In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of having faith in God and not focusing on the circumstances or problems we face. He reminds the listeners that their faith is not separate from them, but rather it is found in Jesus Christ. The preacher warns against being defeated by focusing on ourselves and encourages the audience to keep their eyes on Jesus. He concludes by suggesting that Jesus may be asking the same question to the listeners, "Where is your faith?" and encourages them to trust in God despite the storms of life.

This is Catherine Kuhlman, cassette number K814, side 2, entitled, How This Ministry of Healing Came Into Being. If you can once grasp the concept of the Holy Trinity, many things which may once have puzzled you will become clear. The three persons of the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost are a unity. There you have the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are co-existent, infinite, and eternal. All three were equally active in the work of creation, and are equally active and indispensable in the work of redemption. But although the three work together as one, each has at the same time his own distinctive function. But never forget, God the Father never works separate and apart from Jesus, who is at this very moment our great High Priest. Neither does the Holy Spirit ever work separate and apart from God the Father or from Jesus Christ the Son. There's something that's very fitting to me, and I shall never forget, when I received this spiritual revelation, and everything that I know I have gotten from Him. He has been my great Teacher. And everything that I give you regarding the person of the Holy Spirit, I base upon the authority of God's Word. The greatest authority there is. There is no greater source to whom you and I can go. Before Jesus came to earth in the form of man, before He took upon Himself the form of flesh, He offered Himself through the Holy Spirit to be given. Before God the Father ever gave His only begotten Son, that you and I might have eternal life, Jesus, first of all, offered Himself through the Holy Spirit to be given, and then it was that God the Father gave His Son, that He might die on the cross for man's salvation. But why did Jesus offer Himself first through the Holy Spirit to be given? He knew the mighty power of the Holy Spirit. Before He ever came to earth, He knew that in taking upon Himself the form of flesh, He would have the weaknesses of man, that He could be tempted, that He could yield to temptation. That is the reason I told you over and over again, that in those days of temptation when Jesus and Satan faced each other, literally came face to face with each other, Satan knew that Jesus in the form of flesh, as much man as though He were not God, could have yielded to temptation, and Jesus knew that He could have yielded to temptation, otherwise those temptations would have been a farce. When Jesus walked this earth, He was as much man as though He were not God. Even those last seconds on the cross, He could have yielded to the temptations of the flesh. He could have lifted His finger and said, Father God, I cannot go through with this. Read the scripture. Now I want you to see something. And this was in the greatest revelation that I feel the Holy Spirit has given me, and I shall never forget the hour, when the revelation came to me in regard to the healing of the physical, the healing of sick bodies. How often I have said, Jesus has healed you. How Jesus is here to heal. When in reality consider something. God the Father, this very moment, is seated upon His throne, and I like to think of Him as the big boss. And He is just that. Seated at His right hand is His only begotten Son, in position of great high priest, the one who ever lived to make intercession for you and for me. Jesus is not here on earth. He has a great position. He is my great high priest. He is your great high priest. And when we come before the throne of God in prayer, we come into that holy presence through Jesus Christ. We have a healing through our great high priest, God's righteous holy Son. But there is one here on earth now, the one who Jesus said, it is expedient for you that I go away. It is necessary for you that I go away. Why? So that the mighty third person, the Holy Spirit, the great Comforter, might come unto you. Of whom is He speaking? Of the Holy Spirit, the one through whom He had offered Himself to be given before He ever came to earth in the form of flesh. The same Holy Spirit who descended upon Him as He came up out of the waters of baptism. When Jesus Himself cried forth, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. The same Holy Spirit who performed those miracles during the ministry of Jesus here on earth. Read it. It's found in the 10th chapter of Acts, the 38th verse. God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with Him. Then what was the secret of the power in the life and ministry of Jesus? The power of the Holy Ghost. What was the secret of those miracles of healing in the ministry of Jesus as He walked on this earth? The Scripture gives it. God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power. Therefore, the secret of the miracles of healing when Jesus was here on earth in the flesh was not the person of Jesus, but it was the person and the power of the Holy Ghost. Go a little further. That is why just before Jesus went away, He wanted to give His church a gift. Love is something that you do, you know. And you can't love without giving. And in wanting to give His own, in wanting to give His church the greatest gift possible, there was no greater gift that He could give His church than the person and the power of the Holy Spirit, the one who did so faithfully in His ministry, the one who performed those miracles in His ministry, and this is what He said, and you shall receive power. After that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. What power? The same power that had been given Jesus as He was here on earth in the flesh. What person? The same person of the Holy Spirit whom God had anointed Him with. Therefore, the secret of the power and the healing of sick bodies is found in the person of the Holy Spirit. Oh, somehow I could open the understanding of every man who stands in the pulpit, whether he be priest or rabbi or a Protestant minister. If you are a member of that great redeemed body, if you are a member of His church, you're failing to accept the greatest gift that was ever given to a human being. This great gift is yours, this wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit. It's a gift that Jesus gave His church. And we shall receive power. After that the Holy Ghost has come upon you in exactly the same way that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil. For God was with Him. That was 960 a moment ago. If you can once grasp the concept of the Holy Trinity, many things which may once have perplexed you will become clear to your understanding. God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit is the power of the Trinity. It was His power that raised Jesus from the dead. It is that same resurrection power that flows through our physical bodies today, healing and sanctifying. In short, when we pray in the name of Jesus, the Father looks down to the complete perfection, the utter holiness, the absolute righteousness of His only begotten Son, knowing that by Him the price was paid in full for man's redemption and in Him lies the answer to every human need. God honors the redemptive work of His Son by giving to us through Him the desire of our hearts. And thus, while it is the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit which performs the actual healing of the physical body, Jesus made it perfectly clear that we are to look to Him, the Son, in faith. For He is the One who has made all these things possible. Now, with that as an introduction, let's go on to this thing of faith. Volumes have been written, volumes more have been spoken regarding this, something that's called faith. And yet, in a final analysis, we actually know so little about the subject. And the more that I go spiritually, and the deeper that I go into the spiritual things, the more I will have to confess to you that I recognize the fact that I know practically nothing about faith. All that I can tell you is the fact that faith is that quality or that power by which the things desired become the things possessed. That's the nearest to a definition of faith attempted even by the very inspired Word of God. You cannot weigh it or confine it to a container. It's not something that you can take out and look at and analyze. You definitely cannot put your finger on it and positively say, this is it. To try to explain it is almost like trying to define energy in one comprehensive statement. In the realm of physics, we're told that the atom is a world within itself. That the potential energy contained within this tiny world is such that it bewilders the mind of the average person. Try to define it. Try to define electricity. Attempt to define these things. You run into difficulties. And so does with faith in the realm of the Spirit. But although it is not easy to define exactly what faith is, we know what it is not. One of the most common errors that we make in this regard is to confuse faith with presumption. We must be constantly alert to the danger of mistaking one for the other. For there's a vast difference between the two. Here's a pebble on the beach, for example. But the beach is more than the pebble. And so the pebble asserts that it is the beach. Then we say to it, you are assuming too much. There are many who mix the ingredients of their own mental attitude with a little confidence, a pinch of trust, a generous handful of religious eagerness. They proceed to add some belief along with many other ingredients, mixing it all together in a spiritual crystal. They label the total result as faith. It's likely to be more presumption than faith. Faith is more than belief. It's more than confidence. It's more than trust. And above all, it is never boastful. If it is pure faith, Holy Ghost faith, it will never work contrary to the Word of God. Neither will it work contrary to His wisdom and His will. Always remember that. Holy Ghost faith will never work contrary to the Word of God. Never. It will never work contrary to the perfect will of God. There have been times when I felt faith so permeate every part of my being that I dared to say and do things that had I leaned it to my own understanding, my own reasoning, I would never have done so. And yet, it flowed through every word, every act, with such resistible power that I literally stood in wonder at the mighty works of the Lord. And one thing I know, in you and in me apart from God, there are no ingredients, there are no qualities, which, however mixed or combined, will create even so much as the smallest seed of Bible. Let us just reason together in a very simple, understanding way. If I wanted to cross a lake, and there were no means of getting across except by boat, the sensible thing for me to do would be to secure a boat. It would be most foolish for me to seek the other side of the lake when I needed to seek the proper conveyance to get there. Therefore, get the boat. And if I get the boat, it'll take me to the other side of the lake. Now, where do we get the faith that will take us across the lake? The answer to this question is positive and sure. Faith is a gift of God, or a fruit of the Spirit. And whether it be gift or fruit, the source of faith remains the same. Faith, it comes from God and is a gift of God. If faith is powerless, it's not faith. You cannot have faith without results any more than you can have motion without movement. The thing sometimes called faith is only trust. And although we trust the Lord, it is faith which has action and power. The disciples and the Mass were on the waters of Galilee. It was a beautiful day. The lake was calm and sweet. There was scarcely a cloud in the sky when suddenly a terrific storm arose. The poor disciples were terror-stricken. The wind was blowing in all of its fury, and the little boat was about to capsize. And they were certain that their very lives were at stake. Finally, in desperation, they awakened at the sleeping Christ. He wasn't a bit perturbed. Very calmly, he asked just one question. Where is your faith? That's all he said. Where is your faith? Where was it? Had they left it on shore before leaving the boat? Had it dropped to the depth of sea on which the little boat was sailing? Had it fled on the shoulders of the storm? Just where was their faith? What a question! And that question came from the lips of the author and the finisher of our faith. Their faith had been resting in the stern of the boat. Their faith was with them all the time. It had never left them for one second. It was right there, in the stern of the boat. He was their faith. But the mistake that they had made was in forgetting the fact of his presence while discerning the fact of the storm. That's exactly what Jesus meant when he said, Without me you can do nothing. Why? He, then, is our faith. Without me you can do nothing. I can do nothing without him. Why? Because he is my faith. Without him you can do nothing. For he, then, is your faith. When we become defeated, when we fasten our eyes on circumstances, on our problems, on our weaknesses, on our physical illnesses, the surest way in the world to be defeated is to focus our mind on ourselves. The storm will capsize our little boat. Of that I am positive. If we get our eyes on ourselves, the storm will capsize your little boat. And yet the fact remains that our faith for victory is nearer to us than our hands or our feet. No person needs ever be defeated on a single score. No person needs to lack faith for the victory as long as they have their eyes on Jesus Christ. He is our faith. I'm not in the spirit of this moment. He may be asking you the same question that he asked the disciples on that day as they were together in the waters of Galilee. When that terrific storm arose, they were terrified. Afraid. It was a moment of seemingly defeat for them. And then Jesus asks just one question. Where is your faith? Somehow, through the darkness to this hour, can't you hear him asking you the same question? Child of mine, where is your faith? You've struggled so long. You've prayed and yet it seemed as though nothing ever happened. The waters have been. The storm is still raging round about you. Be quiet. Be still. He's asking you the question. Where is your faith? Why, bless you, your faith is resting right there in the stern of a boat. Your faith is right there. Closer to you than you ever dreamed. He is your faith. Feel his wonderful breath. Get your eyes off of circumstances. Get your eyes off of the storm and put your sights on Jesus. That concludes this message. We hope it has been a blessing to you. For information about thousands of helpful messages such as this one, available for lending on a free or voluntary donation basis, write to us at the Springs of Living Water Tape Library. Your prayerful and financial support of this ministry is also welcome and greatly appreciated. Thank you and God bless you. Please fast forward this tape to the end for its next listening.