<TITLE>03. Par 10-14</TITLE>L-10 Oh, aren't we happy tonight to know that Christianity is not a bluff. It's something that is real. God is so real. I want to read just one verse out of His Bible. And that's found in Saint Mark the 11 chapter and the 22nd verse. Just speak to you a few moments, and may God give us the context.
And Jesus answering said unto them, Have faith in God.
It's been said in the Scriptures that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And then, if we were going to have a faith line tonight, I thought it would be appropriate to speak just a little on faith.

L-11 Now, many people think that a... doesn't not know just how to take a hold of faith. Jesus said this, speaking to His disciples: and He said to them, "Have faith in God." But before He had done this, He had performed a miracle to show them that God still operated, that He still lived. He had said to a tree the day before, "No man eateth from thee from henceforth for a season." And the next day Peter noticed the tree had begin to wither from the roots. He was showing there just what it meant. And Jesus making, not in a raised voice, but just with real faith, said, "No man eateth from thee." And the tree begin to wither; the life went out of the tree.

L-12 Now, before He would teach His disciples what He did, He must show them first Who He was. And that's the way He still does. As I have said before, when an occasion arises that needs to be God called on the scene, and the way God acts on that occasion, if the same occasion would ever rise again, God has to act in the same way that He did first, or if He did not, He did wrong when He acted the first time.

L-13 Oh, it seems to be such a hard thing for people to comprehend what faith is. Now, many people think that faith is just something like a--a rub, or touch a totem pole, or a certain mental emotion. That isn't faith. Many times that's excitement. Sometimes it's hope. I've heard many people say, "Oh, I've got all faith," but them then standing in a prayer line. If they had that type of faith, they would not be--had be in the prayer line. See, it's just the--an emotional faith.

L-14 Now, watch. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Now, if I was starving to death and you came to my rescue, and I said, "If I had one loaf of bread, it would spare my life."
And you'd say, "Brother Branham, I'll fix that for you," and would give me twenty-five cents. Well, twenty-five cents is the purchase power of the loaf of bread. Now yet, I do not have the loaf of bread, but I have the purchasing power of the loaf of bread.
Now, you people here that is real sick, I want you to listen closely. Now, that twenty-five cents is your faith. Your faith is the purchasing power of your healing. Now, if I had twenty-five cents, I could not eat the twenty-five cents. The twenty-five cents is not the bread, but it is the power that will purchase the bread.
Now, when you receive faith, faith is the purchasing power of your healing. Now, like this. If you give me the twenty-five cents, and maybe the grocery store was five miles away, but I can rejoice just as much with the twenty-five cents in my hand as I could with the loaf of bread in my hand, because I have in my possession the purchasing power of the bread.
Now, listen, friend. When you receive faith, if you really believe it, you're just as good as healed right then, though you might not be able to move. Now, it's not something that you imagine; it's not something that you work up to; it's something that you possess. You have it. I could show you my twenty-five cents. That is the purchasing power of the bread. And when you got the faith, you prove it by the way you act. Now, I might have to go a long ways before I get the bread, but I can rejoice all the way, and getting more hungrier and weaker all the time, but yet rejoicing all the time because I've got the purchase power of the bread.


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