The Secret Of Unwavering Faith
I like talking to you about revelation because we need revelation, but I also talk to you about faith because the Bible says, “Without faith, it’s impossible to please God.” He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and believe that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. You know, unless you can believe God for your salvation and healing, and unless you can believe God for your blessings, as to meet your needs, then you can’t please God. So then, you must have faith in God. Jesus continually said, Have faith in God. That was one of His favorite sayings. And He would say, Fear not, only believe. Be not of a doubtful mind.
People have a tendency to be of a doubtful mind. Somebody said, “We’re just doing what comes naturally, Brother Pike.” Well, if you do what comes naturally, then you are going to be of a doubtful mind, because you’re just naturally born to doubt. Paul said that when he would do good, evil was present with him. So, you are going to find out that when you want to believe, a doubtful mind is going to be present with you. So, don’t be of a doubtful mind. Don’t do that which comes naturally, but that which comes spiritually. To be naturally minded is death. To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
I preached on this the other day, and I emphasized that about the spiritual mind. I kept saying over and over, “To be spiritually minded is life, but to be carnally minded is death.” Somebody said, “Well, that means if you have a car, a house, or if you have land.” No! You can have two or three cars, three houses, five thousand acres of land and five million dollars, but that doesn’t have anything to do with it. That’s not being carnally minded. Being carnally minded, whether you have ten dollars or no dollars, is that your mind is on lust, on houses and on money. One man can have five million dollars and fifteen vehicles, and he has all of that to work for God and he is spiritually minded, and yet another man may not have anything, and all he can think about is something in the world. He may be just as worldly minded as he can be, and if he is, he’ll die and go to hell.
I know people that don’t have half enough, and all they can think about is when their husband is going to work and how he’s going to pay the bills. They’ll say, “Husband, don’t you think you’ve been out long enough, and maybe you ought to go to work in the morning? I don’t know what we’re going to do.” God bless them for having a little bit of concern so they can get that lazy husband to do something outside of being lazy! Let’s give the Lord a hand! Now, you thought I was going down the other trail didn’t you? All right. God bless that little woman. She helps her husband to get straightened out. Yet there are some women that just about drive their husbands crazy. He’d like to do something spiritual, but every time he thinks about taking a day off to do something for God, then she starts her regular routine.
I like to see people that are willing to do something. Some people are so that they can’t dig a ditch, or they can’t help. They’ve always got a lion in the street. They’ve got a backache or a headache or they married a wife, or they bought a field or they did something else. Nevertheless, I thank God that there are some who are willing to help and do something.
So, don’t be carnally minded. If you’ll be spiritually minded, you can have all you want. God will supply all of your needs according to His riches in glory. He gives you the power to get wealth and He makes rich and adds no sorrow. Don’t let the devil beat on you because you’ve got a few blessings from God. Just put it to work for the Lord Jesus and go on enjoying what you’ve got. Don’t be selfish and greedy and start hoarding things, because if you do, you’re going to get in trouble. Honor the Lord with your substance and the first fruits of your increase, and so shall your barns be filled with plenty and your press will burst out with new wine and you’ll have your health. When you feed the poor and the orphans and the widows, and you invest in God to win souls, hating the garment that’s spotted with iniquity, pulling them out of the fire, then the Bible says that your health will return unto you speedily. The reward of God will go before you, and it will just be wonderful. So then, you can have your health and enjoy these things. I would above all things that you prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers. This is the three-fold blessing of God.
In St. Mark the eleventh chapter, the twenty first verse it says, “And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto Him, ‘Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away.’ And Jesus answering saith unto them, ‘Have faith in God’.” Now, I want you to listen real close to this, because I want to impress upon you faith in the Word of God. I’d like to explain just a little bit. We always say, “Well, we know that, Brother Pike. We’ve heard that, Brother Pike.” But you really don’t know it. You’ve heard it, and yet you’ve not heard it, because I talked with some of you that know and understand the Word so thoroughly, and yet when I get right down to basics and to principles, you don’t understand the very Word that I quoted and read to you. Even though I read it over and you tell me what you understand of it, I see that you still do not fathom what the Lord Jesus said about it, and this is why faith does not work for you.
So then, He cursed the fig tree and the tree withered away from the roots, and yet, trees don’t die from the roots up. Remember that now. Jesus said, “Have faith in God.” Look at the hundreds and thousands and millions of people, and faith is not working for them. But then on the other hand, there are people where faith is working, and they are getting all kinds of blessings, financially, physically, spiritually and whatever.
Why is that? All of them have the same opportunity. The same God is Lord to all, so far as grace is concerned, and at this time, the blood is on the seat of atonement. God, being no respecter of persons, said, “What I say to one, I say to all.” And if He said, “I am the Lord God that healeth thee,” who then did He say that to? Did He not say that to all? Is He then respecter of persons? Somebody said, “Well, He said that to the people that are Christians.” He did not say that to the people that are Christians, though the Bible does say that the bread is for the children, and that it is, as for the healing, and that is true. The woman said, “I know, Lord, that the bread is for the children, but the dogs eat of the crumbs” (dogs meaning the Gentiles). Even as the woman, as one eating of the crumbs, went away with the divine act of God, as the healing came into her home. Wasn’t it, as to Cornelius, that salvation also came to the Gentiles that were called the dogs? So, who then would God have healed, or who then would God have saved? The Bible says, “It’s not My will that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have everlasting life.” He said that it’s not even the will of God that the wicked should perish, but that the wicked should repent and have everlasting life.
So then, who would God have saved? That all men should come to repentance and be saved. Then who should be healed? That all should be healed, and that God would have all men healed, for He said, “I am the Lord God. What I say to one, I say to all.” Somebody says, as to them that are righteous, “The Bible says that righteousness is of God, and there is none good but God.” So then, if there is none good but God, which good one are you going to heal? Which good one are you going to save, because there is none good but God and our goodness is of God? Even the Pharisees, Scribes and Jews, and all of them that kept all of the sayings of God and tried to do all of the things that they did, were they good? Three million people or more that came out of Egypt, were any of them good? Yet, the Bible says that there was not one feeble one among them. Isn’t that true? Then the Lord said to you and I, “If you’ll keep My commandments and My ordinances, and if you’ll do right before Me, I will not bring upon you the plagues and all of these evil things that I brought upon the Egyptians,” and as to the Hebrews, “I will not permit these things to come upon you.” Why, even in the wilderness, their feet didn’t swell and there wasn’t one person feeble among them. So, He says that He won’t bring these things upon you. I could say it like this" if you would do the things that I’ve told you to do, then you would have faith, and your shield of faith would quench the fiery darts of the wicked. Your faith would keep these things from coming upon you. That’s what it amounts to" faith by the hearing of what I’ve told you to do.
If Eve would have believed God, her faith would have kept the devil from putting that mind in her that killed her believing. Isn’t that right? She wouldn’t have been carnal minded. She wouldn’t have died. The day that you eat thereof, you become carnal minded and die. Isn’t it a fact that John made the statement that if you do the things that please God, hereby you assure your heart, and then does the heart have faith, or with the heart man believeth unto righteousness? You have confidence in your heart, and then when you ask of God, you believe, and what you believe, then you get it. Isn’t that right? Jesus said that if thou canst believe in thine heart and not doubt, ask what you will and you will have it.
So then, Jesus said, “Peter, have faith in God.” “I did this by faith,” He said, “Say what you will. You can have it. Decree a thing in your heart. It will come to pass.” What is He talking about, decree a thing in your heart? Just determine in your heart it is going to be the way you said it. Decree in your heart that it’s going to be like I said. “Oh,” somebody says, “well, now that couldn’t be.” But let’s look at the man that was impotent in his feet, a cripple from his mother’s womb, never having walked. Paul was preaching over in Lystra, and all of a sudden, he perceived that the man believed what he was preaching, and that the man had faith to be healed. Paul perceived that the man believed what he was saying so much that the man had faith to be healed. Paul never said, “In Jesus name,” or anything, according to the Scripture. He just looked at the man and screamed out in a loud voice saying, “Stand on your feet!” and the man stood on his feet and was healed immediately. Do you understand what I’m saying? He decreed it in his heart. He just said it, and the man came up from there. Isn’t that right?
When Peter stood there at the gate called Beautiful, he did the very same thing. The man was about forty years old, and he was looking for an offering. Peter said, “I don’t have anything to give you like that, but such as I do have, give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk,” and Peter put forth his hand, and the man came up from there and began to shout and praise God, and the Bible says that immediately his ankle bones received strength, and he went leaping and praising God. Isn’t that wonderful? Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Look under the law, how that Joshua controlled the sun and the moon. Look how they opened up the Red Sea. The Bible tells us to contend for that faith that they had back there. Look at the wonderful things that the apostles did. What was it? It was faith in God. Jesus said, “Have faith in God.” When He anointed the disciples, He told them to go out and heal. He said, “And whatsoever city you go into, heal the sick there. Cast out the devils there, and cast out the demons and the unclean spirits.”
How many devils and demons have been cast out here at Bethlehem? Boy, I tell you what, we’ve had them come in here, it seems, by the car loads. It looked like some of them that came in here must have had a number of devils and demons, and it took us a long time to get some of them straightened out here. But nevertheless, God got rid of the devils and demons and we’ve got a good congregation now. How many of you believe that? Sure you do, and you know why some of you believe that? It’s because some of you had devils and demons, but nevertheless, God delivered you from it.
It’s like the Bible says, fornicators, liars, cheats, and all these kind of things, such were some of us until God delivered us, and now we’re Christians. I’m trying to say that we’re not good because of what we’ve done, or because of what God delivered us from or how God delivered us. We’re good because He was good. He delivered us, and because He delivered us, that made us good" that is, good by His goodness. He saved us by His goodness. So when He heals us, He heals us by His goodness. So then, we know that salvation is to all by grace" therefore, we know that healing is to all by grace.
Somebody said, “Yeah, I got saved, but I don’t have the faith to be healed.” Have you ever stopped to think that it might be shocking, when you go to stand before God, and you don’t have faith to be healed? And there is a good possibility, when you put it to the test to find out if you’re saved, that you might get there and He’d say, “I’m sorry, but you’ve been just playing a game. You didn’t have enough faith to be saved.” What it is, you just go on the strength of the fact that you believe you’ve got enough faith to be saved, because it has never been put to the test to find out if you’re going to get through the gates, and yet, it has been put to the test, as to whether you’re feeling good or haven’t got any pain. Come on, folks! You need to get down to business, that’s what you need to do. I’m just saying, it’s just that simple.
Let me take a few minutes and explain this to you. Jesus said, “Have faith in God.” As the sun was going down, Jesus was healing all kinds of people as they brought them to Him. He healed their diseases and did away with their infirmities. He cast out the devils, and the Bible says that as He did this, He did all of them that way. Every one that came to Him that would believe, without respect of person, He healed them all. Jesus did that so that it might be fulfilled what the prophet had spoken of in the Old Testament, saying, “He took our infirmities, and He bore our sins,” for He said, “I am the Lord God that healeth thee. I’m the God that forgiveth all of thine iniquities and healeth all of thy diseases. I am the Lord that takes your infirmities,” as we would say, to fulfill what the prophet has said. Now, He went to Calvary to do away with this. He said, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. I have abolished within My body death, and I’ve done away with these afflictions and these kind of things.”
They said to Him, “Good Master.” And Jesus said, “Why callest thou Me good? There is none good but God.” So, they would say, “You can heal me if You will.” He said, “I will that you be healed.” And then somebody would say, “Well, Brother Pike, I would be healed if it was God’s will, and if it was God’s will, then I wouldn’t be sick.” That’s where you are wrong. Somebody says, “Well, you can’t prove that.” All right. Why do the wicked go to hell? Somebody would say, “Well, it’s God’s will for them to go to hell.” If that’s true, then the Scriptures are all mixed up and the Scriptures are broken, and if the Scriptures are broken, then all of our faith is in vain because the Bible says that the Scriptures cannot be broken. And the Bible says, “It’s not My will that even the wicked should perish, but all should come to repentance and have everlasting life, and that God would have all men to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Then why isn’t the wicked saved? It’s because of their unbelief. They are not going to come and do the things that please God, that they may have a clear conscience, as John said, to believe in the mercies of God.
As I’ve said before, you can’t live next door to a man and kill his cat, and kill his dog, and slap his wife, and knock his children’s brains out, and have any confidence that the man loves you and cares for you. You can’t do that. Yet, you can live next door to a neighbor and do something for a hungry child, and do something for a man. When he doesn’t have a car, then give him a car, or share a little money. Be kind to him and win his affection, and believe that he likes you or that he cares for you. See? You do the things that please God, then you know that God turns His favor toward you. Now, Jesus has already done this in our behalf toward God, to turn His favor toward us. All we do is just submit and try to conform to God’s desire, as to make an effort, to accept these things that please the Lord. Then, our faith goes up, as into the righteousness of the Son of God, and then these things prevail for us and our faith purifies our heart, and the Holy Spirit comes in just like that. That’s why without faith it’s impossible to please God, for he that comes to God, must believe that God is, and believe that God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
The Bible says that all of the promises of God are yea and amen. Paul said that we do not come to you preaching the gospel as yea and nay, but we come to you preaching the gospel yea and amen. The Bible says that all of the promises of God are without alteration and the same to every generation, and that the Word of God is settled in heaven, unchanged, unaltered. The Bible also says that God will watch over His Word to perform it. He will hasten to perform His Word. And the Bible says that this Word of God is life to the individual that finds it, and that it is health to his flesh, for the Word of God is the power of God, as to healing, for He sent His Word and healed them. The Word actually becomes Spirit. He sent His Word and healed them. It is the power of God unto salvation, and it is the power of God unto healing. It was by His Word, that He spoke the world into existence, and when it comes to the will of God, Jesus was the will of God. He said, “I come to do Thy will, O God. Offerings and sacrifices Thou wouldest not, but a body Thou hast prepared Me. And I come to do Thy will, O God.” That is, He was the manifested will of God. He was the Word. God was the Word, the Spirit made a human body. That was the manifested desire and will of God, who went about doing good to all men, and saying the same to all men" showing the love and compassion, even to the extent of taking the blood out of His veins, healing the crippled, giving sight to the blind and unstopping the deaf ears. See? Because it was God’s will, and when they would come and say, “If thou will,” Jesus was simply saying that it is God’s will for you to be healed. I will that you be healed.
So then, when we say, God’s will be done, we pray and say, “Hey, I’m sick. Lord, Thy will be done.” Some say, “God, I want to be healed, but I want Your will to be done if You don’t want to heal me.” You can’t pray like that. That’s wrong. That’s unbelief. That’s not right. That’s a reproach to God. That’s a mockery to God when you read God’s Word and see what God has to say about it, and then you go to praying like that. Now you can pray like this, “Father, Thy will be done,” and then when you pray like that, you’ve got to think like this, “Father, Thy will be done,” which means, “Thy Word be done. Father, Thy healing be done. My salvation be here, my healing be here, Thy will be done.” That is, “I’m healed, heavenly Father. I’m saved, heavenly Father.”
Can’t you just picture yourself getting down to the altar and saying, “Lord, I’ve come to Thee asking Thee to forgive my sins, and if You don’t want to save me, it’s all right. Thy will be done, just send me to hell.” You don’t pray like that, do you? No you don’t! You go there crying saying, “Heavenly Father, save me. You’re merciful. You’re compassionate. You died for me. I know that You won’t refuse me, because the Word says, ‘Father, I shall in no wise cast him away that cometh to Me.’ And Lord, Your Word says that it shall come to pass that whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Then, when God turns right to you and He says, “I am the Lord God that healeth thee. I heal all of your diseases. I forgive all of thine iniquities.” Now, you say, “I know that You forgive all of my iniquities, Lord, You saved me.” But He says, “I heal all of your diseases,” and then you say, “If it’s Your will.” Pray, “Father, Thy will be done,” which means you rejoice in it. Father, then Thou hast healed me.
Now, let’s look at it like this: the Bible says that if we’re going to get anything from God, then we have to decree it in our heart. We have to say it and not doubt. Jesus said that if thou can say it and not doubt, or He said that if we say anything, then we can’t waver. See? You can’t waver. If you say something and waver, then you cannot have it. If the devil can make you waver, you cannot have it. You cannot waver because God is a Spirit, and you must make contact, as to your inner spirit and heart, with God, who is a Spirit. Then it locks in, and when it locks in, you’ve got it.
I’ve got an electrician here, and this electrician will tell you that no matter how much power you’ve got, as to that transformer, and no matter how much current comes from the light company over here, which has a tremendous amount of power, when they run it out here on the line to this building, and it sits out here for ten years, if you have a dead receptacle, then you are not going to get anything from it. First, you’ve got to have a living receptacle, and then when you run it to the switch, if that thing isn’t connected right, as to when that switch is thrown, you’ll never get any light. Though the power is there and it’s already connected, and though it’s freely given to you, as we say, maybe the bill is already paid and the deposit is already put up, but folks, that isn’t going to do any good. The switch has got to be thrown and the connection has got to be made, and when the connection is made, then you are going to get the power. You are going to get the light, and the whole room is going to be filled with light. If you cook and heat with electricity, or whatever it might be, as to the beauty of electricity, then you are going to have it. Even as to the electronics of whatever devices it might be, as to TV or radio, if you throw the switch and make the proper connection, as to visions and as to hearing, or whatever.
Now, Jesus said to ask in faith, nothing wavering. A lot of times, we get misput in things. Like, for instance, He said that if you continue to abide in Me, and My Words abide in you, you can ask what you will and it will be done unto you. So somebody says, “Brother Pike, I’m a Christian. I abide in the Lord myself. I abide in the Lord and His Word abides in me,” but you misunderstand. The preacher ministers that to you, and you take it that you know and understand, when you don’t know and you don’t understand that.
When it says, “You abide in Him,” it means that every day of your life, you are trying to live an overcoming life and to be holy, and not only that, but you pray and fast. That’s His way, and that’s abiding within His Word, because He tells even the minister, that he should fast often and that he should be gentle, patient, apt to teach, and that he should go into all the world and preach the gospel. He says that you’ve got a job, and that you are to be about your Father’s business every day. Whether it’s giving out literature or testifying, as to go into all the world, or whether it’s to go to church and be a part, as to the home front operation, and to take part with the brothers or sisters in what they are doing, or whatever it is, then God is expecting you to abide in His Word. Whatever the Word has commissioned you or told you to do, then God expects you to go do it. That’s abiding in His Word.
It’s not just saying that you’re a Christian and doing something, as to a testimony and these kind of things, but abiding within the Word, and going forth in the Word and doing what God told you to do every day of your life. That’s abiding in the Word. Then, let the Word richly abide in you, as to meditate in His laws day and night, studying that Word to show yourself approved that you might be spiritually minded, and growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus so that you might have faith in God.
The next thing is to ask in faith, nothing wavering. Now, let me tell you something. You cannot ask in faith with nothing wavering just because you determine in your heart that you are not going to waver. Just because you say, “I’m going to believe. Bless God, I’m going to believe. I’m going to believe.” You are not going to do anything. The devil will just turn you for a loop. That’s not going to do it. You say, “Well, I’m going to go on a fast. Man, I fasted twenty days, thirty days. I believe. I believe. I believe.” That isn’t going to do it. You say, “I pray all night.” If you pray two nights, three nights, five nights, then that isn’t going to do it. That is not going to make you steadfast and unwavering. That is not what’s going to make you do that. Those things are good and that can strengthen your faith in God, but that isn’t going to do it. Somebody said, “Well, I believe it will.” Okay, go do your thing, but I say that when you get through, you are going to find out that won’t do it.
Now then, I’ll tell you what will make you ask in faith, nothing wavering, and that is when you learn the Word of God and the promises of God. Faith doesn’t come by fasting, and it doesn’t come by prayer, but it comes by hearing the Word of God. You’ve got to know the Word of God, hear the Word of God, and understand the Word of God to be able to believe the Word of God, not just having heard it and convinced yourself in some service where a preacher has preached that God wants you healed, and that God is good to you, and God wants you to be blessed, and then you go out and wrestle with your thoughts again. Not that, but when you understand the Word of God, to the extent that you truthfully know, and you actually come to a knowledge, as to a conviction. And then, something enlightens you and turns on in your heart, and suddenly, you see that thing to where you don’t change. And you say, “My God! God is precious, good and kind. He actually is a state of being that is above me, in me, and through me. All He is, is goodness to me, and there is no sickness or uncleanness in Him. There is no arrogancy about Him. There is no bitterness with God. There is no hurt toward me. He’s like a springtime morning. He’s like the sunshine without the heat. He is upon me, as to blossom and to bloom, and to bless me as the dew of the morning, that I might be the apple of His eye, and that I might be blessed and be in health, even as my soul prospereth. God is with me for good and God loveth me, and all that I do will prosper, and I will abide in the house of the Lord forever.”
He prepareth a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. He giveth me the desires of my heart. He maketh me to ride upon the high places of the earth. He maketh all of my beds in the time when the devil tries to make me sick. He makes me to ride upon the high places of the earth. He giveth me the power to get wealth. I’m like a tree planted by the water. My leaves will never wither. Whatever I do shall prosper, for the Lord is at my right hand that I should not be moved. He maketh mine enemies to be at peace with me. They come out against me one way, but He’ll make them to flee before me seven ways. For the Lord is for me, and He hath given me all power over the powers of the enemy, which is the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Christ, which has conquered the devil, and nothing shall by any means hurt me. I’ve got power over devils and demons, and they are afraid of me. And because of this, I take my faith in God, and my faith is this, that I believe the Word and the Word tells me that God loves me and that God is for me, and that God is with me, and that I don’t have to wonder if it’s God’s will to heal me. Although I stumble and stagger, and though I might have made a mistake and didn’t do like I ought to have done, but I do love You, Jesus. I was trying to do right, and I wasn’t trying to do wrong, and I did get distant and I didn’t pray like I ought to, I didn’t fast like I ought to, but I didn’t go back out in the world and throw myself away.
Now, if you did go back out into the world, you need to repent of your sins and come and bawl like a baby, even like the prodigal son, and say, “Lord, I’m not even worthy to be called a servant,” you know, to show God you are sorry. Then, as the prodigal’s father, He’ll be putting the ring on your finger and the shoes on your feet, as to show you His love. But folks, you’ll get chastened for those things. But when you stumble and stagger when you are trying to do your best, just say, “Father, I realize that I’ve got problems. I’ve got sickness. I’m having a hindrance, but heavenly Father, my problem is not of You. You don’t tempt any man, neither can You be tempted of any. You don’t confront a man. You don’t hinder a man in his cause. You don’t pervert a man in his cause, heavenly Father. I gave place to these things by going in error, and in doing this, I’ve caused my heart to condemn me. I’ve caused my faith to fall. I’ve caused my shield to go down and the devil is confronting me every way. He’s hindering me. He’s coming in on me in spite of all my trying to be religious and believe, and he’s just causing me to be frustrated in every way. He’s hindering my prosperity and health, but I’m going to line up, God, and get these things out of the way so my faith will go back up.”
Now, it’s right there that God is waiting to bless you, but that middle wall of partition has separated you from God, even though Jesus broke it down at Calvary, yet you are the one that’s giving place to it again, and God is trying His best to get to you. It’s like a mother trying to get to her baby that’s fallen down in a hole. God’s standing there weeping, trying to get to you, and you are to blame. Do you understand?
So then, we learn that there are circumstances and problems and things that hinder God from getting to us. Paul said, “I would have come unto you, but the devil hindered me.” The Lord wants to bless you. You’ve got to come to the place to where you settle it once and for all in your heart that God had nothing to do with your sickness, nothing to do with your problem, and nothing to do with your poverty. And when you do this, then can you ask in faith, nothing wavering, because even though you will have problems, you can get them out of the way because you know He’s on your side. The more you pray and call on God, the more you are going to be strengthened by the thoughts of His love and concern in trying to reach you. The Bible says that you draw nigh to Him, then you know He’s going to draw nigh to you.
So, you’ve got that confidence in Him, and you are sure in your heart that you might have that confidence that whatever you ask, He heareth you, and you know that you have that which you desire because He heareth you. You fast to make your voice to be heard on high. You do this that your light may shine, and then your light comes forth and your health returns to you speedily because you shared with others, which is pure and undefiled religion. You cause your heart to believe and do the things that please Him.
I’m saying then, that to have steadfast, unmovable, unwavering faith, you’ve got to understand the Word, and understand who God is and what God is. He’s the Word. He’s the will. He is this in your life. So, we must come to the place to fully believe and understand it without wavering and without reasoning, to where you will never waver or doubt, and never again try to figure it out, as to your case, because it has nothing to do with your case. There is no such thing as your case or anybody else’s case. It has nothing to do with that.
Somebody said, “Well now, Brother Pike, I do know. What if you blaspheme the Holy Ghost?” So what? You are dead. You are done. You are gone. Forget about it. That’s the end of it. There’s no forgiveness in this world or the world to come. Don’t worry about your faith. Don’t worry about anything else. You’re gone. That’s the end of it. Somebody said, “Well, that’s what always hinders me when I want to come to God. I think about blaspheming the Holy Ghost.” You know better than that. Usually, it’s a lie of the devil. You know whether or not you’ve blasphemed the Holy Ghost. If you’ve never spoken against the Holy Ghost, then you haven’t blasphemed the Holy Ghost. One word spoken against Him will not be forgiven in this world or the world to come. You need to get out of that rut and stop that.
Do you know what happens? Where the problem comes is that you get to feeling unclean, and you get that feeling because you let the devil put so many dirty filthy thoughts in your mind of everything from passions to I don’t know what. The reason for this is that you won’t pray and fast, and you won’t listen to the Word of God and study. You take up all of your time thinking on the natural" buying and selling and laughing and talking, and going on about your face and your body, until the devil just eats you like a worm. You don’t try to be spiritual minded, and the devil just eats you up. How could you ever have faith in God? God can’t be in a carnal mind of money and all of those things. To be carnally minded is death. Faith can’t work in that. You need to draw nigh to God, to get spiritually minded. So then, when you begin to think about being dirty and filthy, and drawing away from God, what is that? That’s devil and demon thoughts, and sure enough, that is devils and demons that have gotten between you and God.
Somebody says, “Then you’re saying I’m possessed of the devil?” No, you are oppressed by devils and demons. If you are born again, you couldn’t be possessed. But because of your foolishness and lack of consecration to God, this is where you let problems and circumstances come in. You need to get down to business with God and say, “Wait a minute. These devils don’t have any power over me. I’m playing around like some silly child.” Get down there and shake those things off and say, “Look, Satan, you get out of here.” Jesus said, “Get thee hence Satan, thou art an offense unto Me.” Take power and authority over him and rebuke him.
Start talking to God and get those dirty filthy accusations away from you, and don’t feel dirty and filthy. Don’t feel slimy. Don’t feel like you are cold and calloused. Don’t feel like you are worldly and all those other kind of things. Somebody said, “Well, isn’t that the way you are suppose to feel? You feel humble and you feel like you are dirty and filthy?” That isn’t feeling humble. That’s feeling foolish.
Somebody says, “Well, how do you feel?” Like the writer of the Old Testament said, “He hath made me great. He prepareth a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. He anointeth my head with oil. My cup runneth over. He maketh mine enemies to be at peace with me. I know He favors me, because my enemies don’t triumph over me. He giveth me the desires of mine heart.” He said, “I’ve taken thee from among the sheepcote. I’ve given thee a name like unto the great men of the earth.” You witness of the power of God and the goodness of God, and how that God has kept you. Decree a thing in your heart. Say it, it’ll come to pass. Ask what you will, say it in His name.
So then, who are we? We are of another world. I don’t belong to this world. I’m not of this world. Yet, Jesus did say to some, “You are of this world.” Like the serpent that’s on his belly, all of his labor is for his belly. He hungers and he thirsts and wants the things of this world. He’ll never believe. But, I’m passing through this era, just like you’d pass from one planet going to another. I’m passing through this flesh. I’m passing through this era, but I belong to another world. A great and a mighty world. A world of Spirit and a world of power. It’s a world of gods. and I’m passing through this world, as to a training, and I’ve never belonged to this world. Jesus said, “I’m not of this world, but I came from heaven and I go back to heaven.” This was given to me in God before the world ever was. He said, “Job, where were you, even before the world ever was, when the sons of God leaped for joy?”
So then, you are of the world. I’m not of the world, and I speak to them that be of the world. So, you can never be to where you don’t waver. Never! I don’t care how much you fast. I’ve seen people fast thirty and forty days. Their faith wasn’t any more steadfast than it was to start with. That has nothing to do with it. I’ve seen people go on a twenty-one day fast and then come off of it, and the devil hooked them just like that, and immediately, they ran off with somebody else’s wife, or somebody else’s daughter, or somebody’s husband, or whatever. They’d be just as dirty and filthy as they could be, and then turn into a drunkard. That has nothing to do with it. Go out into the woods and pray for days, and then come right back. That has nothing to do with it. But folks, when you really come to where you walk every day and something enlightens you, and something dawns on the inside, and you come to know the Word, and then you mix prayer and fasting, then that’s good.
So then, I say to you, the only way that you are ever going to be able to ask in faith, nothing wavering, is when you come to the Word of God to know, to understand and realize. Somebody says, “Oh, Brother Pike, all those things I’ve known for years.” You are lying! You don’t know them! If you did know them, you’d be putting it to the test, and all these things wouldn’t be like that with you and you’d have all these things that you are wanting, and you don’t have them. I live with you every day. So you don’t know, you don’t believe. You just hear me. It goes in one ear and out the other.
God’s Word doesn’t need to be propped up. As I said, you don’t go through life saying, “Well, I’ll keep on until I convince myself. I know for ten years I asked Him and it didn’t happen, but we’re the faithful ones. We know it isn’t going to happen, and it didn’t happen, but we’re the faithful ones. We just keep on and keep on, and when we die and get over there, God is going to reward us, because we were faithful and we kept believing, even though He never would do it.” Don’t you know that’s a slimy way of approach? That’s that old slimy mind of the devil. God’s Word is not altered. It’s not changed. It’s the same to every generation. It works that quick, as quick as the snap of my fingers. I have seen it work. I’ve put it to the test, and been present when it worked that quick numbers of times, and I mean a miracle that quick. More than one time, a miracle! I could see it was a miracle!
It’s like I told someone before, for God’s sake, don’t ever frustrate the grace of God. Just because we have a pain or we have misery, or something happens, don’t ever do such a foolish thing! Never! Because God’s Word is accurate. It’s quick! It’s sharper than a two edged sword. It’s right there all the time. So, there’s no slimy approach to it. You don’t have to prop it up. It works perfect, and if you folks were following in it and were walking in the light, and if you folks knew it and were doing it, then it would work in your life every time right to the tee. The Bible said that everyone that asketh receiveth. That means, ask according to the Word, and ask in understanding the Word. If you understand the Word, then you can believe it. But if you don’t understand the Word, then you can’t believe the Word. So these things I’m telling you is what makes it work.
I was telling my wife this morning, I said, “Betty, I’ve learned in my life time that you can be in pain and you can be in misery, and everything can be weary and the nerves can be broken all to pieces, and still, there is so much joy and jubilance in the inner person with God and His Spirit, that the whole world seems bright and like the birds are singing.” But you can be whole and healthy, and everything perfect in your finance and your body and whatever, and if you don’t understand and know this wonderful God, as the way I understand and know Him, then the world is a depressing place. It’s like a mud hole for a hog to wallow in. There’s nothing happy about it, and nothing there to rejoice over.
I try to teach you and help you, and share faith with you, but there are millions of people waiting, begging for a crumb, and I’m fixing to go back into the mission fields to reach some of them. You know, I love to see people reproved, and I love to see people corrected. I think they should be reproved and corrected, but I don’t like to see people go to hell and never get out of the flames. The Bible says, “Where the fire is not quenched and the worm dieth not,” and that they are in everlasting flames. One writer said, “Eternal flames.” I don’t want to see that. There are people there right now that’s been there all these many years, and I don’t want to see that. But there is nothing I can do about it. You know, the end is coming. It’s coming fast, and there is nothing I can do about it.
I didn’t finish saying what I wanted to say. I had a number of things I wanted to say, but I didn’t get to say them. So, I trust that we said a few things that might be encouraging to you, and to those that hear them on tape and in the books. Maybe it will encourage their faith.
By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.
Founder and first President of Jesus Christ’s Eternal Kingdom of Abundant Life, Inc.
Holiness Unto The Lord