Dear Brethren and Friends,
Things certainly are rapidly changing in our modern world!
With the greatest financial crisis in 60 years still upon us, and with ominous world events now threatening war, disease epidemics and possibly even mass starvation in many nations, millions of people are worried and fearful. For our society has certainly "lost faith" in the God of the Bible—if, indeed, it ever had such faith in the first place.
More than ever, as frightening prophetic events seem to be speeding up, you and I need faith in the living God—the God of the Bible. For this generation of human beings is soon going to be tested in a way no other generation of humans has ever been tested! God tells those who are faithful to His ways at the time of the end, "Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth" (Revelation 3:10).
Will you and I pass this coming "test"?
The Apostle Paul was inspired to write, "For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him" (Hebrews 10:37–38). Having faith is not to be some isolated event. It is to be continually ongoing— a vital part of our everyday lives. Something we live by.
Later, Paul wrote, "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him" (Hebrews 11:6). Again, we must learn to live by faith in order to please our Creator and our Father in heaven. We must not only believe that He exists—even the demons believe that (James 2:19)—but we must diligently "seek" God!
Recent news reports have described the threat against America's aging power distribution network; the risk that enemy nations could shut down the entire "electrical grid" here in the United States. Many think this would be awful. In certain ways, it would—certainly if the weather were too hot or too cold and people were without air conditioning or heating. But, apart from some of these disturbances, it might in one limited sense be a very good thing!
How so?
Because people would absolutely have to take time to think. They would no doubt sit down and meditate on their lives and the meaning of their lives and why such events were occurring—perhaps more than ever before.
For, in our day-to-day lives, most people are simply caught up in the "hurly-burly" of human activities—constantly being "busy" rushing to and fro to business, to shopping, to social events, to taking children to school or sporting events, to "catching up" on television programs and the constant stream of information that is ever pouring out upon us through television, radio, newspapers and now through the Internet. Truly, we are victims of "information overload"! Indeed, we are often "too busy" to really meditate about the very purpose of life, about whether God really exists—and about what we ought to be doing to fulfill our purpose and to honor our Creator!
The world around us—all the physical events and things and activities—often seems to capture our complete attention. So, the invisible God seems less "real" to this generation than perhaps He has to any other generation in human history! For there has been no other generation so thoroughly engulfed in what is actually Satan's world—surrounded by information, sights, sounds and "noise" from the "god of this age" (2 Corinthians 4:4)—who is Satan the devil.
As the Apostle Paul indicated in Ephesians 2:2, Satan is the invisible spirit being who "now works in the sons of disobedience." He certainly is the "prince of the power of the air"—the one constantly broadcasting so many sounds, sights and impulses that he uses to keep human beings distracted from really, truly "seeking" the invisible God of the Bible, and from "walking with" that great God!
Have you been distracted by Satan, or by this world of which he is the invisible "prince"? Is God "real" to you, personally? Are you growing in the kind of faith you will need to fully trust God—no matter what—in the perilous years just ahead? Here are some "keys" to help you do so:
I. Build the habit of regular, in-depth, Bible study.
We all need to overcome our intellectual and spiritual laziness and carelessness. We must consciously set aside a lot of our time, throughout each week, to genuinely study the inspired revelation from God to human beings—the Holy Bible. We must meditate on the fact that the Bible truly is "God-breathed" (2 Timothy 3:16)—that it is a revelation coming directly from our Creator, revealing to us His mind, His purpose, the way He thinks and acts, and the absolute promises He has given to us. If you learn to truly study the Bible in this way—with an open mind and heart, sincerely and urgently asking for understanding and faith—you will certainly grow in the attitude of faith and absolute trust in your Creator! As the Apostle Paul was inspired to tell us, "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17).
II. Meditate on the Bible's many examples of healings and blessings, and on those that are happening today!
We all need to think more about Jesus' constant statement— repeated in various ways—"According to your faith let it be to you" (Matthew 9:29). With a humble attitude, we need to "drink in" God's revelation in His inspired word of all the times He has intervened to heal, bless and deliver people. In addition, we need to take time to meditate on the examples of His present-day interventions and healings. Otherwise, we will not be developing the same degree of faith or appreciation for what God is, in fact, doing even now—even in this present faithless generation.
We see that even the apostles often "forgot" to think about what Christ had done right in front of their eyes. In Mark 6:41–44, we read the account of how Jesus blessed five loaves and two small fish and ended up feeding 5,000 men—plus women and children. Then, Mark tells us, Jesus "departed to the mountain to pray" (v. 46). After praying for hours, He came to the disciples. As they were out on the boat, and Jesus was "walking on the sea," they were absolutely afraid and astonished, even though they had seen Jesus perform miracle after miracle—including the recent feeding of the 5,000.
Why were His disciples so astonished?
God's word tells us, "For they had not understood about the loaves, because their heart was hardened" (v. 52). Because they were still carnal—totally filled with their own ideas and the things of this world, since the Holy Spirit was not yet given—they did not fully grasp or understand the real meaning of the tremendous number of miracles and "signs" which Christ had already given, showing that He was indeed Immanuel—"God in the flesh"! If they had fully grasped the meaning of the other miracles, they would have thought, "Of course Jesus can walk on the water!" For He had already healed many people in front of their very eyes, fed the 5,000, and performed many other absolutely wonderful and supernatural signs.
However, still being carnal, they did not "connect the dots." So we, brethren, must be sure that we—through God's Spirit—"connect the dots" and understand the meaning of the wonderful accounts we hear, even today, showing that God still heals and still blesses His people supernaturally, although to a lesser extent than in apostolic times.
Do you and I seem to "forget" the accounts that I have given you many times in sermons about the divine healing of Howard Clark back in 1958 through the prayers of Richard David Armstrong? For Howard had been in hospital after hospital—attended to by the best naval doctors because of his injury as a Marine in the Korean War. I, personally, baptized him, knew him well and for years saw him sitting in a wheelchair in the Pasadena congregation, back in the 1950s. His healing was awesome! Yet it is so easy for us to forget.
What about Dennis Brady's daughter? She had been diagnosed with the fatal variety of spinal meningitis. A medical doctor, after clinical tests, had plainly diagnosed that this little girl—the daughter of married Ambassador College student Dennis Brady—had contracted the fatal variety of spinal meningitis. Yet after my fervent prayers—and of course the fervent prayers of her parents—God answered and she was supernaturally healed. I have told the story—with its details—many times in sermons. Are we still thankful?
What about the lady with a withered arm, who came to Raymond McNair and me on our baptizing tour back in 1951—who brought along her Baptist friend as a "witness" of her baptism and as a companion while she counseled with these "two young men from Pasadena." This unconverted lady, who had known her since childhood, confirmed that her friend had always had a withered arm—an arm that simply hung limp and was only about one-fourth the size of a normal arm. Yet—as she told us—after receiving an anointed cloth from Herbert W. Armstrong, her arm began to grow and grow. By the time she met us, her arm's size and function were virtually normal!
As I wrote to you several months ago, we were very encouraged to hear about the divine healing of a Church member in Joplin, Missouri. His wife sent a touching handwritten note, saying: "We would like to thank everyone for all the prayers and wonderful cards for Jim. Jim was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The doctors gave Jim two to three months to live. Jim was anointed by the local ministers and Mr. Meredith. Jim's cancer is gone into remission! He was diagnosed last Feast. Thanks, Jim & Marla Tallman & Family."
Does God really answer prayer today? Of course He does! But it is up to us to let our minds "feed" on the word of God (John 6:57), to meditate on His wonderful promises and the Bible's many examples of His keeping those promises. We should not tire of reviewing the wonderful blessings and healings we have experienced in recent months and years, even now!
III. Pray fervently and fast regularly.
In addition to the above, we obviously need to use the spiritual tools of prayer and fasting—constantly crying out to God to give us more faith! As Christ tells us, "And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:7–8).
Remember, God tells us that His own elect would "cry out to Him day and night"! Do you and I do this? Or do we just occasionally cry out to God—seldom putting our "heart" in our prayers as God indicates we should? Remember, "the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much" (James 5:16)!
In addition, we must truly learn to use the vital tool of "fasting" in order to draw close to God. Do you, personally, set aside time for fasting? Again, remember Jesus' statement about the fact that certain answers to prayer do not come without the use of this tool! Meditate on this very revealing comment Jesus made to His disciples as to why they could not cast out a demon, "This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting" (Mark 9:29).
IV. Exercise faith!
One of the greatest examples of faith that I have ever seen in my nearly 60 years in God's Church was that of Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong. Although he was a "big" personality and sometimes made mistakes because of that, he genuinely, continually determined to trust God and to do God's will in carrying out his ministry and leading the Work of God. I experienced that in situations with him again and again!
He himself told us, in his booklet on faith, how he was inspired by the example of George Mueller. He also used George Mueller's definition of faith as absolutely true and reliable. Here it is: "'Faith is the assurance that the things which God said in His word are true: and that God will act according to what He has said in His word. This assurance, this reliance on God's word, this confidence, is faith!' That's George Mueller's definition. And it is a true Bible definition" (What Is Faith?, 1952, p. 8).
So, we must all learn to study, pray and meditate about faith. Then, we must exercise faith continually, and in this way learn to walk by faith every day. This will enable us to have far more blessings in God's Church. It will result in all of us drawing closer to God. And it will result in greatly increased power in the very Work of God, enabling us to have a much greater impact on this confused world. As the Apostle Paul wrote, "Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him" (Hebrews 10:38).
May God help you to grow continually in faith! As we each do so, our lives will truly be enriched. We will have a much closer walk with God. He will begin to seem far more real to us in every facet of our lives. And we will be far better able to go through the trials and tests that are coming upon this entire world within the next several years of our lives.
