"Faith To Be Saved" Kathryn Kuhlman "Faith Part 1"

Another good heart -to -heart talk today regarding something that's vitally important to every one of us. I mean that. And for the first time, I have gotten down to this vitally important thing of faith. Volumes had been written and volumes more had been spoken regarding this something that's called faith. And yet, do you realize that in the final analysis, we actually know very little of this subject, the subject of faith. One thing I know, one... I am dead sure of, and that is the fact that faith is a gift of God or a fruit of the Spirit. And whether it be gift or fruit, the source, the origin of faith remains the same. If you have faith, if I have faith, It must come from God and is a gift of God. If you forget everything else that I say in these heart -to -heart talks on faith, if you do not remember anything else, after I will have finished my talk today, remember this one thing. Faith comes from God and is a gift of God. You will remember that I left you talking about the tree, the tree as you see it, the beautiful leaves on the tree. Oh, sure, looking outside your window. And then you will remember that I climaxed that heart -to -heart talk by saying that faith is the light that... flows into the roots. Remember what Jesus said, By their fruit ye shall know them. Ye shall know them, the individual. The fruit that is produced is an index to what the tree really is. The roots of the tree are not faith. The tree can grow its own roots, but it cannot grow its own life. What I mean by that is that the roots do not produce the life, but the life produces the roots. It's the life that is faith. It's that wonderful and glorious quality that is a gift of the divine heart that flows into us when we need it. When we need it for the purpose that this life will be manifest to the world by the fruit that we bear. By the arms of love outstretched. By the things of grace and beauty that through God we grow day by day on the tree of our lives. How foolish it would be for that tree to struggle in an attempt to create the light that flows into it. Need not struggle. All it has to do is to drink it in. All it needs to do is to function in obedience to the laws divine. And if the life is there, it simply has to manifest that light in the fruit it bears and the... beauty with which it gives to the world. And so it is with faith. Love may be the greatest thing in the whole world, but faith must of necessity be first. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. You tell me that You have faith. Let me ask you one question. Where did you get it? You have it? Where did you get it? I pick a rosy red apple from the tree. I hear it testify from the core of this little apple heart, and it tells me it has rosy cheeks. It whispers in my ear that it is so very... group the taste. It invites me to test its flavor. It testifies that it has so many beautiful qualities. Then I ask where it got them all. From the branch and the shelter of the leaves and the rain and the sun. Yes, that's all true. But I knew that a way down in the hidden system that the world cannot see are the roots. And the roots were receiving something from God that no tree on the face of the earth has ever been able to produce by itself. Mm -hmm. And so it is with faith in the heart of any man and woman. Faith is a gift of God or a fruit of the Spirit. And whether it be fruit or gift, the source of faith comes from God and is a gift of God. Some time ago, An atheist said something. He said, you know, I have no faith whatsoever. I do not believe the Bible. I do not know that there is a God. I see a law of order in nature. I see a law of order in the universe. But what causes it or where it came from? I don't know. But what I want to know is this. How can a man spend the dollar when he doesn't have the dollar? How can you drive a car when you don't possess one? How can you believe when you have no belief? How can God expect a man to exercise faith when he does not have any? Just assuming they're... Where is there any justice in a setup like that? One question was asked here. Are you an honest man? Do you want to know the truth? I have asked that question over and over again. Do you really want to know the truth? His reply was, What is truth? Just what is truth? I've never been able to find it. Never. And so we pointed him to Jesus and talked to him. about Jesus. And so he went on his way. We didn't know whether we'd gotten very far with him or not. You know, you can't always be sure. You have to just trust the Lord. And all that I could say was, he is true. Jesus is the way. He is our life. He is our faith. Everything is in Jesus. He makes men free. He will free you of your doubts and your fears and your misgivings. He will free you from your bondage of unbelief. Well, he says this sounds good if you can believe it. But how can man or God expect a man to believe what he cannot believe? So he went away. Sometime later, he came back. And all you have to do, you know, is to look in a man's face, and you know whether or not a miracle has happened. You know whether it's gotten through. You just simply know. You just know. You sit, you know what happened. I told the Lord that if there was a God, to manifest himself to me. I was honest. I asked him to do something that would reveal his presence, if he was there at all. And in that moment, he said, I was conscious of the presence of one that I had never known before. I cannot tell you how. He said, I could not explain it to you. I could never tell you how I knew, but in that moment, I knew there was a God and that God was reality. I didn't understand it with my mind, but I knew it in my heart. And I told him. I had no faith to believe. And so he would have to give me his faith. And he did just exactly that. He gave me his faith. I believed and the work was done. That's God's way of salvation. That's it. That's the whole story. story in a nutshell. When it comes to a man who says he has no faith, and yet if he's dead honest and wants salvation, all he has to do is to look up and say, alright, God, I am honest. Give me the faith to believe. And the word says, as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them which believe on his name. Whenever I stand on a platform, whenever I give an altar call, I base my authority on the word of God and I say, every man, every woman, who surrender his heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus will receive that one, him that cometh unto me. I will in no wise cast out. If we confess our sins, he is able and just to forgive us our sin. That's the word. I give the word because I believe his word with every atom of my being. If we're saved by faith, how do I know that all can have the faith to receive? How do I know that everyone, every man, every woman whom I invite can find eternal life? Some might have faith and others be entirely devoid of it. The fact that people believe what you say does not mean that they have the faith to translate that belief, even for a hungry heart, to translate it into an experimental knowledge of sins forgiven. The Lord himself must give that faith in that human heart for that one to believe that when he comes, Jesus, will accept them and forgive their sins. That's the reason I say to you, faith is a gift. It's a gift of God. I say, whosoever will may come, because I know I have that confidence, I have that faith in my Lord, that... I know that he will impart the faith that is needed to that sincere heart. I know he'll do it. I know he'll do it. You do it. The same Holy Spirit who convicts us in every sin will see to it that... as the sinner was given enough conviction to convince him of his sin, so he will now be given faith enough to convince him of his salvation. But no man in himself possesses that faith. By grace are ye saved. Through faith. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Here we are, wretched, miserable, ignorant, unbelieving humanity. That one of us could ever, ever manufacture enough faith in ourselves to accept the unseen. Do it. It has got to be a gift of God. The Holy Ghost not only imparts the conviction of the need of a Savior, but He also imparts the faith to receive Him. Faith is not something that's manufactured. It's not something that you can work up. It's not... don't think that somebody can give you. It is something that only God can give. Never, whatever you do, never think it was your faith that received Christ as a Savior. Never. Never say that any act of yours was the basis of your redemption. It is Jesus who imparts the water that he spoke of to the woman by Samaria's wayside well. It is Jesus who puts his arms of love beneath the burden on your back and lifts it from your tired, weary body. It's Jesus who pours into that broken heart the oil of heaven's joy. It's Jesus who smooths the wrinkles of care with the gentle touch of a mother's hand. It's Jesus who brings you out of the darkness of the night into the light of his own glorious and wonderful day. It's Jesus. The other night, I was weary in body. We had worked hard all day. And I sat down. At a pounter. To get just a bite to eat. I was sitting there. When the finest looking young man introduced himself. He said, I know who you are. He said, I see you often here in Pittsburgh. I passed you on the street. Many a time I should like to have just stopped you and told you what you did for my mother, but he said, I think it's so very rude for people who are in public life to be stopped by someone when they're eating a meal or going about their business. But he said, tonight, I must tell you what you did for my mother. You saved my mother's life. Oh, I said. Was she healed? Thinking of physical healing? Oh, no, he said. It was a healing that was far greater than any physical healing. And I found out that this gentleman is... a teacher, a part of the school system here in Pittsburgh, very well educated. Very well educated. He said, you know, we were all Roman Catholics. That's all we've known had been Catholicism. And he said, my brother, my mother's son, had an incurable disease. and died. He said, my mother became so hardened because of his death. He said, something happened to my mother. She turned against the church. She turned against God. He said, my mother was a Wonderful Catholic. He said she became very bitter. Very bitter. No one could talk with her. He looked at me. And he said, I can't begin to tell you what my mother was really like. And then one day, she happened to get your radio broadcast. More or less by accident. And then she listened the next day and the next. And he said, something happened to my mother. Something happened to her. And I'll never forget the look on his face. I'll never forget his high. as they began to just deal with... He was reliving some things that only the family would ever know. He said, you know, my mother regained her faith. My mother regained her confidence in God. I must tell you, you saved not only my mother's life, but you saved my mother's soul. But really, my friend, I was not the one who saved his mother's soul, his mother's life. It was the Holy Spirit who gave to that wonderful, precious, powerful, heartbroken mother. Faith. Faith is a gift of God. Only God can give it.