Misguided Faith

Who Is "Really" Your Source?

Once when I was on a plane, God spoke to me and said, "Son, I want you to teach more on only believe."

I said, "Only believe? Oh, I get it, Jesus. I see it. Only believe." (Mark 5:36.)

Only believe and you shall see the glory of God. Only believe and your children shall be saved. Only believe and your body can be healed. Only believe and your miracle is on its way—only believe. Don't believe all those other things in your mind.

You may say, "But, Brother Norvel, but... but...." There are no "buts." When God says something, He means it. When He says "only," He means only. That means there is nothing else. You do it the way God says and only believe!

Matthew chapter three, verses one and two say:

In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,

And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

This scripture is saying to us: confess your sins, repent and let God be God. God wants you to look to Him as your Source. He is jealous over you! He does not want you to depend on man to meet your need, but to look past man to the real Source of your supply— Jehovah Jireh, your Provider.

Sometimes you hear Christians say something like, "Oh, I've been sick for twelve years, sick for so long. But evangelist So-and-so is coming to town. I'll go have him lay his hands on me so that I can get my healing." And they never even mention the name of Jesus.

God doesn't like it when you bypass the Lord Jesus Christ either. And He'll only put up with it so long, because it's hard for Him to bless you if you put something else before Him. He wants to bless you! He wants to heal you! He lives and breathes to provide for you and your every need.

You don't have to wait for evangelist So-and-so to come to town so you can get your healing. Jesus is already there. The laying on of hands is scriptural; it's a doctrine of the Church. But so many people miss the point. Laying on of hands is not there for you to use and depend on instead of your faith; it's merely a form of ministry whereby God transfers His power into a vessel. It's important and has a scriptural place in the Church, but when you look right past God and your measure of faith to the hands and faith of a man—you are in sin!

When your precious pastor reaches out in Jesus' name on Sunday morning and Sunday night and lays his hand gently on you and says, "Receive your healing," you're healed! By faith in Jesus, you can receive your healing. You're not waiting on man; you're waiting on God!

But don't look at a man's hands as your little god or source. It's important to know and understand this for the rest of your life. Your Source is God.

People began to look to a dear minister friend of mine and his hands for healing. They forgot about God. Thousands of people would jam the tent just to see him in hopes that he would lay his hands on them. It wasn't his fault that this happened—he was just obeying the Bible. Naturally, signs and wonders followed his ministry—especially in the area of healing. But people began seeking after these signs and wonders instead of God. And God told him not to lay his hands on any more people for a while until He told him to start again.

When people begin looking to man instead of God to meet their needs, that is what I call "prostitute faith." Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary defines the following:

prostitute—

1. (noun) "A person... who deliberately debases himself or his talents (as for money)"

2. (verb) ". . . to devote to corrupt or unworthy purposes '

prostitution— (noun) "... the state of being prostituted: debasement"

debasement— (noun) "The state of being lowered in status, esteem, quality, or character."

Prostitution is practiced by those who can't or won't supply their own needs by moral and legal means. They debase themselves in order to have others supply their needs. They are looking to "get."

In your own life, when you look to just "get,' you surely lower yourself and your character. You are riding on the coattails of someone else's faith, and that, my dear friend, is lazy, sloppy Christianity. What's more—God doesn't like it.

Is being a Christian who is looking to "get" really any better than being involved in prostitution? "Oh," you may say, "but Brother Norvel, I would never lower myself to prostitution. How anyone could do that is beyond me!"

When God sent his only Son to die for you, to provide for you and also gave you the Bible filled with His promises for you, and then you choose to ignore it and look to man to get it for you, what would you say you are doing? Are you not lowering yourself, debasing your character? What's the difference between selling yourself and selling out God?

Now, don't get me wrong. God placed the five-fold ministry in the Church, as Ephesians 4:12 says, for the equipping and perfecting of the saints. The five-fold ministry is here to help you—not to get it or do it for you. Your brothers and sisters are also here to help, but not to get or do for you. God will use people as vessels to help you, but only when you look to Him first as your Source.

My minister friend wept and wept because people looked to him instead of Jesus for healing. Through his tears, he said, "Jesus told me not to lay hands on sick people anymore until He told me to do so. I don't imagine my friends will believe that, but Jesus told me!"

Why would Jesus do that? Well, you see, people were just about to make a little god of this man's hands. They looked right past God to this man's hands to find help and God didn't like it. He wants you to look to Jesus for help.

If God had let this man continue as he was, in ten more years people would have been bowing down in front of the tent saying, "Oh, his hands, his hands, oh, his hands." Sure his hands were where the power was because without question, it is scriptural. But where and from whom did that power originate?

In Matthew, chapter 3, verses 5 through 7, we read that John the Baptist, the man who paved the way for the Lord Jesus Christ and preached the Gospel straight from the mouth of God like no other man had done before, changes the picture of a few things.

Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

John the Baptist read their mail! He essentially was saying, "You are coming to me to be baptized in water? Who do you think you are? You haven't repented of your sins, you vipers."

"Oh, but we run the church, we do this and that, we're children of Abraham," was their reply.

His response was, "Listen, I'm not following Abraham, I'm following God and God can raise sons of Abraham from these stones. Besides, if you are of God, where are your gifts? . . . Repent, you vipers." (vv. 8, 9.)

Bear Good Fruit

Every human being is like a tree. Like a healthy tree, you must bear good fruit. John the Baptist said if you don't bear good fruit, God will cut you down one day and let you fall in the fire. (v. 10.)

And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.

You have to bear good fruit, not just any kind of fruit. To bear good fruit, you have to have your faith and your doctrines mixed-up together with the love of God. You have to love God. You may say, "Brother Norvel, don't we all love God?" No, we don't love God if we don't bring Him gifts, and if we try to get the blessings of God in some other way than the way the Bible says.

"Well, Brother Norvel, how do I bear good fruit?" you ask. Pass out tracts, feed the poor, bless someone who needs something, bring lost people to church, tell your pastor you want to do something for God. Get started now. Always say, "I'll do anything for Jesus." Never say something like: "Well, going from house to house is not my ministry.'' Listen, the ministry of Jesus is your ministry.

Misplaced Faith

Not long ago, I was in Dallas holding a seminar. My daughter, Zona, was with me, helping with the book and tape sales. Zona owns two exercise studios and had a financial need for $3,000. She told me about it, but I didn't respond. I've taught her for years to trust God. Sometimes the pressure of a situation will nag at you so strongly that you will bypass God and look to a person— especially one who has what you need.

That night, Zona had a night vision—a vision that occurs when you are asleep. God speaks to your spirit and shows you what you need to see. It's from God—not from the pizza you ate earlier!

The next morning, she told me about the dream she received, saying, "Daddy, Daddy, I don't like it!" She said, "I dreamed I was an instructor in an exercise place."

"Well," I said, "that's what you are."

"But, Daddy, I was just an instructor in the exercise place and not the owner."

She continued to describe the dream. In it, there was a man who owned the place. Because Zona needed financial help, she asked her boss for more money. He refused and heaped abuse on her. The dream had greatly upset her. She didn't understand the truth that God was trying to reveal to her in this dream, but I immediately did.

I said, "Zona, Zona. That dream was for you. God was showing you what happens when you prostitute your faith. I've told you for years what to do, but you flounder around and look to man for help, and God doesn't like it. Why don't you change?"

You might say, "That seems very harsh, Brother Norvel.' But, in these last days, God is revealing the truth so we won't have to stumble around in darkness for the rest of our lives. Yes, when I said that, it was harsh. Sometimes the truth can be offensive. But if we listen and apply it, it will always set us free.

Meanwhile, Zona sat in a chair mumbling tearfully, "Oh, Daddy, oh, Daddy." I said to her, "Zona, honey, little darling, Jesus loves you! Why don't you start thanking Jesus for what you want and Jesus will give it to you. You can be free from your prostitute faith.

Don't go to man. God says, 'Forget not to give God thanks in everything.' Why don't you do it?"

Crying, she said, "Okay, Daddy, I will, I will.'

After this conversation on Saturday morning, we both began thanking Jesus for helping her. Later, she went to work behind the tape and book table during the seminar. Soon, a person walked up and said, "Zona, God has been dealing with me for two days. Here's a check the Lord told me to give you." She looked at the check—four thousand dollars!

If you get delivered from your prostitute faith, God will bless you as well. You tie the hands of God when you look to man or refuse to come before the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, bow down before him and begin to thank Him for what you need.

What is the altar of God? Isn't it a place to come and leave all of your cares and begin to thank Jesus for what you need or want? This is what faith is all about—when you ask, believe and thank Him for what you received when you prayed. When Zona thanked God in prayer for the finances she needed, she couldn't see or touch them, but she believed in her Source of supply. Her faith and constant thanksgiving delivered them from the realm of the Spirit into natural manifestation.

All you have to do is to begin to recognize the great Jehovah Jireh. God never stands in awe of your need or your circumstances, just your inability to believe when He has made things so simple for you. Nothing is too great or too small for God, the Father. He is waiting to pour out a blessing that you can't contain. (Mal. 3:10.) But He is only moved by your unwavering faith.

Isaiah, chapter 42, verse 8 tells us: I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another....

Remember the word "only"? Apply it with this principle:

God is your only Source and the only one Who can meet your needs if you only believe!

Correct Faith

Faith brings God's power for whatever you need into your body, into your business, into your mind, into your spirit, into your children —into your life. Your faith will bring His blessing for whatever you are believing God to do for you.

But without faith it is impossible to please him... (Heb. 11:6). Impossible—that means it can't be done! God will never leave you nor forsake you (Heb. 13:5), but you can't please God with your life and begin to have His abundant life flowing through you if you don't have faith. The Bible says in Hebrews 11:1 that... faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Romans 10:17 says, So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. You can't get faith any other way. You must hear God's Word! Then faith will come.

God releases the power only when He finds faith. Otherwise the power just stays in heaven. That is the way He has set it up. Isaiah 55:8 says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. Since He is God, we should let Him do things His way. A lot of people don't have very much respect for God. They want to do things their way, so they don't get very much from Him. They just stumble around, professing that they have faith, then keep wondering why nothing they believe for comes to pass.

"Why doesn't it come to pass, Brother Norvel? Why doesn't it come to pass? Why didn't I get healed? Why don't my children get saved? Why doesn't my business prosper?"

Don't look to me! Look to God. I don't fill needs, God does! Let God be God! Start doing things His way! He can prosper everything you put your hands on. You have to read the Bible and let faith begin to operate in your life. Your attitude about God can change your whole life.

Your faith in Him releases His power.

Jesus used to go up into the mountains, out from the city. The people would follow Him. They would climb the mountains to see Him. If you were sick, and knew that Jesus was up on a mountain someplace outside the city, and you knew that if you could get to Him you would be healed, wouldn't you climb up the mountain to see Him? That's faith—you would be healed.

Jesus is still the Word of God today.

He was the Word and He is the Word and He will always be the Word. John, chapter 1, says:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. (vv. 1,14)

Those who heard the Word that Jesus preached and then believed what He said, received whatever they needed.

If you make up your mind that God means what He says, that He wants you to be in health and prosper even as your soul prospers (3 John 2), that God is the head and you are a part of His Church (Col. 1:18), then you can, and will, as a part of God, be successful in everything you do and be healthy in every part of your body.

Every person who is a doer of the Word, not just a hearer only, and believes God according to Hebrews, will receive His blessings— financially and every other way.

To get faith, you must hear and believe God's Word. Stop listening to the words of men and start hearing the Word of God.

Only believe—that's where to start. Get out your Bible and start reading it with the idea of believing every single word, exactly the way it says, and start doing what it says.

You Can Pass Gods Test

You probably already are a person of faith. You have renewed your mind in the Word of God and have your inner man strong in faith. You quote scriptures, and you are living by faith. Now, God is going to put your faith to a test.

That's right! He will put it to a test. That's

how He—and you—find out how strong your faith is. If you want God's bountiful blessings to fall on you and to flow in you all the time, your faith will have to pass God's test. Not my test or your test, God's test. God will promote you, if He can trust you. If He can't, He won't promote you. People ask all the time: "Why doesn't God bless His people more?" Because they have not passed His test.

His test is His Word—believing it and acting on it.

Not long ago, the Lord gave me $200,000. I said, "Lord, what am I going to do with it? I don't need it. What did You give it to me for?"

He said, "You passed My test!"

I said, "Passed Your test? Passed Your test? What in the world did I do to pass Your test?"

He said, "You fulfilled a scripture. Tell the churches everywhere you go... tell them... that the Bible is My test; every time they fulfill a scripture, tell them to never worry about the answers to their prayers."

James 2:23 says:

And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.

Abraham fulfilled the Scriptures by believing that what God had said would come to pass. Abraham waited twenty-five years for God to do what He said He would do.

How long have you waited and not doubted God? James 1:8 says, A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. He doesn't get anything from God. But if we stand steadfast in faith, until we pass God's test, not doubting, then the blessings of God begin to flow to us. And they flow and they flow....

People across the country ask me why God blesses me so often and in so many ways, and how I can successfully operate a number of businesses and still teach twenty nights a month.

"Well," I say, "I don't use the blessings against God. If He gives me $20,000 this week through a business deal, I don't stop passing out tracts at the airport. I go right on to my next speaking engagement and cast devils out of people. I still take time with the one who has the lonely heart. If I come across someone who is hungry, I feed him. The one that no one else will help, I take time with."

God will give you money if He can trust you with it. He will make you rich. He will give you spiritual gifts. He will open up the treasures of the spirit world to you.

You can pass God's test—believe and act on His Word.

You can know the blessings of God in your life in a measure you never thought possible.

The Bible says, But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Jesus Christ (Phil. 4:19). Jesus said, I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly (John 10:10).

The Saying Part

Did you know that Mark 11:23 says you can have whatsoever you say if you say in faith and not doubt? In fact, other scriptures say you'll absolutely get what you say. Every day you're confessing what you're going to get tomorrow. If you don't like what you had for life today, change what you're saying, and you'll find that your tomorrows will be different. Proverbs 10:11 says, The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life. Proverbs 18:21 says, Death and life are in the power of the tongue. If we're confessing the Word of God, we're speaking life to ourselves and to others. If we constantly confess the circumstances, we're speaking death to ourselves and those around us.

I was reading Mark 11:23 early one morning. I've read it hundreds of times:

For verily I say unto you, That 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.

I just kept reading it over and over. I guess I've read and preached this verse more than any other verse in the Bible. As I began to read it again, God stopped me at the part where it says, whosoever shall say unto this mountain... and said practically right out loud to me in my ear: "Son, people are not talking to the mountains. They are talking to Me."

When was the last time you had a conversation with the flu? Did you ever hold a conversation with your checkbook or with cancer? You aren't supposed to talk to Jesus about it. You're supposed to talk directly to the mountain in Jesus' name—whatever the mountain is in your life.

James tells us to be a doer of the Word, not just a hearer. Jesus says to "say." When you say or talk, words come out of your mouth. Say the words out loud! Don't just think them in your mind. Stop talking to Jesus about it. Stop talking to anybody else about it. Speak to the mountain itself in Jesus' name!

Don't say, "Oh, God, help me. Remove this sickness from me." Say, "Flu, I am not going to let you come into my body. Go from me in the name of Jesus! Nose, I tell you to stop running. Cough, I tell you to leave in Jesus' name." Say, "Cancer, you can't kill me. I will never die of cancer in Jesus' name."

Do you have a financial mountain in your life? Start talking to your money. Tell your checkbook to line up with God's Word. Talk to your business. Command customers to come into your business and spend their money there. Talk to the mountain!

If there is a mountain troubling you, your husband or wife or any other member of your family, talk to it. Tell it to go in the name of Jesus. Tell it it can't operate m your home. Tell the mountain it can't be there because you say it can't. Talk to the mountains in your children's lives. If the child lives in your house and is under your authority and a fever takes hold of him, tell the fever to go! When you talk to the mountain in the name of Jesus and tell it to go, it has to go. You can have what you say in faith, nothing doubting.

Romans 4:17 says that God calls... things which be not as though they were. Jesus did this while talking to fig trees, storms, devils, fevers, leprosy, even dead men. Everything He talked to did what He told it to do. The fig tree withered and died—the storm was calmed— the devils were cast out—the fevers left—the lepers were cleansed—the dead men were raised to life. Jesus tells us we have the power to do the same. John 14:14 says, If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. Speak to the mountain in Jesus' name and tell it what to do. Jesus will make it do what you say. How could Jesus have made it any simpler?

You must speak with authority to the devil. You must know and believe without doubt that you have the authority in the name of Jesus to tell any kind of mountain in your life to go and it must obey you, because Jesus says it will. You're not as strong as the devil yourself, but in the name of Jesus, you're the number one power. You're in Christ, seated at the right hand of God the Father, far above all other powers including the devil and all his cohorts who are under your feet. (Eph. 1:20-22.)

Make up your mind that you are going to have what the Bible says you can have and that you have the authority to get it through the name of Jesus. Open your mouth and begin to say, "It's mine because God says so." Speak with your mouth to the devil and tell him to take his hands off whatever you want: off your marriage, your business, your children, to get out of your body. Then he has to do what you say. God confirms His Word with signs following.

There's been a lot of teaching concerning our confession as God's children and making sure what we say is in line with what the Bible says. That is very good. But many times, I hear people going around with a cold or a sickness just confessing for healing. First Peter 2:24: "By whose stripes we were healed—By his stripes I am healed." Yet, they've never spoken to the cold or sickness and told it to go. It's good to confess that you're healed. But you can get healed a lot quicker if you will talk to that particular mountain first, then confess your healing. The more that you have the whole counsel of God working on your behalf, the better your life is going to be.

If you've prayed for something and didn't get it, and if Jesus walked into the room, and you asked Him about it, do you know what He would do? He would quote you the chapter and verse that applies to your situation. The answers to everything are in the Bible.

Not long ago, a woman told a friend of mine about her twenty-year-old granddaughter who had been in the last stages of leukemia, a disease that destroys the blood.

This Holy Spirit-filled grandmother prayed to Jesus and asked Him for a verse of scripture for her granddaughter. Jesus gave her Ezekiel 16:6:

And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.

She began to read this scripture to her granddaughter who was in a coma, in the intensive-care section of the hospital. She read and confessed this scripture to her for eight hours that day. The next day, the doctor came in and told the family that he hadn't expected the young woman to last through the night, and yet, the tests were now showing that her blood count was much improved. They now expected her to live. He couldn't understand it. Well, wasn't that what the Lord had spoken and what the grandmother had commanded? "Live."

Always remember, don't look to man or a man's anointing or a man's hands to meet your need. Look to God. Do things God's way. He's the Healer, He's the Provider. Only believe and you shall see the glory of God.

Thus says the Lord: Cursed [with great evil] is the strong man who trusts in and relies on frail man, making weak [human] flesh his arm, and whose mind and heart turn aside from the Lord.

For he shall be like a shrub or a person naked and destitute in the desert, and shall not see any good come, but shall dwell in the parched places in the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. [Most] blessed is the man who believes in, trusts in, and relies on the Lord, and whose hope and confidence the Lord is.

For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters that spreads out its roots by the river; and it shall not see and fear when heat comes; but its leaf shall be green. It shall not be anxious and full of care in the year of drought, nor shall it cease yielding fruit.

Jeremiah 17:5-8 AMP

... they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, Who is blessed forever.

Romans 1:25 AMP

My Prayer

Lord Jesus, I wish to have my life be a life of faith, for Your Word says that the just shall live by faith, and when You come again, You will be looking for the one element in the life of the born-again person that is pleasing to You — faith.

Help me to look only to You, Jesus. Help me to not look to any man, and not to my own ability. I lay down my life at Your feet, Jesus. Take me and use me. Make me a doer of the Word. Help me to love all of Your Church with the same love You love them with, forgiving them, rejoicing not in their falls, praying for them, all the same, Jesus, like You do.

And most of all, Lord Jesus, help me to worship You as I should. Father, in the precious name of Jesus, I am Yours to do whatever You want me to do. Make me a fit vessel for Your holy presence and manifest me forth to a lost and dying world as a son in the full measure of the stature of the firstbegotten

Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose life I am hidden and with whose life I live. Amen.

Your Name

Date

Norvel Hayes shares God's Word I boldly and simply, with an enthusiasm that captures the heart of the hearer. He has learned through personal experience that God's Word can be effective in every area of life, and that it will work for anyone who will believe it and apply it.

Norvel owns several businesses which function successfully despite the fact that he spends over half his time away from the office, ministering the Gospel throughout he country. His obedience to God and his willingness to share his faith have taken him to a variety of places. He ministers in churches, seminars, conventions, colleges, prisons—anywhere the Spirit of God leads.

Who is really your source?

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Psalm 118:8

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