SPLIT LEVEL RELIGION

A Dynamic Revival Sermon I Cor. 3:1-3

1972

SCHAMBACH MIRACLE REVIVALS P. O. BOX 1 ELLWOOD CITY, PENNA. 11617

Evangelist R. W. Schambach

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, may the anointing of the Holy Ghost come upon every reader of this message. Anoint the message as it goes forth, and anoint the mind and heart of every reader to receive and retain this truth.

Destroy whatever is not of faith.

Let the faith of God live in the heart of every reader, and may each one receive thy blessing and go forward into the fullest of thy blessings.

Spirit of God, I commit this message and its readers into thy hand.

Amen.

Split Level Religion

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.

For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?

I Corinthians 3:1-3

In this chapter of I Corinthians, Paul the Apostle answers many of the questions which have troubled ministers and believers for years.

Down through the years of this ministry which God has given me, I looked for an answer.

I have seen thousands respond to my invitation and to the invitations of other ministers, and I have been thrilled to watch the visible evidence of God’s blessing upon those who would accept the goodness of God. But there were others who came along with them who received nothing, and who never did receive anything as a result of their coming.

Why?

There has to be a reason why some people get a touch from God and others do not receive anything. Have you not seen this happen, and wondered why?

Why, when you lay hands upon one and blind eyes are opened, the next person in line apparently receives nothing?

Something is wrong somewhere.

I believe that there is an answer to this problem in I Corinthians, Chapter 3.

First, bear in mind that Paul is writing to a church—a Holy Ghost church. It is a church that talks in tongues, a church that takes pride in being a spiritual church, a church which has seen all the gifts of the spirit in operation in its meetings. You can’t tell a spiritual church—nor a spiritual person—just by listening to the talking in tongues.

Now, I am not criticizing the operation of the gift of tongues, nor am I criticizing the blessing of the times of refreshing when God’s Spirit comes to help the weakness of the human spirit in praise or petition to God, praying in a language that God alone can give. I speak in tongues myself, both in public and in private. But there is more.

Writing his letter to this saved, sanctified, tongues-talking church, Paul declared, “I wanted to speak to you as spiritual, but I couldn’t do it, because you are yet carnal. ”

Paul is not writing this letter to a bunch of sinners. He is talking to a church!

He said, “I wanted to give you some good, strong meat to eat, but I end up feeding you milk. You are still babes in Christ.”

They not only had to have milk, but it had to be warmed, put into a bottle, and fed to them! Then each baby had to be burped!

In this scripture, Paul gives us a picture of three types of persons. Among these three, you can find yourself as you read.

All three types are found among religious people today. This is “split level religion.”

First, there is the NATURAL MAN.

The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

I Cor. 2:14

Even the best of those who have not been born of the Spirit find it impossible to share in the understanding of those things which are revealed only by the Spirit.

Then there is the CARNAL MAN.

As defined in the third chapter of I Corinthians, the carnal man is one who has received Christ as saviour, has been born of the Spirit, and has perhaps received many of the blessings which are so richly offered. Yet this carnal man is still living on the lower level of Christianity. It is of these that Paul declares. “I could not talk to you as unto spiritual, because you are yet carnal. ”

The third level is obvious. This is the SPIRITUAL MAN, to whom the stronger meat of spiritual matters can be revealed, and with whom such a one as Paul, the great Apostle, could converse as with an equal.

What kind of person are you?

Are you spiritual? Carnal? Or are you still a natural man?

It is important that you find the answer to that question.

Only you and God—and Satan—know beyond doubt.

One of these categories is yours.

To the Natural Man

This is my message to you if you are a natural man.

First, I shall give a definition. A natural man is one who is devoid of the things of God.

He has no spiritual appetite. He is not concerned for the things of God. He doesn’t want to live for God. In the church, he likes the fellowship and the communion of the people, and the advantages which he may receive in the world from being looked upon as a “good person” because of his connection with the church. He enjoys the acclaim which follows upon his public good deeds. He has never experienced the crisis of decision, the turning around which is true repentance, the spiritual new birth which would make of him a new creature.

He has never turned his back upon the world; he does not want to give it up. He wants to go right on living in his own filthy mess. He is unregenerate. The blood of Jesus Christ has not been applied to his heart. Like Cain, he brings a sacrifice of his own good works.

There are people like this in every church.

Outside the church, the world is full of them.

This is the natural man.

Now, the Bible says, “Let not that man think that he shall receive anything from God. The natural man cannot receive the things of God. ”

Why?

Now, here is a very important point.

Only people who are alive in the spirit can receive the things of God, because they are spiritually received. You can only become alive in the spirit by the new birth, the birth in the spirit.

If you are going to receive something from God, you’ve got to learn to walk in the spirit. You’ve got to learn to understand the moving of the spirit in your life, so that God can reveal to you from His Word the hidden treasures that are there—things already prepared for you that you can enjoy while you are living, right here in this life.

Hallelujah!

Now, if you find yourself in the natural state, you don’t have to stay there. You can be transformed—not by a church, not by a preacher, not by a code of ethics, not by your own efforts. There is only one thing that can transform you from the natural into the spiritual man. That is the blood of Jesus Christ. You must be born again!

There was a religious teacher who came to Jesus, by night. This was a man who taught in the synagogue, if you please! He was supposed to be a teacher of the people in spiritual matters— a pastor. He heard Jesus speaking about the signs of eternal life, and he was stricken with the realization that he did not know. He came sneaking around at midnight. He said, “Master, I heard you talking about living forever. What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus said, “Nicodemus, you must be born again. You are a natural man. A natural man will not live eternally. You’ve got to be born again.”

Nicodemus said, “Lord, I don’t understand. How can I be born again? I am an old man. Are you telling me that I am to enter back into my mother’s womb and be born?”

As a natural man, he couldn’t even understand the very first beginning of becoming a spiritual man, much less the deeper things of the spirit of God.

Jesus told him, “Nicodemus, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto you, ‘you must be born again! ’ ”

If you do not KNOW that you are a child of God—if you have not had a beginning of spiritual life, a rebirth—you are still only a natural person. You must be born again before you can even begin to receive anything from God.

Natural man!

I don’t mind telling you that the churches of America are full of natural men—men who have no experience with God whatever—and these natural men want to run the church.

Out in Chicago, a man came to me and said, “Brother Schambach, am I saved?”

I said, “No.”

He said, “How can you say that? You don’t even know me! You didn’t even listen to what I have to say! How—?”

I said, “I don’t have to know you. When you are saved, you won’t be asking somebody if you are saved. You will be telling them. You will be the first one to know.”

Paul said,

I know in whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

II Timothy 1:12

I know that I am saved because I have been made over new. The things I once loved I now despise. The things I once enjoyed no longer please me.

Why?

Because I am a new creature, created anew in Christ Jesus!

Born again!

Hallelujah!

I am no longer a natural man. I am the son of the living God. I have been born again, born of the spirit.

Twice born! born once of the flesh, but born again of the spirit of God!

Do you know beyond a doubt, right now, that you are saved?

Then, tell the first person you meet, “I know that I am a child of God. I have been born again!”

You would be surprised how many people come into my meetings just to get healed. They don’t want to serve God. They are natural men, natural women, concerned only with the health and comfort of the natural body.

In Greensboro, North Carolina, a man came before me, requesting a prayer card.

I knew he wasn’t saved; I could smell it. What I smelled was something like Three Feathers or Four Roses, and I knew that he had the wrong brand!

Am I saying that Christians don’t drink?

Oh, no.

Christians drink the new wine of the spirit, the kind Jesus was talking about when he said that you don’t put new wine in old bottles! The wine of the Holy Ghost, which God places only in re-created human vessels!

I never like to judge anybody. There are certain evident signs, but one could be mistaken. I asked the man, “Are you saved, Sir?”

He said, “I’ve got ulcers.”

I said, “Are you saved? Have you been born again?”

He said, “I can’t eat. I want a prayer card.”

I said, “You ought to have ulcers, with all that stuff you’ve been drinking!”

He said, “Now, don’t preach to me. I didn’t come here to be preached to. I didn’t come here for anything but to get healed.”

He was at least honest. I appreciated that. Some people sneak into a prayer line, and put on an act. They say, “Hallelujah! Glory!” They think that if they can fool the preacher, they will get healed.

Let me tell you something. The preacher doesn’t heal you. You might be able to fool the preacher, but fooling the preacher won’t do you any good. Healing has to come from God, or there is no healing at all. You can’t fool God—not for one minute!

He said, “No, I’m not saved, and I didn’t come here for that. I saw the ads in the paper that said people are getting healed down here. I’ve got ulcers. I can’t eat. I want you to touch me, like you do all these people. What I want is to get rid of these ulcers!”

I said, “Wouldn’t you like to give your heart to Christ? He will save your soul, and you will be a new man.”

He said, “Don’t preach to me, preacher! I don’t want any of that. I didn’t come here to get religion. I just want to get healed.”

I said, “Do you know what I would do if I were you? I would forget all about this meeting. Forget God. Forget the Bible. Be content to keep the ulcer. Keep it, and get on out of here and live for the devil. Do a good job of it. Go! Live it up!”

He said, “You would do that?”

I said, “No, I wouldn’t do that. But if I were you, that is what I would do. But I am going to give you a prayer card. I dare you to take it and get into the prayer line. When I lay hands on you, God will heal you. God does heal sinners. Oh, yes, He does! But after God has healed a sinner, there is something else to consider. In Jesus ministry, He healed sinners. Then He said to them, ‘Go and sin no more. ’ He didn’t stop there. He said, ‘A worse thing will come upon you. ’ Buddy, if I were you, I would be content with that one little old ulcer. My advice to you is to keep it, because when God heals you and you go right back out and go on with your sinning, that ulcer will come back—worse than it is now—plus a cancer or something worse.”

I believe a preacher should be honest with the people. They should know the conditions God requires.

That man started to weep, fell on his knees there on the ramp and cried out, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

I laid my hands on him there, in the name of Jesus. God saved that man, and knocked him flat on his back on the ground there under that tent. God saved him right there and filled him with the Holy Ghost. While he lay there talking in tongues, God healed that ulcer.

That has been ten years ago, and today that man is still shouting the victory, and is preaching the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ!

God cares about you. He wants to save your soul. He cares about your pain and your sickness, but even more He cares about your soul. He wants to come into your heart, and to share His treasures with you.

But the natural man cannot receive the things of God, because they are spiritually received. Not until you turn your back upon the natural man, not until you have been born again of the Spirit, can you receive those wonderful things of the spirit.

Now, I want to leave the natural man and move into the next level.

A part of the church is filled with natural people, of no value to the church because they are like a parasite in its branches, and receiving none of the best that the church holds for them, because they cannot even recognize its worth.

Another part of the church Paul lists as CARNAL.

These people are saved, all right.

They will get to heaven.

They have been born again, washed in the blood.

But they are concerned about those things which are of the flesh, not about the things of the Spirit. They concern themselves with the things that bring satisfaction to themselves, not the ways to best please the Lord.

What is a carnal Christian?

James, in writing about these carnal Christians, calls them

“double minded. ”

These carnal Christians don’t know when to stop talking. Their tongues are like a consuming fire, which is set on fire of hell. Their tongues are not under the constant control of the spirit of God. Part of the time, they may be speaking with the tongues of angels. At other times, their mouths are filled with idle chatter. But even worse, at times they are filled with gossip and with complaining and murmuring, and every kind of evil.

They are concerned about the things of the flesh.

They weigh their own spiritual experience and gauge their faith in God by circumstances. They can shout and dance and talk in tongues when everything is going their way. When the wind blows the wrong way, they get down in the valley, and they moan and lament.

“It’s a hard old way! Pray for me that I may be able to hang on to the end!”

They go by their feelings.

Let me tell you, you are not going to feel the same way when you go home and find a big, past-due bill in your mail box that you do when you are in the middle of a fast-moving Holy Ghost service!

Ask this carnal Christian, “Are you saved?”

He says, “Well, I thought I was, but I don’t feel like it now.”

A member of my congregation came to me and said, “Brother Schambach, I don’t even feel like I am saved.”

I answered, “Neither do I.”

She said, “You don’t? But you are the preacher. You must feel like you are saved.”

I said, “No. I got a five hundred dollar oil bill today. Right now, I don’t feel anything but that. But I don’t go by my feelings. I go by what it says in God’s Word. Right now, I don’t feel saved, but I know that I am saved. There is no other way to live a victorious Christian life.”

Feelings change all the time. God’s Word never changes.

You don’t feel the same way on the job, working elbow to elbow with a bunch of sinners blowing tobacco smoke in your face, telling dirty stories and giving you the needle every once in a while, trying you out to see if they can involve you in their stories, or get you to swear or to “run with them to the same excess of riot.” The carnal Christian responds to those differences in feeling by yielding to temptation or to discouragement.

The carnal Christian enjoys the things of the world, and also enjoys the things of the church.

Carnal Christians like to go to church, and they appear to be spiritual at times. But even their spirituality is directed toward personal emotional satisfaction, or toward attracting attention to themselves. They especially place importance upon those gifts of the spirit which are outwardly obvious, and care little for those deeper spiritual things which strengthen the relationship between the Christian and God.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, these people live in the world and enjoy it, but on Sunday they are ready to be “leaders in the church.” They dance in the aisles and shout while they are at church, but have no victory when they get home.

I want to tell you, even the drunkard off the street can come into a service where the spirit of God is moving, and be moved by it. The carnal Christian is moved by it, too. He is moved by his senses, but he doesn’t know how to live by faith.

The carnal Christian wants to be feeling something all the time to keep him assured that he is saved. He says, “Lord, if I am still your child, let me feel it!”

Even when I don’t feel anything, I know that I am still His child.

Why?

Because it is in the Book!

I have learned to stand on God’s Word, even if I am surrounded by demons of hell. They can’t make me doubt Him. I have learned from the Word that He will never leave me nor forsake me, even until the end of the age.

It is the same with healing.

People come for healing, and they say, “Preacher, pray for me. I hurt right here.”

The preacher prays for them, and they like to feel the hands. They like to hear the prayer. They even like to feel the oil.

After praying for them, the preacher says, “Now, how do you feel?”

That isn’t what counts! You may feel worse than you did before you were prayed for! You are not healed by the way you feel. You are healed by His stripes. You can’t depend upon knowing that you are healed by the way you feel. You know that you are healed because of God’s Word, because He says that you are healed by His stripes.

Carnal Christians will always go by their feelings. Always!

It is easy to go by your feelings.

One day, I was driving from Philadelphia to Chicago on the turnpike. Half way through Ohio, I was riding along, talking in tongues, having a great time—just me and the Lord. I was feeling fine! Suddenly, I was struck with a sharp pain, on the left side just under the fifth rib.

No more talking in tongues now!

Something said, “Heart trouble!” Not really a voice, mind you, but just as real. The devil said, “The number one killer in the world is heart trouble, you know.”

I said, “Yes! That’s right!”

The devil said, “How many men did you bury this week? What did they die from?”

I said, “Five men! And heart trouble, everyone of them!”

I was getting worse all the time. I pulled to the side of the road and stopped, and bent over the steering wheel.

Suddenly, I came to myself. I said, “You filthy, lying devil, you! How can I have heart trouble, when Jesus lives in my heart?”

I was still hurting, but I had long ago learned the lesson not to go by feeling. I pulled the keys out of the ignition and put them in my pocket. I got out on that turnpike and said, “Now, you devil, if I had heart trouble, I wouldn’t be able to run! I am going to run down this turnpike!”

I started running. At first, I was holding my side, but after I had run about a mile, I got my second wind. Now I was feeling good. I turned around and ran back to my car. There was no pain anywhere. I said, “All right, devil, where are you now?”

I couldn’t find him anywhere!

If I had gone by my feelings, I would have been in a hospital somewhere.

You need to learn how to live in the spirit, and how to place your trust in what God has said.

You need to learn to say, “God said it; He cannot lie. I am healed by His stripes, regardless of what I feel or how I look.”

The carnal Christian will go by his feelings.

This is one of Satan’s biggest attacks against the church and we help him along! We walk up to each other and shake hands, and say, “Praise the Lord! How do you feel?”

How do I feel?

Wait a minute! Let me check. Now that you mention it, I really don’t feel too good!

Don’t come and ask me how I feel! Ask me how I believe!

I believe I am healed. I believe I am well.

Why?

Because Jesus Christ bore my sicknesses, as well as my sins. Sin and sickness no longer have dominion over me. Jesus conquered them in my behalf, nailing them to His cross!

Now, let us look at the SPIRITUAL MAN.

Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus,

Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the spirit.

Ephesians 5:18

A spiritual person is one who is led by the spirit, who walks in the spirit, and talks in the spirit. A spiritual person lives in the spirit, day in and day out.

Too many pentecostal people think that to be in the spirit, you have to be lying down on the floor, shaking like a leaf, or talking in tongues, or dancing up and down the aisles. To live in the spirit, in their opinion, would require being engaged in one of these visible spiritual experiences all the time.

This is not so.

If you have been born again, you have been born of the spirit. This means that you are a spiritual creature. I am in the spirit, right now.

My Christian reader, you are in the spirit as you read these words.

If you and I went together to a cafe, and sat down there to share a meal, we would be doing that in the spirit, because we are a spiritual creation. We are born of God, sons of God. We have put on the nature of God. We are partakers of His divine nature.

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

I    Cor. 10:31

The spirit of God walks in me. He talks in me. I am God’s child. He is my God, and I am living in His spirit.

If you are living in the spirit, you have been separated from the world. Jesus said,

Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters.

II    Cor. 17:18

Are you in the spirit?

Are you His child?

Is He your God?

Now, when Paul wrote his letter to the church at Corinth, he was writing a church which talked in tongues. The gifts of the spirit were in evidence in this church. Yet Paul said, “I wanted to talk to you as unto spiritual, but I could not because you are carnal. ”

This means that even though these people were saved and baptized with the Holy Ghost, still they were not spiritual.

A spiritual person learns to live by faith.

Jesus lived in the spirit. He walked in the spirit.

There are people in the church today—Christian people, filled with the Holy Ghost, exercising gifts of the spirit—who have never learned how to reside in the Spirit. They have no spiritual strength within themselves. They are always leaning on someone else. Every time a new preacher comes to town, they come running to get into his prayer line. They say, “I hurt here! Hit me here! Quick!”

They shout during the campaign, and when he is gone, they get sick again.

Then when another preacher comes, they are back, with the same problem, ready to bring it into another prayer line.

This person is not spiritual.

Don’t get mad at me. I know what I am talking about.

A spiritual person will learn how to get an answer from God for himself. You can’t keep on always depending upon someone else’s faith.

Thank God for your pastor. Thank God for the one you have confidence in, and you ought to have confidence in your pastor. There come times in every Christian’s life when he needs help. There come times when the prayer of agreement between two or three is needed to drive back an attack of Satan, when for one reason or another you are weak and unable to rise above some circumstance. God has provided Christian fellowship and the ministry of pastors and evangelists for this very purpose.

But you can’t always call your best friend and say, “Pray for me.” You can’t make dependency on others the pattern of your Christian life. You have to learn to stand on your own two feet, to stand on the promises in God’s Word for yourself. You’ve got to learn to face the attack of Satan and say, “You devil, you! Greater is He that is within me than he that is in the world! I know that my Redeemer liveth, and though the devil slay me, yet will I trust Him! ” You’ve got to learn to trust God for yourself.

The only way you can learn this and receive the blessings and benefits from His hand that have been prepared and purchased for the children of God is to live, to walk, to talk in the spirit, day by day.

When you drop from the spiritual to the carnal, you cease to receive from God.

Then, if you drop from carnal to natural, you backslide, and lose out with God completely.

This is the condition in many churches today. This is the reason that so many in the church are not receiving anything from God.

Don’t misunderstand me.

A lot of carnal Christians are going to make it into heaven. They have been washed in the blood. They are clinging to that part of their faith. But for now—for today—they are sitting there suffering, sick, deprived of God’s blessings. They are waiting for a better day. They say, “When I get to heaven, there will be no more sickness, no more pain, no more doctors. I can hardly wait to get there!”

Another Christian will say, “Devil, I refuse to carry this sickness. I’m not going to wait until I get to heaven. God is my God now! I’m going to get a touch from God right now. His promises are true, and I believe them, right now. Today!”

If you want to sit there and wait, you are welcome to do it. But I am not going to sit there with you. I am going to go right on in and get all that God has promised me for today!

Read the second chapter of I Corinthians. Men’s wisdom and excellency of speech cannot reveal it. The wisdom of princes cannot comprehend it. But the spirit of God reveals it. The natural man does not receive it, and the carnal man rejects it.

Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

I Cor. 2:9-10

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

v. 12, 13

If you live in the spirit, the spirit will reveal what is yours, what belongs to you. Eyes have not seen it, and ear has not heard. But you know! The devil cannot take it away from you. The world cannot reason it away from you. The unbelief of carnal Christians cannot discourage you. God has provided it; the Spirit has revealed it. It is yours—you that are spiritual!

You say, “I just can’t believe it!”

Well, you don’t have to.

But I believe it.

Why?

Because the Spirit gave it to me by revelation, by quickening the Word of God to my understanding. That is why you are sick, while I am healed. This is why some believe in the Holy Ghost and talk in tongues, while others say, “I don’t believe that!”

They are my brothers and my sisters. They have believed for salvation, and they are saved. They have received everything that they have believed for. When they try to shut me off from what I have received because they don’t believe all that I believe, I refuse to let them do it. I have seen God’s promises. His Spirit has revealed them unto me. I have believed, and I have received.

I am believing, and I am receiving!

Don’t come around trying to take it away from me. If you don’t believe in it, you don’t have to have it. You can do without it.

When you get in the spirit, God will reveal it to you, and you can then receive His blessings. Not every Christian enjoys all these blessings—only them that are spiritual!

Carnal Christians can’t have the fullness of God’s blessing.

The natural man—what is it to him? It is foolishness!

Even in the church, they will rise up and call you foolish.

Don’t be angry with them, you that are spiritual. Smile, and say, “That is what it is supposed to be. To the natural man, it is foolishness. But when you get in the spirit, it is no longer foolishness, for you know that it is the way God moves and has His way.”

Recently, I met a young man with whom I attended high school in Harrisburg. He said, “Bob, what are you doing? I haven’t heard from you for twenty years.”

I said, “I am a preacher.”

He said, “What? You? I can’t believe it! Why, you were the worst kid on the block!”

“Well,” I said, “I’m not going to argue about that. I needed salvation the most, if I was the worst. I am a Holy Ghost preacher. It’s a wonderful life. What are you doing?”

He said, “I am a psychologist. Man, did I hit it! I’m making money. I just have people lie down on a little old leather couch, and have them talk to me. I just listen. Twenty five dollars an hour! Even if you wanted an appointment now, I couldn’t give you one for a year, because I’m booked up. Listen, Bob. You have an education. Why don’t you take some training along this line, some psychology courses. You can make a fortune in this.”

“Well,” I said, “I’m helping people, like this. But I’m not getting twenty five dollars an hour, I’ll tell you right now!”

‘You’re helping people?”

‘Yes. I cast the devil out of them, you see.”

“But, man,” he said, “that’s foolishness!”

I said, “Man, you hit it right on the head. To the natural man, it is foolishness. But to the spiritual man, it is the power of God unto salvation!”

He couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t stop preaching and do what he is doing. To him, it is foolishness. To me, it is my meat.

My meat is to bring deliverance to people, to do the will of God—of Him that called me—of Him that said, “In my name you shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. ”

Call it foolishness if you like. God said that some would call it that!

I would rather be called a fool for God than to be a fool for the devil.

Now, who are you?

Are you natural?

Are you carnal?

Or are you spiritual?

You can choose which level of religious experience will be yours.

If you are not now in the spiritual state, the most important thing that you can do is to move into it.

When you have established the right relationship with God, then you are on receiving ground. No matter what your need, God has it for you. But remember, anything that you receive from God has to be received through the spirit.

I pray for some people, and then I say to them, “Are you healed?”

I don’t ask them, “How do you feel?” I don’t ask them to check whether they feel any more pain, or whether they feel that they are healed.

The question is, “Are you healed?”

Why?

I ask you to recall this one verse of scripture:

Compare spiritual things with spiritual.

I Corinthians 2:13

Some people say, “Wait a minute! Let me feel!”

Now, when they say, “Let me feel...,” I know that they aren’t in the spirit. They are going by the feeling of the flesh.

Instead of saying, “Well, it feels like the swelling may have gone down a little,” or, “It’s still there,” why don’t you just say, “I’m not even going to feel to see if it’s still there! God said that by His stripes I am healed, and God cannot lie! His Word is truth!”

Hallelujah!

A number of years ago, a woman came into the meeting with a fifteen pound tumor in her abdomen. Her husband was embarrassed, because everybody thought that he was about to become a father, and it was nothing but a tumor all those years. He had urged her to go to the hospital and have the tumor removed. Although she believed in God and wanted to trust Him completely with her bodily needs, for her husband’s sake she decided to submit to the operation, and made an appointment.

The time was drawing near, when one morning she picked up the newspaper and read the advertisement saying, “HOLY GHOST REVIVAL COMING!”

She said, “Oh! I won’t need that operation now! I will just go to that Holy Ghost Revival and get the man of God to lay hands on me. I know that I will be healed!”

That is faith!

Now, everything was set at the hospital. She had her reservation, and all the arrangements had been made. But she plead with her husband to let her attend the meeting, and to get in line for prayer. He said, “All right, you can go try it. Let him pray for you. But if it doesn’t happen, then you are to go on to the hospital.”

You see, he didn’t have any faith. You can’t “try” this thing! It has already been tried. It’s been through the fiery furnace, and it wouldn’t burn! It’s been through the water, and water couldn’t drown it!

She came through the line, looking like she was just ready to bring forth twins.

Hands were laid on her in the name of Jesus, and that tumor was cursed at its roots and commanded to disappear.

Everybody was sitting there with one eye shut, watching. She was so big. They wanted to see, now. You really can’t blame people; they want to see a miracle happen! Nobody was shouting. They were all too busy watching, and they didn’t see anything happen. She walked down the ramp and out of the meeting, just as big as she was when she came in. But as she went, her hands were in the air and she was saying, “Thank you, Jesus! Hallelujah! I’m healed!”

Her husband was waiting for her at the end of the ramp. She said, “Honey, isn’t it wonderful that I am healed?”

He said, “Don’t hand me that! Look at you!”

She said, “Honey, you are looking at the wrong thing. Don’t look at that. When you look at that, you see what the devil did. When you want to see what God did, you look at what God said in His Book. By His stripes I am healed! God said that the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up. Look at God’s Word. God cannot lie. His Word is true!”

He said, “Don’t hand me that stuff! I know what I see! You are going to the hospital and get this thing taken care of! ”

He was a born again Christian, but he was one of those carnal Christians, living on that lower level. He would have believed if he could have seen, but Jesus said,

Blessed are they who have not seen; and yet have believed!

John 20:29

Believing what you see isn’t faith.

Faith is believing what God says, without any other evidence than that He said it!

That woman kept right on saying, “Thank you, Lord, for healing me! Devil, you are a liar! I know that I am healed!”

But she was an obedient wife, so she went to the hospital as her husband directed.

The doctors took her to the operating room, and knocked her out with anesthetic. She was on the operating table, completely unconscious. The surgeons and six nurses were surrounding the table.

“Scalpel!” the surgeon cried.

A nurse placed the scalpel firmly in his hand.

He brought the sharp knife down over the sleeping form to within two inches of the bulging abdomen. But that knife never touched her flesh. Suddenly, like the air going out of a balloon, the tumor disappeared before their eyes.

The doctor threw the scalpel into a corner of the room, ripped off his mask, and said, “My God! What happened?”

They took her into the X-ray room? and X-rayed her from head to feet. They found no sign of the tumor anywhere.

Oh, to live in the spirit!

I don’t care how big it is! I don’t care how it looks!

God cannot lie!

I’m talking about the upper level of Christianity!

I’m talking about spiritual Christians, about people who, while their feet are still on this earth, live in communion with God to such an extent that they find it more logical to believe Him than to believe the evidence of their own eyes, or of their own feelings. They have come to know Him more intimately than they know their dearest earthly friend, and no matter who says otherwise, they believe that what God says is TRUTH!

Learn to stand on God’s Word and victory is yours!

They took that lady back into the recovery room. She was still out, under anesthetic. As she was beginning to come out of it, the nurse came to her and said, “Let me tell you what happened. They took you to the operating room, but they never touched you. The doctor was ready to operate, when all of a sudden that thing disappeared.”

Her hands flew up, and she began to praise the Lord, right there in the recovery room. She said, “Jesus, I knew you did it, there under the tent! I knew it! I knew it! Hallelujah!”

I want you to see this. The night that she came for prayer, nobody shouted. They didn’t see anything! But when she came back and told that testimony, you should have heard them shout!

It takes a really spiritual person to shout when the pain is still there, to wear a smile when the devil has you backed into a corner.

As a spiritual Christian, you can believe God and praise Him for healing when you are flat on your back and wracked by pain.

I don’t want you to think that believing God for healing is the only way that you can exercise faith when you live on the spiritual level.

You can thank God for his provision for every need, when you don’t have a cent in your pocket.

Like the widow of Zarephath who gave her last cake in obedience to God’s command through His servant, you can find the door to the storehouse of God’s abundance when you learn to be obedient by faith. (I Kings 17:1-16)

All that little widow could see was enough meal in the barrel to make a tiny cake for herself and one for her son, and then they must die of starvation. But the cake she gave to Elijah was not the “last cake” but rather the first, for God blessed her generous obedience by causing that the meal did not waste in her barrel nor the oil in her cruse until the rains came and the famine was ended.

Don’t say, “I can’t afford to tithe.”

You can’t afford not to!

Nine tenths, with God’s blessing, will go farther than ten tenths without it!

A couple in Florida felt led of God’s spirit to make a pledge of $25.00 for God’s work. Money was scarce, and for them it was a real test of faith. But they learned that you can’t outgive God. First, God provided a steady tenant for their duplex. Then Brother A.’s salary was raised by $50.00 per week, and a new car was provided for his use. Then Sister A.’s salary was raised $11.00 per week. They were able to increase their giving, yet have better provision for their own needs. Best of all, they knew the joy of helping spread the gospel, of knowing that they are workers together with God.

There is that scattereth and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.

Proverbs 11:24

The spiritual Christian does not give to God because of any desire to “make a good deal,” or because he expects to profit by his giving. He gives because of his love for God and for those whom God loves, but with no fear that God will let him down, or that his needs will fail to be met because of his having given.

What is your need?

Do you need healing?

Never fear! It is there in His Word. Believe it!

Do you need provision?

My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:19

Do you feel alone and friendless?

Jesus said,

There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.

Mark 10:29, 30

Are you depressed, discouraged?

He will strengthen the feeble knees and lift up the hands that hang down.

As a spiritual Christian, learn to keep the faith. Praise God through sunshine and rain. “In everything give thanks. ” (I Thess. 5: 18. ) Why? “For this is the will of God concerning you. ”

The carnal Christian evaluates his circumstances as some good, some bad. He rejoices in the pleasant situation and complains in the times of trial.

The spiritual Christian rejoices in tribulation. (Romans 8:25,

II Corinthians 1:4) He sees no “bad” circumstance, although some may at the time appear to be grievous, for he believes God’s Word:

All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28

The natural man grovels in the earth.

The carnal Christian walks through a land of light and darkness, sometimes in the sunshine and sometimes in the shadow.

The spiritual Christian rises above the storm clouds and lives constantly in the sunshine of God’s love and care—not because God cares for him more, but because he has come to believe and accept God’s caring.

It was for all of us that God cared enough to send his only begotten son. (John 3:16) He commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

Your master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him.

Ephesians 6:9

The choice is yours.

To everyone is given a choice of roads to go.

The high soul takes the high road,

The low soul takes the low,

And in between on foggy flats The rest drift too and fro.

Choose now to take the high road. Be a spiritual Christian.

Feed on God’s Word. Saturate your life with praise and thanksgiving. Cultivate a spiritual understanding. Practice the realization of the presence of God in every situation of your life. Make every decision in the light of your best understanding of God’s will.

You can live on the top level!

THE REV. R. W. SCHAMBACH is one of America’s dynamic pulpiteers. Daily his “Voice of Power” is beamed from radio stations throughout the United States and in several foreign countries. Thousands attend each of his Miracle Crusades in great auditoriums, witnessing some of this generations most unusual miracles. Thousands have been led to Christ through this transdenominational ministry. Lasting congregations of new believers also ht-c> ‘ been founded, of which the Miracle Temples c,oklyn, NewarK, Philadelphia, and Chic: are outstanding. Brother Scham-bach is yet titular Pastor of the latter three churches.

Cassettes and books of his sermons have been released. Each month more than a quarter-of-a-million copies of “Power” Magazine carry the exciting testimonies of what God is doing through Brother Schambach’s ministry. Recently he appeared on the Phil Donahue show as an advocate of healing through faith in Christ.

A graduate of a Bible College himself, the Rev. Schambach is deeply committed to the development of ministers who are both Apostolic in their power and Academic in their understanding of the Gospel. East Texas Bible College was founded upon this vision in 1976 in Tyler, Texas, the beautiful rose capital of the nation. Already graduates are making their mark “in demonstration of the spirit and of power.”

The Rev. Schambach is married to the former Winnie Donald of Philadelphia. They have three children: a daughter, Donna, who is teaching in Ohio and two sons, Robert, who shares in the crusade ministry with his father and Bruce, a collegian. Brother and Sister Schambach, who make Philadelphia their home, have shared together in life and ministry for many years.

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