he came in. He was standing there, a spectator. And I found out he hadn't been inside of a church for 25 years. he had put himself in the category of an atheist and yet his ear that had been deaf for years was instantly opened it was possible for me to relate many many cases where people had been healed who were amazed who freely admitted that they did not expect to be healed some of them with the tears streaming down their cheeks stood before the crowd and said, I can't believe. I just can't believe it. You know, until we have a better way of defining it, all that I can tell you is that these are mercy healings. They've been healed through the mercy of the Lord. And in every... instance without exception the one healed has always accepted christ as his personal savior before he left the stage always we forget the mercy of god we forget his great compassion we forget that we do not earn our blessings, neither do we merit his goodness. Were it not for the mercy and the compassion and the grace and the love of God, not one of us would be a Christian today. And the same holds true when it comes to physical healing. How often I have thought that God knows very little about man's theology. And we're so prone to get dogmatic about things that we know so little about. In the final analysis, let me ask you, how much do we really know? Only that which is in his word. His word is our basis. let's get back again to the word of god let's forget that it's a matter of the mind isn't it much simpler to just take god at face value isn't it much simpler to acknowledge the fact that he is the author and the finisher of our faith? Isn't it much simpler to lean on his understanding, his mercy, his grace? And if you really want to know what he's like, he'll reveal himself through his word get back to the word his word may he give you the desire of your heart