Published in the Pentecostal Evangel, March 30, 1940.
Jesus is speaking here, and the Spirit of God can take these words of His and make them real to us. “He that believeth on Me… greater works than these shall he do.” What a word! Is it true? If you want the truth, where will you get it? “Thy word is truth,” Christ said to the Father. When you take up God’s Word you get the truth. God is not the author of confusion or error, but He sends forth His light and truth to lead us into His holy habitation, where we receive a revelation of the truth like unto the noon day in all its clearness.
The Word of God works effectually in us as we believe it. It changes us and brings us into new fellowship with the Father, with the Son, and with the Holy Spirit, into a holy communion, into an unwavering faith, into a mighty assurance, and it will make us partakers of the very nature and likeness of God as we receive His great and exceeding precious promises and believe them. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Faith is the operative power.
We read that Christ opened the understanding of His disciples, and He will open up our understanding and our hearts and will show us wonderful things that we should never know but for the mighty revelation and enlightenment of the Spirit that He gives to us.
I do not know of any greater words than those found in Romans 4:16, “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace.” Grace is God’s benediction coming right down to you, and when you open the door to Him—that is an act of faith—He does all you want and will fulfill all your desires. “It is of faith, that it might be by grace.” You open the way for God to work as you believe His Word, and God will come in and supply your every need all along the way.
Our Lord Jesus said to His disciples and He says to us in this passage in the 14th of John, “You have seen Me work and you know how I work. You shall do the very same things that I am doing, and greater things shall you do, because I am going to the Father, and as you make petition in My name I will work. I will do what you ask, and by this the Father shall be glorified.”
Did any one ever work as He did? I do not mean His carpentering. I refer to His work in the hearts of the people. He drew them to Him. They came with their needs, with their sicknesses, with their oppression, and He relieved them all. This royal Visitor, who came from the Father to express His love, talked to men, spent time with them in their homes, found out their every need. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil, and He said to them and He says to us, “You see what I have been doing, healing the sick, relieving the oppressed, casting out demons. The works that I do shall ye do also.” Dare you believe? Will you take up the work that He left and carry it on?
“He that believeth on Me!” What is this? What does it mean? How can just believing bring these things to pass? What virtue is there in it? There is virtue in these words because He declares them. If we will receive this word and declare it, the greater works shall be accomplished. This is a positive declaration of His, “He that believeth on Me, greater works than these shall he do,” but unbelief has hindered our progress in the realm of the spiritual.
Put away unbelief. Open your heart to God’s grace. Then God will come in and place in you a definite faith. He wants to remove every obstruction that is in the world before you. By His grace He will enable you to be so established in His truth, so strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, that whatever comes across your path to obstruct you, you can arise in divine power and rebuke and destroy it.
It is a matter of definite and clear understanding between us and God. To recognize that Christ has a life force to put into us, changes everything that we dare to believe it will change. He that believes that Jesus is the Christ overcomes the world. Because we believe that Jesus is the Christ, the essence of divine life is in us by faith and causes a perfect separation between us and the world. We have no room for sin. It is a joyful thing for us to be doing that which is right. He will cause that abundance of grace to so flow into our hearts that sin shall not have dominion over us. Sin shall not have dominion; nor sickness, nor affliction. “He that believeth”—he that dares to believe—he that dares to trust—will see victory over every oppression of the enemy.
A needy creature came to me in a meeting, all withered and wasted. He had no hope. There was absolute death in his eyes. He was so helpless he had to have some one on each side to bear him up. He came to me and said in a whisper, “Can you help me?” Will Jesus answer? “He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these…. Behold, I give you power… over all the power of the enemy.” These are the words of our Lord Jesus. It is not our word but the word of the Lord, and as this word is in us He can make it like a burning passion in us. We make the Word of God as we believe it our own. We receive the Word and we have the very life of Christ in us. We become supernatural by the power of God. We find this power working through every part of our being.
Now Christ gives us something besides faith. He gives us something to make faith effectual. Whatsoever you desire, if you believe in your heart you shall have. Christ said,“Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” Mark 11:22-24. Whatsoever he saith! Dare to say in faith and it shall be done. These things have been promised by Christ and He does not lie.
This afflicted man stood before me helpless and withered. He had had cancer in his stomach. The physicians had operated upon him to take away the cancer from the stomach, but complications had arisen with the result that no food could enter the man’s stomach. He could not swallow anything. So in order to keep him alive they made a hole in his stomach and put in a tube about nine inches long with a cup at the top, and he was fed with liquid through this tube. For three months he had been just kept alive but was like a skeleton.
What was I to say to him? “If thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God.”
Here was the word of Christ, “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father.” The Word of God is truth. Christ is with the Father and grants us our requests, and makes these things manifest, if we believe. What should I do in the presence of a case like this? “Believe the Word.” So I believed the Word which says, “He shall have whatsoever he saith.” Mark 11:23. I said, “Go home, and have a good supper.” He said, “I cannot swallow.” “Go home, and have a good supper,” I repeated. “On the authority of the Word of God I say it. Christ says that he that believes that these things which he says shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he says. So I say, Go home in the name of Jesus, and have a good supper.”
He went home. Supper was prepared. Many times he had had food in his mouth but had always been forced to spit it out again. But I dared to believe that he would be able to swallow that night. So that man filled his mouth full as he had done before, and because some one dared to believe God’s Word and said to him, “You shall have a good supper in the name of Jesus,” when he chewed his food it went down in the normal way into his stomach, and he ate until he was quite satisfied.
He and his family went to bed filled with joy. The next morning when they arose they were filled with the same joy. Life had begun again. Naturally he looked down to see the hole that had been made in his stomach by the physicians. But God knew that he did not want two holes, and so when God opened the normal passage He closed the other hole in his stomach. This is the kind of God we have all ihe time, a God who knows, a God who acts, and brings things to pass when we believe. Dare to believe, and then dare to speak, and you shall have whatsoever you say if you doubt not.
A woman came to me one night and inquired, “Can I hear again? Is it possible for me to hear again? I have had several operations and the drums of my ears have been taken away.” I said, “If God has not forgotten how to make drums for ears you can hear again.” Do you think God has forgotten? What does God forget? He forgets our sins, when we are forgiven, but He has not forgotten how to make drums for ears.
Not long ago the power of God was very much upon a meeting that I was holding. I was telling the people that they could be healed without my going to them. If they would rise up I would pray and the Lord would heal. There was a man who put up his hand. I said, “Cannot that man rise?” The folks near him said he could not, and lifted him hp. The Lord healed him, the ribs that were broken were knit together again and were healed.
There was such faith in the place that a little girl cried out, “Please, gentleman, come to me.” You could not see her, she was so small. The mother said, “My little girl wants you to come.” So I went down there to this child, who although fourteen years of age was very small. She said with tears streaming down her face, “Will you pray for me?” I said, “Dare you believe?” She said, “O yes.” I prayed and placed my hands on her head in the name of Jesus.
“Mother,” she said, “I am being healed. Take these things off—take them all off.” The mother loosed straps and bands and then the child said, “Mother, I am sure I am healed. Take these off.” She had straps on her legs and an iron on her foot about 3½ inches deep:, She asked her mother to unstrap her. Her mother took off the straps. There were not many people with dry eyes as they saw that girl walk about with legs just as normal as when she was born. God healed her right away. What did it? She had cried, “Please, gentleman, come to me,” and her longing was coupled with faith. May the Lord help us to be just like a simple child.
God has hidden these things from the wise and prudent, but He reveals them to babes. There is something in childlike faith in God that makes us dare to believe, and then to act. Whatever there is in your life that is bound, the name of Jesus and the power of that name will break it if you will only believe. Christ says, “If ye shall ask any thing in My name, I will do it.” God will be glorified in Christ when you receive the overflowing life that comes from Christ in response to your faith.
Dare to believe. Do you think that truth is put into the Word to mock you? Don’t you see that God really means that you should live in the world to relieve the oppression of the world? God answers us that we shall be quickened, be molded afresh, that the Word of God shall change everything that needs to be changed, both in us and in others, as we dare to believe and as we command things to be done. “Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith.”
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