Faith's Greatest Enemies

by

Dr. Frederick K. C. Price

Faith's Greatest Enemies

by

Dr. Frederick K. C. Price

Harrison House

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are

taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the

Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®. Copyright ©

1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by

permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights

reserved.

Direct quotations from the Bible appear in bold type.

2nd Printing

Over 23, 000 in Print

Faith's Greatest Enemies

ISBN 0-89274-920-2

Copyright © 1994 by Frederick K. C. Price, Ph. D.

Crenshaw Christian Center

P. O. Box 90000

Los Angeles, California 90009

Published by Harrison House, Inc.

P. O. Box 35035

Tulsa, Oklahoma 74153

Printed in the United States of America. All rights

reserved under International Copyright Law. Contents

and/or cover may not be reproduced in whole or in part

in any form without the express written consent of the

Publisher.

Contents

Introduction

7

1 Ignorance of God's Word

11

2 Not Acting Like God's Word Is True

33

3 Concentration on Sense Knowledge Evidence

53

4 A Lack of Patience

67

Introduction

1 Timothy 6:12

Fight the good fight of faith....

It is very obvious from this verse that as Christians, we

are called upon to fight. However, it very clearly outlines

the area of our combat. We do not have to guess about it,

and we do not have to be confused by it, but it is very clear

what our fight is about.

It is a faith fight, a battle for and about faith. The reason

it is called a good fight is that we win. It is always good

when we win, and it is always a bad fight when we are

whipped.

The word fight in 1 Timothy 6:12 is an interesting word.

In the original Greek, it is the word agon, which means "a

contest," or "a conflict. "1 It implies that there is an opponent and a struggle. If you are a Christian, you are in

this conflict, whether you want to be or not.

Notice what Paul says: Fight the good fight of faith. We

are not fighting the devil. We are not fighting each other.

We are not fighting ethnic groups, denominations or

ministers. It is true that as far as personalities are involved,

Satan and demons are the enemy, but it is our faith that is up

for grabs.

Satan is not interested in us. He is interested only in

our faith. If he can separate us from our faith, he can

defeat us. If we can keep our faith intact, we will defeat

him.

1

W. E. Vine, Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (Old Tappan:

Fleming H. Revell, 1940) Vol. II, p. 94.

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Faith's Greatest Enemies

There are too many Christians who are what I call "yo-

yo Christians. " You see them one week saying, "Praise the

Lord!" But the minute you cross them or do something

they do not like, they get ugly. They are not operating by

faith then—that is, by God's faith. God's faith is imparted

to you when you become a child of God.

Romans 1:17

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed

from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall

live by faith.

In two places, we are told to live by faith. Faith is a way

of life. It is not a spare tire. It is not a magic wand. It is not

an Aladdin's lamp. It is a lifestyle. Faith is an everyday, every

minute, every hour, every month, every year way of living. It is

the life of God manifested in your life.

In the midst of that lifestyle, we are to fight the good

fight of faith. We are in warfare! If you have not found that

out yet, keep on living and you will. The enemy would

like to destroy us, but our Father does not want us

destroyed, so He has made available to us means by which

we can be victorious.

If we are in a fight, what makes it a fight? Opposition.

We can also call an opponent an "enemy." If we are told by

the Word of God to fight the good fight of faith, then there

must be some enemies to fight. If we are going to

successfully fight, it would be to our advantage to know

how to recognize the enemy, where he is coming from, and

what his tactics are. That would be of some value.

I am going to talk about Faith's Greatest Enemies. Some

people do not realize what the enemies are. They treat an

enemy like a friend and do not realize that a so-called

friend is undermining them, destroying them.

What we will study in this text are not the only enemies

8

Introduction

to your faith. They are simply the big ones. If you can

handle these, then the other enemies will be immaterial.

9

1

Ignorance of God's Word

1

The first and, perhaps, foremost of faith's greatest

enemies is ignorance of the Word of God. It is sad, yet true,

how many ignorant Christians there are, completely devoid

of knowledge of the Word of God. I will be the first to

admit that if you had come to the church I was pastoring

before I came into the knowledge of the things of God, you

would have been coming to an ignorant church. I knew a

little about salvation, but beyond that, I did not know a

thing.

Many churches are like that. You may get upset when I

say that, but what are you going to do when Almighty

God tells you the same thing that I just said? Let me prove

it to you in the Word of God.

Hosea 4:6

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge....

Isn't lack of knowledge ignorance on a subject? This is

Almighty God speaking, so this is God's estimate and His

indictment. He did not say, My people are destroyed because

they do not go to church. He did not say, My people are

destroyed because they're not paying their tithes.

All those things have something, ultimately, to do with

your life, but they are not what God is talking about here.

He says, My people are destroyed for lack of

knowledge. It is obvious that He is not talking about

academic knowledge, because we have a profusion of

academic knowledge. You can go to school, get the school

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Faith's Greatest Enemies

on cassette tapes and videotapes through the mail. With

the revolution of home computers, you can get all kinds of

information.

If God is the One talking about His people, and He

says, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, it is

obvious that the knowledge God is talking about is

knowledge about Him, knowledge about His Word, His way, and

His will.

Thank God there is a textbook that tells us all about

God. Your faith can never be strong if you are ignorant of

the Word of God. That means, if you want your faith to be

strong, you will have to do some studying, and become

knowledgeable about the Word.

Some might say, "But, Brother Price, you can't

understand the Bible." If we cannot understand the Bible,

then what did God give it to us for?

It is clear from what God says in Hosea 4:6 that He

does not want us destroyed. If it were God's will for us to

be destroyed, what destroys more than cancer? What

destroys more than sickness and disease? What destroys

more than poverty? Nothing.

Some people have the mistaken idea that sickness and

disease are the will of God, that sometimes God uses that

to perfect us: "Brother Price, God has some magnanimous

purpose in mind when He afflicts us with sickness and

disease. He is trying to make a better person out of us."

If that is true, then why would He tell me that I am

being destroyed for a lack of knowledge?

Once I find out that I am being destroyed for a lack of

knowledge, it will probably inspire me to gain some

knowledge, so that I will not be destroyed. If God is the

One Who is trying to whip up on me, He is doing Himself

a disservice by telling me how to get out from under His

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Ignorance of God's Word

whipping.

Rightly Dividing

2 Timothy 2:15:

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a

workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly

dividing the word of truth.

The fact that Paul says rightly dividing means that you

can wrongly divide if you do not study. The only reason

you use rightly is to distinguish from wrongly.

Paul says to study. Very few people study the Bible.

Many people just casually glance at it. There is a difference

between studying and reading. You can read something and

not even know what you have read.

When you study something, that means that you have

spent time with it. You have gone over it again and again.

You have made it a part of yourself, and it has become

yours. Why should we study? Not so we can show off to

our friends how spiritual we are, but to show ourselves to

God.

In other words, you want to show your Father that you

are attentive to His Word. You want Him to see your

homework completed. You want Him to see your "A's"

when you bring them home. You want your Father to take

time to sit down and listen to what you have learned in

school. That is what we should do, and that is what the

Father God wants.

"But, Brother Price, you just don't understand. There's

just not enough time." The reason there is not enough time

is that you put the study of the Bible last on your list of

things to do. There will not be enough time for anything

you put last on the list. That is when you are the most

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Faith's Greatest Enemies

tired.

You need to learn how to let the things of God be first.

Let the time run out on your eating! Leave those dishes all

night long—the Word of God is more important than

dishes. If you have to make a choice between the Word of

God and cleaning up the kitchen, let the kitchen stay a

mess. If you learn what the Word of God says and learn

how to operate in it, you will not have to worry about

your kitchen anyway, because you will become blessed

enough financially to hire somebody to clean the kitchen

for you.

Paul says, in 2 Timothy 2:15, ... a workman that

needeth not to be ashamed. That implies that there are

some workmen who will be ashamed. There are already

workmen who are ashamed, who are whipped and

defeated in life, and who do not have to be that way.

Again, if you study the Word, you will not be ashamed.

If you do not study the Word, you are going to be

ashamed and your enemy is going to make you even more

ashamed. He is going to put some pressure on your life.

Paul says to be a workman, not a vacationer, nor somebody

who is on strike or on sabbatical.

A Statement of Truth, or Just Truly Stated?

2 Timothy 3:16, 17:

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is

profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for

instruction in righteousness:

That the man of God may be perfect, throughly

furnished unto all good works.

Paul says that all Scripture, all of the Word of God, is

given by inspiration of God. It does not say that all

Scripture is inspired. There is a very important difference in

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Ignorance of God's Word

those two terms.

The word inspiration is a very interesting word. To

inspire means, literally, "to breathe into. "1 To expire means

"to breathe out. "2 To the best of my knowledge, when someone dies in a hospital, the director does not say in the

record that John Doe died at 2:35 A. M., but he says that

John Doe expired at 2:35 A. M. The man stopped moving. He

was not breathing anymore. Whatever that life force was

that kept him going, went out of him and never came back

in.

When we say that God inspires a man to write

something, it means He literally breathed those words into

that man. The man then wrote those words on some

paper. The thoughts are recorded, but those thoughts did

not come from the man. They came from God.

Remember what I said before: Paul says, All scripture

is given by inspiration of God. He does not say, All

scripture is inspired. The point I am making by emphasizing

this distinction is that everything in the Bible is not a statement

of truth. However, everything in the Bible is truly stated.

Let me give you an illustration: Let us say that you are

a stockholder at the annual meeting of the XYZ

Corporation, and I am the president of the company.

During the meeting, I make the following statement:

"Ladies and gentlemen, stockholders of the XYZ

Corporation, I want you to know that all fish that swim in

the sea are born with four legs apiece, and that all fish

walk on the ocean floor on all fours."

What I said in the stockholders' meeting is not a

statement of truth: Fish are not born with four legs. However,

it was truly stated, because I said it in the meeting and the

1

Webster's New World Dictionary, s. v. "inspire."

2

Ibid, "expire."

15

Faith's Greatest Enemies

secretary recorded it.

If you do not know the difference between what is

truly stated and what is a statement of truth, and how to

rightly divide it, you will take something that may be just

truly stated, out of the Bible and try to apply it to your life.

Satan will take the very thing you took out of the Bible,

wrap it around your neck, kill you and destroy everything

you have. There will be nothing God can do about it

because you don't know what the truth is in the Word—

you haven't rightly divided it by studying it—and you will

think you are doing right.

The Case of Job

What happened in the first chapter of the Book of Job

is a case in point. There are many things which happened

in that chapter, so I will give you a quick paraphrase

(based on Job 1:6-11 NIV, KJV), up to the point I want to

cover.

One day the angels of God, or the sons of God, came to

God to make a report in heaven, and Satan was in the

midst. God saw Satan and asked him, "Where have you

been?"

Satan said, "Well, I've been going to and fro

throughout the earth, seeking whom I may devour."

God asked, "Have you considered my servant Job?"

The devil said, "Oh, yeah. I've been watching him

closely. I've had my eyes on him a long time."

God said, "Yeah, but do you know that he's perfect and

upright, a man who avoids evil, and cleaves to that which

is right?"

Satan said, in essence, "Yeah, I know all that. But the

only reason he's doing all that good stuff is that you have a

16

Ignorance of God's Word

hedge built around him. You pull that hedge down, and

he will curse You to Your face." That was the challenge

Satan brought against God.

We Are Open to Satanic Attacks

Job 1:12:

And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold [or, look], all

that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not

forth thine hand....

Whether you realize it or not, everything in this world

that you own is within the power of Satan to destroy,

because we are living in a world that is controlled by

Satan. Surely you cannot be so naive as to believe that God

is the One Who is in control of the world, with the

starvation, war, rape, murder and other things going on in

it.

It is not up to God whether or not these things happen.

It is not God's responsibility. He put man in charge of this

world. He gave you a free will. If God was going to do it

for you, what do you need a free will for?

God built us a world and gave us control, and we have

screwed it up. That is the kindest thing that I can say.

Why? Because there is a malevolent spirit creature known

as Lucifer, or Satan, or the dragon, or the serpent, who

seeks to destroy the creation of God. He is called the god

of this world (2 Cor. 4:4) because Adam gave him that

authority when he (Adam) sinned.

That was why Jesus came—to take back the authority

of this world and give it back to the people of God. And

He did it—He gave it to us.

Jesus took back the authority of this

world and gave it to us.

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Faith's Greatest Enemies

Satan is still alive to control everything, but he does not

have any legal right to do so. He will not do it in your

individual life when you find out who the enemy is. When

you learn to live and operate in faith, learn what the

enemies to your faith are, and put your knowledge to

work continually, you will rise above the situations of life

and put the devil and all of his demon cohorts under your

feet.

And Job Said....

Let us get back to Job. God said to the devil, Behold,

all that he hath is in thy power. Satan went out and

brought all kinds of things against Job. If you read the

account, you will find out that Satan hit him with

everything he had. Job was a rich man. You name it, Job

had it. The enemy came against him, took all of his

animals, destroyed his crops, and finally killed all of his

kids. Job had nothing left in the natural.

Remember, we are talking about the fact that

everything in the Bible is truly stated, but everything in the

Bible is not a statement of truth.

Job 1:20, 21:

Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved

his head, and fell down upon the ground, and

worshipped,

And said, Naked came I out of my mother's

womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord

gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be

the name of the Lord.

... the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away... is

not a statement of truth! It is truly stated because Job said it,

but it is not a statement of truth. If you look at the story,

you will see that God did not take those things away from

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Ignorance of God's Word

Job—Satan did. Also, Paul says in Romans 11:29 that the

gifts of God are without repentance. God is a giver. He does

not take.

You may say, "Yeah, Brother Price, but God let the

devil do it. God permitted the devil to do it." That is

absolutely true.

If Job allowed it, God had to permit it. God gave Job,

and us, a free will, so it was not up to God. When bad

things started happening to Job, he allowed them to

continue by believing and speaking that it was God Who

caused the bad things to happen instead of the devil. It

was up to Job then, and it is up to you now.

We have a free will, and we have the instruments of

God, in terms of His Word. If we do not know how to use

these tools, we are going to be victimized. Let me give you

the classic example of this.

Did God let Adam sin in the garden of Eden, and

plunge this whole world into sin? He most certainly let

him do it. If God did not let Adam do it, and Adam did it

against the will of God, that means that Adam was

stronger than God.

Sure, God let Adam sin, but beforehand, He told him,

"Don't do it. The day you do it, you will surely die." Adam

had a choice. He could do right, or he could do wrong, and

there was nothing God could do about it without violating

Adam's free will. The moment you violate a man's free

will, that man ceases to be an intelligent, accountable being.

He becomes an automaton, a robot, and he is not

responsible for his actions.

Job said, The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken

away; blessed be the name of the Lord. How many times

have you heard a preacher use that in a sermon at a

funeral? The preacher was quoting from the Bible, people

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Faith's Greatest Enemies

thought, so it must be true— they thought.

Those people have not studied to rightly divide the

Word of truth, and they have not seen the difference

between a statement of truth and a statement which is

truly stated. As a result, they have been cheated through

the years out of all kinds of things. They thought it was the

will of God because God allowed it to happen.

The Thing Which I Have Greatly Feared

Let me show you how all this mess came on Job, how

Satan got the advantage over him, and how he can get the

advantage over you if you are not careful.

In Job 3:25, Job says, For the thing which I greatly

feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is

come unto me.

Job brought it on himself, running off at the mouth

about how scared he was! Today people say, "Honey, you

ain't never going to get me on an airplane. God may kill

the pilot and kill me, too." The best thing for you to do is

stay on the ground, if you say things like that. With that

kind of confession, and that kind of believing, you are going

to be in an airplane crash. You are going to bring that upon

yourself.

Job 42:10:

And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he

prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as

much as he had before.

What is God, some kind of game player? Does He give

you something, then take it away from you, then give it

back to you again? That does not make sense.

As we said before, God does not do that. He does not

take back what He gives.

20

Ignorance of God's Word

All scripture is given by inspiration of God. God

inspired the story of Job to be written so that we could

learn from it. We need to be very careful that we learn the

right lessons. There is such a thing as learning the wrong

lesson from a situation. We need to be very careful that we

learn the right lesson, not the wrong one.

Searching the Word Daily

Acts 17:11:

These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in

that they received the word with all readiness of mind,

and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things

were so.

Why did they not just take the word of the preacher? I

am not saying that the preacher was lying. He is human

like you and I are, and he may make a mistake that can

cost you your life. If you are not watching and checking to

find out what the Word says, you could be up the creek in

a boat with no oars!

It is your responsibility to search the Scriptures. Going to

some church or Bible study group that teaches the Bible

verse-by-verse and chapter-by-chapter does not exonerate

you from the personal responsibility of searching the

Scriptures for yourself. You may hear something that

sounds right, but which may be totally unscriptural.

Before I came into the knowledge of the things of God,

I used to hear and believe many things simply because my

church believed them. Our denomination believed it, the

denomination was there before I arrived, so I figured the

denomination was right.

We used to make fun of people who spoke with

tongues, the people who called themselves "holiness

people." The ministers made fun of them, and I went right

21

Faith's Greatest Enemies

along with it. I figured my minister was right. After all, he

was my pastor, so he had to be right. I mean, all preachers

are right, are they not? We just laughed them to scorn—all

because we were ignorant.

James 5:10-14:

Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in

the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering

affliction, and of patience.

Behold, we count them happy which endure.

Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the

end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of

tender mercy.

But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither

by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other

oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye

fall into condemnation.

Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry?

let him sing psalms.

Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of

the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him

with oil in the name of the Lord.

There are several churches in which they never anoint

anyone with oil, and many people in those churches die.

There are multitudes more who are sick and love God, but

never get healed. "Yeah, but Brother Price, we don't

believe in that in this church." They do in the church of the

Lord Jesus Christ—maybe you are not in it. If you are in it,

you had better believe it.

If you do not believe it, you are in sin because you are

in disobedience, and disobedience is sin.

James 5:15:

And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the

Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins,

they shall be forgiven him.

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Ignorance of God's Word

We never prayed the prayer of faith in the churches I

used to be in. We used to pray, "Lord, if it be Thy will..."

That is the prayer of doubt when it is used in that context.

If you knew what the will of God was, why would you say

"if"? "If" is an indication of doubt, is it not? That is why

most of the people we prayed for died.

It is horrible. It is pitiful. It is pathetic, and I am sounding the alarm so that more people will not die like that. God

does not want them to die.

... and the Lord shall raise him up.... When does James

say the Lord shall raise him up? When they call for the elders

of the Church and pray the prayer of faith and anoint with

oil—then and only then can God get involved.

.. and the Lord shall.... It does not say, and the Lord

might. It does not even say if it be the Lord's will. It made a

definite statement that the prayer of faith shall save the

sick, then these glorious words: ... and the Lord shall raise

him up.

What do you think those particular words are saying?

Remember, the person was sick in the first place. That was

why they had to call for the elders, pray over him and

anoint him with oil. If the Lord will raise him up, what

does that mean, relative to his being sick in the first place?

He will not be sick any more—he will be healed of that

sickness.

Here is the point I was making. This passage of

Scripture is in the Bible, and whether you know it or

believe it or not, it is in the Bibles used in every

denomination. The same verse is in each Bible, and all this

time people still have been dying.

Faith for anything—negative or positive

—comes by hearing.

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Romans 10:17:

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the

word of God.

Whether it is in the natural or in the spiritual, faith for

anything comes by hearing. That is why you need to be

very careful about what you hear, where you go to church,

what kind of religious radio broadcast you listen to, and

what kind of religious television show you watch. It will

affect your faith, either positively or negatively. Sometimes it is

better not to go to church until you can find someplace

where you can hear the Word of God, because what you

hear is going to affect your faith.

Maybe you have not been able to believe that God

would heal you, for instance, simply because of what you

have heard. Maybe you have been missing out on the

power of God, and have never accepted the gift of the

Holy Spirit because you have been scared of tongues.

Maybe you have been scared of tongues because you

heard somebody standing behind the pulpit say that

speaking with tongues is of the devil. If that is the case,

you have been cheated and deprived of one of the richest,

most beautiful ways to edify yourself that God ever

created.

Faith in not believing in tongues came by hearing. You did

not read it in the Bible, and the Bible does not say that

speaking with other tongues is of the devil. Uninformed

preachers say it.

We need instruction. We need to be taught. The greatest

lack in the Church today is a lack of teaching about God's

Word.

Put "Searching the Scriptures" First

Jesus says, in John 5:39, Search the scriptures; for in

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Ignorance of God's Word

them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they

which testify of me. Whether you realize it or not, the

Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is a Book about Jesus

Christ. Everything in the Bible points to Jesus. He is the

focal point, the apex of all biblical information.

Jesus says, Search the scriptures. When you are

searching the Scriptures, it takes time and effort.

Have you ever misplaced something in your house,

and turned everything in your house upside-down to try

to find it? That is exactly what Jesus is telling us about the

Bible, and most people are too lazy to do that.

This is your Master talking in this verse. This is the

Person Who bought and paid for you, Who loves you

unconditionally. This is the Man Who has been

interceding for us for the last 2, 000 years, and He says,

Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have

eternal life: and they [the Scriptures that you are

supposed to be searching] are they which testify of me.

If you want to know about Jesus, you are going to have

to read the Bible. People are waiting for some kind of

vision to appear, for some kind of dream to occur, so that

they can know Jesus. You can know Him by knowing the

Word.

Put God first! "But I just don't have enough time... "

That is where you make your mistake. You do everything

else first, so you never get around to it—and Satan will

make sure that you never get around to it.

You do have time if you plan your day and then work

your plan. But it is an effort. How valuable is it to you?

How valuable is a full paycheck to you every week?

You, or your spouse, if you are married—or maybe

both of you—may be putting in 40 hours a week on a job

because you need the money. I have news for you. You

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need the knowledge about Jesus Christ more than you

need that paycheck. The company you work for can go out

of business. What are you going to do then?

God will never go out of business.

The Sword—The Word—Your Weapon

Ephesians 6:13-17:

Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God,

that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and

having done all, to stand.

Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with

truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel

of peace;

Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye

shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the

wicked.

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the

Spirit, which is the word of God.

The reason it is so important to study is that the Word of

God is the only weapon you have. We have the name of Jesus,

but the name of Jesus works in line with the Word of God.

You don't just walk around saying, "In Jesus' name." You

have to say something in Jesus' name. When you stand on

the Word of God and make a declaration based on what is

written in the Word in Jesus' name, it carries power.

If you look once more at Ephesians 6:13-17, you will

notice that the sword of the Spirit is the only piece of

armor listed in that catalog that is for offensive purposes.

Everything else is for defensive work, to guard you as the

enemy comes at you.

The sword is what you use against the enemy—and

notice what the Holy Spirit says the sword of the Spirit is.

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Ignorance of God's Word

He says, .... the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of

God.

God's Word is your weapon. How do you use it?

It Is Written

Matthew 4:1:

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness

to be tempted of the devil.

Whether you realize it or not, the devil is the tempter,

not God. The reason I say it, is that some people who may

be reading this book may be from different types of

denominations and persuasions that do not believe in a

personal devil. Matthew says very clearly that Jesus was

led up to be tempted of the devil. How can Jesus be

tempted by someone who does not exist?

Matthew 4:2, 3:

And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights,

he was afterward an hungred.

And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be

the Son of God....

This is the same ploy that Satan used with Adam. Hath

God said?... Hath God said? If the devil can get you to

question God's Word, you immediately enter into the realm

of doubt and unbelief. The moment you do that, you are

completely vulnerable.

Do what the Word says. God has reasons for telling

you what to do. He wants to keep you from getting

messed up. It is not fun sneaking around somewhere trying

to find someplace to park your car and do your thing in

the back seat with somebody. Fun is walking into the

bedroom to your wife or husband and saying, "Honey, I'm

ready." That is fun, but the devil will tempt you. Do not

yield to that temptation!

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Faith's Greatest Enemies

Matthew 4:3, 4:

And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be

the Son of God, command that these stones be made

bread.

But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not

live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth

out of the mouth of God.

Jesus took that double-edged sword of the Spirit,

pulled it out of its sheath by saying, It is written.... He ran

that blade into the devil's belly, and look what happened

as a result of it.

Matthew 4:5, 6:

Then the devil taketh Him up into the holy city, and

setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith

unto him....

Notice how fast the devil got off of the subject of rocks

and bread when Jesus put that sword in his gut. He did

not argue. He changed the subject swiftly.

The Devil Quotes Scripture

Matthew 4:6:

And [the devil] saith unto him, If thou be the Son of

God, cast thyself down: for it is written....

Here is the devil quoting scripture. We have an enemy,

Satan, who knows and quotes the Bible. He does not

understand the revelation of the Word of God, but he

knows chapters and verses. How can you possibly win?

Can you see now why so many Christians are

defeated? Think about Christians who go to churches

where the preacher and the congregation do not use the

Bible. How can they possibly know God's Word if they

don't use the Bible?

It is God Who told you, Study to shew thyself

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Ignorance of God's Word

approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be

ashamed. If you do not study, there is nothing God can

do: He provided the Book so that you can study it. If you

do not study it, you will go down the tubes, and you

cannot blame God. It is not up to God. It is up to you.

Matthew 4:6, 7:

And [Satan] saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God,

cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his

angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they

shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot

against a stone.

Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not

tempt the Lord thy God.

Notice that each time Satan tried to tempt Him, Jesus

simply stated what was written. He did not argue, debate

or reason. He simply said, It is written again....

Learn the Difference Between Tempting God

and Proving God

The devil was taking the Scripture he quoted out of

context. He took it out of its setting to use against Jesus. If

Jesus had thrown himself off the temple, He would have

been tempting God.

One example of how you can tempt God is to go out in

a boat, and in the middle of the water, you decide to jump

off the boat— knowing you cannot swim. Then you say,

"Lord, save me. It's written in your Word." That kind of

action will get you drowned fast.

Another example is to go down to the furniture store,

buy a houseful of furniture when you do not even have

money to make the payments, and say, "Lord, you pay for

it. You said you'd supply all my need according to Your

riches in glory by Christ Jesus. I have a need here, Lord—a

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Faith's Greatest Enemies

whole houseful of furniture that needs to be paid for."

God will not touch that with a 10-foot pole!

Satan will try to get you to test God's Word. There is a

subtle, but very important difference between testing God's

Word and proving God's Word. Proving God's Word is

when you want to show that it is true. You have some idea

what the result will be, because you are taking the Word at

face value, but you want those results to manifest in your

life and circumstances.

Testing God's Word, on the other hand, is when you do

not know whether or not it will work, and you go in with

an attitude of, "Well, maybe it's fish and maybe it's foul,

maybe it's something and maybe it ain't." You should not

test God, because God does not need to be tested. He is

absolute!

Matthew 4:8-11:

Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceedingly

high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of

the world, and the glory of them;

And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if

thou wilt fall down and worship me.

Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it

is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and

him only shalt thou serve.

Then the devil leaveth him....

You use the sword of the Spirit by speaking the Word of

God. Notice that in each of these three encounters, all Jesus

did was to say what was written.

You cannot say what is written if you have not read it,

and you cannot say what is written if you have not

committed it to memory. You cannot read the Bible and drive

your car at the same time, or read the Bible and operate a

machine at your job. You are playing the fool if you do

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Ignorance of God's Word

that.

You had better have the Word of God in you and,

when a situation arises, let that Word out of your mouth

and say, "It is written...."

Do You Err?

There is one other verse of Scripture we want to look at

before going on to the second of faith's greatest enemies,

but first, let me give you some background.

A situation occurred that some of the religious leaders

wanted to use to discredit Jesus, because they did not

believe in Him. At this point in His ministry, Jesus had a

lot of popularity. He was raising the dead, healing the sick

and opening the eyes of the blind, and people were

flocking to Him by the droves. Many persons were leaving

the synagogues and the religious establishment because

those things were dead. Nothing was happening in those

places.

Of course, the religious leaders became very envious of

Jesus. They made false charges against Jesus, and they

tried to trick Jesus through the Word of God. They wanted

to see if He would really answer according to the Bible.

They asked Jesus, "Moses and the law says that if a

man marries a woman and then doesn't have any children

by the time he dies, his brother is supposed to take his

wife, and they are supposed to bear children under his

name.”

"We had a situation where one brother died and he

and his wife didn't have any children. One of his brothers

took over and didn't have any children. He died, another

brother took over, and the woman did not have any

children by that brother, either. All seven brothers had

her. They all died, and then finally the woman died, also.

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Faith's Greatest Enemies

Now tell us, in the resurrection, whose wife will she be,

because seven of them had her?"

Here is what Jesus said.

Matthew 22:29:

Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not

knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.

This is where Christians mess up. How did He say, Ye

do err? By not knowing the Scriptures. That is exactly apropos

to us today. If you are too busy to take God into your

accounting, you are much too busy for life. It means that

you are not trusting God—you are trusting your own efforts.

If you were trusting God, you would not do all the

things you may be doing now to keep your head above the

water. You would let God promote you. You would allow

Him in on all matters of your life.

You have to learn to trust God. But to know what to

trust Him for, you have to know what He says about you,

about your relationship with Him, and what He has given

you through Christ Jesus.

You can guess about all these things, and you may or

may not guess correctly. You can trust the preacher, but he

is human, and he can mess up as easily as anyone else. The

only way you can know for sure is to learn it—study it for

yourself every day—from the Word of God.

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2

Not Acting Like God's Word Is True

2

Enemy number two is this: failing to act like God's Word is

true. What do I mean by that? Just what I said. You say you

believe the Bible "Oh, yes, Brother Price, hallelujah, glory

to God." You believe the Bible is the Word of God? "Oh,

yes. I believe it from Genesis to Revelation." In other

words, if God says it, you believe it? "Oh, yes, if God says

it, I believe it, and that settles it."

The reason I am making a point of this is that I want to

show you how people can be sincere—sincerely wrong—

and be destroyed, even though they may intend to do

what is right.

Here is what I mean by failing to act like the Word is true.

You say you believe the Bible. That means that you are a

doer of the Word, and not a hearer only. (James 1:25) If you

believe it and then do not do it, that looks like you do not

believe it, does it not?

If you say you believe God, that means you believe His

Word, because God and His Word are one. You cannot

believe God and not believe the Bible, and you cannot

believe the Bible and not believe God. The same principle

holds true for anyone else you come in contact with. If I

tell you something and you believe me, that means that

you also believe my word, because I and my word are one.

If you believe God's Word, you should then have no

hesitation to also do what His Word says to do. Believing

everything God says in His Word about you and your

circumstances includes acting on that Word, just like you

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Faith's Greatest Enemies

would act on the word of anyone else you believe.

There are conditions in God's Word.

Mark 11:24:

Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire,

when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye

shall have them.

Every contract has fine print in it, and fine print means

conditions. In other words, there is a part in the contract

that says that if you do your part, the company will do its

part, or vice verse.

There are conditions in God's Word. Many Christians

read over the conditions. They read the Word of God, but

they never read the conditions. Do you know James 4:7 by

memory? Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the

devil, and he will flee from you.

Most Christians do not know all of that verse.

Whenever they quote it, they say, Resist the devil, and he

will flee from you. However, if you do not submit yourself to

God, you can resist the devil all night and all day, and he

will never flee because you are not meeting the condition.

Mark 11:24 also has a condition. When would when ye

pray take place—in point of time? Whenever you pray has

to be now—present tense. If I pray right now, in this

present moment of time, the time in which I am praying

will not be Easter, 1999. It will be now.

Here is the point. Jesus says, Therefore I say unto you,

What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye

receive them.... He does not say, Feel like you receive them. He

does not say, See that you receive them. He does not say,

Understand that you receive them. He simply says, Believe it. If

you believe the Bible, you will then act like what it says is

true, including what it says in Mark 11:24.

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Not Acting Like God's Word Is True

Also, if you believe you received what you asked God

for, that means you do not physically have it yet. Do you

believe that you are reading this book right now? If you

say, "Yes," you are missing the point. Once you see

something, you do not have to believe it.

Let us take the next step. Therefore I say unto you,

What things soever ye desire, when ye pray.... Your desire is

to be released when you pray. Not after you pray, but when

you pray, which would be now.

Any time you pray has to be now. You are never in the

process of actually, physically doing something in the

future, or in the past. You never stand in the shower with

the water running and say, "I am going to take a shower in

five minutes." You are taking that shower at the moment

the water is running—in the present, now. Praying—and

believing when you pray—works the same way.

... when ye pray, believe that ye receive them [the

things that you desire], and ye shall have them. When are

we going to have those things? It is so simple that people

stumble over it. You are going to have them after you pray and

believe that you receive them. Only after that are you going to

have them.

You will not have those things when you pray.

Otherwise, you would not have to shall have them later...

shall have them is future tense, but the future is predicated on

the present. The future will never come to pass until after

the present has come to pass—and the present is that you

have to believe that you receive them when you pray.

How long after do we have to wait? Jesus does not say.

It could be one second after you pray, or one year after

you pray. The important part is that you have to believe

that you receive first, before the shall have can ever occur.

Sure, it is a technicality. Is it technical if your doctor

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Faith's Greatest Enemies

misdiagnoses your condition and cuts your breath off?

You bet!

One little miscalculation can mean the difference

between success and failure, sometimes between life and

death. When we were sending astronauts to the moon,

mission control could not have launched a rocket even one

centimeter off the course. Take one centimeter and multiply

it by the 250,000 miles between the earth and the moon,

and those guys would have been in another solar system!

It is just a little thing, but it can compound into a big thing.

It may be a technicality like that which is keeping your

prayers from being answered.

Ye Shall Receive—If Ye Believed

Here is another question. What did Jesus say that you

would have? Notice what the verse says: Therefore I say

unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray,

believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

You will have only what you believed you received when you

prayed! If you did not believe that you received anything,

you are not going to have anything manifested later.

I have had people remonstrate with me, and tell me,

"Brother Price, I did everything Mark 11:24 said to do, and

it didn't work." I would respond by saying, "Stop. Do you

realize what you have just said? You have made a

statement that is a bomb—a hydrogen, atomic, cobalt

bomb rolled up into one package!"

If you were asking in line with God's will (which you

would be doing if you had rightly divided the word of

truth by studying it), do you realize what you say when

you say, "I did that and it didn't work"? The only

alternative you leave open is that Jesus lied to you. If He

did that, we are in trouble, because He may have lied to us

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Not Acting Like God's Word Is True

about all the rest of the things He said. He may have even

lied to us about our salvation.

But Jesus does not lie! The Bible says that it is impossible

for Jesus to lie. In fact, Jesus is called the way, the truth,

and the life in John 14:6, not the way, the lie, and the life. If

you did not receive what you asked for, you did not do

everything He said to do.

"Yeah, but I did, Brother Price. I did exactly what the

Lord said." No, you did not. You thought you did. That is

where people have made a mistake—they thought they

did what the Lord said, and they intended to do it, but

they did not.

Let me prove it to you. Here is the way you can always

tell whether you believed you received what you asked

for. If you did what Jesus said—which in this case is, when

you prayed, you believed you received—then you will never ask

for that thing in prayer again. If you ask for it a second time,

that is saying that you did not get it the first time. If you

got it the first time, there would be no need to pray for it a

second time, would there?

When I saw this truth, I suddenly realized why, for 17

years, I never really received anything I prayed for. In that

17-year-period, I never believed that I received when I

prayed. When I prayed, I was hoping that God heard me.

In fact, to show you what little confidence I had in

what I had prayed, I kept praying the same prayer day

after day, time after time.

I went back years later and looked at the fact that I

would ask for something 9, 000 times, and it seemed like

what I thought I was doing was wearing God out. You

know what I mean—just keep on asking and bugging and

badgering Him, with the thought that He would capitulate

like a parent would capitulate to a child and give him

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Faith's Greatest Enemies

what he is asking for.

God does not work that way.

If I have prayed and believed that I have received, I

have to act like it is true, and that what the Word says is

true. I will have to say, "I believe that I have received." "I

believe my need is met." "I believe that I am healed." "I

believe that the bill is paid."

I have to say that and act like that is true, even when it

is not physically manifested. Saying it, confessing it,

staying with it and standing on it causes it to come to pass.

That is when faith is faith. It is when I am acting like the

Word is true.

After your initial prayer of claiming what you desire,

the only prayer you should pray relative to the item would

be a prayer of thanksgiving. It would be simply saying,

"Father, I thank You. I believe that I have received my

need met on Monday (this is Friday). I believe that I have

received it."

You should not believe that you are going to receive,

because that is future tense. You have to keep it in the

present tense. Jesus says, When you pray, not After you pray.

When you pray is present tense.

If you are trusting God, what are you

worrying about?

There are many Christians who would never drink a

beer, because they would consider it a sin. Many

Christians consider smoking to be a sin. Others think of

cursing as a sin. Very few of these people would think of

worry as a sin, yet worry is more of a sin than cursing.

Do not get me wrong. Cursing is wrong, but worry is

the worst sin that you can commit. Worry is unbelief. It is a

lack of faith, and the Bible says that anything that is not of

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Not Acting Like God's Word Is True

faith is sin. (Rom. 14:23. )

If you are trusting God, what are you worrying about?

You have to have that kind of attitude if you are going

to trust God and act like His Word is true.

1 Peter 5:7:

Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

Most Christians worry all the time. Before I found out

this truth, I thought it was normal to worry. That is the

mentality Christians have fallen into without even

realizing the consequences of it. There are even people—

Christians—who would prefer that you worry about them

rather than for you to lay hands on them and say, "Be

healed in Jesus' name," and then walk off. They would

prefer that you sit around, worry and cry. To them, that

means you really care.

If you continue to worry, you did not cast all your care

on God—and he will not touch it until you give Him the

whole thing.

Worry When Your Child Stays Out Late?

One night, one of my kids went out and did not come

home until some unearthly hour. My wife happened to be

up doing something else and realized that the child was

not home yet, so she said, "What in the world is this child

doing? I think I'm just going to stay up until the child

comes home, then jump the child about it." When I say

"jump the child," I mean to startle her by being up waiting

for her.

Three o'clock in the morning came, and the child was

not home yet.

I had gone to bed around eleven p.m. I said, "I am

getting a good night's sleep tonight." I put a tape of the

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Faith's Greatest Enemies

Word on and went off into dreamland. It was the kind of

sleep that is so good that you can taste it.

All of a sudden, I heard my wife say, "Wake up! Wake

up!" I jumped straight out of bed!

Have you ever had a situation where you have been

driving along and maybe a child or a dog darts out in

front of you from between two parked cars? You stand on

the brakes to keep from hitting him, something grabs you

in the stomach, and for a while after that, your stomach is

still in a knot because the situation startled you so much.

That is what happened with me when my wife woke me.

I was wide awake now. I asked my wife, "What's

wrong? What's the matter?" She said, "The child is not

home yet. What should I do? Should I call the police?"

I said, "The child's not home. What am I going to do

about it?" "Yeah, but suppose the child got into

something?" my wife said.

"Then they are already in it," I said. "What can I do

about it? My staying awake all night is not going to

change it. God is already awake on the thing. I've already

put God on everything that happens in our family, so

there's no point in both of us staying awake. I've got the

angels on them."

She said, "Suppose they do some crazy dumb thing?"

I knew they could do that, but I said to my wife,

"Nothing permanent can happen to them, because I have

them covered with my faith. My God, I'm up using my

faith, believing God, and you're sitting here worrying."

She said, "Well, I'm not really worried... "

"Yes you are," I said. "You woke me up. Don't wake me

up any more like that. I am not going to worry about it."

I had trouble going to sleep after that, because Satan

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Not Acting Like God's Word Is True

began to assault my mind. It is my child out there, and I

am certainly concerned about my children. Right away, all

the crazy, dumb thoughts from the devil came flooding

into my mind. "Well, suppose this. Suppose that. Suppose

somebody got a hold of them. Suppose they had a wreck,

or suppose this... "

I had to stand on the fact that if God had wanted me to

know where the child was, He would have given me a

word of knowledge, or the Holy Ghost would have given

me the witness on the inside of me. Apparently, the

situation was not that serious, because God did not tell me

about it. The child was wrong for being out that late, but I

would deal with that the next day.

How to Cast Your Cares Upon Him

I was teaching on faith's greatest enemies at a seminar

one time, so I used First Peter 5:7 and talked about how we

are supposed to cast all our cares upon God. When I

finished my class, I gave opportunity for questions and

answers, and a lady asked me a question that I did not

expect.

She said, "Brother Price, I understand what you're

saying, in terms of our need to cast our care on the Lord. I

understand that. But now, Brother Price, tell me how I am

supposed to do that. How am I supposed to cast my

husband on the Lord? He's six-foot-three and weighs 235

pounds. I can't even pick him up. How do I cast him on

the Lord?"

That was a good question. It is one thing to say, "Cast

all your cares on the Lord," but how do you actually do it?

How do you cast your husband or wife on the Lord. How

do you cast your children on the Lord, or your job, or that

manager who has been harassing you, or your finances?

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Faith's Greatest Enemies

When she asked me that question, I did not know how

to answer. I was standing there, saying in my spirit,

"You've got to give me the answer, Lord. I know the truth

here, and I know it is right, but how do I tell this lady?"

Just that fast, the illumination came. Thank God for being

filled with the Holy Spirit.

This is what God showed me. I said to the lady, "I'll tell

you what, sister, when you go home this afternoon, get an

8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper and sit down at your table

somewhere and write this: At the top of the page, make a

heading, a statement that will say, "My Cares," "My

Burdens," "My Worries"—in other words, all the things

that you are concerned about. Then start listing all those

things. You may need two sheets, or even a 500-page

notebook, but list all of your cares.

"When you have listed all of your cares, rise from your

desk or writing table, take that list and walk over to the

wastepaper basket. Stand over the basket and say, 'Lord,

these are my cares. This represents all of my care—my

children, my husband, and so on. These are all of my

cares.

"'Now, Lord, you told me to cast these on you, because

you care for me. But Lord, I can't really see You, and I can't

really pick up my 235-pound, six-foot-three husband. But

this piece of paper represents all of my cares, just like what

is recorded in the Bible represents Your Word out of your

mouth.

"'I know that there are enemies to my faith, and failing

to act like your Word is true is an enemy to faith, so I'm

taking a step of faith and I'm going to act on your Word.

Lord, here are my cares, everything I'm concerned with.'"

I told this lady, "Ball up that piece of paper. Stand over

that wastepaper basket and say, 'I don't know where Your

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Not Acting Like God's Word Is True

hand is, but right now by faith, this piece of paper

represents all my cares, and this wastepaper basket

represents Your hand. I can see that basket, and I can see

this piece of paper, so Lord, right now, in the name of

Jesus, I cast my care on You. ' Then drop that paper right

into the wastepaper basket.

"When you have done that, what you are supposed to

do is this: Shake the dust off, and go right down the road

carefree."

Can you relate to that? When you do that all your care

is on that paper in the basket. Leave it there! If you leave it

there, guess what? That means you do not have it any

more. That makes you free.

Free people do not stay up all night wringing their

hands, worrying about how they are going to pay the bills.

They do not sit up all night worrying about husbands,

wives, kids or jobs. People who have cast their care on the

Lord do not have those cares any more. They can now

sleep all night. They have no troubling thoughts. Their

minds are clear, because they have no cares.

One of the things that people do is that they take their

burden to the Lord, pick it up, and take it back with them!

You can tell, because they still talk about it. They still

complain. They still worry. They still have sleepless

nights.

If you cast your cares on the Lord, you are totally free

from them. That is the way you have to act. If you do not

act that way, that is an enemy to your faith, and it will

destroy your faith.

God's will is in His Word.

1 John 5:14:

And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if

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Faith's Greatest Enemies

we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us.

What does confidence mean? "Assurance." When you

have confidence in somebody, you can trust him and

depend on him.

What does anything mean? "All.”

The churches I went to before I came to the knowledge

of the things of God never told me about praying

according to God's will. Not one time in 17 years as a

Christian did I ever pray according to God's will. No

wonder that I never got an answer.

I never had any idea that I had not received what I had

asked for, because I was not praying right. I was banking on

my sincerity. That is where many people make a mistake.

They think that God hears them because they are sincere.

Having your prayer work has nothing to do with

sincerity. It has to do with having the right key.

During that 17-year-period, I never realized the import

of First John 5:14. I read that verse, but I did not know that

it was supposed to work for me today.

Not only does it work for us today, but we are

supposed to have confidence in God to do what He says in

His Word. We are supposed to act like we can rely on

God, depend on Him, because John says, And this is the

confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything

according to his will, he heareth us.

1 John 5:15:

And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask,

we know that we have the petitions that we desired of

him.

For God to hear you is the same as for God to give it to

you. Did you know that? If God heard you, you have it. If

God did not hear you, you do not have it, and you will not

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Not Acting Like God's Word Is True

get it.

One of the churches that I belonged to left me with the

impression that I was not supposed to ask God for

anything. They said, in fact, that the way you were always

supposed to pray was, "Lord, if it be Thy will...."

They did not realize that "If it be Thy will" in that

context is a statement of unbelief. When you say, "If it be

Thy will," that means you do not know what His will is.

When I said, "If it be Thy will," it erased the whole prayer.

I was not praying in faith. I was praying in doubt.

If you are praying in doubt, your prayer will not work.

If I do not ask anything according to God's will, God

will not hear me. In other words, for God to hear me when

I pray, I have to ask according to His will.

Since God is the One Who made the rules, and God is

the One Who requires me to ask according to His will, He

obligates Himself to make His will available to me.

Otherwise, how can I ever have the confidence to depend

on the fact that God heard me, and then know that I have

the answer?

God's will is in His Word. In fact, it is called a testament.

When a person dies, if he or she does things right, that

person leaves a will, otherwise known as a last will and

testament. In the will are instructions for what to do with

the deceased's belongings.

I have news for you. The Bible is the last will and

testament of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it tells us what He

wants done with the things which belong to Him, which He

purchased with His own blood.

Jesus not only made out the will, but He left the will

with us. He died, then rose from the dead so that He could

be the executor of the will—in order to ensure that the will

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Faith's Greatest Enemies

was carried out exactly according to His dictates. To get

what is left to you, though, you are going to have to know

what the will says.

God says in Hosea 4:6, My people are destroyed for

lack of knowledge.... If you do not know what is in the

will, then you cannot know what belongs to you, what the

Man left you. If you want God's blessings in your life, you

cannot afford to be ignorant of God's Word. Your

ignorance will allow the devil to destroy you.

By His Blood—Everything Is Ours

Jesus purchased everything in this world with His

blood. This whole world legally belongs to Him. All the

gold, all the silver, all the pearls, diamonds, rubies, every

clod of dirt belongs to Jesus. Adam gave it to the devil, but

Jesus redeemed it out of the devil's pawn shop, and it

belongs to us now.

To make sure that nobody else would be tricked into

giving this world away again, God put it in trust on our

behalf. The only way you can get what you want out of the

trust fund is through the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

John 16:23

And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily,

I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in

my name, he will give it you.

The Word says that all our needs are met according to

His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. We can do all things

through Christ, who strengthens us. We are above and not

beneath, the head and not the tail. We are blessed going

out and blessed coming in. Everything that we set our

hands to shall prosper, because we are like trees planted

by rivers of water, that bring forth their fruit in due

season. (Phil. 4:19, 13; Deut. 28:13, 6, 8; Ps. 1:3)

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Not Acting Like God's Word Is True

The Word of God also says that we are more than

conquerors through Him Who loves us, and that the angels of the

Lord encamp around those who reverence Him. (Rom. 8:37; Ps.

34:7. ) We do not have to worry about going down some

dark street thinking that someone is going to jump out and

mug us. We have a deterrent with us—the angels of the

Lord.

To get those things, as well as everything else that God

has promised us in His Word, we have to ask the Father in

faith, and in Jesus' name, then act like we believe that we

receive it.

Every Christian should make it their

business to know God's will.

1 John 5:14, 15:

And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if

we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:

And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask,

we know that we have the petitions that we desired of

him.

Have you ever had anyone say to you, "Pray for me. I

prayed last night, and I just hope the Lord heard my

prayer"?

I know He heard me when I prayed. No doubt about it.

"Oh, Brother Price, I'd never say that."

That is because you do not know what God says His

will is. I have made it my business to know God's will.

That should be the business of every Christian.

Why do I have to think about whether God heard me

or not? If I pray according to His will, I know He heard

me. God told me that He heard me, and the Bible says,

God is not a man, that he should lie. (Num. 23:19)

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Faith's Greatest Enemies

If you believe that, you should not have to think about

whether or not He heard you. Once you get that down into

your spirit and act accordingly, you should never have

another doubt about that.

Not By Feelings, but By Faith

Notice what is not said in 1 John 5:14: It does not say,

And if we ask any thing according to his will, and we have a

good feeling about it, God hears us. It does not say, And if we

ask any thing according to his will, and we are sincere, God

hears us. It simply says that if we ask anything according to

his will He hears us.

There was a time when I worked myself to an

emotional pitch when I prayed. The tears were flowing,

my heart was palpitating just right, and my adrenaline

was flowing. I would say, "Oh, Lord, just have mercy on

me. I'm so unworthy. I don't deserve these blessings, but

God, have mercy on me." I am not making fun of that, but

that was how I prayed.

That is praying by emotion, praying by fear. It is not praying

according to the will of God. You will not receive a thing

praying that way, because praying according to God's will

is the fine print that you have to follow in the contract for

God to do His part.

What I do now is pray the Word. The Bible says that God

confirms his Word with signs following. (Mark 16:20. ) So I

make it a rule to go to the Bible, when I have a need, and

find Scripture to support my request. I then pray the

Word, and I get everything I pray for. It does not matter

how I feel.

I know that when I say, ". . in Jesus' name, Amen," my

prayer is heard and the answer is on the way.

And... we know that we have the petitions that we

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Not Acting Like God's Word Is True

desired of him. That verse does not say that we shall have

them some day in the distant future, in God's own good

time. It does not say that we shall have them if God can

get around to them in His busy schedule. It says that if we

know that he hears us, we have what we ask for.

How do we have it? We have it by faith, and faith is... the

evidence of things not seen (Heb. 11:1). Faith is based on the

Word of God.

Faith is "Saying"... and "Acting"

There are two ways that we express our faith. The

primary way is with the words of our mouth. The

secondary way is with a physical action which is

consistent with what we say with our mouth, at least to

the extent that we can do it.

A person can be in a wheelchair, paralyzed. If he could

get up and walk, he would not be in a wheelchair. What

does he do? He can say, "I believe that I am healed," then

follow that by some physical activity, some action that is

consistent with what he said. Maybe he can only move the

big toe on his right foot, but that is all he has to do.

When that person looks down and sees that toe

moving, all he has to do is say, "I believe I am healed."

That is his act of faith. No matter how limited it may be, it

is still an act of faith.

Philippians 4:19:

But my God shall supply all your need according to his

riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

People generally work to provide their needs and

desires—that is what working is all about. In this verse,

Paul says, My God shall supply all your need. God is our

Source for all our needs. If God is our Source, then what we

have to do is act like it is true, instead of whining and

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Faith's Greatest Enemies

complaining.

Do not misunderstand me. You are supposed to work,

and you should work. Paul says in Second Thessalonians

3:10 ... if any would not work, neither should he eat.

However, you should not think of your job as your Source.

It is simply one of the many channels through which God

can supply your need.

You have to create that kind of mentality within

yourself to act in faith according to the Word of God. You

have to say that you believe all your needs are met, and

keep saying it.

When you say it, you may be tempted to think that

you are lying. You are not. You are not saying that your

needs are met; you are saying that you believe that they are.

Just say, "I believe that my needs are met. God said, My

God shall supply all your need according to his riches in

glory by Christ Jesus.

At that point, you have two choices. You can believe it

or disbelieve it. If you believe it, that will be your

confession of faith. That confession releases your faith.

You then have to start acting like you believe it. That

means you cannot borrow money from everybody you see.

You cannot keep talking about how bad it is. See the need

met by faith, and keep confessing it. Confess the Word, act on

the Word, and God will supply every need and every

desire that is consistent with a godly life.

You have to mix God's Word with faith

for it to profit.

Hebrews 3:12-4:2:

Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil

heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day;

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lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness

of sin.

For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the

beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;

While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden

not your hearts, as in the provocation.

For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit

not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.

But with whom was he [God] grieved forty years? was

it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in

the wilderness?

And to whom sware he that they should not enter into

his rest, but to them that believed not?

So we see that they could not enter in because of

unbelief.

Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of

entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come

short of it.

For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto

them: but the word preached did not profit them, not

being mixed with faith in them that heard it.

The Israelites who were delivered from Egyptian

bondage were given the opportunity to pass into the land

that God had promised them. Because of unbelief, they

refused to take God at His Word, and they wandered

around in the Wilderness for 40 years—an area that could

normally be crossed in 21 days.

For unto us in Hebrews 4:2 is talking about us now, to

whom this new covenant is written. For unto us was the

gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word

preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith

in them that heard it.

That is the key. You have to mix God's Word with faith for

it to profit you.

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The hardest thing for me to deal with as a pastor is to

minister and teach the Word and, at the same time, watch

people not mix it with faith. I have to watch them go right

down the tubes while they are sitting in an environment

that could lift them above the circumstances. I wish I could

do the mixing for them, but I can't. They have to do the

mixing, and so do you.

The Mixing Bowl Is Your Mouth!

The mixing bowl in this case is your mouth, and the

beater blade is your tongue. You mix the Word with faith

by speaking the Word. That is the reason why you have to

say it. Every time you say it, you keep mixing it.

There are certain ingredients that you have to mix for a

long time to blend them down to a nice, fine, smooth

substance. Otherwise, the mixture will be very grainy,

with lumps and other things in it.

Faith works the same way. You may have to say the

Word 900 times, just like a beater blade may have to turn

900 times to make the consistency of what it is mixing

smooth, but when the Word is mixed consistently, it will

work for you just as consistently.

When you see a cement truck going down the street,

usually the part of the truck that is carrying the concrete is

always turning. If it is not turning, either there is nothing

in it or something is wrong. That is because the concrete

the trucks carry is called "transit mix." It is being mixed in

transit, from where the truck loaded up with water, rock

and sand to the place where they are going to pour it out.

That is the way you should be with the Word of God

in your life. You should always be mixing it, by saying it

and acting on it like it is true. If you fail to act like the

Word is true, it will destroy your faith.

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3

Concentration on Sense Knowledge

3

Evidence

Enemy number three is this: concentration on sense

knowledge evidence. "Sense knowledge evidence" is evidence that

comes to you through your senses. It is something you see

with your eyes, hear with your ears, smell with your nose,

taste with your tongue, or touch with your hand.

Feelings have nothing to do with anything relative to

God. That does not mean that you are not allowed to have

any feelings, but getting mad is a different feeling than

being glad. You may have some feelings associated with

the things of God, but it is fallacious and dangerous to ever

judge or base anything solely on how you feel.

Many times, people do not remember that senses

change, emotions change, and everything that they can

experience with their five senses changes. Any time you

allow your senses to dictate to you where you are with

God, you have already lost the battle.

For example, someone may say, "I felt like the Lord

heard my prayer." I used to be like that. Most of the time, I

did not feel like He heard me, so I was always in doubt.

Now I do not have to think twice about it; I know God

hears me, because He tells me in His Word that He hears

me. What better thing is there to go on than God's Word?

Being caught up with what you experience through

your senses destroys many people's faith. They are looking

to the circumstances, not to God, and in the things of God,

you have to "fly by the instruments."

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Faith's Greatest Enemies

Airline pilots have to go through flight training, where

they learn to fly strictly by the instruments. The instructors

put the pilots inside simulators, and the pilots go through

simulations in which they cannot see where they are

going. They have to rely on those instruments.

Any pilot who goes through this training can tell you

that his first session in one of these simulations is weird.

He will tell you that the moment you cannot see anything,

you lose points of reference, and that it is a very peculiar

feeling.

Christians need to learn to "fly by the instruments."

The Bible is your instruction manual. It gives you all of

your readings, all of your settings. If you follow it, you

will never "crack up" in life.

"Seeing is believing" is not true in the things of God. It

is actually "believing is seeing," for the people of God.

Seen and Unseen Things

2 Corinthians 4:18:

While we look not at the things which are seen, but at

the things which are not seen: for the things which are

seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen

are eternal.

There are two kinds of things. One is referred to as

"seen things," and the other is referred to as "unseen

things." We are told by God not to look at the things which

are seen. That does not mean to deny that they exist, but to

simply ignore them. In terms of your actions, do not give

them any credit for influencing you.

Instead of looking at things which are seen, we should

look at things which are not seen. You may ask, "How can

you see what is not there, unless you are strung out on

drugs or something?" Just because it is not seen does not mean

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that it does not exist. It just means that you may have to

change your methodology to see it.

When Paul talks about unseen things, that means that

the thing must exist, or it would not be a thing. "Unseen"

means not seen only from the standpoint of the natural senses. If

you limit something to only the natural senses, you are

going to miss out on a lot, because you cannot contact God

with your senses. Jesus Himself says, God is a Spirit (John

4:24).

"Unseen things" are actually spiritual things, things that

exist in the spirit realm, and you "look at" and receive

them by using your faith. When you use your faith, in

essence, you transfer them from the spirit realm to the

physical realm, and they change from being "unseen

things" to things your five senses can experience.

Let me give you an illustration, and at the same time

prove a point. There are some people who say that certain

things, such as sickness and disease, do not exist. They say

that it is a matter of mind, that there is a problem with

your mind. They say that if you can adjust your mind and

your thinking, that the sickness you think you see,

physically will go away.

That is not true. If anyone should know whether that

idea is true or not, God should know. If there really is not

any such thing as sickness and disease, then why does

God say in First Peter 2:24 that by Christ's stripes we

were healed? Why does Matthew 8:17 say ... Himself

[Jesus] took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses?

Why does it say in Psalm 107:20 that He sent his Word,

and healed them... if there is nothing to be healed of?

Sickness and disease are real. They exist. What the

Bible says to do is to not look at it. If we are not supposed

to look at it, what are we supposed to look at? Look at the

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Faith's Greatest Enemies

cure. Look at God's solution to it, which is written in His

Word, and use your faith to apply it to your situation.

Continue to do that and the solution—healing, in this case

—will manifest into the physical realm.

Sight Is the Opposite of Faith

2 Corinthians 5:7:

(For we walk by faith, not by sight.)

If this verse of Scripture and what we just said about

"unseen things" are true, then sight must not be faith, and

faith must not be sight. We can understand, then, that we

are going to be destroyed if we walk by sight, because

sight is the opposite of faith.

Here is something that will help you understand this

concept more clearly. The word "sight" makes you think

about eyes. It makes you think about visual perception. If

you talk about using only your eyesight, you limit yourself

to only 1/5 of your body's ability to feed information to

you about the environment around you. What about the

things we can hear, the things that we can touch, and so

on?

I submit to you that the Holy Spirit is not talking solely

about visual perception, but that he is talking about

sensory perception, as opposed to spiritual perception.

We could therefore read Second Corinthians 4:18 like

this:

While we look not at the things which are

perceived by the senses, but at the things which

are not peceived by the senses: for [or, because] the

things which are perceived by the senses are

temporal [temporary, or subject to change]; but the

things which are not peceived by the senses are

eternal.

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We can read Second Corinthians 5:7 the same way—

For we walk by faith, not by the senses—and paraphrase

Hebrews 11:1 to read, Now faith is the substance of things

hoped for, the evidence of things not perceived by the senses.

That covers everything that comes to us through our five

senses.

Faith, Senses, and the Word

If we walk by faith, we have to leave the realm of the

senses—or, as we put it earlier, "fly by the instruments."

That is why many people do not make it. They feel secure

only when they can touch something, taste it, see it, smell

it, or hear it. Faith is not based on those things. As I said in

Chapter Two, faith is based on the Word of God.

You have to allow yourself to walk by the Word. Paul says in

Romans 10:17, So then faith cometh by hearing, and

hearing by the word of God. It is obvious that if the Word

does not come, faith does not come. That means that

"faith" and "the Word of God" are synonymous terms.

Going by that rationale, we can then make one more

change in Second Corinthians 5:7. We can say, For we

walk by the Word of God, not by the senses. It is the same

principle as when you put your paycheck in your checking

account, and write checks on it. You do not know whether

or not there is money in the company's bank to cover it,

nor do you bother to question it.

If you can do that, you can believe God. The only

difference is that with God, you are dealing with spiritual

things.

Faith is... the evidence, so God's Word is the evidence

of things not seen. We can't be concerned about what we

see, but we should take God at His Word. In other words,

do not let your senses affect your faith, but, rather, affect

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Faith's Greatest Enemies

your senses and change your environment with your faith.

Matthew 14:22-28:

And straightway Jesus constrained His disciples to get

into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side,

while he sent the multitudes away.

And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went

up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the

evening was come, he was there alone.

But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed

with waves: for the wind was contrary.

And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto

them, walking on the sea.

And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea,

they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried

out for fear.

But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying,

Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.

And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou,

bid me come unto thee on the water.

Peter was saying, in essence, "Give me permission to

walk on the water, Lord." Look at what Jesus said in the

next verse.

And he said, Come....

Two very important things are implied by the word,

"come." Peter had divine permission to walk on the water,

and he had the ability to do it. If Peter did not have the

ability, as soon as he stepped out of the boat, he was going

to go under.

Matthew 14:29:

... And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he

walked on the water, to go to Jesus.

Peter walked on the water. That was a miracle.

Matthew doesn't say that Peter tried to walk on the water.

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He says that Peter did it. If you can take five steps on the

water, you can take 5, 000!

God's Word working through you will

change the circumstances.

Matthew 14:30:

But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid....

That is what sight will do for you. Whenever you walk

by your senses, it will cause you to walk in fear. Whenever

fear enters the room, faith exits the room. Fear and faith do

not occupy the same parcel of ground. The good news is

that you decide whether fear or faith will stay.

Here was a marvelous situation. God gave this man

permission to walk on the water. I have never read about

anybody walking on the water except Jesus and Peter. You

cannot say, "Jesus did that because He was the Son of

God." Peter was not the Son of God, and he walked on the

water also. In fact, Peter was not born again, nor was he

filled with the Spirit. He was a disciple, but he could not

have been born again, because Jesus had not died and

risen from the dead yet.

In the next part of Verse 30 is a very strange thing. You

have to read your Bible very carefully to get it.

... and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save

me.

When the human body comes into contact with water,

you do not "begin to sink." You go in like a lead balloon.

As soon as you hit the water, you are under it. Another

indication that something unusual was happening is in

verse 31.

And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and

caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith,

wherefore didst thou doubt?

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If Peter said, "Save me, Jesus," it took some time for

Jesus to move his arm. Normally, you are almost under the

water before you can yell, "Save me," and before

somebody can move his arm to catch you.

This is an appropriate story concerning the idea I

mentioned at the beginning of this book—fighting "the

good fight of faith." As long as Peter kept his eyes on

Jesus, Peter was walking on the water by faith. After all,

Jesus was walking on the same water. Jesus could have

been influenced by the same wind, but He did not let it

bother Him.

Peter doubted because he looked at the wind. Where is the

wind? In the realm of the senses. Peter was captivated by

sense knowledge evidence, and that evidence made him

doubt that he could do what Jesus told him that he could

do. When Peter began to doubt the Word of God, his faith

waned, and fear entered.

Whenever you hear the Word of God, faith will come.

At that point, you have a choice. You can believe your

senses, or you can believe what the Word of God says. In

fact, as I said before, God's Word working through you will

change the circumstances.

Let me show you one other Scripture that will help you

to see that concentrating on sense knowledge evidence can

be detrimental to your faith, how it can destroy people and

take away what rightfully belongs to them.

Numbers 13:1, 2:

And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

Send thou men, that they may search the land of

Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of

every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every

one a ruler among them.

Notice that God does not say,.. the land... which I am

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going to give. He says,. . the land... which I give. The

Israelites had crossed the Red Sea and had crossed an area

called "the Wilderness" in 21 days. They are now standing

on the banks of the Jordan River, looking at the Promised

Land, the land that flowed with milk and honey.

God told Moses, "I'll tell you what I want you to do.

Pick one man from each of the 12 tribes, and send them

out into this land to spy it out." God is so good and so

gracious that He does not just put you into something. He

lets you go in and look at it. He wanted the children of

Israel to see the land for themselves.

Remember also that these people were not born again.

They were not filled with the Spirit, so they could not walk

by the Spirit. They had to walk by their senses. That was

why God told them to check the land out—so they could

see that it was as good as He had said it was.

Moses sent the spies out, and they wandered through

the land for 40 days. They saw everything there was to see.

They brought back some of the fruit of the land.

And the Spies Said....

Numbers 13:26-28

And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and

to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto

the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back

word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and

shewed them the fruit of the land.

And they told him, and said, We came unto the land

whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with

milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.

Nevertheless....

Nevertheless sounds a lot like but. Remember what

happened to Peter? But when he saw the wind boisterous,

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he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying,

Lord, save me.

Numbers 13:28-31:

Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the

land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and

moreover we saw the children of Anak there.

The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the

Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in

the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea,

and by the coast of Jordan.

And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said,

Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well

able to overcome it.

But the men that went up with him said, We be not

able to go up against the people; for they are stronger

than we.

They had not shot one arrow or thrown one spear, and

they were already confessing that the people in the land

were stronger than they were. They were already

confessing that they could not take the land, just like

people today say, "I can't do that," "God probably won't

heal me," "God is not going to bless me." Those people

talked themselves out of the things of God.

Think about it. Here is Almighty God, who visited

those devastating plagues upon Egypt to set the children

of Israel free. He caused the Red Sea to part so that the

Israelites could cross on dry land, then drowned the

Egyptian army that was chasing them when the Egyptians

tried to cross.

The Israelites were now saying that God was so senile

that He did not know the children of Israel could not take

the land that He promised them! That is something!

Twelve men went out. Ten of them said, "We can't do it,"

and the majority won.

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Concentration on Sense Knowledge Evidence

The majority is not always right. Here was a case

where a whole nation was deprived of the blessing that God

wanted them to have, because 10 men said, "We can't do it.

They are stronger than we are." They were whipped and

defeated by their own mouths.

An "evil report" is a report of doubt.

Jesus says in Mark 11:23,

... whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou

removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not

doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things

which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have

whatsoever he saith.

Ten of the spies said, We be not able to go up against

the people; for they are stronger than we. Moses then

writes in Numbers 13:32, And they brought up an evil

report of the land....

An "evil report" is a report of doubt. God calls doubt evil.

Unbelief is evil in the sight of God. People will accept it,

but not God.

Numbers 13:32, 33:

And they brought up an evil report of the land which

they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying,

The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a

land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the

people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.

And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which

come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as

grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

... and so we were in their sight. How did the spies

know what the people in the land thought about them?

They just assumed that. They saw the giants and the

walled cities and assumed themselves out of the blessing

of God.

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Faith's Greatest Enemies

The ten spies also said, ... we were in our own sight as

grasshoppers.... Solomon writes in Proverbs 23:7, For as

he [a man] thinketh in his heart, so is he. If a grasshopper

is what you think you are, a grasshopper is what you are

going to be.

God tells us that we are more than conquerors. (Rom.

8:37) We should believe that we will conquer in every

situation that comes against us, that we will walk out of

the other side victorious. (1 Cor. 15:57) When we say that

we cannot do what God told us to do, we are bringing up

an evil report.

"Yeah, but Brother Price, suppose it doesn't work?" We

should keep on playing the game until we win, even if we

have to go into overtime.

The 40-Year Miracle

If you read the next chapter of Numbers, you will find

that God wanted to wipe out Israel. Israel was looking at

sense knowledge evidence instead of having faith that

they would take the land as God had promised, the land...

which I give, He said. God said, in effect, "I have done all

these things for these stiff-necked, hard-hearted people,

and they still don't get the message. I am going to wipe

them out."

Moses interceded for them and convinced God not to

do that. Thank God for somebody to intercede.

Instead, for 40 years God worked the greatest miracle

in the Bible. For 40 years, the nation of Israel walked

around in a geographical location that could have been

crossed in 21 days, and could not find their way out. That

was a miracle.

The reason God had them wander for 40 years was

that it took that long for all those die-hard doubt-peddling

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Concentration on Sense Knowledge Evidence

people to die off. Every person who was 20 years old or

younger when the spies said, "We can't take the land,"

were allowed to go into the Promised Land, but they were

cheated out of seeing it for 40 years. Only two of the

original group went with them—Caleb and Joshua.

You Control the Blessings

Why did not God allow the children of Israel go into

the Promised Land? He could not, because it was not up to

Him. It was up to them.

The blessings of God are not up to God. They are up to

you. The blessings are already on the shelf. All you have to

do is take your shopping cart and go shopping in the

heavenly supermarket. The way you do that is with faith.

If you do not have faith, you are not buying anything.

People get upset and ask, "Why did the Lord do that?"

They did it to themselves, because they refused to believe

the Word of God. It is like when you get a speeding ticket.

The policeman may make a mistake once or twice, but 99

times out of 100, you got a ticket because you deserved it.

You can do all things through Christ, if you are willing

to pay the price. The price is to walk by faith, not by your

senses. I do not care what your senses tell you, stay on the

Word of God. God will vindicate His Word.

In Joshua 1:1-3, we have the sequel to the story we

read in Numbers. The time is 40 years after the incident at

the Jordan River, and we can see that God is the same

yesterday, and to day, and for ever (Heb. 13:8).

Now after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord it

came to pass, that the Lord spake unto Joshua the son

of Nun, Moses' minister, saying,

Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over

this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land

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Faith's Greatest Enemies

which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.

Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon,

that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses.

Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread is a

future tense statement, but then God says, that I have

given unto you. God does not say, I am going to give it to

you. He says, I have already done it. It is yours. If you think

of it in the context of what happened in Numbers, this

mixing of tenses makes perfect sense.

What God is actually saying to Joshua is this: Joshua,

listen. I told Moses 40 years ago that I gave Israel that

land. It has been your people's land for 40 years, but

nobody would put their feet on it. The promise itself was

always there.

66

4

A Lack of Patience

4

The fourth and last of faith's greatest enemies is a lack

of patience. The only way we get patience is by standing on

the Word of God and waiting.

It would be great if we could pray patience into us, but

we cannot do that. We have to learn how to stand and

wait calmly, not frustrated and uptight, because when you

are frustrated and uptight, you are not operating in faith.

That is how God has designed the system. You will go

nowhere with God if you are impatient.

In terms of a physical manifestation, it is not that God

is holding it back from you. It is simply that faith takes

time to work. It is your faith that brings the thing to pass. In

the meantime, you have to wait, from the time you pray

until the time the thing you prayed for manifests. That is

how your patience is developed, and how your endurance

becomes strong.

The biblical meaning of the word patience, in fact, is

"endurance. "1 It means to stand and stay right there, no

matter what comes to pass, to stand there unwavering,

unchanging.

Holding Fast

Hebrews 10:23:

Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without

wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;).

1

James Strong, "Greek Dictionary of the New Testament," Strong's Exhaustive

Concordance of the Bible (Nashville: Abingdon, 1890), p. 46, #5281.

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Faith's Greatest Enemies

In the Greek, this verse literally reads, We should hold

fast the confession of the hope.2 The word faith is really

"hope," but it implies the same thing as faith here. Paul

says in Hebrews 11:1, Now faith is the substance of

things hoped for, so as long as I know and understand

what faith is, if I am holding onto my hope, I am holding

onto my faith, as well.

In Hebrews 10:23, Paul is talking about being patient.

We used to have a common expression, "hold tight." That

would mean to get a grip on something so you would not

fall off and get hurt by slipping. Paul tells us to "hold fast"

to our confession of faith because faith does not always

materialize instantaneously. If you become impatient and

give up your confession, you will miss it and lose the

whole thing.

When I received the healing of a tumor that I had had

in my body, it took 11 months—330 days of confessing the

Word of God—for it to manifest. I held fast to my

confession, and one day the tumor disappeared.

If I had given up after six months, I could have been

dead. I could say, "I believe I am healed," for 30 days with

no problem, but after 45 days, then 90 days, then 120 days

—with the tumor escalating—it became tiresome in the

natural. However, I realized that I had to do what the

Bible said.

I had to do two things. I had to act like the Word was

true, and in order to act like the Word was true, I had to

hold fast to my confession. I made my commitment. I

decided that I had the tumor anyway, that if I did not say

anything, it was still going to be there, and that I had more

to gain than I had to lose.

2

George Riker Berry, Interlinear Greek-English New Testament with a Greek-

English Lexicon and New Testament Synonyms (Grand Rapids: reprinted by

Baker Book House, copyright © 1897 by Hines and Noble), p. 575.

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A Lack of Patience

Satan Intimidates and Brings Pressure

You also have to remember that Satan will try to

intimidate you from walking in faith. If you do not know

anything about faith, Satan will not bother you. The

moment you start getting close to truth and knowledge

that will cut him loose from your circumstances, Satan will

escalate pressure on you and try to scare you away.

Satan may put pressure on you through your family or

the co-workers at your job, as well as other people and

circumstances. Perhaps you are living a holy life now, and

not laughing at the dirty jokes at the office any more, and

the people you work with are putting pressure on you.

If you were filled with the Holy Ghost, as outlined in

Acts 2:4, maybe it looked like all kinds of pressure came

on you just after you were filled and started talking in

tongues. Perhaps your wife looked at you like you were

crazy, the dog barked differently, the goldfish looked at

you strangely when you came into the house. Or, perhaps,

the people at your church suddenly considered you

strange, weird, different, and would not have anything to

do with you.

Another attack of the enemy came on me after a

Wednesday night service, not long after I had started

walking by faith. I was talking to some people near the

communion table, about the Word and some other things.

All of a sudden, it was like somebody had taken a

spear, crept up behind me, and threw it right into my

back. I actually felt it when it hit my back, and my legs

buckled because it hit me so hard. It was a spiritual thing

—in fact, I could see it in the spirit—but it hit me in the

flesh.

I had never had such pain in all my life. It was difficult

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Faith's Greatest Enemies

to do almost anything with my legs because my back hurt

so badly. I was believing I was healed and screaming at

the same time. My wife had to drive us home, and the pain

got so bad that I could not lie down straight in the bed.

Finally, I got to the point that I could not stand it any

longer. I had to go to the hospital. A member of our

church happened to be on staff at Orthopaedic Hospital,

so I said to call that person and ask if an appointment

could be made. Even with the pain, I did not want to go.

Here is God's man of faith and power, telling people to be

healed, and he is going to the hospital. But I needed help.

The specialist at the hospital examined me and took X-

rays. When he finished, he told me that he did not know

what was wrong with me. He wanted to put me in traction

at the hospital, but I said, "No, no, just let me go home."

Every day, I made my confession that I believed I was

healed. Meanwhile, the pain continued. When I had to

stand in the shower, I was screaming. I had no relief. It

was one of the worst things that ever happened to me.

At the same time, Satan put pressure on me, and he

tried to intimidate me with fear. He shot thoughts at me

like, "You are not going to be able to walk. How are you

going to preach if you can't walk? What are the people

going to think?"

I told him, "I don't care what the people think. The

people aren't hurting. It's me who's hurting, devil!"

I had to hold fast to my confession of faith, because it

was over a year before my healing manifested. Holding fast

was the only way I got the victory. I was absolutely,

positively, unequivocally convinced that the Word of God

was true and that with His stripes I was healed, but I had

to act like I was healed if the Word was going to work for

me.

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A Lack of Patience

Don't Give Up!

Hebrews 10:35, 36:

Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath

great recompence of reward.

For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done

the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

In everyday language, you could paraphrase these

verses this way: do not give up. If I had given up on that

tumor or on my back, there is no telling where I would be

right now. I could also tell you of all kinds of things that

happened in the years I started to teach this and to stand

on the Word of God. The important thing is that I did not

cast away my confidence.

I had made up my mind to stand on the Word, even if

it took 10,000 years for my healing to manifest. If it had not

manifested by the time 10,000 years was up, I was going to

stand right in front of God's throne, put my bony finger in

His nose, and say, "God, Your Word didn't work!"

You do not do that arrogantly, but that is the attitude

you have to have, and the commitment you have to make,

when you take God at His Word. You have to "go for

broke." If you do not have that kind of commitment, Satan

will intimidate you, put pressure on you, and back you

down every time you try to use the Word.

In fact, you might as well make that commitment now,

or at least as soon as possible. The sooner you do that, the

sooner you are going to find out whether or not the Word

is going to work.

If you are not ready to make a full-time commitment to

standing on God's Word, then the Word will not work for

you. You have to burn all your bridges, so that you do not

have any way back. As we could put it in modern

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Faith's Greatest Enemies

English, "Don't throw away your confidence." Why? "It

has great recompence of reward." What is the reward?

"That, after ye have done the will of God, ye might

receive the promise."

Notice when the promise comes— after you do the will

of God. You may ask, "What is the will of God?" It

depends on what you need, and what part of the Scripture

you are standing on.

Let us say, for instance, that you are praying the prayer

of faith—Mark 11:24: Therefore I say unto you, What

things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye

receive them, and ye shall have them. The will of God,

then, is that when I pray, I have to believe that I receive. If

I do that, then I shall have what I am believing for.

Temptations Are Not Joyful!

James 1:2:

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers

temptations;

Temptations means trials and tests. I like to read it like

this: Temptations, trials and tests.

Notice that James very clearly says that temptations are

not joyful. God is not a sadist. He is not telling you to feel

good about temptation. Whatever it was in the spirit that

hit my back was not joyful. Read this very, very carefully:

it was not joyful! It was not joyful when that tumor kept

growing larger and hurting more day by day for 11

months, either.

What James is saying is to count it, or consider it, as

though it were joy. In others, treat it as though it were joy.

If you do not count it as joy, what happens is that you

react to temptation, and when you react to it, you go down

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A Lack of Patience

to the level of it. That is the most normal, immediate thing

that you want to do.

When you react to that temptation, the thing you are

reacting to will overpower you. However, if you count it as

joy, that temptation will have no control over you. In order

to count it joy, in verse 2, you have to include verse 3. You

have to read them together. Forget the numerals "2" and

"3" and also the punctuation marks. It would then read

like this: (trials and tests) knowing this.... Now what is the

this that I am supposed to know? Look at Verse 3:

Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh

patience.

Not the trying of you, but of your faith! You can't count

it joy if you don't know this.

The word trying in the Greek is the word "proving." In

a positive sense, "proving"3 is the same as testing

something, to make sure it will do what it is designed to

do.

Who are you proving your faith to? It is not God Who

brings temptations, trials and tests to you. It is Satan. And

his purpose in bringing them is to destroy you. God has to

allow him to do that, because Satan is the god of this

world, and because that is how the system is designed. But

God has made provision for us to overcome each

temptation, trial and test.

How do you overcome these things? By counting them

as joy, and by letting patience have her perfect work. It is

the working of your faith that brings patience, or, literally,

"endurance." If our faith is not tried, if it is not proved, we

will not have any patience/endurance.

I learned how to stand by that attack that came on me.

3

Berry, p. 585.

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Faith's Greatest Enemies

God was not trying to prove anything. He knew what was

in me, but I did not know, and the devil did not know. The

proving is for the benefit of you and the devil, not God.

Once you experience something like the healings I

received, nobody can talk you out of it.

God has also provided us with armor. Paul says in

Ephesians 6:11 to put on the whole armour of God. God

gave it to us to protect us, so it is obvious that God does not

want you to go down—but you have to use the armor.

After He Had Patiently Endured

Hebrews 6:12-15:

That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who

through faith and patience inherit the promises.

For when God made promise to Abraham, because he

could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,

Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and

multiplying I will multiply thee.

And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained

the promise.

Notice that Abraham did not obtain the promise until

he had patiently endured. Notice also, in Verse 12, who

gets the promise: That ye be not slothful, but followers of

them who through faith and patience inherit the promise.

Faith comes first, but right after that is patience.

Utilizing both those qualities will help you inherit the

promise. As we said before, patience is endurance, the

ability to stand steadfast, no matter what happens.

Many Christians need to learn that, if God is on your

side and you are on God's side, and God has something

for you, there is nothing that can keep it from you.

People have to learn how to trust God. Too many of

them try to make it their own way, because they think

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A Lack of Patience

they have something to offer, and because they think

everybody should bow and scrape. Let God promote you,

and when God raises you up, there is no one under heaven

who can pull you down. Let God do it, but you have to

have faith and patience.

And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained

the promise. Stand steadfast. Do not be afraid. Take God at

His Word, stand on that Word and make a commitment.

Make a confession of faith, hold onto it and say, "I am

ready to stand here 10 million years if it takes that long."

Do all this, and it will come to pass.

75

Frederick K. C. Price, Ph. D.,

founded Crenshaw Christian Center

in Los Angeles, California, in 1973,

with a congregation of approximately

300 people. Today, the church

numbers well over 14, 000 members of

various racial backgrounds.

Crenshaw Christian Center, home

of the renowned 10, 146-seat

FaithDome, has a staff of more than 250 employees.

Included on its thirty-acre grounds are a Ministry Training

Institute, the Crenshaw Christian Center Correspondence

School, the Frederick K. C. Price III Elementary, and junior

and senior high schools, as well as the FKCP III Child Care

Center.

The "Ever Increasing Faith" television and radio

broadcasts are outreaches of Crenshaw Christian Center.

The television program is viewed on more than 100

stations throughout the United States and overseas. The

radio program airs on approximately forty stations across

the country.

Dr. Price travels extensively, teaching on the Word of

Faith forcefully, in the power of the Holy Spirit. He is the

author of several books on faith and divine healing.

In 1990, Dr. Price founded the Fellowship of Inner City

Word of Faith Ministries (FICWFM) for the purpose of

fostering and spreading the faith message among

independent ministries located in the urban, metropolitan

areas of the United States.

For a complete list of tapes and books by Fred Price,

or to receive his publication,

Ever Increasing Faith Messenger,

write:

Fred Price

Crenshaw Christian Center

P. O. Box 90000

Los Angeles, CA 90009

For additional copies

of this book

in Canada contact:

Word Alive

P. O. Box 670

Niverville, Manitoba

CANADA ROA 1EO

Other Books by Fred Price

Name It and Claim It!

The Power of Positive Confession

Practical Suggestions for Successful Ministry

Prosperity on God's Terms

Concerning Them Which Are Asleep

Marriage and the Family Practical Insight for Family Living

High Finance God's Financial Plan Tithes and Offerings

Living in the Realm of the Spirit

Is Healing for All?

How Faith Works (also available in Spanish)

How To Obtain Strong Faith Six Principles

The Holy Spirit—The Missing Ingredient

Faith, Foolishness, or Presumption?

Thank God for Everything?

The Origin of Satan

Now Faith Is

The Faithfulness of God

The Promised Land

The Victorious, Overcoming Life

How To Believe God for a Mate

Harrison House

Proclaiming the truth and power

Of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

With excellence;

Challenging Christians to

Live victoriously,

Grow spiritually,

Know God intimately.

Document Outline

- Faith's Greatest Enemies

- Contents

- Introduction

- 1 Ignorance of God's Word

- Rightly Dividing

- A Statement of Truth, or Just Truly Stated?

- The Case of Job

- We Are Open to Satanic Attacks

- And Job Said....

- The Thing Which I Have Greatly Feared

- Searching the Word Daily

- Put "Searching the Scriptures" First

- The Sword—The Word—Your Weapon

- It Is Written

- The Devil Quotes Scripture

- Learn the Difference Between Tempting God and Proving God

- Do You Err?

- 2 Not Acting Like God's Word Is True

- Ye Shall Receive—If Ye Believed

- Worry When Your Child Stays Out Late?

- How to Cast Your Cares Upon Him

- By His Blood—Everything Is Ours

- Not By Feelings, but By Faith

- Faith is "Saying"... and "Acting"

- The Mixing Bowl Is Your Mouth!

- 3 Concentration on Sense Knowledge Evidence

- Seen and Unseen Things

- Sight Is the Opposite of Faith

- Faith, Senses, and the Word

- And the Spies Said....

- The 40-Year Miracle

- You Control the Blessings

- 4 A Lack of Patience

- Holding Fast

- Satan Intimidates and Brings Pressure

- Don't Give Up!

- Temptations Are Not Joyful!

- After He Had Patiently Endured

Table of Contents

Introduction

1 Ignorance of God's Word

2 Not Acting Like God's Word Is True

3 Concentration on Sense Knowledge Evidence

4 A Lack of Patience

"1

.2

"3

Faith's Greatest Enemies

Contents

Rightly Dividing

A Statement of Truth, or Just Truly Stated?

The Case of Job

We Are Open to Satanic Attacks

And Job Said....

The Thing Which I Have Greatly Feared

Searching the Word Daily

Put "Searching the Scriptures" First

The Sword—The Word—Your Weapon

It Is Written

The Devil Quotes Scripture

Learn the Difference Between Tempting God and Proving God

Do You Err?

Ye Shall Receive—If Ye Believed

Worry When Your Child Stays Out Late?

How to Cast Your Cares Upon Him

By His Blood—Everything Is Ours

Not By Feelings, but By Faith

Faith is "Saying"... and "Acting"

The Mixing Bowl Is Your Mouth!

Seen and Unseen Things

Sight Is the Opposite of Faith

Faith, Senses, and the Word

And the Spies Said....

The 40-Year Miracle

You Control the Blessings

Satan Intimidates and Brings Pressure

Don't Give Up!

Temptations Are Not Joyful!

After He Had Patiently Endured