Why Are You Following Jesus? Kathryn Kuhlman Part 3

You and I have been having a series of heart -to -heart talks on something that's very personal. It's personal with me. It's something very personal so far as you are concerned. Why are we following Jesus? What is your motive? Why do I work as hard as I work? And you've heard me say over and over again, nobody could pay me enough in dollars and cents. There's not enough money that anyone could offer me as a salary to work as hard as I work every day of my life. No. no organization, no institution could offer me a paycheck big enough to make me work the way I work. And those who are associated with me know it better than anyone else and know how hard I really work. Why, Catherine Kuhlman, do you work the way you do? I have been called a fool for working the way I do for my consecration to the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? What is my motive? What is my purpose? Why am I following Jesus? Out of choice. I am not compelled to do it. I am not forced to do it. I'm doing it out of choice. I have made the decision. What is your motive for following him? Today will be my last heart -to -heart talk in this series of messages, and I pray that before I will have left you, you will be able to give the answer. God knows. I do not know. You may not fully understand yourself, but one thing I know, God knows why. I have made this choice. Knowing you better than you know yourself, he knows your motive for following him. The day after having fed the 5 ,000, and they were still following him, he suddenly turned and said to them, Ye seek me not because you saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled. He was saying to them, very frankly, I know your motive, I know your purpose in following me. You're following me for the loaves and the fishes. Labor not for the meat that perishes, but for that meat. which endureth unto everlasting life. Let us not deceive ourselves. The fact that thousands press their way to the scene of miracles is no sign that they're hungry for God. I know that. I'm very conscious of that fact. What a God they were! Would the God that every person that crosses the threshold of worship or every time the doors are open to a great service, that every person who sits in these great auditoriums were there because they were hungry for God, hungry for the spiritual, hungry for the word of everlasting life. I'd give anything in the world. If I knew that there was a spiritual hunger in the heart of each one, but I know better than that, there are still those who are following him for the loaves and the fishes. When the miracle fails to lead one past the satisfaction of human hunger or spiritual relief, And does that bring him in touch with the bread of life? It has lost its purpose. And it's just like that. Remember that wonderful scripture? When Jesus said to the seven day that day, Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents, and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you. That was power. That was real authority. But he knew the weakness of human nature. He knew that they could be just weak enough to glory in that power. that was theirs as heirs of God and joint heirs with himself. Therefore he quickly added, Notwithstanding, in this rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. Now, the fact that power was given to the Seventh -day to triumph over sickness and disease was wonderful. Oh, it was truly wonderful. It was divine. But this is what Jesus was saying, and you and I have to get back again to the spiritual vision. Sometimes I think that there are still those who are following him because they are being attracted to him. through their senses. To triumph over man's nature, his sin, his moral condition, was far more lasting than just something that was temporal. Go back again. Even the sick whom Christ healed died at last, you cannot find where there was even one who was healed during the ministry of Jesus. Continue to live and live and live. Sooner or later, every person, even though that one was healed, By the supernatural power, everyone, sooner or later, had to meet death. And after death, there was the life beyond, there was eternity that each one had to face. A miracle upon the physical, the natural plane is, after all, fleeting, vanishes. but not so in the realm of the spirit. The miracle wrought every time a soul is born again. Well, when God by his spirit triumphs over the old creation and he brings a trusting heart into a fuller realization of divine life is something that's lasting. It endures forever and ever and ever. I shall never forget. The experience I had one night while I was preaching in Sweden. The thousands had come. They'd filled the great sports arenas. And there they were on one side. The press. The photographers. The reporters. They were there from the television station. They were there from the radio station. And suddenly, as the Spirit of the Living God came upon me, and I knew that there were thousands there waiting for the miracle to take place in the physical body, I turned to a little lady who was on a stretcher. I shall never forget it. The experience was almost overwhelming, and I do not believe that I'd ever done it before. I do not know whether I shall ever be led of the spirit to do it again. But under that wonderful anointing, I turned to that woman lying there on that stretcher and I said, there's something far greater than the healing of that physical body. One touch from the master's hand, one touch. By the power of the Holy Spirit. And he can lift you from off of that stretcher. And you can be instantly healed physically. But there's a healing that is far greater. The healing of that body of yours is something that's only temporal, that's all. It's something that's as fleeting as this earthly life. But he gives to you something that's far greater than the physical healing. He'll give you life eternal. He'll give you that eternal water. The water that I shall give unto you is eternal life. You and I can afford, beloved, to go through this old life with pain and suffering and disease. We can afford to go through it. But there is a healing that's far greater than the healing of the physical. There is a spiritual healing that's far greater. To rejoice in the fact that God has touched my physical body and wrought a miracle is one thing, and that's glorious. I appreciate it with every atom of my... being I appreciated, I would not minimize that for anything in the world. But to know that my name was written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and that I am born of the Spirit of God, is greater, is far greater than that. At the close of the Great Service in Toronto, Canada. And the reporter may be listening to me this very moment. But when the very first things that was asked me, after the service had ended and I was being interviewed, Miss Kuhlman, what about those who left the great service today and were disappointed because they were not healed? What about it? I said, sir, if you noticed very carefully. I made a very definite statement after the miracle service. I said, we're coming now to the greatest part of the service, something that's far greater than the healing of the physical. Jesus said, ye must be born again. I said, sir, there's a miracle that's far greater. than the healing of the physical. That is the reason there is never a miracle service without that altar call. And giving men and women a chance to accept the Christ as their Savior, that's the greatest healing in the world. Even those who were healed during the ministry of Jesus had to die sooner or later. And then the only thing that mattered was their spiritual healing. Why is it that it's harder to realize this truth and to enter into the spiritual phases of the subject of miracles as Christ desires us to do? I wonder if it's not due to the fact that, even as Christians, we're too much... Creatures of sense. God has given us the body in which we tabernacle are, in which we dwell. We're given five senses which act as reporters to us concerning the world in which we live. We see, we hear, we smell, we taste. And somehow the natural man conducts his life accordingly. He orders his steps, lives what we call the natural of the physical life. These senses were in the original purpose of God. We know that. Sure, that's true. But sometimes I think we become prisoners, servants to the natural. We become prisoners to our senses. Man is held a prisoner to a sense life. And this is a hindrance which we have from our ancestors and sometimes we call it our old creation. It is governed by sight or the report. of our senses. But the spiritual life, the supernatural life, the life of a consecrated man or woman is above the natural. We're now as Christians introduced into another realm elevated by the spirit. onto another plane where faith is the governing law or the governing power. It's the work of the Spirit in our lives today to bring us out from the bondage, out of the natural, controlled by the Spirit of the living God. It's one of the... hardest things in the world to get men and women to see it. It's one of the most difficult things in the world to tell you how to enter into this spiritual realm. But I can tell you one thing. You will know when you have reached this spiritual realm when you can honestly Look yourself directly in the face and say, my motive for following Jesus is simply because I love him. I'm not following him for the loaves and the fishes. I'm not following him because of the reward that is mine in the hereafter. I am not following him because of what he can give me and what it is profit unto me. Oh, somehow I pray the Holy Spirit can make this real to your heart. If for just one minute I can take the lid off of my own heart and tell you something, I do not know how better to... Say it. Not for one minute do I ever think of the reward beyond the grave. I mean exactly that. I tell you very frankly, I have my reward here and now. Every time I stand by the side of a man who's been delivered from liquor, every time I stand beside a little family who have accepted the Christ as their Savior, every time one has been wonderfully healed by the power of God and I just look in their faces and see the joy and the satisfaction there, I have my reward. Ask for nothing more. As God is my judge, if Jesus were standing here right now, I can look into his face and say, I'm following you because I love you. I work the way I do because I'm grateful for what you've done for me. I'm so glad that my sins are forgiven. I'm so grateful that I've passed from death unto life. I'm so grateful for peace of mind and for peace of soul. I'm so grateful for the privilege of knowing the love of God. I'm so grateful for the communion. that I have with the Holy Spirit. I'm so grateful. Whatever is for me, after the heart takes its last beat, I would be so contented with. But I'm not serving you for the reward. I'm serving you Simply because I love you.