T heSp i ri o

t f Fait h
lf You KnewWhat Was on the
OtherSideof YourMountain,
You Would Move lt!

M a r kH a n k i n s

M a r kH a n k i n sM i n i s t r i e s
A l e x a n d r i aL,o ui s i a n a
E v E R Y o NNEr E D S
at least
FOUR,,CRAZY,,

F n T E Nw
DhSo
believe
thatwith Cod
A T TT H I N C S
ARE
POSSIBLE!
 Growing Faith
In the book EaerIncreasingFaith, Smith Wiggles-
worth is quoted as having said many profound things
about faith. TWomajor areasin the book are living by
faith and being filled with the Holy Spirit.
As you study the Book of Acts, you'll find the
people were full of faith and the Holy Spirit. Those
two things are really important. If you are expecting
miracles,you must learn how to walk by faith and be
filled with the Spirit. God is raising up men and women
like this today.
I believe Smith Wigglesworth was an apostle of
faith. If you are serious about walking and living by
faith, you must study not only the Word of God, but
also the lives of men and women God has anointed
to be apostles,prophets, evangelists,pastors,and
teachers.God has anointed them to speakthe Word of
God and to write the word of faith to this generation.
The Lord said it to me this way: "You've got to get
it before you get it. Once you get it, you'll get it. Once
you get it, you'll actlike you've got it. Then,onceyou've

77
TheSpirit of Faith

'I've
got it, you can say, got it. I'm not trying to get it, I
don't hope to get it. I've got rt."'
In Mark 77:24,Jesus said, "...What things soever
ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them,
and ye shall have them." And in Matthew L3:12,jesus
said, "For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and
he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath
not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath."
Once you get faith for it on the inside, you get it on
the outside. Nozufaith is. Believe Cod.
As we saw earlier, Dr. Yeomans commented, "God
delights in His children stepping out over the aching
void with nothing under their feet but the Word of
God."' When I read that statement, the first thing I
thought about was someone stepping over a cliff with
nothing under his feet but the Word of Cod.
The second thing I thought about was, "God
delights." I wondered, "What makes Him so happy?" I
believe that, because He is a faith God, everything
is created by faith. I believe we will have to exercise
our faith throughout eternity, and things will be
created with faith.
I believe God delights over His children, like you
delight when your little child crawls and then takes
steps. I believe God is just like that. As our daddy, He is
saying, "Come on, let Me show you how I walk. Let Me
 GroruingFaith

show you how things work. Let Me show you how to

receive. Let Me show you how to be blessed." When
you start to take little steps,I believe He smiies and says,
"Look at him! Look at that!"
The devil will do everything he can to get you
in the sense reaim or the feeling realm. When this
happens, simply say,"I'n not going."
Brother Hagin has said, "If the devii can get you
out of the arena of faith, he'li whip you. If he can get
you into the arena of sight and feelings and
circumstances,he'llwhip you every time."
Make the devil come into the arena of faith; that is
where you always win!

Cleared for 40,000Feet

I like the way one preacher described growing faith.
As he was taking off in his jet one day, the control tower
said, "You're cleared for 10,000 feet." The plane rose to
10,000 feet. In a little while, the control tower said,
"Yol)'re cieared for 20,000 feet."
The preacher flew up to 20,000feet. Then the tower
said, "You're cleared for 40,000 feet," so he went up
to 40,000 feet. The man in the control tower knows
things you don't know. You can't say,"l'r.r. going to fly
wherever I want to."
Likewise, Jesus is the Author and the Finisher
of your faith. Faith is obeying Cod. You must wait
TheSpirit of Faith

until you've got clearanceto climb to higher spiritual

altitudes.
My preacherfriend saidthat whiie he was climbing
highea the Lord spoketo him, saying,"I wish you had
as much confidencein Me as you do in that man in the
control tower. When I tell you that you are clearedfor
20,000feet,pull the throttle back and head for it."
You know when you are clearedin your spirit.
When you have the spirit of faith, you know how your
faith works. You've already exercisedyour faith, and
you know if somethingis troubling you, you'd better
stay at 20,000feet until somethingon the inside of you
- the Holy Spirit - saysthat you areclearedfor 40,000
feet.When He saysyou are,just pull the throttle back.
That's the way your faith grows.

74
 12
CorporateFaith
In Luke 5, when the palsied man's friends lowered
him through the roof, Jesus saw corporate faith in
action. That's the power of believers pulling together. If
you can get several believers pulling together in any
church, faith will be much stronger than unbelief.
Faith is what Jesus was looking for. I believe He
said, "I only need 12 believers." Once He got the 12
disciples, He went for 70 more. God is always on the
increase.When Jesushad the 70,He believed for 120
believers to come together, and they did, in the Upper
Room.
Smith Wigglesworth said that it is always a trap of
the devil to try to make you independent. We need one
another, and we need to submit to one another. This is
corporate faith.
The apostle Paul was glad that a few disciples
were holding the ropes of the basket when he was
being lowered over the Damascus town wall, escaping
persecution (Acts 9:25). Later, he was more important
than they were, but at that moment, they were more
important than he was!

97
TheSpirit of Faith

While holding the ropes, they probably thought

they'd like to do something significant for the Lord
someday,but perhaps helping Paul escapewas the most
significant thing they ever did. They were holding in a
basket the man who went on to write more than half
the New Testament.
We need one another, but if the devil can trick you
into being independent, he can get you out of a place
of faith. Corporate faith is the way God has chosen for
us to help one another. We dare not be independent.
God wants to bring us to a place where we submit
ourselves to one another. If we refuse, we will get away
from the Word of God and out of the place of faith.

Faith Friends
Wigglesworth said, "I went to a meeting one time
and I was very, very sick and got worse. I knew the
perfect witl of God was for me to humble myself
and ask the elders to pray for me. I put it off and the
meeting finished. I went home without being anointec-
and prayed with. Everyone in the house caught the
illness I had."
We dare not be independent. Never get so proud
of your faith that you think that you don't need any
faith help. When your faith wavers, you have faith
friends who will encourage you. I thank God for faith
friends! Most of us are alive because of faith friends -
 CorpornteFaitlt

people who kept believing God and kept believing in

us when we didn't even believe in ourselves.
God has planned great things for you, and they're
just ahead. The devil is trying to get you to stop one
step before your miracle.
The just shalllive by faith. I have a spirit of faith. I
hang around people with a spirit of faith. I hang around
people who have more faith than I do. I'm flying at
20,000 feet, but their faith has grown to where they're
flying at 40,000 feet. I'm going to hang around them
and find out how they pulled back and made it to 40,000
feet. After all, God is no respecter of persons.
The people I hang around with have wet sandals.
That means they got out of the boat. That means when
they began to sink, Jesuspulled them up.
The Church of the Lord JesusChrist - the Body of
Christ - with all its imperfections is still the best place
in the whole world to be. You might find a lot of things
wrong with the Church, but it's still the best place to be.
Don't allow the devil to make you independent.
Make this confession: "I've got faith friends, and
I'm hanging out with them. They're not perfect friends,
but God is working on them just like He's working
on me."

93