TEXT: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed
by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of
things which do appear” (Hebrews 11:1).
FIRST:
WHAT IS FAITH? In the simplest manner in which I am able to express it,
I answer: Faith is the assurance that the thing which God has said in
His Word is true, and that God will act according to what He has said in
His Word. This assurance, this reliance on God’s Word, this confidence
is FAITH.
NO IMPRESSIONS ARE TO BE TAKEN IN CONNECTION WITH FAITH.
Impressions have neither one thing nor the other to do with faith.
Faith has to do with the Word of God. It is not impressions, strong or
weak, which will make any difference. We have to do with the written
Word and not ourselves or our impressions.
PROBABILITIES ARE NOT
TO BE TAIKEN INTO ACCOUNT. Many people are willing to believe regarding
those things that seem probable to them. Faith has nothing to do with
probabilities. The province of FAITH begins where probabilities cease
and sight and sense fail. A great many of God’s children are cast down
and lament their want of Faith. They write to me and say that they have
no impressions, no feeling, they see no probability that the thing they
wish will come to pass. APPEARANCES ARE NOT TO BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT.
The question is – whether God has spoken it in His Word.
And now,
beloved Christian friends, you are in great need to ask yourselves
whether you are in the habit of thus confiding, in your inmost soul, in
what God has said, and whether you are in earnest in seeking to find
whether the thing you want is in accordance with what He has said in His
Word.
SECOND: HOW FAITH MAY BE INCREASED. God delights to
increase the Faith of His children. Our Faith which is feeble at first,
is developed and strengthened more and more by us. We ought, instead of
wanting no trials before victory, no exercise for patience, to be
willing to take them from God’s hand as a means. I say – and say it
deliberately – trials, obstacles, difficulties, and sometimes defeats,
are the very food of Faith. I get letters from so many of God’s dear
children who say: “Dear Brother Mueller, I’m writing this because I am
so weak in faith.” Just so surely as we ask to have our Faith
strengthened, we must feel a willingness to take from God’s hand the
means for strengthening it. We must allow Him to educate us through
trials and bereavements and troubles. It is through trials that Faith is
exercised and developed more and more. God affectionately permits
difficulties, that He may develop unceasingly that which He is willing
to do for us, and to this end we should not shrink, but if He gives us
sorrow and hindrances and losses and afflictions, we should take them
out of His hands as evidences of His love and care for us in developing
more and more that Faith which He is seeking to strengthen in us.
The
Church of God is not aroused to see God as the beautiful and lovable
One He is, and hence the littleness of blessedness. Oh, beloved brothers
and sisters in Christ, seek to learn for yourselves, for I cannot tell
you the blessedness! In the darkest moments I am able to confide in Him,
for I know what a beautiful and kind and lovable Being He is, and, if
it be the will of God to put us in the furnace, let Him do it, that so
we may acquaint ourselves with Him as He will reveal Himself, and that
we may know Him better. We come then to the conclusion that God is a
lovable Being, and we are satisfied with Him, and say: “It is my Father,
let Him do as He pleases.”
When I first began to allow God to
deal with me, relying on Him, taking Him at His Word, and set out fifty
years ago simply relying on Him for myself, family, taxes, travelling
expenses and every other need, I rested on the simple promises I found
in the sixth chapter of Matthew. Read Matthew 6:25-34
carefully. I believed the Word, I rested on it and practiced it. I took
God at His word. A stranger, a foreigner in England, I knew seven
languages and might have used them perhaps as a means of remunerative
employment but I had consecrated myself to labor for the Lord, I put my
reliance in the God who has promised, and He has acted according to His
Word. I’ve lacked nothing – nothing. I have had my trials, my
difficulties, and my purse empty, but my receipts have aggregated
thousands of dollars, while the work has gone on these 51 years. Then,
with regard to my pastoral work; for the past 51 years I have had great
difficulties, great trials and perplexities. There will always be
difficulties, always trials. But God has sustained me under them and
delivered nw out ofthem, and the work has gone on. Now, this is not, as
some have said, because I am a man of great mental power, or endowed
with energy and perseverance – these are not the reasons. It is because I
have confided in God; because I have sought God, and He has cared for
the Institution, which, under His direction, has 100 schools, with
masters and mistresses and other departments which I have told you
before.
I do not carry the burden. And now in my 67th year, I have
physical strength and mental vigor for as much work as when I was a
young man in the university, studying and preparing Latin orations. I am
just as vigorous as at that time. How comes this? Because in the last
half century of labor I’ve been able, with the simplicity of a child, to
rely upon God. I have had my trials, but I have laid hold upon God, and
so it has come to pass that I have been sustained. It is not only
permission, but positive command that He gives, to cast the burdens upon
Him. Oh, let us do it! My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, “Cast
thy burden upon the Lord and He shall sustain thee.” Day by day I do
it. This morning sixty matters in connection with the church of which I
am pastor, I brought before the Lord, and thus it is, day by day I do
it, and year by year; ten years, thirty years, forty years.
Do
not, however, expect to obtain full Faith at once. All such things as
jumping into full exercise of Faith in such things I discountenance. I
do not believe in it. I do not believe in it. I DO NOT BELIEVE IN IT,
AND I WISH YOU PLAINLY TO UNDERSTAND I DO NOT BELIEVE IN IT. All such
things go on in a natural way. The little I did obtain, I did not obtain
all at once. All this I say particularly, because letters come to me
full of questions from those who seek to have their Faith strengthened.
Begin over again, staying your soul on the Word of God, and you will
have an increase of your Faith as you exercise it.
One thing more.
Some say, “Oh, I shall never have the gift of Faith Mr. Mueller has
got.” This is a mistake – it is the greatest error – there is not a
particle of truth in it. My Faith is the same kind of Faith that all of
God’s children have had. It is the same kind that Simon Peter had, and
all Christians may obtain the like Faith. My Faith is their Faith,
though there may be more of it because my Faith has been a little more
developed by exercise then theirs; but their Faith is precisely the
Faith I exercise, only, with regard to degree, mine may be more strongly
exercised.
Now, my beloved brothers and sisters, begin in a little way.
At
first I was able to trust the Lord for ten dollars, then for a hundred
dollars, then for a thousand dollars, and now, with the greatest ease, I
could trust Him for a million dollars, if there was occasion. But
first, I should quietly, carefully, deliberately examine and see whether
what I was trusting for, was something in accordance with His promises
in His written Word.
“As laborers together with Him” (2 Corinthians 6:1).
Sunday, 7 October 2012
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