Published in the Pentecostal Evangel, June 15, 1935.

In Romans 4:16 we read, “It is of faith, that it might be by grace,” meaning that we can open the door and God will come in. What will happen if we really open the door by faith? God is greater than our thoughts. He puts it to us, “Exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” When we ask a lot, God says “more.” Are we ready for the “more”? And then the “much more”? We may be, or we may miss it. We may be so endued by the Spirit of the Lord in the morning that it shall be a tonic for the whole day. God can so thrill us with new life that nothing ordinary or small will satisfy us after that. There is a great place for us in God where we won’t be satisfied with small things. We won’t have any satisfaction unless the fire falls, and whenever we pray we will have the assurance that what we have prayed for is going to follow the moment we open our mouth. Oh this praying in the Spirit! This great plan of God for us! In a moment we can go right in. In where? Into His will. Then all things will be well.

You can’t get anything asleep these days. The world is always awake, and we should always be awake to what God has for us. Awake to take! Awake to hold it after we get it! How much can you take? We know that God is more willing to give than we are to receive. How shall we dare to be asleep when the Spirit commands us to take everything on the table. It is the greatest banquet that ever was and ever will be—the table where all you take only leaves more behind. A fullness that cannot be exhausted! How many are prepared for a lot?

“And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when he had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out unto Bethany with the twelve. And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry: and seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.” Mark 11:11-14.

Jesus was sent from God to meet the world’s need. Jesus lived to minister life by the words He spoke. He said to Philip, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father… the words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me.” I am persuaded that if we are filled with His words of life and the Holy Ghost, and Christ is made manifest in our mortal flesh, then the Holy Ghost can really move us with His life, His words, till as He was, so are we in the world. We are receiving our life from God, and it is always kept in tremendous activity, working in our whole nature as we live in perfect contact with God.

Jesus spoke, and everything He said must come to pass. That is the great plan. When we are filled only with the Holy Spirit, and we won’t allow the Word of God to be detracted by what we hear or by what we read, then comes the inspiration, then the life, then the activity, then the glory! Oh to live in it! To live in it is to be moved by it. To live in it is to be moved so that we will have God’s life, God’s personality in the human body.

By the grace of God I want to impart the Word, and bring you into a place where you will dare to act upon the plan of the Word, to so breathe life by the power of the Word that it is impossible for you to go on under any circumstances without His provision. The most difficult things that come to us are to our advantage from God’s side. When we come to the place of impossibilities it is the grandest place for us to see the possibilities of God. Put this right in your mind and never forget it. You will never be of any importance to God till you venture in the impossible. God wants people on the daring line. I do not mean foolish daring. “Be filled with the Spirit,” and when we are filled with the Spirit we are not so much concerned about the secondary thing. It is the first with God.

Everything of evil, everything unclean, everything Satanic in any way is an objectionable thing to God, and we are to live above it, destroy it, not to allow it to have any place. Jesus didn’t let the devil answer back. We must reach the place where we will not allow anything to interfere with the plan of God.

Jesus and His disciples came to the tree. It looked beautiful. It had the appearance of fruit, but when He came to it He found nothing but leaves. He was very disappointed. Looking at the tree, He spoke to it: Here is shown forth His destructive power, “No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever.” The next day they were passing by the same way and the disciples saw the tree “dried up from the roots.” They said to Jesus, “Behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away.” And Jesus said, “Have faith in God.”

There isn’t a person that has ever seen a tree dried from the root. Trees always show the first signs of death right at the top. But the Master had spoken. The Master dealt with a natural thing to reveal to these disciples a supernatural plan. If He spoke it would have to obey. And, God, the Holy Ghost, wants us to understand clearly that we are the mouthpiece of God and are here for His divine plan. We may allow the natural mind to dethrone that, but in the measure we do, we won’t come into the treasure which God has for us. The Word of God must have first place. It must not have a second place. In any measure that we doubt the Word of God, from that moment we have ceased to thrive spiritually and actively. The Word of God is not only to be looked at and read, but received as the Word of God to become life right within our life. “Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.”

“I give unto you power… over all the power of the enemy.” Luke 10:19. There it is. We can accept or reject it. I accept and believe it. It is a word beyond all human calculation: “Have faith in God.” These disciples were in the Master’s schooL They were the men who were to turn the world upside down. As we receive the Word we will never be the same; if we dare to act as the Word goes forth and not be afraid, then God will honor us. “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.” Jacob was the weakest of all, in any way you like to take it. He is the God of Jacob, and He is our God. So we may likewise have our names changed to Israel.

As the Lord Jesus injected this wonderful word, “Have faith in God,” into the disciples, He began to show how it was to be. Looking around about Him He saw the mountains, and He began to bring a practical application. A truth means nothing unless it moves us. We can have our minds filled a thousand times, but it must get into our hearts if there are to be any results. All inspiration is in the heart. All compassion is in the heart.

Looking at the mountains He said, “Shall not doubt in his heart.” That is the barometer. You know exactly where you are. The man knows when he prays. If his heart is right how it leaps. No man is any good for God and never makes progress in God who does not hate sin. You are never safe. But there is a place in God where you can love righteousness and where you can hate iniquity till the Word of God is a light in your bosom, quickening every fiber of your body, thrilling your whole nature. The pure in heart see God. Believe in the heart! What a word! If I believe in my heart God says I can begin to speak, and “whatsoever” I say shall come to pass.

Here is an act of believing in the heart. I was called to Halifax, England, to pray for a lady missionary. I found it an urgent call. I could see there was an absence of faith, and I could see there was death: Death is a terrible thing, and God wants to keep us alive. I know it is appointed unto man once to die, but I believe in a rapturous death. I said to the woman, “How are you?” She said, “I have faith,” in a very weak tone of voice. “Faith? Why you are dying? Brother Walshaw, is she dying?” “Yes.” “Nurse, is she dying?” “Yes.” To a friend standing by, “Is she dying?” “Yes.”

Now I believe there is something in a heart that is against defeat, and this is the faith which God hath given to us. I said to her, “In the name of Jesus, now believe and you’ll live.” She said, “I believe,” and God sent life from her head to her feet. They dressed her and she lived.

“Have faith.” It isn’t saying you have faith. It is he that believeth in his heart. It is a grasping of the eternal God. Faith is God in the human vessel. “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” 1 John 5:4. He that believeth overcomes the world. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” He that believeth in his heart! Can you imagine anything easier than that? He that believeth in his heart! What is the process? Death! No one can live who believes in his heart. He dies to everything worldly. He that loves the world is not of God. You can measure the whole thing up, and examine yourself to see if you have faith. Faith is a life. Faith enables you to lay hold of that which is and get it out of the way for God to bring in something that is not.

Just before I left home I was in Norway. A woman wrote to me from England saying she had been operated on for cancer three years before, but that it was now coming back. She was living in constant dread of the whole thing as the operation was so painful. Would it be possible to see me when I returned to England? I wrote that I would be passing through London on the 20th of June last year. If she would like to meet me at the hotel I would pray for her. She replied that she would be going to London to be there to meet me. When I met this woman I saw she was in great pain, and I have great sympathy for people who have tried to get relief and have failed. If you preachers lose your compassion you can stop preaching, fof it won’t be any good. You will only be successful as a preacher as you let your heart become filled with the compassion of Jesus. As soon as I saw her I entered into the state of her mind. I saw how distressed she was. She came to me in a mournful spirit, and her whole face was downcast. I said to her, “There are two things going to happen today. One is that you are to know that you are sayed.” “Oh, if I could only know I was saved,” she said. “There is another thing. You have to go out of this hotel without a pain, without a trace of the cancer.”

Then I began with the Word. Oh this wonderful Word! We do not have to go up to bring Him down; neither do we have to go down to bring Him up. “The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach.” Romans 10:8. I said, “Believe that He took your sins when He died at the cross. Believe that when He was buried, it was for you. Believe that when He arose, it was for you. And now at God’s right hand He is sitting for you. If you can believe in your heart and confess with your mouth, you shall be saved.” She looked at me saying, “Oh, it is going all through my body. I know I am saved now. If He comes today, I’ll go. How I have dreaded, the thought of His coming all my life! But if He comes today, I know I shall be ready.”

The first thing was finished. Now for the second. I laid my hands upon her in the name of Jesus, believing in my heart that I could say what I wanted and it should be done. I said, “In the name of Jesus, I cast this out.” She jumped up. “Two things have happened,” she said. “I am saved and now the cancer is gone.”

Faith will stand amid the wrecks of time,

Faith unto eternal glories climb;

Only count the promise true,

And the Lord will stand by you—

Faith will win the victory every time!

So many people have nervous trouble. I’ll tell you how to get rid of your nervous trouble. I have something in my bag, one dose of which will cure you. “I am the Lord that healeth thee.” How this wonderful Word of God changes the situation. “Perfect love casteth out fear.” “There is no fear in love.” I have tested that so often, casting out the whole condition of fear and the whole situation has been changed. We have a big God, only He has to be absolutely and only trusted. The people who really do believe God are strong, and “he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.”

At the close of a certain meeting a man said to me, “You have helped everybody but me. I wish you would help me.” “What’s the trouble with you?” “I cannot sleep because of nervous trouble. My wife says she has not known me to have a full night’s sleep for three years. I am just shattered.” Anybody could tell he was. I put my hands upon him and said, “Brother I believe in my heart. Go home and sleep in the name of Jesus.” “I can’t sleep.” “Go home and sleep in the name of Jesus.” “I can’t sleep.” The lights were being put out, and I took the man by the coat collar and said, “Don’t talk to me any more.” That was sufficient. He went after that, When he got home his mother and wife said to him, “What has happened?” “Nothing. He helped everybody but me.” “Surely he said something to you.” “He told me to come home and sleep in the name of Jesus, but you know I can’t sleep in anything.”

His wife urged him to do what I had said, and he had scarcely got his head on the pillow before the Lord put him to sleep. The next morning he was still asleep. The next morning he was still asleep. She began to make a noise in the bedroom to awaken him, but he did not waken. Sunday morning he was still asleep. She did what every good wife would do. She decided to make a good Sunday dinner, and then awaken him. After the dinner was prepared she went up to him and put her hand on his shoulder and shook him, saying, “Are you never going to wake up?” From that night that man never had any more nervousness.

A man came to me for whom I prayed. Then I asked, “Are you sure you are perfectly healed?” “Well,” he said, “there is just a little pain in my shoulder.” “Do you know what that is?” I asked him. “That is unbelief. Were you saved before you believed or after?” “After.” “You will be healed after.” “It is all right now,” he said, It was all right before, but he hadn’t believed.

The Word of God is for us. It is by faith that it might be by grace.

Labels: 1935, Pentecostal Evangel