<TITLE>03. Par 9-11</TITLE>L-9 And when faith really hits the heart, it doesn't have to be a spontaneous miracle as we were watching last night, the man laying here on the cot, with a great big swelled up condition in his stomach. And I was fixing to leave, and the Holy Spirit called me, and I looked and saw the vision over the man. And a moment he responded to it; his stomach went right down like that, and off the cot he went, rejoicing through the building, or the persons in the stretchers the other night, or in the wheelchair. See, it doesn't have to happen like that. As long as you believe that it is going to happen like that, you can rejoice just as much, laying on that cot tonight, this young man. Or the young fellow in the wheelchair, you can rejoice just as much when faith takes ahold, saying that you have it, as you could be if you were running up and down this aisle just like you was out of the wheelchair. See? It is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. You don't have to feel nothing. You don't have to taste nothing. Only thing you have to do is to believe something. And it becomes a positive, something that you possess. That is your faith.

L-10 You cannot accept it by an intellectual thought. That's intellectual. Your minds will reason, but faith does not reason. If you got intellectual faith, then that's just a reasoning faith. You'll say, "Well, if I only was healed, I could get up. If I only was healed, this lump would leave. If I only was healed, I'd feel different. If I only was healed, the doctor would tell me so. But when you've got faith, all the doctors in the world could never tell you anything different. You possess that. It is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

L-11 Now, usually, we find most people are afraid to accept it. And usually people who have faith is someone who has experienced things. Now, when you accept Jesus as your personal Saviour, there's not a way in the world for you to ever be saved, only by your faith. You had to accept it. You had to believe it. Notice. You could get down to the altar and could cry all night long; and you could beat upon the altar and scream until you could scream no more; and still you're not saved. You could feel real good and run all over the building, shouting, and still not be saved.
The devil can beat you around the stump on your feeling. If I had to go by my feelings, there'd be many times that I'd be all out of condition. But I don't rest on my feelings; I rest upon the unconditional Word of the living God Who made the covenant with me, if I would believe it. It's not what I feel; it's what I believe. Jesus never did say, "Did you feel it?"; He said, "Did you believe it?" Faith happens. It's far beyond feeling. You could feel tonight, like you're saved, and run around and praising God, and the next morning you wouldn't have any feeling about it at all. Then you say, "I'm lost again."
But when faith takes ahold, that Jesus Christ, God's Son, died in your stead, and He become you in your sin, that you in your sins might become Him in His righteousness, and accept Him as your only Propitiation for your sins, then faith takes ahold, and all devils out of hell can't move it. Faith endures. Faith locks something; it seals something.


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