"God Sees the Heart" & "A Closed Mind Can be a Good Thing" Kathryn Kuhlman Pastors conference

All right, come on with questions. Why is it that a sinner gets his healing and a saint sometimes doesn't? Well, sometimes I think we think some folks are saints who aren't. You know something? I've learned this a long time ago. There are an awful lot of people who put on an awful good front when they go out of the house. But when the doors are closed and the blinds are drawn, they're devils. Yes, ma 'am. It's just like that. You ask the question why so many good people's children turn out bad. You know, Ralph, you have to really, if you're a man, you have to live with a woman to know her. Amen. And you know, Mrs. Wilkerson, You really have to live with a man, don't know him, right? Uh -huh. And it's like that. And it's just like that. All right, there's number one. You see, you would be amazed how much spiritual pride there is in the heart. A many a professing Christian. I shall never forget. I'll never. In a little town in Idaho. And this is one of my very first experiences. When I first began preaching the gospel. It was a Methodist church in Idaho. And they asked me to preach the morning sermon. And there was an old codger in that town. who was really a reprobate. Now, I'm telling you, because they told me when I first came to town. And I wasn't any more than 16 years of age. And they had gotten him to come to that morning service. I gave an altar call. When I gave that altar call, here came the old cotcher. He came down to the altar, because my personal work in those days... If I thought there was a sinner in the place, I'd lock the doors and let him out until he got converted. And so when we got him down the altar and God really saved him, it was glorious. When I look back on it now, I'm wondering whether he was saved and filled with the Spirit at the same time because he really got a double dose of something. I didn't even know enough about the baptism of the Holy Spirit to know. And his hands were up and he was crying and he was rejoicing. And oh, it was glorious experience that he got. And his wife came to the front of the church and she looked up and she said, it isn't fair. It isn't fair. It isn't fair. I've been the president of Ladies 8 for 26 years and you've never done this for me. And here comes my old husband and look what you do for him and you left me out. You see, we don't know the heart. It's still a matter of what's on the inside here. It's still inside here. Not here. That's the reason I say to you, you know, it makes no difference whether you're Catholic, whether you're Protestant, whether you're Jew, whether you're Gentile, whoever you are. It isn't your church membership. It isn't what you profess. It's still a matter of what you have on the inside of you, right in here. Here comes somebody into a service who probably hasn't been to church for 25 years. somebody who doesn't have a lot of preconceived ideas up here. I'd give anything, so help me, I'd give anything in the world if I had the ability to take the ministers in our nation today, take them, turn them upside down, and just shake them real good. And shake them so hard until I had all of the algae shaken out of their heads. Just shake out all. I'll tell you something about your preachers up here. I can't work on them, but I can sure work on you because you're here. And if I could just take you. You see, you've been through seminary, and don't you think for one minute that I'm decrying education. Don't you. I'm only sorry. God bless you. I'm only sorry that I don't have a better education. For years, I suffered with that complex. For years, I've suffered with it. But sometimes, I think it was a good idea he called an ignorant person. Because, you see, I don't have to hurdle all these things the two men have to hurdle. You who've been to seminaries. You see, you've been educated low these years. And you've got so much up here in your mind. So much up here that now, and you've been so brainwashed with a lot of this stuff, that you've got to get it all out of your mind so that you can come again as a little child and come back. If I could only take it. You see, that was the reason. Sit down, Ralph. You see? That is the reason, beloved. Why? The Lord said he had to put new wine in new bottles because he couldn't take these old skin bags and fill them with the new wine. Do you understand that? Hear the scribes and the Pharisees. They knew the law. They knew the letter. They knew it well. Oh, they knew it well. They too were educated. We're not the only folks educated beyond our intelligence. They were educated. You'll talk about... They were educated. They knew the law. They knew every letter of the law. There isn't a person living today who knew the law better than they knew the law. And yet when it came to this one... to fly praying the holy spirit when jesus came and and left uh the church's wonderful gift of the holy spirit you see they were so steeped in the law mentally they were so formed that this this hardening process had so taken place that they were no longer a pliable vessel. And if you put this new wine, you can't do it, into a bag that is hardened almost to the consistency of stone, it would burst the faith. That is the reason He knew that they were so formed in their ideas and their thinking. That's why today, back there, who did he choose? Did he choose the priests? No. He chose the most unlikely. He took the fishermen. They set the dirty hands. He's not looking on that. He was looking for pliable, yielded material. Uh -huh. Pliable, yielded material. Couldn't use the old skin bags. But he wanted yieldedness. into which he could pour the new wine. And I'm frank to tell you, here's a secret. My mind is closed to everything else but what's in this word. I'm not a liberal thinker. I may look modern. You'd be surprised. You'd be surprised, you know. Oh, don't tell me you're Catherine Coombe. A preacher. But watch. My mind is closed to everything except this word. You couldn't pay me. If somebody came and offered me $50 ,000 cash to study false religions, $8 ,000 cash. To take a course in psychology, I'd say you keep your money. I'm not going to endanger that which I have. You couldn't do it, you couldn't do it, you couldn't do it. I don't read everything that comes my way. I don't read everything that comes in my mailbox. You load me with books. I might just as well tell you I don't read them. I've got enough right here to do me. I've got enough right here to do me. Let me give you an example. Watch. When you take your marriage vows, And you stand there and take your marriage vow and you promise to be a faithful, a loving husband to that wife of yours, that one who's going to be your wife. Brother, you close your mind to all other women. You're on danger. dangerous ground as quickly as you open your mind. Little lady, watch something. When you take your marriage vows, marriage is a sacred thing. And when you take your marriage vows and promise to be a faithful wife to that husband. That's the reason. It's like somebody, now, well, I'll tell you, she's a nice girl. I'll marry her now, but I'll still keep looking around and playing the field. It'll never work. It'll never work. And when it comes, we are members of the bride of Christ. He is our coming bridegroom. I stopped looking. I'm not going to get all tangled up with something that's not the spirit. I don't have to take all kinds of things in my mind. I'm not going to look upon things that might rob me. of a deeper experience with the Lord. And you'll find out, beloved, when your mind is so completely saturated with the things of God, it's a... You think it. You live it. You eat it. It's a life. This thing of being a Christian isn't something that you take... off and hang it in the closet until you want it again and then put it on. It doesn't like that at all. It's a day -by -day proposition. Don't you misconstrue anything that I've said today. If you do, you might go off and be a religious fanatic. I'm not talking about that. I'm not talking about that. But if there's something... That is contrary to the holy word of God. Burn it. Don't go out exploring. And you know it's contrary to his word. We forget this. He is the very Word of God. He speaks to us. Do you want God to speak to you? He's speaking today through His Word. This is what you need. If there's something that comes into your hands, if there's something that you know is contrary to His Word, burn it! The mind is a delicate machinery. Be careful how you treat it. Be careful how you use it. Be careful what you do with it. A thought makes a deed. A deed makes the life. And the life brings the destiny. But it all goes back to the mind.