DEWITT TABERNACLE TEACHING SERIES

“ACCORDING TO

YOUR FAITH,

BE IT UNTO YOU”

By C.W. Wood                  September 2006

Every word that the Holy Ghost wrote in the Bible is most important to mankind, and can only be ignored to our own hurt. And so it is with the statement the Lord Jesus made in Mat. 9:27. “Two blind men had followed Him crying, “Thou Son of David have mercy on us.” When Jesus was come into the house, He turned to the men and asked, “Believe ye that I am able to do this?” They said unto Him, Yea Lord. Then touched He their eyes and made the all important statement that I wish to preach on. He said “ACCORDING TO YOUR FAITH BE IT UNTO YOU.”

          In meditating on the Lord’s words, I can see that down through the centuries since they were spoken, they have played a major role in the life of every Christian. To state it as plainly as the Lord, Himself did 2000 years ago, we everyone are hourly and daily receiving into our lives the results of what we believe. What a simple but profound truth this is! Our lives are controlled by this Spiritual Law. If God has blessed us with a spiritual eye, we can see this Law working in the people around us, and not only so, but in our own lives also! We receive what we believe. Pro. 23:7, “For as he thinketh in his heart so is he.”

          We are constantly receiving into our daily walk, and into our bodies themselves, the results of what we believe. If we believe the promises of God are all true and are “Yea and Amen,” then we receive those promised truths into our lives and bodies. Time after time in the Scriptures, we see the Lord Jesus placing this Law before the people. His greatest desire is that we trust every promise He has made, and stand on it until He brings it to pass. Mark 11:24, “When ye pray believe, and ye shall have it.”

          In Mark 5:35-36, a Ruler of the Synagogue sought Jesus to pray for his daughter. But while he was in the way, he received word that she had died. But the Lord said to him, “Be not afraid, only believe!” There was the Law with the Master Himself telling the Ruler, “Don’t be afraid, only trust Me.” The father and mother did trust His words, and the daughter was restored to them. There is nothing so foolish as to doubt something God said!

          In Mark 9:17-27 a man brought his son who had a dumb spirit. Jesus said to him, “If you can believe (If you can trust Me. ) all things are possible to him that believeth.” The man responded, “Lord I believe (I trust you) help me when the Devil comes and tells me I am not really believing.” When the Lord saw this man’s honest heart, He cast the devil out of his son. Was not this man in the same place that we are today? We know we do believe and trust our Lord, yet the doubts of Satan continue to be fired into our minds. And because we are so very aware of these doubts, we often conclude that we are not really believing. Here is a way to tell whether or not you are a genuine Believer. Here is a challenge that we can put before the enemy! Challenge him by asking him if he thinks he can cause you to open your mouth and testify that your God lied about some of His Word. Jesus spoke to him and defeated him at every turn by doing so. We must speak God’s Word to the enemy! His greatest fear is God’s Word.

          No Born-Again Believer would ever say God lied, and why not? Simply because they know in their heart and soul that God is not a liar. Friends, it is this knowledge that lets us to know that we are Believers. I do not say that we will always FEEL as if we are believing. But that has nothing to do with the fact that we have CHOSEN to believe! God is not checking our emotions. He is watching our decisions, and He gives us full credit as Believers based on our decisions. He will turn our decisions for Him into Supernatural Faith.

          We remain Believers even while doubts are being fired into our minds. Do not be deceived into thinking you are not a Believer because you become aware of doubts flooding your mind. They may effect your feelings, but don’t let them change your decision!

          In Mat. 4:1-6, we read where the Devil fired doubts into the mind of the Lord, Himself, but the fact of Him being aware of them did not make Him an unbeliever. He simply cast them back out and continued believing. Satan said to Jesus, “IF thou be the Son of God ……” In Verse Three and in Verse Six, Satan fired the doubt into the mind of our Lord. How do we know these doubts entered the Mind of the Lord? Simply because He opened His mouth and answered the Devil’s doubts. The revelation is this, and how very glorious and powerful it is, the fact of doubts being placed in our minds does not make us unbelievers. We simply open our mouths and testify to the truth of God’s Word!

          It is true that a bitter and long trial can cause our emotions to be far from good. But the test of our believing is not in our emotions, it is in our mind where we make decisions. (Study the Prophet’s Message on “The Greatest Battle Ever Fought.) The problem is in getting Believers to see that they are Believers so they will call Satan’s bluff. According to Jesus, Himself, we are daily receiving into our lives the results of the things we believe. Are you a poor person, and do you believe that with the rising cost of living that you are becoming more and more poor by the day? If so, then it is being unto you according to your Faith. You will become poorer!

          You will find that what you believe will come to pass. Do you believe that the Scripture is true that says, “But my God shall supply all of your need according to His riches in Glory by Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:19)? If so, what you believe will come to pass. Do you believe that your repented of failures and sins can separate you from the Love of God? If so, you will find many times in your life when you will not be aware of His Presence, and it will be to you as though He has left you. Do you believe the Word that says, “For I am persuaded that nothing can separate me from the Love of God,” not even my daily life with all its failures? (Rom. 8:38 )  If so, you will never feel alone, but will always be aware of His Presence. It is a Spiritual Law that what we believe comes to pass in our lives.

          What a wonderful and powerful truth it is, when we discover that we can simply CHOOSE to believe any promise in the Book, and sooner or later, our God will turn our believing into Supernatural Faith and our answer will come. Praise His Holy Name! There is no way He could have made it any easier for us than to DECIDE that He can be trusted to keep all His promises. We learn this marvelous truth by the Scriptures and by experience. As we put His promises to the test and see Him bring them to pass, it builds a great faith, one that Satan cannot overthrow!

          Are you sick with some ailment or disease, and do you believe you need medicine and an operation? Then according to your Faith be it unto you. You need medical science. Do you have a sickness and do you believe that God sent HIS WORD to heal you? Then you do not need medical science. It will be unto you according to your faith. Do you have unsaved children and do you believe they may end up lost? Then as far as your individual faith is concerned, there is no hope for them. Do you believe the Word that says, “The seed of the righteous shall be delievered” (Pro. 11:21 )? Then according to your faith be it unto you.

          Do you believe that our Creator God is in sovereign control of all that He has created? Do you believe that when you turn your life completely over to Him, He will take it, order all your steps, and cause you to spend Eternity with Him? Then be it unto you according to your faith. Do you believe that when you have turned your life over to God that the Devil can come in and disrupt that life, and take it back out of God’s Hands? Then be it unto you according to your faith.

          Do you believe that the Devil is still a free-moral agent, and that he is running loose on Earth, doing whatever evil he can scheme up to do? Then according to your faith be it unto you. You will find yourself defeated at every corner, for we are no match for the Devil. Do you believe that Jesus Christ came to Earth to destroy the works of the Devil, and that it is a finished work? Then be it unto you according to your faith, you have passed out of the Devil’s jurisdiction, and you have no need whatever to fear him.

          A parable comes to mind as I think back on my years as a State Trooper. It will help you to understand being beyond the Devil’s jurisdiction. A man committed a terrible crime and was caught and placed in jail without bond, waiting for the trial date to be set. As usually is the case, this takes time, and while the defense attorney was scrambling for more time, and having the trial date postponed on several different occasions, the man in the jail grew sick and died.

          Upon hearing of the man’s death, the prosecutor gathered up his evidence against the criminal, took his Law books and went to the funeral home where the man was lying in a casket very much dead. Standing before the casket, he began to read the law to the dead man and proceeded to tell him the penalties he intended to impose on him because of his violations of said laws. We can at once see how far out of reason the prosecutor was. The man in the casket, though he had been guilty, had passed beyond the jurisdiction of the criminal law. He was dead, and therefore the law had lost its hold on him.

          Do we believe the Scriptures that say, “Our old man is crucified with Him (Christ) that the body of sin might be destroyed……For he that is dead is freed from sin.” ( Rom. 6:6-7)? If so, be it unto us according to our faith. We have passed beyond the jurisdiction of the Devil and he has no power over us. In speaking to Pilot, Jesus said, “Thou couldest have no power at all against Me, except it were given thee from above….” (John 19:11) What a powerful statement this is! It shows the faith of the God-Man, Jesus. He had Perfect Faith in His perfect Father. You may say, “Yes, but that was Jesus Christ, and I am only a mortal.” But is not He our EXAMPLE? Was He not showing us how to walk and how to speak to the enemy, and trust our God? If we are wrong in some things, the Lord may use the devil to get our attention so He can get us back on the right path. Again, God uses the Devil to test us and cause our faith to grow, and our character to be molded.

          Do you believe that Satan is defeated and can only move when our God gives the order? According to your faith be it unto you. Do you believe that Satan is free to exert his power at will? According to your faith be it unto you. I John 3:8, “……for this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” The point of this sermon is to show the life-saving importance of what we believe. We can never by-pass this spiritual law, it is in effect, in our daily lives, and cannot be changed. Jesus said our lives are controlled by what we believe!

          Do you believe the Scripture in III John Verse 2, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” If you believe this Scripture was written because it came from the Mind of God and that it is His will for you as an obedient Christian, then according to your faith be it unto you. If you doubt this, then according to your faith be it unto you. We either believe unto life or doubt unto death! In Deut. 30:19, God says to us, “I call Heaven and Earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore CHOOSE life, that both thou and thy seed may live.”

          Oh the simplicity of God! What could be more child-like in its simplicity than to be able to simply CHOOSE to believe God and live? The greatest revelation there is concerning faith is the fact that God accepts our CHOICE (our decision) to trust Him, and does so in spite of our contrary emotions and the doubts the enemy will bring us about it. Do you believe that? Then according to your faith be it unto you. Do you doubt that this statement is true? Then be it unto you according to your faith. We must get to God’s Word and believe it all. Jesus didn’t ask, “Did you feel it, He asked, “Do you believe it!”

          The statement that an Angel made to our Prophet William Branham is regularly on my mind. He said, “If you can get the people to believe, nothing will stand before your prayer, not even cancer.” Notice the all inclusiveness of this statement. It does not segregate the people into many different groups, only two, those who believe and those who do not believe! If an unsaved person believes, he will receive from God. In Mat. 15:22-28, we see an unsaved Gentile woman who trusted Jesus for her daughter and received her request for healing. In testing her faith Jesus had said, “It is not right to take the children’s bread (The Christian’s Bread) and cast it to the dogs (the unsaved).” But He would not violate His own Law that says, “Whosoever believes will receive.”

          The woman stood her ground and said, “The dogs eat the crumbs from under the Children’s table Lord.” This woman’s trust in Jesus was such that she knew that just the crumbs from under the table would meet her need. I believe the Lord had this story placed in the Bible to make some of us Christians ashamed of our unbelief! Are we His Children or not? If we know we were called, and that we answered the call and had a heart-changing experience of sins forgiven, then we are on the right road. Did we then come to a time and place where we consecrated our total life to Jesus Christ? Then did we go on to receive the New Birth, which is the Baptism of the Holy Ghost (the Token)?

          Is the Spirit of Christ living in us, teaching us daily about God’s faithfulness, His perfect character, His unfailing Word promises, His powerful love for mankind? How can we keep from trusting One who has so revealed Himself to us? If a woman standing on the outside of the circle of safety could look in and see that Love in operation and believe Jesus would share it with even her, how do we, who claim to be in the circle, go around doubting?

          If we had the time and space we could continue to list all the problems that we humans have in this life and ask the question, “What do you believe about your problems?” Then we could repeat the statement of Jesus and say, “According to what you believe about them, so shall it be unto you.” Can we see that in His statement He is offering us a way out of every problem that life presents? No matter what the problem is He has said that if we will only trust Him, He will solve it out for us. Is that not Grace offered in its fullness? How can we suppose that it is too much of Him to ask us to simply trust Him?

          I dare say it is time to, “Examine ourselves, whether we be IN THE FAITH, prove your own selves….” (II Cor. 13:5)

          The Rapture of the Bride is going to involve the total and complete healing of this flesh-body. The healing will be so complete that every cell in our bodies will be changed. This change will be by faith in our God, who is the Great Healer. The body change will be the final stage of God’s promise to heal His People. On that day no outside help will be of any use. The body change will come from the inside out; the faith for it will have to be laying in the Soul. Are we willing to start practicing now the kind of faith it will take for the Rapture? It will have to be cultivated and grown; the weeds will have to be pulled out from around that seed of faith. It will have to be watered with the water of the Word. We must learn NOW how to stand and trust His Word in times of great danger and trial. We must allow Him to test us in order to build our faith and bring it to perfection.

          What do you believe, Message Believer? Do you believe the parts of the Message that fit your present life-style and ignore other parts of it? Are you willing for some of your present beliefs to be corrected by the Word? Are you willing to reexamine some of the Prophet’s statements that have seemed so far out to you? I will now present some of the Prophet’s statements that I believe should be reexamined! They are very much “MESSAGE” having been made by the Prophet AFTER the Seals were all opened, and in the final winding up of his ministry. I present them to you now to show that on Rapture day our faith will have to be in Christ and Him alone! It will be unto us according to our faith.

          QUOTE: SATAN’S EDEN (1965) PAGE 15, “We are now entering in where Satan is taking the throne as the antichrist in an Eden of this earth, an Eden of sin-perverted religion…….And now in this great deceitful age, ready to take his throne by his people! He has built himself an intellectual, educated, scientific Eden . Right. Scientific preachers, scientific church, scientific theology...everything is scientific. Everything is on basis of knowledge. The whole church is built upon knowledge. It isn’t built upon faith.” (End quote)

          QUOTE: SATAN’S EDEN , PAGE 20, “They have done the same in each age, thereafter…always taking the intellectual side. And has now built a kingdom of Satan-knowledge (his seed that he had sowed) and has took the world to be an Eden of death.” (End quote) (We know the Prophet referred to knowledge contrary to the Word of God.)

          QUOTE: GOD OF THIS EVIL AGE (965) PAGE 42, “He keeps you from seeing the true revelation and faith of God’s Word being revealed and vindicated today by his schools, library, literature, hospitals, and so forth. See? He keeps you from it. He is now interpreting as he did to Pharaoh, trying to keep you from seeing the meaning of the vindicated Word of His promised age in the Evening Light, vindicated and proved. He’s trying by his knowledge and schools, and better educated people, and ethics, and so forth, to keep you away from seeing that.” (End quote)

          QUOTE: GOD OF THIS EVIL AGE, PAGE 43, “I just got through saying that knowledge and science, and Christianity has no fellowship at all. One’s of the devil and the other one’s of God. Anything that denies God’s Word, keep away from it. See?

          No, sir. The Bible calls this last days for Christians to come out of that prostitute, that tree of good and evil. Sure she has good. Can anybody speak evil of a hospital? No, sir! Library? No, sir! Education? No, sir! But, see, they’re giving them that with out the Word. See how deceiving it is? Giving them a church to go to, a worship to worship, a God setting upon a throne. The Bible foretold it. (A God of scientific knowledge setting on a throne.) (End quote)

          Scientific knowledge fails, but God’s Word is life to those that find them and health to al their flesh. (Pro. 4:22) Amen!