In this sermon, the preacher discusses seven basic laws that govern the life of a successful Christian. He emphasizes the importance of discovering what God is doing and joining Him in His work. The preacher also mentions the power of faith and how it can lead to salvation and victory over the enemy. He encourages believers to be sensitive to God and cooperate with Him to accomplish His purposes.

Now, I want to say something about these tapes. It may be that you have had all the faith tapes in the past, and some of the material that I'm giving to you in this series is old material, but I trust that it has a fresh, live anointing on it. And you must realize this about these messages. It may be that you have heard the message, and you have the intellectual truth down, but what you need is the inspiration of these messages. Now, I don't know about you, but I have found that the Lord needs to quicken my spirit occasionally, that I can really know all this material, but unless my spirit is quickened by the Holy Spirit, I am in trouble. And so to go over these messages causes me to experience a real quickening of the Holy Spirit. So the first message I dealt with, what is faith? And this particular message is, I'm naming it, the key to everything. It deals with the same principles of getting the report. It may add some light to the light you've already had. It may not. It may not do a thing but inspire you. But I'm still convinced that the key to everything is learning to discover what God is up to and thereby join Him and release Him to work powerfully at your point of need and to cooperate with Him to His ultimate end. Now, we're dealing with that in this message. Now, this message was made alive in the Bomar Baptist Church in Vicksburg, Mississippi. And it was a high, high hour. The Word of God flowed freely. There was so much life that people just responded. And before the meeting was over, people were getting saved on the right hand and on the left. It was a glorious, glorious hour. So, I trust that these tapes that I'm doing on faith now with material, upgraded material, and more extensive material will be of great blessing to you because I'm saying the latest stuff about faith that I have in my heart. And I'm trusting that this will be a blessing to you. And if it's not, you write us and let us know that we might help you because, let me say this, this tape ministry is more than me just feeding you. It is allowing you to have a part in my ministry. And it keeps this ministry going. And we praise God for you. Now, it may be that by this time you've opened your tapes and you realize that in there is a scripture card. We are sending out some real nice prints to all of our tape club members just because we love you. Just that, because we love you and appreciate you. And I trust that this scripture card will mean a great deal to you and be a great blessing to you. May the Lord bless you as our prayer. Your friend, Manly Beasley. Amen. It is good to see you here tonight. I trust that the Lord has given you a good day today. And I trust he's going to give us a good night tonight. I mentioned the fact that I would be dealing with several basic laws that govern the Christian life. And the only reason I mention that is just to give some foundational material for our understanding. I didn't expect it to give you too much light. There's a great deal of difference between light and understanding. And so I want to go and follow that outline a little bit tonight. Just talk to you a few moments and find out where I can pick up what the Lord wants us to do tonight. You know, when you come in a meeting, when you are just here for four or five days like this week, and you've got about 20 sermons to preach, your problem is you don't know which one to preach. And you get up here and you're preparing your room to preach one sermon, and then you get down here and look out there and see the crowd and think, well, that crowd needs another one. One hour to prepare is not rough enough for that. And I really don't mean that latter little part there. But sometimes we just do have so much to say that you don't know exactly where to start. But I mentioned this outline last night, and I'm going to mention it hurriedly tonight. And I'm going to mention it too fast for you to take notes on it. But if you have some trouble and you want the notes on this, then you come by and see me, and I can tell you where you can pick up a book and find them. Okay. I know you have a Bible. But there are seven basic laws that govern the life of a Christian in their involvement if they're going to be successful. And the first one is, and I'm going to list them and then come back and discuss them in a moment, the first one is a vital relationship. And we talked about the fact of just genuinely knowing Jesus. And then after you have a vital relationship with the Lord, then you come to that of a maintained fellowship. Now, the biggest problem I have found as a preacher going across the country and for my personal life is learning how to maintain my fellowship with the Lord. That may not be a problem to you, but I'll tell you it has always been a problem to the people I have dealt with, how to maintain their fellowship. And after you learn how to maintain your fellowship with the Lord, then you have got to learn how to deal with your problems, how to deal with adversity, and I'm dealing with that a little at the noon meetings. And then after you learn how to deal with your adversities, then you have to learn how to get a word from God, a word from God. It's awful when you go to a Baptist church and then go to the jailhouse and then go to the mental institutions. That's right. And find out that most of the time the biggest group of people in the jailhouse are Baptists and then go to the mental institution and find out the biggest bunch of people in the mental institution are Baptists. And I mean it's a shame. It's a sin against God. And it's a sign that we have not learned how to solve our problems God's way. And it's because we haven't learned how to get a word from God. We've got the Bible, but we just haven't learned how to let God speak to us. Because beloved God does meet our needs. He really does. He will let it. Once we learn how to get a word from God, then you have to believe that word. You have to really learn how to believe God. Now I would love to spend two nights teaching you how to believe God. I'd like to do that. I'd like to do that tonight, but I'm not sure we can get that far. But how to believe the Lord. And once you learn how to believe God, then you enter into what is called inevitable warfare. How Satan really attacks you. And once you learn how to resist the devil and have victory over the devil, the world, the flesh, and the devil, then you learn how to be sensitive to God and cooperate with God to accomplish His end. And then you can see great and mighty things done for the Lord. Now these seven basic laws are out there and we have to face them if we're going to be successful Christians. We have to learn how to deal with them. And it's amazing to me how few of these laws we understand. Now tonight I want to go back and discuss this matter of a vital relationship. Now a relationship means of consciousness a knowing of Jesus Christ and that's what it means to me. It means knowing Jesus Christ with an understanding that passes all human understanding. It means just simply knowing that you know that you know Jesus Christ. Just simply knowing. And if you learn how to maintain your fellowship, you constantly know that you know the Lord. You have the devil to suggest to your mind that you do not know the Lord, but his spirit is bearing witness with your spirit, Romans 8 16, that you're constantly a child of God. Now when you know the Lord, it's not difficult to trust the Lord when you really know the Lord. But as I said, most of God's people have a very difficult time in maintaining their fellowship with God. And the way to maintain your fellowship with God is found in 1 John 1, the 5th verse through the 9th verse. And there are two steps in maintaining your fellowship with God. One is obedience to light, obedience to light, and the second one is to keep your sins confessed up to date. And when we learn how to keep our obedience up to date and our sins confessed up to date, then I'm confident that we can consciously or continually have the conscious presence of Jesus Christ in our life. I mean, we can know that we're in fellowship at all times. Do you know the average person believes that if they go to church, they give their money, they read their Bible, and they tell people about Jesus, and they try the best they can? Do you know the average Baptist believes they're in fellowship with God? And fellowship with God has nothing to do with the consciousness of the living presence of Jesus Christ. Are you aware of that? I hope you're not that way. I hope there's more maturity in this church than that. That's right. And I trust tonight that you've learned how to keep your obedience up to date. Back some years ago, back all about two years ago, three years ago, I had to fly to Houston, Texas, an experience that I went through every six months, to check in the medical center there in Houston, Texas, to be checked over, so I could see how I was doing. And it was a two-day job. And I would usually fly down to Houston, and someone would pick me up at the airport and take me out to the medical center, and I'd check in a hotel. And I'd go into this lab and that lab and this lab and that lab. And if I could, I'd find someone that could drive me from one lab to the other. And my wife and I discussed who I could get to help me go from one lab to the other. And we thought about this person that had just been saved. This girl had quite a testimony. She's 6'3". She's quite a big girl, 260-something pounds. And she'd spent seven years in the penitentiary. And three of those years was on death row. And she'd gotten gloriously saved. And I mean, she was just bubbling over with Jesus. And out of the mouth of days, beloved, you can really find God. And Martha and I decided that this girl should pick me up. She wanted to do it. And she'd just show for me around for those couple days. So I was in this lab, and Iris was there, and we were talking. And I looked at Iris, just a babe in Christ. I said, Iris, tell me something. Why do you think so many people are leaving the established church and going into the charismatic movement today? She said, because of a lack of obedience to the light that God gives them. And boy, when she said it, I knew God had loaded my wagon. I mean, in other words, I understood that she said just volumes of truth right in that one statement. I said, do you understand what you've just said? She said, well, I don't know, Brother Manley. I said, well, what do you think you just said? She said, well, Brother Manley, she said, when you get to know Jesus, he's all you want. And says, as long as you walk in obedience to him in the light, he meets every need of your heart, and he's all you want. She said, he's all you want. And said, when you cease to walk in the light that God gives you, that fellowship is broken, and you're no longer conscious of him, and you start seeking an experience so you can know he's still around. And I'll tell you, beloved, when you keep your obedience up to date, he is your reality. He is your reality, not your emotions. Your emotions does not feed reality. Your emotions may express reality, but it doesn't feed your reality. And it's not reality. If your emotions have anything to do with reality, it's just a means by which reality expresses itself. Your mind is the same way. And beloved, listen. You can literally know God tonight. You can know him. And if you keep your obedience up to date, you can just keep on knowing him. Just knowing him in such a way that that understanding just passes all human understanding. It's just a knowing from God. Well, what do you mean by keeping your sins confessed up to date? He said if you say that you do not have any sins, we're just deceived and the truth's not in us. What's he talking about there in that portion of Scripture in 1 John? I believe he's saying if you get to the place that you think you do not need to be broken and confess your sins and get right with God ever so often, just get honest with God and get honest with mankind, get honest with yourself, you're just deceived by the devil. In other words, there is no person, even with obedience to the light that God gives you, that you get to the place where you do not need to be broken, where you do not need to repent. Now, we Baptists call it rededication, but that's not a scriptural term. That's not a scriptural term. That's not. We may use it, but beloved, it means a... You know a scriptural term that would be better than rededication? It's reconverted would be more scriptural. Amen? Isn't that right, preacher? Isn't that right, preacher? What did they tell Peter? What did the Lord Jesus tell Peter? When thou aren't what? When thou aren't converted. Thou aren't converted. You know what he's talking about? Peter, when you wake up and realize you've been sinning against God and repent of your sins, come to a place of brokenness and openness and get right with God, then I can use you. He wasn't talking about being saved again. He's talking about coming to the place of getting broken. Right? Confessing his sin, getting right with God. Well, Charles G. Finney used to say this. He said, a person needs to be reconverted about every two weeks. And he was talking about broken again, right with God. So, you may be obedient to life, but my dear friends, you need to realize that you have to get your sins right, put under the blood, nothing between you and your Savior. And when you do this, then you are in a position to believe God. Really, genuinely believe God. I want to share something with you tonight. And I love to preach out of a testimony. And the reason I love to do that is because it's my style. And it's the way the Lord has taught me through the years. I'm not a deductive preacher, I'm an inductive. And I just love to share on the basis of how God shared truth with me. Back some years ago, God spoke to my heart and showed me that the only way to relate to God was by faith. No other way. There's no other way to relate to God, folk, except by faith. Now, I realize that a lot of people are trying to relate to God by understanding. Relate to God by understanding. I know that a lot of people, I've watched them, have tried to relate to God by their emotions. But the only way to relate to God is by faith. Whatsoever is not of faith is what? Sin. Now, when you relate to God by faith, your intellect is touched. Your emotions will be touched. But you only relate to God by faith. And when I realized that a man only relates to God by faith, then I said, Lord, I want you to teach me what the Bible teaches about faith. And it blew my mind. And it used my heavenly sandpaper. A lot of you have heard that sermon and asked me about that sermon. And the person I'm referring to when I say heavenly sandpaper is my wife. You know, there's no one in the world that God has blessed in my life like my wife. I mean, you know, she can make me act like the devil quicker than anybody I know. And so on and so forth. I'm not going to get into that. But anyway, she's my heavenly sandpaper. And she's always been uniquely blessed of God. Of course, she could ask me questions that no one else could get by with. People would be afraid. So back in these earlier days when the Lord was teaching me how to trust Him, she would come up and ask me this type of question. What kind of revival did you have up at Vicksburg? Oh, I'd say a wonderful time. We had a marvelous, matchless time. She'd say, well, what kind of time? Tell me, what kind of time did you have? I'd say, well, the Lord really blessed. She'd say, tell me, how many blessings? I mean, she just wouldn't shut up. I mean, she just... How many blessings? I'd say, well, He, you know... Well, I'll tell you what. He would have blessed more if the preacher had prepared. Now, you watch this, because I know where I'm headed. And when we get there, some of you are going to wish we hadn't arrived. And some of you wish you had. But I'd say, well, we'd have had a better meeting, but the deacons just weren't faithful. They just didn't prepare. Or the WMU president. Now, that's one you could blame anything on. The WMU president just fooled the devil. You know, you couldn't have a meeting with a WMU president being fooled the devil. Now, you know what the Bible says? Now, listen to me carefully. Three times the Bible says, according to thy faith, so be it. Do you know what that means? Do you know what that means in a very simple fashion? God is working according to your faith. See, it meant to me, God was working in every meeting I went to according to my faith. Not according to how much the preacher prepared. Not according to how the deacons attended. Not according to how the WMU president was living. If my faith was right, whatever I was believing God for would happen. You see, the Bible says in John 6, 28 and 29, this is the work of God that you believe on him whom the Father has sent. The real genuine work of a Christian, beloved, is first and foremost is to believe God. And the thing about it was, I thought I believed God. Till I found out, that God would work according to my faith. And when I'd come in, and he had not supernaturally worked in my meetings, it was because of my faith. Or the lack of my faith. Because the Bible says, according to your faith, so be it. So I just said, well Lord, you're going to have to teach me how to trust you. Well, the Lord gave me a problem. Now, he gave me a material problem. And I asked him why he gave me a material problem. And he said, well I've been giving you spiritual problems a long time, you didn't have sense enough to realize it. And said, who could be your judge? If one soul gets saved, it's worth everything we do, isn't it? So who could be my judge on a spiritual problem? So you know what the Lord did? Now you businessmen will really appreciate this, if you listen until I get through with the story. The Lord gave me a material problem. That material problem was a $30,000 problem. Now, when I woke up and realized that God had given me this problem, I couldn't believe God did it. I couldn't believe God lead me into such a mess. But I want you to know, friend, he got me into it. It was a $30,000 problem. And the day that problem, the day that problem fell in on me, you see, I've been a manipulator. And I could borrow from this one, to borrow from this one, to borrow from that one, so I could pay this one, that one, and the other one. And I mean, I just kept manipulating. So finally I got so far in debt, I couldn't manipulate. So there wasn't anything left for me to do is either quit the ministry or trust God. And it's a $30,000 problem. And you know, there was a day when that $30,000 note was due. Now, God has a problem with me and you. And that is this, he can't get us to live in the now. We live in the past or the future, but not in the now. We're always relegating the blessings of today to a tomorrow that never comes. So beloved, I just said, well, Lord, you know, I've got problems, but you're going to work them out. Well, did you know that day that they had to be worked out on finally came? And I had to come up to, as the old country boy said, the lick log. In other words, I had to come up with the evidence. I had to come up with the supply. I had to come up with the goods. And did you know, the Lord just really put a cap on this thing. The day I had to come up with the goods, that day my wife came to get me in the only car that we had. And she drove, she was driving between Jackson, Mississippi and Crystal Springs, Mississippi. You all know where that is. And that car caught on fire and burned up in a rainstorm. And I was in such a mess, I couldn't stand it. I had no car. I was $30,000 in debt and then the Lord had to let that car burn up. And I said, Lord Jesus, what's wrong with me? And you know what the Lord said? He said, Son, you've done everything I've asked you to do, but trust me. And I said, Well, Lord, I've trusted you. You know I've got faith. So, I told God I had faith. And so the Lord spoke to my heart and said, Son, you've done everything I've told you to do, but trust me. So this is what shocked me. This is really what shocked me. I was helping some men write some material on salvation. And my assignment was to do some work on saving faith. So I'd been studying all those great scriptures on faith. I mean, God just had it all timed, you know, but I didn't see it that time. And I was reading Hebrews 11. I want you to read this to you. Hebrews 11, 1. Listen to it. Here I was with this $30,000 problem, and only God can show you what I saw. And here I was with this $30,000 problem, and I was reading this verse, and God spoke to me. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. The Holy Spirit has His own way of reaching in the Bible and just making it speak to you, doesn't He? And I mean, my dear friend, the Holy Spirit reached into that little old verse, Hebrews 11, 1. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And let me see something I'd never seen before. And that is this. Faith is substance. Those three little old words just hopped out of that verse. It says, faith is substance. And when I saw that word substance, I said, that's it, Lord. I've been asking You for $30,000. Substance is what I need. I never will forget it. I said, that's exactly what I need. Faith is substance. I'd missed my message. Three little words just hopped out of there. Faith is substance. So I said, Lord, I've got faith. Substance is what I need. I'd missed it, brother. I'd missed it. I mean, just missed the message. You know what the Lord did? He whispered in my heart. He said, okay, son, if you've got faith, where is your substance? I said, Lord, I have faith, but what I need is substance. And then all at once the Lord just said, I want you to get a little quieter and listen to it a little more and let the Spirit do a little ministering here. He said, son, if you've got faith, where is your substance? Listen to those three words again. It says, faith is substance. Now that's the Bible talking, my dear friends. That's not some fool. That's God. Amen. That's not even a man. That's God. That's God saying, faith is substance. God said, okay, son, if you've got faith, where is your substance? Because He says here, faith is substance. And boy, the scales fell from my eyes. And I saw it. You know what that says? It says when your faith is, your substance is. That's exactly what He's saying. He says your substance is exactly according to your faith. Do you see it? He said, you say you've got faith, then where is your substance? Your substance is exactly according to your faith. The whole book of Galatians just opened up. The whole book of James just became a new book. You know what it said? It said when your faith is, your action will be according to your faith. It says your faith, when your faith is, your works will be according to your what? Faith. Your faith is, your substance will be according to your faith. Amen. You know what God is doing in this church tonight? Exactly what you are believing Him to do. Oh, Brother Manley, I'm expecting God to do great and mighty things. And you know what He's doing? He's the judge of your faith tonight, not you. He's doing exactly what you're believing Him to do. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe that I had lived as a Christian, and I was saved by the grace of God, and I had the kind of faith that got me out of Egypt, but didn't have the kind that got me into Canaan. That's right, Jude said that. The book of Jude said, well, they had a faith that got them out of Egypt, but it did not get them into Canaan. There I found myself standing on Jordan's stormy banks, casting a wishful eye to Canaan's fair and happy land, where my possessions lie. Oh, I missed it. Amen, friend, I missed it. I said, well, Lord, I don't even know what faith is. That's the best way to treat God. Brother, when He gets you, get honest. Amen, so I just got honest. I said, Lord, I don't even understand what faith is. Got honest, and I saw three things about faith. I saw three things. This is as a psychologist would look at faith, not as a preacher would look at faith. I saw that there were three elements. I saw there was an intellectual element, an emotional element, and a volitional element in faith. I found that I had a belief in God. For instance, I felt that God could do anything, but everything that I felt that God could do, He was not doing. Let me just examine you hurriedly. Don't you believe God can raise the dead tonight? Don't you believe He can do that? Don't you personally believe God can do anything? But is He literally, I mean literally now, in flesh and blood fashion, is He literally doing what you believe He can do? No, sir. Well, see, if believing that God can do something was all there was about faith, then God would be doing everything you believe He could do. I believe God can send a mighty revival. I believe God can save Bill, John, Joe, and Mary, but He's not doing it. You know why? Because we only believe He can. That's necessary. It's necessary to believe that God can do stuff like that. If you didn't believe He could, you never would believe He is, and you never would see Him work. Man, I looked at my circumstances and I said, God, I believe you can solve them, but I want you to know He wasn't solving them. But when I looked at the Word of God and found out in 2 Peter 1, 3, that He hath given unto us all things that pertaineth unto life and godliness through the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, I found out that Jesus had already said, not only can I solve your problem, I've already solved it. Well, brother, that made me want Him to solve it. Now, I couldn't see it, I couldn't smell it, couldn't taste it, couldn't feel it, couldn't hear it. Well, these five senses by which I relate to the world and the world to me, I could not find that $30,000 problem solved. But God said in 2 Peter 1, 3, He'd already solved it. Now, the Bible said it was solved. I said it wasn't. Now, which one was I supposed to believe? Now, see, there's where the struggle comes. Amen. Now, I wanted God to keep His Word. I knew He could keep His Word. I wanted Him to. But, friend, believing God can do something and wanting God to do something is two different things. Believing God can do something and wanting God to do something and believing that He is doing is three different things. And I said, Lord, what do you mean? I've got to trust you? You mean trusting you is not only believing that you can save, send revival, solve my problem? Not only is it not believing you can do it, but it's not even wanting you to do it so bad I can't stand it. Man, I wanted God to solve my problem so bad I fasted. I prayed. I made promises. I made bargains with God. I did all kinds of gestures. But, my dear friends, God did not solve my problem. You know what? There had to come a crisis moment in my life when I said, Lord, I'm going to take you at your word, sink, swim, live, or die, go under, or what else. I'm going to take you at your word. And I had to come to that decisive moment when I chose to take Christ at His Word. And when I chose to take Him at His Word, I acted on His Word as if the problem was solved when it wasn't solved in order for it to be solved, because with God it was already solved. It just wasn't solved with me. And when I did that, when I made that decision, that was the intellectual and emotional and volitional. I not only knew God could solve my problem, I wanted Him to so bad I couldn't stand it. But I made that decisive decision, I'm going to take Christ at His Word. And the moment I took Christ at His Word, I took Christ at His Word by this process, I simply made the choice. I said, bless God, I'm going to stick with the Word if I go under. And I made the choice. And when I made the choice, then that was believing. That was Bible faith. That was casting my all on Him. And you know what He did? Within two and a half hours, He supernaturally solved the problem, and the only explanation for what happened was Jesus, not human manipulation. Yes, sir. And I learned something. I learned something very precious. And it revolutionized my life. I learned that you have to believe in order to receive, rather than receive to believe. Back when I was lost, let me just share this with you. And I never shall forget it. Back when I was a lost sinner without Jesus, I went to church with my mother and a young lady. And a preacher came back to me and said, I'd like to see you get saved, manly. And I told him, tend to his business. I wasn't interested. I didn't have sense enough. No, that's exactly what that preacher was doing, tending to his business. And so I went back the next night. Well, my mother, not the young lady, she didn't go. She was a Methodist, and maybe it got too hot for her. I don't know. But, by the way, she lives in Lake Providence. And, but anyway, she didn't go back the next night. But I went with my mother. And that night, out of the choir came a young lady and walked up to where I was standing by my mother. And she said, manly, are you saved? And I said, no, ma'am. And she said, would you like to be saved? And I said, yes, ma'am. She didn't know how to win me to Jesus then. So all she knew to do was said, won't you come go down in front of me? And I said, I can't do that. She said, well, I'll just stand here till you do. Now, bless God, that's faith. And she just stood there. And that little old girl stood there. Now, I stood between that girl and my mother. And I said, Lord Jesus, I know you can save me. What kind of faith is that? Intellectual. I said, Lord, I saw myself a sinner. I mean, I thought I'd go to hell for sure. And I wanted to be saved so bad I couldn't stand it. I mean, I wanted Jesus to save me so bad I couldn't stand it. Now, that was emotional. Amen. And I prayed the sinner's prayer. And these preachers who tell you the sinner's prayer will save you, my dear friend, just don't know what they're talking about. Amen. I prayed the sinner's prayer till I was blue in the face. In fact, I prayed the sinner's prayer for three years. He said, you just didn't know the Bible. I could have quoted you John 3, 16 backwards. That's not too hard for a dyslexia to do, so don't get all, you know. I mean, I knew enough about the Bible, no. I was read in church. And I said, Lord Jesus, I know you can save me, and I want you to so bad I can't stand it. Please save me. I'm going to go to hell if you don't save me. You know what happened? Nothing. I said, Lord, show me what to do. And the Bible just came to me. As many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God. John 6, 37. As many as come unto me, or as many as come to me, I'll in no wise want. I said, Lords, live or die, go to hell or heaven. I'm coming home. And the moment that decision was made to take Christ at his word, you know what happened? The moment I believed, that instant I received. You know how that can happen? Because God is instant. He's instant. The instant I believed, that instant, I received Jesus Christ. But, friends, believing came before receiving. Are you with me? The Bible says in Colossians 2, 6, as you receive Jesus Christ your Lord, so walk ye in him. What does it mean? It means the rest of your life will be spent on this basis of believing and receiving. Believing and receiving. All the rest of your life, you'll have to believe first in order to receive. And I learned something. God supplied that $30,000 problem. He met that need. But I learned something more significant than that. I learned, friend, you have to believe in order to receive. You have to believe. And that believing is an obedience to Jesus Christ. Taking Christ at his word. Counting him faithful to keep his word. And you can plan these meetings. And you can pray and pray and pray and pray and pray and pray and pray and pray until you make unbelievers out of believers. Because they'll start doubting God. But God will never move until you trust him. Until you trust him. Yes, sir. Until you trust him. It changed my life to realize that you have to trust Jesus. Many of you that are listening to me tonight have loved ones and friends, neighbors that have never been saved by the grace of God. People that have never been born of the spirit of God. And you've been praying for years that the Lord would save them. When are you going to trust Jesus for their salvation? When are you going to? The preacher keeps using a word that really blesses me. It's a very significant word. He uses the word, claim them. Every time I've prayed with him, every time I've talked to him, that word has come up in his vocabulary. We need to claim them for Jesus. You know what that means, literally? It means, my dear friends, you need to find you a promise in the word of God that gives you grounds to believe God. You step out on that word and claim that soul for Jesus. And start claiming that Jesus is saving them right now. Right now. Claiming that Jesus is saving them right this moment. Back several years ago, I was in South Louisiana in a meeting. And I preached along this line. And I got through with a message and a young lady came up to me. She said, Brother Manley, she said, I know that it's the will of God for me to have a job in this certain refinery in this area. I said, well, sister, if you know it's the will of God for you to have a job in that refinery, I said, then bless God, you ought to start trusting Jesus that you have a job. She said, you mean to tell me I need to start trusting Jesus that I'm getting the job right now? I said, yes, ma'am. She went home that day and her mother asked her how was church. And she said, fine. She said, in fact, I got a job today. While I was at church. Her mother said, how did that happen? The little girl said, well, that preacher told me that if I knew what the will of God was, I needed to start trusting Jesus that he was solving my problem right now. Now, it wasn't right for me to believe that God could do something and me to want him to do something and for me not to trust that he was, trust him that he was answering my prayer right now. And said, I got a job today. The next day came, which was Tuesday. And the mother said to the girl, said, honey, said, don't you think it's sort of foolish for you to trust God for a job? She said, no, I got the job yesterday. Her mother ridiculed her. Wednesday came and her mother actually just acted so foolish about it, it was embarrassing. Little girl said, mother, I don't care what you say. I got a job Monday. Now, that's sort of foolish talk to a person that's not trusting Jesus. To a carnal person, that's sort of foolish talk. To a lost sinner, it's foolish talk, but not to a person that's trusting Jesus. And that little girl got a call at 1.30 that Wednesday afternoon. It was from the personnel director of that plant. And the conversation went something like this. He said, young lady, and she answered the phone and told him, he asked about who she was and all this stuff, and she was the right one. And here's what had happened. That girl had gone to school and that plant had helped send her, that refinery had helped send her to school. And when she got out of school, she came back, applied for a job, and they let her even take a physical examination and got her through all of that stuff and said, we do not have a job. And about a month later, I came along preaching this message, and she heard it, she started trusting the Lord on Monday. And my dear friends, on Monday, or on Wednesday, they called her and said, we have a job for you. But listen to this. They told her, this man told her, said, listen, we met Monday. We met Monday and realized that we had a place, we had a need of a girl. And we went to our files and found that we already had one that we'd helped educate, that already had a physical exam, and all of her necessary problems were already solved, and all we had to do was call her. But said, I got called out of town on an emergency, had to leave town Monday, and I just got back into town this morning. And since we did not call you Monday and it was my problem, not yours, we're going to start your pay Monday. Brother, when you learn how to trust Jesus, you can start out with a vacation, best I can tell you. Now let me say this very seriously to you. I've done this in a very quiet, mild-mannered fashion tonight. But I'll tell you something. You will not be a pleasure to Jesus Christ until you learn how to trust Him. Brother, this whole business of being religious and coming to church and giving your tithe and offering, coming down here and padding your pew, filling your pew, trying to invite somebody to church, trying your best, is nothing in this world but an acceptable religion. It's not Christianity. The Bible says without faith it's impossible to please Him. And until we as believers in Christ Jesus learn how to simply trust Jesus, we will not see the glory of God. In our lives, neither will we see the glory of God in our churches. And when you say we have faith all day, but faith is trusting Jesus, and trusting Jesus is being so obedient unto Him in the light of His Word that He's constantly having to perform miracles to keep His Word. And the only explanation for your life and my life is Jesus Christ. Would you bow your heads with me, please? If the Lord Jesus has talked to your heart tonight as a believer in Christ, and really shown you that you're not trusting Jesus, I'm going to ask you to slip out of that seat and come and confess that unbelief, and confess to Jesus that you're not trusting Him, and ask the Lord Jesus to enable you by His grace to trust Him. You say, what can I trust Him for? I'm sure there's something that you can trust Jesus for. I'd be willing to say tonight, if you have any kind of legitimate need, that need is right there in your life for the purpose of getting you to trust Jesus. I'm willing to say tonight on the basis of what I understand about the Word of God, that my dear friends, if you will trust Jesus to meet that need, with the little light you have about faith, I'll guarantee you Jesus will meet with you. And supply that need. Why don't you trust Him tonight?