Unwavering Faith

Ralph and I heard Dr. Norvel Hayes (74) minister in Santa Barbara, California this week and I can assure you, Faith is Contagious! Get a hold of some of his books and tapes at your local Christian book store. The man knows firsthand what happens when God's people stand on God's Word and keep reminding God of His promises WITHOUT speaking doubt and unbelief. God loves to be believed.

"But without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." Heb. 11:6 A diligent seeker is a pursuer and a reacher! Amen! ".

count it ALL joy.knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience (makes faith work).ask in FAITH, NOTHING WAVERING. For he (or she) that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in ALL his ways." James 1 (A faith-wavering man or woman can't expect to see prayers answered.)

Andrew Murray said, "If you keep knocking long enough, He will get up and give you what you want so His reputation won't be damaged." (Recorded in the devotional book, The Best of Andrew Murray on Prayer, and based on Luke 11:8 In other words, bother God. He loves it! So many of us are afraid to ask for the impossible. If we ask a couple of times and we don't see anything happen then we assume God isn't going to do anything.

Dr. Hayes' message on pursuing God in faith was the second we have heard this week on how unwavering faith pleases God! Unwavering faith is pursuing faith! You remember how the lady who'd been sick for twelve years and without help from any medical remedy, crawled through the crowds to grab Jesus' garment? I'm sure people tried to ignore her reaching, obstruct and discourage her reaching, and even ridiculed her reaching, but, hey, she got what she reached for in faith--she got up and left that scene with an awesome miraculous answer!

Keep pursuing, keep believing--unwavering in your believing that God rewards those who diligently seek Him, and you too will get what you reach for when you reach to the Author and Completor of your FAITH! Who cares if we look and sound radical; ask me if I care! I know God hears and answers prayer and I need some miracles and so do you or you wouldn't be reading this letter right now! Amen! God says, "Call.I'll answer.great and mighty things!" Jer. 33:3 This isn't the "end of the story," the promise begins what God wants and can do when we come to Him believing! Read the Gospels and see what took place for people who believed!

Dr. Hayes once had a desperate, brokenhearted mother interrupt a service when he was ministering. She stood right up in the audience and questioned as to how to get God to answer prayer. Praise God, Hayes was more interested in following the Holy Spirit's leading in the service than he was in his own five point sermon and notes, and he asked the woman to explain her situation and need for prayer.

The lady poured out her story. Evidently her sixteen-year-old daughter had disappeared earlier that year. The girl had gone to run an errand at their local drug store and had never been seen again. The police could find no trace of her. As you can well imagine, the mother had been weeping for months and was crying to God, "Why? Please. Hurry. Don't You hear us? Don't You care what happens?"

Dr. Hayes listened to her story, and, I'm sure, he prayed quietly for wisdom from God as to how to proceed with the mother and with the now listening audience--each with their own "When God? Why God?" prayers. The Holy Spirit prompted Hayes to remind the mother that unwavering faith is always rewarded by God. Pursuing God without backing off or giving up, is rewarded by God because He loves to be pursued and He loves patience and faith without doubt.

He encouraged her to change her approach to God. He suggested that she stop weeping and begin believing! He said to go home and from that evening on, at least once a day, to walk through her home and worship the Lord. Remind Him of Who He says He is in His Word. Second, to ask God to show her the girl's present condition because, God, in His wisdom can see all! Third, to begin to ask God to bring the girl under a deep conviction of her rebellion and to bring her to a point of repentance so she'd turn around and return home. Then close her prayer time by thanking Him that He hears and answers prayer. Stay in worship and thanksgiving throughout the day instead of moaning and weeping. He said that no matter how tempted she was to give up and speak despair, she should willfully continue to thank God that He was working on her behalf.

The burdened mother sat down and the Holy Spirit prompted Hayes to reiterate again, "Don't slip into wavering and doubt! Keep thanking God that He is working and don't speak anything less that His Truth and promises over her." As he said this, he felt led to speak very directly and firmly to the woman. He even pointed his finger at her as he spoke emphatically again that she should not doubt under any circumstances, but daily trust that God was going to move miraculously on her behalf.

Six months later, he was speaking again in a meeting when a woman stood up and asked if she could testify. Sensing that God was doing something, he submitted to the Holy Spirit's leading and invited the standing woman to testify. He didn't remember her face. Sure enough it was the mother of the lost young woman. Her story is too lengthy to write, but God was Himself to her and He rewarded her obedience and pursuing. She said she prayed as Hayes had encouraged her to do. Some days were harder than others, especially after two and then three months went by without any word from her daughter. She said at times she'd picture her daughter's face or see the girl's father broken and sad, and she'd be tempted to give up and weep in discouragement. Yet, God would give her a vision of Hayes standing up pointing his finger at her admonishing her to have unwavering faith regardless. She'd willfully silence her own words of doubt and unbelief over the situation and, instead, begin to praise the Lord that He never fails and that He answers always and shows us great and mighty things, etc., etc. or whatever promise she claimed over her daughter's situation.

One day the phone rang in their home and her daughter was on the line. Between her sobs, she asked her parents to forgive her and she gave them the address where they could come for her. She was under a strong conviction by the Holy Spirit and she wanted to be forgiven and redeemed. The parents took the long drive to bring her home and listened to her story of how, on a whim, she had ridden off on the back of a motorcycle with another teenager from her high school. They had gone farther and farther out of town and decided they'd just keep going. Though she had never been openly rebellious prior to running off, she had chosen that particular day to actually turn her back on God and family when she accepted the young man's offer to run away. She had no intentions of returning home until the Holy Spirit began stirring inside of her a deep conviction of her rebellion.

The mother pointed across the auditorium and her redeemed daughter stood. The young woman was radiant and both her hands were raised towards heaven in silent, sweet worship. She stepped out into the aisle and walked towards the front. How she kept her eyes closed and still made it down the aisle and all the way up the platform stairway to the podium, no one could believe, for she was caught up in worship. She finally stood in front of Dr. Hayes and she reached out to him. She fell into his grandfatherly arms weeping. When she could finally talk, she testified of God's grace and thanked him for all he, Dr. Hayes, had done to help in her mother stand in faith. God had truly heard and answered miraculously to recover ALL.