First of all the Lord gave us this faith to be saved and, behold, we got saved. How did that happen? We saw the reality of Christ in our spirit. We understood nothing, and we may have felt bad or good, but our salvation did not depend on the state of our soul. In fact, for years we understood nothing, and for years we went from cold to hot and from hot to cold. One day we felt terrific and we praised God. Next day we felt terrible and we crawled under our bed, and during all those times and years, we were saved, right? Do you all agree with that? Now why? Isn’t that a clear sign that our faith has nothing to do with our soul, absolutely nothing, and we cannot affect it by our soul, nor can we create it by our soul, nor can we manipulate it by our soul? You heard about Kenneth Hagin and his (and many other) ministries in the U.S.A. They try to manipulate faith by their souls, and they must fail every time they try it, because to do this is impossible!
So the Father drew us into this reality and we saw this. I’m sure all of us must have seen it. I don’t know your experience, but I know mine, and I can see it as if it were yesterday what happened to me. In a moment, I just saw the Reality of Christ. Which means that the Father brought my poor soul into my spirit and showed me that faith, and I grabbed it, and by that I was saved; because I bought it, I took it: “yes this is it.”
And since that time I have cherished it. Once you take it, you buy it, you use it, you are part of that reality, so that you are saved. You accept the reality of salvation in your own spirit. And from there on you “experimented” with faith and with Christianity and with the Word, and you experimented always in such a way that you would satisfy your own self, and it never worked. Lo and behold, you tried everything under the blue heaven, and it never worked! But what worked, usually, was that which you did not want, and the Lord brought you right through it. And that faith somehow worked.
Now, faith … how does faith come to us, do you know? Faith comes by hearing and the hearing by the Word of God. Where is it? Book of Romans 10:17, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” Let us remember this, because that faith which the Lord gave us in the beginning, while we were yet pagans, is not sufficient to go on unto perfection! This is a basic faith that represents the basic reality of Christ as Saviour, and the basic light of salvation, and things pertaining to that basic light: sin, forgiveness of sins, baptism in water, basic doctrines, etc.
But then we are told in the Book of Hebrews 6:1 to forget that after a time and to go on unto perfection! For that you need a different faith, you need different reality. That can come by an additional gift of faith which the Lord apparently gives to everyone who used the first faith, who embraced the first reality that He gave. And then to him who has — more shall be given, so He gives more (Mark 4:24,25). And when you use that, then He leads you the way to produce more reality, so that He would not just keep giving you, giving you, giving you. He cannot give you love but he can give you some faith, reality; and then we should go on to produce more as a fruit.
So, you hear something or you read something in the Word of God… the Word of God alone has the ability to bring faith. Let me repeat that: the Word of God alone in this Creation has the ability to produce faith — because It is Reality Itself! Now, if you remember this grain of wheat, then you can read any Word you want, that Word is like that grain of wheat. And if you don’t believe it go back a few years or before your salvation. You read this Word and It was a hard, tough, dead, boring stuff, right? For how many years? You read any Word of God and It was hard, tough, dead, boring stuff that you could not possibly understand or enjoy! You could not chew on It, you could not drink It, you could not draw from It a thing. Now why?
How can brother Hanola talk about the Word of God like this? Hard, tough, dead stuff! Now brother Hanola is not talking like that, God talks Himself. God Himself says: “This letter is dead, in fact, it is a murderer, it kills.” (2Cor.3:6) You can kill with this. You can kill yourself and you can kill others. You can kill with an apple, if you throw it at somebody and if he has a very soft skull, you can kill him. You can kill people with hard fruits, you can kill people with this Word. This is basically like that grain which was brought into this physical creation, into this world as a “dead grain.” And without water it shall not produce any life! So what is happening?
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To be continued next week
brother Hanola
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