00 Evan 980 Faith - Section 1

SECTION ONE
Developing Extraordinary Faith

Faith is the greatest quality you can ever possess. Love is a powerful relationship to another person. Hope gives power to optimistically face the future. Courage gives you power to encounter dangers and the unknown. Patience is the power to endure the present. All these qualities are wonderful, but faith gives you power with God. And with God, you have all the vast qualities needed for an extraordinary life and ministry.
Section 1 Big Bold Extraordinary Faith Elmer Towns 1
CHAPTER ONE
FAITH IS RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
Faith is believing the unreasonable, the impossible, and the unexplainable, because someone else, in whom we have absolute confidence, has said it was so, and upon His word we believe it, without asking any further proof. M. R. DeHaan
PRINCIPLE:
Faith is most effective to those who have the deepest relationship with God.
DEFINITION:
Relationship \rela-shn-ship. 1. The state of being related or connected, i.e., interrelated so the two rely on one another and are intertwined with one another; 2. The act of kinship; 3. The state of affairs of those having dealings. (Written by Elmer Towns after research using definitions adapted from Webster and Oxford dictionaries).
CHAPTER ONE
FAITH IS RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
Of all the people Ive met in my Christian pilgrimage, I think Jerry Falwell had more faith than anyone else. Who else could build the worlds largest evangelical Christian university of 11,000 students on campus and over 40,000 students in distance programs around the world? By faith Jerry announced a goal of 50,000 students in 1973, approximately 35 years before it happened. More than Falwells ability to preach, administer, counselmore than any other abilityFalwells faith was his greatest ability. Ive seen him walk onto the chapel platform and cancel the planned program, and then on-the-spot organize a one-day prayer and fasting event of over 5,000 students and faculty to ask God for the healing of Vernon Brewer 1 who was diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer; Vernon had been given six weeks to six months to live. Now after 25 years, I phone Vernon each April 25th to rejoice together with him in Gods healing. (See Chapter 19, Healing-Faith ). Ive seen Jerry Falwell cancel chapel to organize over 5,000 students to walk-of-faith around seven half-built dormitory buildings. He instructed us to kneel in small groups of seven to ask God for $5 million dollars to complete the dorms in six months. Today when I walk past those seven buildings, I praise God for a leader who stretched my faith. (See Chapter 2, Faith is a Leap into the Unknown.) When bankruptcy faced Liberty University2 in 1996, Jerry Falwell fasted for 40 days begging God for $52 million dollars. God kept telling him, Jerry, dont seek my pocketbook, seek My heart. After a 40-day fast the money didnt come in. Falwell began making plans to face an accreditation team that would probably pull Libertys accreditation. Of course he was praying every day, as we all were; then twenty-five days later, God told Jerry he could fast for the money. After a second 40 day fasthe lost almost 100 poundsthe check came from a
benefactor for $27 million, and then the benefactor assumed the Universitys remaining $25 million dollar debt. (See Chapter 3, Brinkmanship-Faith.) I asked Jerry Falwell where he learned his great faith in God. He corrected me, I dont have great faith in God, I have faith in a great God. I thought the conversation was over, but then he interrupted my thoughts. Let me tell you where I learned the greatness of God. So, I listened carefully because I realized I was going to learn a valuable truth that many people dont understand.
HOW FALWELL GREW HIS FAITHRELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

Falwell told me that when he was a freshman at Baptist Bible College 3 in Springfield, MO, he attended High Street Baptist Church in Springfield, Missouri. Before he went off to college, his home pastor told him to go ask to teach a Sunday school class in this great church. Falwells home pastor knew that he would grow spiritually as he involved himself in the ministry of the Word. Young Jerry Falwell met Dr. Bill Dowell, pastor of High Street Baptist Church, and told him what his pastor back in Lynchburg had said about serving in the church. Dr. Dowell replied, Go see Max Hawkins; hes the superintendent of the junior department which meets in the auditorium below the sanctuary. So Falwells first meeting with Max was strained because Falwell was precocious in the way he asked for a class, Dr. Dowell told me to come see you and you would give me a Sunday school class. Max had the high cheekbones of an Ozark farmer, and that same deliberate accent that always told you he knew what he was talking about. Max raised a suspicious eyebrow and said, Alright, Ill see if I can find something for you. Max strung up two curtains in the corner of the assembly room and gave Jerry Falwell a roll book. Daryl was the only name in the book and he was the only student for the new class.
For three weeks Jerry taught Daryl, but began to get a little discouraged because the class was not growing. Superintendent Max didnt send anyone to his class, and Falwells teaching didnt motivate his student to bring his friends. Between Sunday school and church on the third Sunday, Falwell caught Max in the hallway and said, Heres the roll book, I dont think Im cut out for this class, things are not going so well. Then Falwell held out the roll book to Max. Putting both hands behind his back in a firm gesture of rejection, Max glared at Falwell and said, Yep . . . this is just what I expected. Youre just a puffy cheeked rich kid with your own car and you think the world owes you a living. Max explained that he didnt want to give Falwell a regular classroom because he thought young Falwell would fail and thats why he strung two curtains up in the corner of the assembly room. When Hawkins reached for the book, Falwell jerked it back in defiance, saying, Ill keep the class, and Ill make it successful. Max could only shrug his shoulders and walk away. Stinging with defeat, Falwell went back to his dorm determined that he was going to do something big with the Sunday school class. He knew he needed supernatural help from God. He got a key to an empty dormitory room from the superintendent and every day after lunch at 1:00 p.m. he went into that room and stayed there until 5:00 p.m. Falwell told me, It was there that I learned how big God really was. He read the great classics of the Christian life, such as the biography of George Meller, and learned how Meller prayed and God supplied every need for an orphanage of over 2,000 children. Then Falwell read Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray, where he learned he must be absolutely committed to God if he expected God to answer his prayer. Next he read Power Through Prayer by E. M. Bounds, and realized spiritual results in ministry came through constant believing prayer.
Falwell learned intimacy with God by reading The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee and The Christians Secret to a Happy Life by Hannah Whitall Smith. I didnt just read these books, I prayed through every chapter, through every sentence, through every word. I wanted to know how these great men of God got great answers to prayer. I found the secret to faith was knowing God intimately, by spending time with Him, he said. Then Falwell went on to explain, In that empty room I stretched myself out on the springs of an army cot and continually begged God for His power and blessing. There was a holy glow in that room. I eagerly went to that room every day; because I knew God was waiting for me. I gave up sports in the afternoon and hanging out in the coffee shop to spend time with God. The next Saturday morning Falwell picked up Daryl and said, Lets go find every 4th grade boy in Springfield, Missouri. They began knocking on doors, visiting playgrounds, and searching the ditches in empty fields where boys played and hung out. When two oclock came, they went to the local movie line and asked every boy waiting in line if he was in 4th grade. I attempted to get every 4th grader to promise to come to my Sunday school class the following day. But I knew that a promise was not enough. I had three roommates and two of them had cars. Mine made three. We wound our caravan through the streets of suburban Springfield, packing one car with boys and sending it back to the church, then packing a second car to do the same thing, and finally packing my car. 4 At every home I went to the front door, and told the parents we were going to church and what I expected God to do in the life of their 4th grader. Thirty years later Jerry Falwell and I went to a meeting at High Street Baptist Church in Springfield, Missouri, where we met many of the parents and boys who had been saved in the class. Max Hawkins was there to glow in the success of then a graying Falwell. Everybody told
the same story of being savedboth parents and boysunder the influence of Jerry Falwell. Some class members had gone on to full-time Christian work. At the end of that year Jerrys 4th grade boys class averaged 57 in attendance, and on some big attendance contest, they had over 100 present. 5 Jerry said, In that tiny dormitory room I met God face to face and heart to heart; it was there that I learned what a great God I have, and it was there I developed my faith and learned that in relationship with God, a person can get things from Him. Jerry told me, When I pray, I feel God stirring in my heart to ask for a big amount of money, or a large piece of property, or a new building. Jerry said, I believe it was Gods faith stirring in my heart to ask for these big things. Later in this book we will call this concept, indwelling-faith. (See Chapter 12). Because Christ comes into our heart at salvation, and lives in our heart, we can have the faith of Jesus Christ, not just our faith. Didnt Paul say, I live by the faith of Christ (Gal. 2:20)? That means we can let Christ faith flow through us. Doesnt that demand relationship? Doesnt that say we must know God, we must know what Christ can do for us, and we must surrender our desires to Gods desires? We must let Christ faith flow through us to get great answers to prayer. Faith is relationship. Getting things by faith is like walking into a potential job situation to meet the interviewer, establishing a relationship with the interviewer and you get the job because you know whats expected, and you know what you can do at the new place; but most of all you establish a relationship with the potential employer. You and the potential boss hit it off and he hires you. Why does he do that? Because you have established a relationship with him. The same applies to getting things by faith from God. When you want something big from God, remember relationship; God is a good God who delights to give you things when you
come to Him in proper relationship. But to get big answers you must come in the right relationship to Him, then ask Him for big things. Faith is a personal relationship between you and God, you approach God properly; and He acknowledges you because He knows you. So when you honestly ask for an answer in faith, you know God is hearing you, and that you are asking for the right thing, all because you are in a right relationship with Him; the nature of faith demands two-way-communication between you and God. Of course, you must not have any sin or disobedience in your life that breaks your relationship with Him. Yes, faith is relationship. When we treat faith impersonally, all we have is impersonal faith. When we treat faith as a tool to get something from God, weve missed the whole point of faith. Our faith is not about us, its about Him. When God actively lives in our hearts then we sense His presence and can trust Him for great answers to prayer. A relationship is always about the other person, it should not focus on you. Look at it carefully. You focus on the other person as that person focuses on you. You establish a relationship of thought . . . of emotions . . . of common dreams . . . and weeping together after failure. Do you have this type of relationship with God? There are all kinds of relationships. There is the intimacy of marriage, so remember you make up the bride of Christ. The next relationship is compassion by a parent, so remember God is your heavenly father. There is a relationship of camaraderie with team members, so we are members of Christ. We have a work-relationship with those on the job, and our work-task binds us together. We sacrifice . . . work hard . . . match our skills . . . and pull together. Thats another picture of our relationship to God, For we are laborers together with God (1 Cor. 3:9, KJV).
Finally there is the relationship of a best friend. Because of respect for your buddy, you know what you shouldnt ask of a best friend. Doesnt that explain why some of our prayers are not answered? We presume upon God. We dont know God very well, nor are we close enough to Him to know what He doesnt want to do. Dont ask God in your presumed-faith for things He doesnt do, and yet, you must know God will, supply all your needs in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:19). There are some who deny the very nature of our faith-relationship with God. They live in their bubble-world where they look out for number #1. Their faith is about themselves, and their progress is for themselves. Why does their faith crumble? You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures (James 4:3, NASB). Who has the greatest faith and who gets the greatest answers to prayer? Those with the strongest relationship with God; or, those who please Him. We must learn faiths lesson from the writer of Hebrews, But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6, KJV). The word diligently has the idea of doing something with your whole heart, with all your strength, or with every last ounce of energy. When you seek God wholeheartedly, you have wholehearted faith, you have a relationship that ties you to God, but much more importantly, it ties God to you.
FAITH IS SEEKING GOD

Have you ever talked into a cell phone thinking you were talking to someone, but you lost the connection? You keep talking but no one is listening? To some, prayer or faith is like that, its a one-way conversation on the phone.
The problem is we cant see God, no one can see God, for He is Spirit (John 4:24). But faith is being certain of things we cant see (Heb. 11:1, Amplified). Moses, the one who led a million Jews out of Egypt, was a man who got answers when he talked to God, As though he saw the invisible God (Heb. 11:27). Faith is seeing God with your heart, when you cant see Him with your physical eyes. Faith is talking to God in prayer even when you cant hear His audible voice; knowing He exists and is hearing your prayers. Faith begins by knowing God exists. He who comes to God must believe that He exists and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Heb. 11:6, Amplified). Is there such thing as blind faith? Do you jump into a swimming pool and hope water is there? Do you throw a prayer into Heaven and hope God hears? If thats the way you treat faith, you dont understand biblical faith. Faith is knowing God is there when you pray, knowing God hears you, and knowing He will answer you. Faith is responding to God the way Scripture teaches you to do. Since God says He hears our prayers, you must believe Him. You cant believe in someone whos not there. Consider the absurdity of the statement of Hughes Mearns: As I was going up the stair, I met a man who wasnt there. 6 Yes, God is invisible, but the person of faith sees Him with the eyes of the heart, just as we see something with our physical eyes. Yes, we know the thing we see is there because we trust our eyes not to play tricks on us. Just that confidently, faith knows God exists and He hears what we ask. Faith is a relationship with God, and our prayers are successful when we have a healthy relationship to God. Someone asked me if there are any rules to make their faith more successful. No! You dont approach God on the basis of rulesor laws. Rules? Are there any rules in love?
You never start a relationship with rules; you start with mutual respect or love. The more you know about the person you love, the more you trust them. Like faith, love is relationship. Rules are for the complicated Blackberry, an advanced cell phone far beyond anything Ive ever seen. There is a cell phone to get a stock report, hear a tune, get the sport scores, take pictures, read e-mails, keep a to-do list, write a memo, dictate an inner-office communiqu almost everything you need to do. My cell phone can do so many things I cant do because I dont know the rules. Click three times, hold a button three seconds, hold down Ctrl-Alt and press Delete. Itll work if I know the rules. But rules do not make my cell phone live, rules only turn it on. Life is what I do with it. Yes, rules help me live better or easier. But faith in God is not based on rules; faith is a relationship with God, but even in a human relationship, you must know the limits: i.e., what not to do. Isnt that rules? Yes! So your faith starts with a relationship with God, but you must know the limits, i.e., you must know the rules. Is prayer rules? Never. Prayer is relationship. You live prayer! You relate to God and He relates to you. Prayer is a love-relationship with God. Rules dont make you fall in love. Rules dont keep you in love. When youre in love, you pour out your heart to the one you love. Thats what you do to God. Maybe you can pour out your heart over a cell phone. That instrument in your hand communicates your love, and without it, its hard to say, I love you, when youre far away. Its also hard to say, I love you, if you dont automatically know the rules, i.e., which button to activate, or to increase volume. You never fall in love by following the rules, but you cant love without rules. The same with prayer. Knowing how to pray will never make your prayers more effective. Prayer is relationship and when you know God, you listen to Him and He listens to
you. When you love God and know He loves you, then and only then will you have a basis for getting your prayers answered.
CHAPTER TWO
FAITH IS A LEAP INTO THE UNKNOWN
A leap of faith must be from a solid footing on the Word of God, trusting the God for Whom we leap, while we dont know where we are going and how we will get there, but we know the God who sent us will lead us and provide for us. Jerry Falwell
PRINCIPLE:
Faith is most effective when the believer knows he/she is stepping out on biblical principle into a situation that is unknown.
DEFINITION:
Faith \fth\ 1. to spring free from, or, as if from the ground; jump as leap over a fence; a fish leaps out of the water; 2. to pass abruptly from one state or topic to another; b: to act precipitately as leaped at the chance. (Written by Elmer Towns after research using definitions adapted from Webster and Oxford dictionaries).
CHAPTER TWO
FAITH IS A LEAP INTO THE UNKNOWN
For many years, Jerry Falwell and I argued over the definition of faith. He often said, Faith is a leap into the dark. I objected, saying the opposite, Faith is a leap into the light. I didnt realize Falwell was viewing the leap from the perspective of the landing. I was viewing the leap from the perspective of the launching pad. Now as I look back in perspective, we were both right. Look at the way Noah took a leap of faith in Scripture, Noah being divinely warned of things not yet seen (Heb. 11:7). His leap of faith was to build an ark when no one had seen rain or a boat. Then he had a second leap to enter the ark and wait for it to rain. By faith Abraham . . . went out not knowing where he was going (Heb. 11:8). His leap of faith was leaving the civilization of Ur to go live in tents in Canaan. By faith Moses . . . refused to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God (Heb. 11:24, 25). His leap of faith was identifying with Israel against Egypt. When he took that leap of faith Moses was stepping into the unknown. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off (Heb. 11:13). The heroes in Hebrews all took a leap of faith long before they received any tangible reinforcements. A leap of faith is intentional and planned. Its what you know you must do, so you just do it for God. But some refuse to leap; they wait for God to push them into action. But if God has to push them, is it a faith-leap? Our faith pleases God when we choose to trust Him. We cant stumble into an act of faith, nor can we accidentally fall into faith. No! God is pleased when we choose to step out on His promises.
Lets look more deeply at how Jerry Falwell started his ministry. He began using the only method he knew door-to-door visitation. He posted a large map of Lynchburg and the surrounding counties on the back wall of the church auditorium. He drew concentric circles around Thomas Road Baptist Church 7 every one mile, reaching out into the surrounding counties 10 miles away. Then, he began a daily 12-hour routine of going door-to-door, inviting people to church, witnessing for Christ, and ministering to the people he found at home. God blessed this method and the church began to grow. This step of faith is what most other Baptist churches did to grow. Three or four months after beginning the church, Falwell went to see Mr. Epperson, owner of WBRG, a new 1,000 watt country and western music station in nearby Madison Heights, Virginia. Epperson told Falwell he was looking for somebody to begin his program day with a devotional thought. Epperson convinced Jerry to purchase a 30-minute segment at the beginning of each day for seven dollars a day. This $49 weekly bill would financially push the small, needy church, but Falwell believed that God was leading him, so he took this leap in the unknown. He didnt know where the money would come from, but he knew that God would supply the money. What happened? Many who heard him on the radio began attending the church, attendance grew and offerings swelled to pay for radio time. Then two or three months later, Jerry decided to preach the gospel on a new medium in his hometown, i.e., local television. At this time, there was not a national preacher of the gospel on television. Also, any rational person would have thought the church was too young to go on TV. To Falwell, preaching over television was the great unknown. He talked to the local ABC affiliate and purchased 30 minutes a week, from 5:30 to 6:00 pm Sunday evening for $90 dollars a program. Again, Jerry committed himself to an expense when the church didnt have the money to pay for it, and he didnt know if it would work.
It was a very simple gospel program. Jerrys future wife, Macel, played the piano, a local Methodist layman sang, and Jerry promoted Thomas Road Baptist Church for approximately 510 minutes, telling of conversions, answers to prayer, and numerical growth in the little church. Then he would preach for the remaining time. Just as the program was concluding, he would say, Grab yourself a glass of milk and a peanut butter sandwich, youve got time to get to Thomas Road Baptist Church for our evening service at 7 pm. I want to see you there and shake your hand to welcome you to our service. That friendly approach attracted hundreds, and the church continued growing. Again, Jerry took this leap in the unknown, but God used his faith to produce added income to pay for the television station. When Jerry Falwell and I began Liberty University in the fall of 1971, he said, Elmer, you set the academic curriculum, hire the professors and supervise the program, Ill recruit the students, raise the money, build the buildings, and pay for all the expenses. With that agreement we began the college with not one penny in the bank. At first, our vision was very small; we wanted to build a college of about 5,000 students, a little larger than Tennessee Temple University 8 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, that used church facilities for the college. They bought surrounding residential homes in the neighborhood for expansion. Thats what we planned to do. Across the street from Thomas Road Baptist Church was Stewart Heights, a subdivision of fifty-two small, two bedroom houses built right after World War II. One day Jerry and I drove through the neighborhood saying we would buy every house in the neighborhood to build Liberty University, a little larger than Bob Jones University 9, Greenville, S.C. and Tennessee Temple University. I remember pointing to one house saying that will be our math department, and the next house would be the history department, and throughout the neighborhood, I kept naming what we
would put in the different houses. This was our way of dreaming of what we wanted to do for God. I began purchasing these houses, one at a time. The first cost $8000, and then I purchased several more for the college. Word got around in the neighborhood, and the price of the houses went up. Next we were paying $11,000, then $12,000, and when we got to $13,000 Jerry decided we werent going to purchase any more houses. About this time, Jerry saw the quality of the young people in the new liberal arts college. This was NOT just a Bible college for preachers. There were extraordinary young people who were greatly motivated to become educators, politicians, medical doctors and perhaps lawyers. I was serious about the academic program, and Jerry became impressed with the PhDs we were hiring to build an accredited university. I can still hear him saying, One day we will have a seminary, a teachers college, a law school, an engineering school, etc. I thought Jerry was kidding or bragging. Interestingly enough, that vision was fulfilled in 2008. Then, Jerry no longer talked about 5,000 students; he upped his goal to 50,000. We no longer planned to buy the houses across Thomas Road.
THE NATURE OF A LEAP OF FAITH

Some people want to take a big step of faith by making a gigantic decision, then sit back to watch God work. But nothing happens, they fall into a black hole, then blame God for not coming through in a pinch (see Chapter Eight, Faith-Balance). Before taking a leap into the unknown, make sure you are fulfilling Gods plan, and its not just your pipe-dream. Lets go back to see where the money for Liberty was raised and how an army of supporters was recruited. In the summer of 1971, I gave Jerry a proposed budget for the first year, i.e., $152,000 to $158,000.
I dont have any money for the college, Jerry responded. Lets go start raising it tonight. Jerry and I got into his Buick and we drove out for an evening church meeting, approximately 100 miles away. Then I realized how Jerry planned to raise the money. Each evening that first summer we went to a meeting usually held in a small town Baptist church where a crowd was waiting for us. Doug Oldham, a gold record Christian artist of his day in gospel music, would sing for 30 minutes. Then I would cast a vision for a new Christian college that would train young men to influence the world to carry out the Great Commission. Next, Jerry would preach a gospel message. Then hed make an appeal for people to become Door Keepers. Hed say, Would you hold open the door of the gospel so we can build a great Christian college to train young people to reach the world for Christ? Jerry would hold up a packet of 52 business reply envelopes, that was stapled together, i.e., one envelope for each week of the year. He would ask Door Keepers to take a packet, mail a dollar a week to support this new Christian college, and become a part of reaching the world for Christ. Every evening approximately 50 to 100 people would take a packet of envelopes promising to send a dollar a week. Instead of getting an offering of a few hundred dollars, we received pledges that would add up to thousands each year. One evening at a rural country Baptist church, over 250 people took a packet of envelopes; that was not just $250 dollars a week, that was 250 people each giving $52 a year; that was $13,000 for the evening. I remember Jerry Falwell saying as we drove home through the night, If we could go to a church like this every evening, we could build the college of our dreams. That first summer we raised over $100,000 in pledges for the new college, one dollar at a time.
Postage went up on the business reply envelopes, and the IRS looked over our shoulder to tell us we had to send a receipt each week to each $1.00 Door Keeper. It was no longer profitable to distribute a Door Keeper packet of envelopes asking for a dollar a week. We substituted 12 envelopes in each packet, asking people for a donation of $10 a month, calling these people Faith Partners; they were partnering with us to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. A year later the program went to $15 a month, and finally to $20 a month. In the glory years, Liberty constructed three or four dormitories a year because over 120,000 people gave $10-20 a month. That amounted to $1,200,000 monthly or $26 million a year. Every financial step of faith was a leap into the unknown. But, it wasnt always a comfortable step, nor was it an easy step, nor did Gods provision come without hard work; it took constant work, yet smart work. On January 21, 1976 Jerry Falwell took all of the students to Liberty Mountain on a cold, snowy day. They came by faith to claim the mountain by faith. A Liberty graduate and bestselling record gospel singer, Robbie Hiner, stood in the snow to sing, I Want That Mountain . . . I Want That Mountain. The students cheered loudly and joyfully sang their prayer of faith, I Want That Mountain. God was good, it didnt snow that day as was forecasted, but God did shine His love and financial blessing on that endeavor. After Jerry preached he looked in the camera and said, I want you to send me $100 today so I can stake my claim on Liberty Mountain. He continued telling the audience that as soon as he received $10,000 the earth movers would begin their excavation and within seven months, school would be held on Liberty Mountain that fall. Again, a leap into the unknown.
That news excited people all across the Old Time Gospel Hour television network. One hundred dollar donations began to pour in. That fall students entered Dormitory #1, plus held classes in two classroom buildings constructed on the main campus. In the early days, each one story dormitory would hold thirty-eight students, and cost approximately $100,000. But along with the dormitories, Liberty had to build a complete infrastructure on Liberty Mountain i.e., roads, sewage lines, lights/electricity, water lines, phones, all the while meeting the environmental and local building codes. Jerry stepped out in faith not knowing if he could complete the project in seven months, but nevertheless, he stepped out into the unknown. Falwell told the contractors, The rabbit cant climb a tree, but when it has to, it can. That was his challenge to do the impossible. People contributed to the dream of building the worlds most exciting university on Liberty Mountain. Construction workers were on the job around the clock; engineers and architects worked with the city to get permissions and in the fall of 1977, classes opened on Liberty Mountain.
HOW TO LEAP
To help you understand that faith is a leap into the dark, or a leap into the unknown; note the following descriptive phrases. 1. To leap from one place to another, usually over an obstacle or a barrier. When you take a leap of faith, you are saying to a mountain/obstacle that you want it to move out of your way. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, Be removed and be cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says (Mark 11:23). Technically that is mountain-moving faith, but sometimes the mountain doesnt want to move. The obstacle to your ministry wont get out of the way. What do you do? You have to jump over it. Is that called a leap of faith?
To successfully leap over obstacles, start with your knowledge of God and the Scripture; then ask some questions. Is your faith-project biblical? Will it glorify God? Will it advance the cause of Christ? Remember some obstacles dont block the work of God, they just block out the things you want to do, or the selfish things you plan. So if God doesnt honor your leap of faith, maybe its because you are not leaping in the will of God. To make a leap of faith, make sure youre standing on the promises of Jesus Christ. When you try to jump from shifting sand, you probably wont make it. You must leap from the Rock of the Word of God. Make sure youre right with God before you take your leap of faith. Know what you want to do for God, then do it. 2. You must leap over your inner obstacles. Remember, we are human and humans change. One day we love God deeply, while the next day our fluctuating emotions can cast us into depression or cause our optimism to soar. This does not mean that our relationship to God has changed. It means only that circumstances change or sin has gained control of our lives, or has blinded our perception of God. When we recognize that we change, we may realize our inner obstacle did not come from God, but its our problem to overcome. Faith looks beyond our emotions and begins on the solid rock promises of the Word of God. Next, we must make sure our faith goes beyond our rational understanding of our project and is grounded on God Himself. We must never let our faith be grounded in our limited ability. Then there are those who have faith in their faith but that is not New Testament faith. Remember, even our understanding can change. What we do not understand about God today may clear up next week. When we go out in the morning we may perceive that it is going to rain, so we take an umbrella. However, what we thought was rain was simply ground fog.
The sun burns away the mist and the day is beautiful. We must not let the fog of unbelief cloud our perception of the Bible. We must look for what God has placed in the Bible and accept it as His will. We must be careful of the influence of circumstances. For instance, a person thinks that his mother is dying of cancer. Because of this he questions God. All the while, his mother has only a small cyst, not an infected tumor. When we are blinded by our circumstances, our faith questions God; but all the while we should have trusted Him. Our faith needs daily nurturing. Like the flowers that wither without water and the body that dies without food, our faith will grow weaker (Rom. 4:18-20) if it is not nurtured through Bible study, prayer, and Christian obedience. As you apply the Word of God to your life, ask yourself if your faith is growing and do the Scriptures guide your life. We should accept the unbelief we find in our hearts. Its a fact; we are sinners (1 John 1:8, 10). Because we have a sin nature, we cannot have perfect faith. Even the disciples who saw Jesus on Resurrection Sunday evening were victims of their doubt. Later, Jesus upbraided them because of their unbelief (Mark 16:19; see Matt. 28:17). Sometimes a leap of faith means we must jump over our doubts. Also, our minds are finite. We do not know everything; hence we cannot have infinite faith in God. When we realize how little we know about God, we will confess we only have finite faith. No one knows the evil in his heart until he tries to serve God with all his being. Satan is always there to stop you, and your flesh will always try to trip you up. No one experiences complete biblical faith until he attempts to trust in the Lord with all your heart (Prov. 3:5). As we stand on the riverbank to view the tide, we never know the strength of the current until we attempt to swim the stream. A man who never tries to live for God has never fully
experienced his sinful nature, and those who attempt a leap of faith have never known inner obstacles until he honestly prepares to leap into what seems darkness. We must recognize the conditional nature of life. Rather than saying by faith, I know God wants me to go serve Him in a certain city, we should say, If it is the will of God. James wrote: Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit: whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow (James 4:13, 14). No one knows how long he will live, nor what will befall him. James tells us, You ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that (James 4:15). So when you get ready to leap, you may have to say, If the Lord wills, I will successfully leap in faith. 3. Youll have to ask if you really want to make this leap. Sometimes we take a step of faith trusting God for money, or to buy a piece of property, or to purchase some other tangible good. The problem is Do we really need the thing for our survival, or the survival of our spiritual group, i.e., our church? So the danger of leaping in faith into the unknown is usually very threatening. If you honestly could stay home and not make the leap, then maybe thats what you should do. But if you absolutely have to do it, then you must leap. What leap of faith are you planning on making in the near future? Is it something you must do, or something you want to do? Is it nice, or is it necessary? Have you counted the cost and surveyed your options? 4. The bigger the leap, the more energy it will take to successfully cross the obstacle. Obviously it takes only a little energy to jump a small stream. But we all know that the wider the stream, the longer running start youll need for a successful jump. Lets apply this principle to a step of faith. Sometimes a leap of faith is not threatening, we need money, but we have reserve funds, or emergency funds. If our leap of faith doesnt work, we have a cushion
to fall back on. Then we have to ask ourselves if its not an absolute necessity, can it really be a leap of faith? Maybe what we call a leap of faith is nothing more than business as usual. 5. You must make a commitment before you leap. Think about the various types of commitments youll make to jump across a stream. You have to determine how fast youre going to run, how high you will jump, and how far over the bank on the other side will you land. This is the equivalent of asking how much money beyond the goal you must raise. You may even want to make a decision whether the ground on the other side is soggy, or is hard, or a steep bank. Will you hurt yourself when you land? The answers to all these questions contribute to a successful leap across a stream. Now lets apply that to a leap of faith in your personal life. When we decide how fast you must run to make a successful leap, you may be describing the time of preparation before the event approaches. You may be describing what you must do to get your followers ready to make the leap with you. Are you willing to fast to make your leap of faith a success? Will you fast seven days? Forty days? I tell the ministerial students at Liberty: You dont honestly know yourself or your God, Until youve fasted 40 days.
Ask yourself, Have I given myself to prayer? How many hours a day will I pray? Yonggi Cho 10 (pastor of the largest church in history, the 750,000 Full Gospel Church 11 of Seoul, Korea, told me he spends two hours in prayer each day. So did John Wesley, the man who did more to change the world in which he found himself. Maybe you face a life-threatening leap, so you must go on a 40-day fast. 12 Therefore, make a list of all the things you must do physically, mentally and spiritually to get ready for your
leap of faith. Remember, the wider the creek the bigger your goal the longer you must prepare to receive the thing for which youre praying. 6. Consider the results after you take the leap of faith. What will your church be like after you get the money? What will you be like when God answers your prayer? Dont forget there are many unintended consequences in the work of God. How many churches have raised money to purchase a gym, only to squander their new resource by using the gym only one or two hours a week? Also, some church members may begin complaining that too much money was spent on the project. They might accuse you, or the church of wasteful stewardship. If the followers begin to think the building never should have been built, are your actions a leap of faith?
Ask who will leave the church after the leap is successful. Ask what people will disagree with the size, aesthetics, or cost. Ask if people will feel the new project was not of God. Ask if the people may vote you out, even though you succeeded.
You want to make sure that the bank on the other side of the creek will hold when you leap across the stream. So, make sure the church can sustain the victory of your successful leap of faith. Some people dont know how to live with victory. Much like the United States that won World War II, yet lost the peace, because it was plunged into 40 years of Cold War conflict with Soviet Russia. Do you know what youre going to do with the results once you take your leap of faith? 7. Dont expend so much energy on the jump, so that you cant properly walk after you land. Suppose you have to jump a two-foot stream, but you get a head of steam and run with all your might, jumping seven feet. You might make a spectacle of yourself, or if no one sees you,
you might just laugh at yourself. Make sure that you dont expend too much energy to leap a stream. Why? You may be too tired to walk on the other side when you get there. How many times has the church spent all of its energy to build a new sanctuary, yet have nothing left for ministry? They work and pray and raise money for three or four years, sometimes six or seven years. Then the building project takes two or three years, including construction, plus clearing the needed permits and local building regulations. Some congregations have spent so much energy constructing the sanctuary, that when they get in, theres an emotional letdown. Perhaps thats the reason many pastors leave a church shortly after they build the biggest sanctuary ever. There is also the trauma of building too big so that the people rattle in a sanctuary, like worshipping in a barn. The new sanctuary doesnt sing like the old one, the acoustics only echo like a gigantic valley. Or the new sanctuary loses the intimate fellowship the congregation had when packed in the previously small one. We should never say that a church is in the people business, but it is. When people dont like the restaurant where they get fed spiritually, theyll go elsewhere. Finally, some churches spend so much money on the new building they have nothing left for ministry. The church is not financially able to advertise, or run its programs, or hire ministers to carry out its purpose. Sometimes churches have not been financially able to pay custodial service or utilities; other times churches have had to lay off staff or ministers to make monthly payments for the new addition. What began as a majestic leap of faith ends up as pathetic waste of resources. 8. You must make the leap in spite of your fears. Even if you have great faith in God, you must make emotional preparation for a gigantic leap of faith. Sometimes your leap of faith will not just frighten you, it will absolutely terrorize
you. These are times you must find comfort and support in the Word of God. Even when you get peace from God, you must face your terror and jump anyway. Sometimes a Christian worker goes out on a limb by asking many people to pray for the project. He takes an enormous leap of faith, but fails. He loses the support of his clientele; he might even lose prayer support. Was the leap worth the consequences? And then we ask the question: if the leap has no threat at all, is it really a leap of faith? Sometimes we call it a leap of faith but its just business as usual, because we have enough money to cover all the bases. At other times, the leap is so threatening it paralyzes your emotional system. You cant pray, you cant think; you dont even grow in the Word of God. Your whole life is threatened by potential pain and threat of loss. 9. Sometimes a leap of faith is like a risk of life and limb. Sometimes a leap of faith is like running into a burning building to save a loved one, knowing you could die. Its like swimming out to rescue a drowning person, knowing he could pull you under. Sometimes you must take a leap of faith to save others, even if you lose your own life.
WRAP-UP
Many servants of God have risked everything in their own personal leap of faith. Theyve left successful businesses to enter the ministry. Theyve gone to the foreign mission field, and some to die unknown and unappreciated. Some to a martyrs death. Many servants have done the supposedly undoable; theyve begun churches, built Bible colleges, written books, and raised thousands of dollars. Others have reached the supposedly unreachable, theyve discovered medical cures to bless thousands and theyve prayed without recognition. Theyve moved unmovable mountains.
After reading this chapter, you may face a challenge that is greater than your ability to solve it. Remember the faith of an ordinary person in God can transform his life and enable him to overcome insurmountable obstacles, with limited resources, in difficult circumstances to the glory of God.
CHAPTER THREE
BRINKMANSHIP-FAITH
There can be no faith without risk. J. Hudson Taylor
PRINCIPLE:
When faced with a life-threatening obstacle or attack, you must risk everything with a leap of faith that answers the enemy and/or defeats him.
DEFINITION:
Brink-man-ship \ brink-muhn-ship \ going to an extreme edge, or the verge of something, i.e., the practice of pushing a situation to the limit for victory. Synonym: creating a turning point. (Written by Elmer Towns after research using definitions adapted from Webster and Oxford dictionaries).
CHAPTER THREE
BRINKMANSHIP 13-FAITH (Going To the Brink or Edge)
When there comes a crisis in ministry that threatens the existence of biblical Christianityor a local churchthe man of faith must stand against it. He must go to extreme limits to counteract extreme threats. Great bold threats demand great bold extraordinary faith. The word brinkmanship was coined during the Cold War between the U. S. and Russia from 1945 to 1989. Both nations went to the edge of a shooting war because of the ideological differences, but hostilities never broke out. When you exercise brinkman-faith, you use every possible strategy, even to the point of total sacrifice to win a spiritual victory that threatens your existence.
STAND AGAINST YOUR NATION

The largest church in Europe is the Embassy of God located in Kyiv, Ukraine, with over 36,000 members. The Communist authorities tried every way to get rid of the church. Because of its size, government and media began taking notice and they didnt like what they saw. A Pentecostal church was a threat to national identity and they felt it would corrupt the Ukrainian culture. A propaganda barrage was launched against the church and they were accused of being agents of the CIA in America, practicing black magic, selling alcohol, hypnotizing people, and being cult leaders. The police seized his passport and revoked his permission to preach as a foreigner. Then he became an illegal resident, but he has stayed in the country for the past twelve years and the church continues to grow. He says, Staying in Kyiv without a visa is an answer to prayer. The only way the authorities could get rid of this growing church was to tear down the civic center where they rented the facilities. When the government announced its destruction,
over 20,000 people marched and surrounded city hall praying, waving flags; the choir wore blue robes and they held hands and sang hymns in the city center. The authorities had turned the electricity off in their complex, the toilets were closed and they demanded of the government, Were Ukrainians, citizens of this country, we have rights. We say, Let us build the buildings ourselves; please give us the opportunity. They waited for four hours. Many were sure that tanks would come and machine guns would be lined up. In former days before the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the people would have been gunned down in the streets. They wondered if it would happen again. So, with prayer and fasting they waited for the mayor to come out. The mayor told them that he would give them the right to build a building, but Adelaja would not believe him. Years earlier the mayor had promised to give the church the right to build a building, but the government never did. Adelaja determined that 20,000 people would stay in the streets until they got a written guarantee from the mayor. Finally, they got their documentsignedand 20,000 people went home. He said, Earthly authorities respect only visible and tangible force, they will not give in easily. The pastor, Sunday Adelaja, 14 was a Nigerian black man who went to Moscow to be trained in communications/propaganda, where he earned his BA and MA degree from Byelarussian State University. It was the intent of the Russian government to send him home, back to his country to lead a Communist revolution there. Adelaja was named Sunday by his grandmother because he was born on Sunday and she raised him in a Presbyterian environment where he was educated in St. Pauls Anglican Primary School. When he finished his education, a door opened for him in the Ukraine when a television station in Kyiv needed a journalist who spoke Russian, so he began producing and scripting the programs for the new pioneering station. Then God nudged him to begin a church.
He began trying to get good people to come to the church, but almost no one came to the services to hear him preach. Only a few foreigners attended his church. For four years, not one Russian attended, all he could get were Asians. There was an obvious ethnic barrier to the church. He was a black pastor from Nigeria and many white Russians wouldnt come to attend the church. Then, Sunday Adelaja took off his white shirt, tie and suit, and began going into the streets to the drug addicts, the alcoholics, and the dregs of society. He preached a message on the power of the Gospel to transform lives. He focused on touching people with the love of Christ and visited them in their homes. His church reached over 1,000 in attendance. Eventually God began to give him Russians to attend his church when they saw the transformed lives of the street people. He said that God told him, If I can trust you with the down and out; I will trust you with the normal and powerful people of society. Today, the church has over a dozen members of Parliament in the church, plus civil servants at various levels of society. The mayor of Kyiv is a member of the church, as well as a Supreme Court justice and about twenty percent of the Communist Party officials. Early on, Adelaja announced a week-long fast, a practice he has continued to this day. Every month he goes to a private apartment, without telephone, television, or radio, and spends one week in prayer each month. When I asked him why he does that, he said, Because I face the threat of imminent deportation and all the other threats in the church. I have to pray for Gods protection. We go forward with prayer. In addition, Adelaja has received a number of death threats on his life, even funeral wreaths have been delivered to the front door of his home. Yet, he knows that God has assured him from the very first that he would have a great ministry in the Ukraine. His lay workers have testified that there have been occasions when assassins have come into a service to murder him and that assassin was surrounded by intercessors who continued to
pray for him throughout the service. On each occasion, the assassin left without doing any damage. The secret of the churchs growth is that twice a year over 2,000 leaders of the church attend a 10-day retreat where they fast and pray for the work of God in Kyiv, spending approximately 10-12 hours each day in prayer. In 2004 the Orange Revolution lasted for seventeen days when over 1 million protestors surrounded the Parliament building, demanding that the public election that they had just won be recognized by the Communist Party bosses. The problem was, the party bosses had lost the election and ViktorYushchenko had won the majority to be the new Prime Minister of the Ukraine. Viktor Yushchenko represented democracy and a more open servant-hearted leadership for the Ukraine. The people wore orange, symbolic of the coming spring and a new season. The Orange Revolution began when over 50,000 members of Sunday Adelajas church were led into the streets to the Parliament building. It had worked two years earlier, and they were sure it would work again. Many people were fasting and praying for physical protection for the protestors. They didnt threaten, they stood and sang hymns; many have described it as a great revival meeting surrounding the Parliament building. The people danced, lifted hands in praise to God, and the ladies took flowers and inserted them in the barrels of the rifles of the soldiers who surrounded the Parliament building. The weather was terrible, it was below zero; and the food was meager. The church rallied with tents to feed the people, tents as hospitals for the sick and tents for intense prayer. If it hadnt been for the courage and determination of Sunday Adelaja and the members of the church, the protest might not have been successful. Adelaja announced to the political leaders, If you will not accept responsibility for this country, then I will. That slogan was chanted by the people.
When the newspapers and television reported that the established Communist bosses had won the election, the people spontaneous took to the streets and gathered in Independence Square, the main city square in Kyiv. Hundreds of thousands of citizens left their jobs and homes to stand up for what was right. While people were gathering around the parliament building, 4,000 church members banded themselves to fast and pray that a potential violent standoff might not happen. People stayed in Independence Square day and night, giving speeches, playing music, chanting slogans, waving giant orange flags and flags of the Ukraine, holding up big banners with their slogans. At night the Square was alive with candles and thousands of people praying. Members of the Russian Orthodox Church were praying with members of Adelajas church.
THE EMBASSY OF GOD

Finally, the Communist bosses gave into the will of the people, i.e., the protestors. In January of 2005 President Yushchenko amazed the nation by starting his first day in office with public prayer. He and his wife and children bowed their knees before an altar and gathered with him as leaders from all the Christian denominations, including the Pentecostal churches they once considered cults in the Ukraine, led in public prayer. After victory Yushchenko thanked the Embassy of God with a plaque in appreciation saying, Your conscientious work has become a considerable part in that victory. It was you who protected democracy in the Ukraine, standing for its high ideals, not considering your own interests. I am convinced that as long as there are people in the Ukraine who have the same civil position, dignity and spirit as you have, everything will be all right in this country. That plaque hangs in the church to this day.
The Embassy of God has planted almost 400 churches throughout the Ukraine. There is a pastors training school called a university, as well as a school to train leaders for government positions, also called a university. 15
THE BATTLE FOR OUR PROPERTY

Christ Fellowship 16 of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, engaged in spiritual brinkmanship with the city council over its future existence. The church was begun in the living room of Tom Mullins, pastor and found a permanent home in a converted horse barn on the six-lane Northlake Boulevard. Christ Fellowship was attracting over 4000 people in five weekend services (Saturday night, 5 and 7 pm; Sunday 8, 9:30, and 11:30 a.m.). The church had owned 40 acres across Northlake Boulevard, however the City Council kept delaying their request for a zoning variation and building permit. There was such opposition from the neighborhood that the issue became a political hot potato and the opposition was making all types of false claims that a large mega church would cause traffic gridlock and create dangerous turning lanes. Basically they just didn't want that large of a population mass in their neighborhood. However, Northlake Boulevard was large enough to handle the traffic generated by larger developments with much more substantial traffic impact at peak times. The church traffic was much less. The root of the issue wasnt traffic; it was something deeper. The horse barn was packed and overflowing and opposition not only stymied its vitality, it could crush its enthusiasm if it couldnt grow. Pastor Tom Mullins was convinced that the church had to move across the road, and they had to build on their own property that they owned across the road. He had to face the challenge head on with brinkmanship-faith, so he called the church to fasting and prayer.
This was a spiritual attack and Mullins and his church family knew nothing must stand in the way of a work of God. Several all night prayer meetings were called, several vowed a 40-day fast to resolve the issue, and many people prayed. But not just the people of the church, Tom Mullins called on his pastoral friends nationwide for them to pray, and to get their churches to pray with the congregation of Christ Fellowship for permission to build. In November of 1997, the city council met and voted 4 to 1 to allow Christ Fellowship to rezone the area in order to construct a worship center, a youth center and a children's ministry building. It was a major victory! The church didnt back down, but triumphed! Tom Mullins and the church rejoiced in the vote, knowing it was God who worked in the hearts of the individual council members and the neighbors to give them victory. Mullins said, If hundreds had not fasted and prayed, we would not have won this spiritual victory.
THE CHALLENGE OF BRINKMANSHIP

When the work of God is mortally challenged, the man of God must believe God first and foremost. He believes God exists, and that God has called him to strive against evil. The man of God must respond in faith to stop evil, knowing when he prays for the mountain to be moved (Mark 11:23); God will respond to his faith and remove the threat to his ministry. Brinkmanship-faith involves going to extreme limits to counteract an extreme threat. When evil pushes, brinkmanship-faith pushes back; but this is more than preaching against sin, or holding a candle in the darkness. Brinkmanship-faith counterpunches with the strength of a heavyweight fighter, knowing he must knock out evil before he is knocked out. He pushes the challenge to the spiritual limits, risking his job . . . his possessions . . . his home . . . his very life.
Brinkmanship-faith risks everything possible to turn the situation around so the work of God can go on. Moses gave up the prestige and safety of Pharaohs palace to side with Israel in slavery. Esther risked her crown as queen of Persia when she concluded, If I perish, I perish. So the man of God says, Ill never give up, and Ill never quit. Brinkmanship-faith is stopping the mouth of lions, quenching the violence of fire, facing the edge of the sword . . . tortured . . . trials of mocking and scourging; yes, even chains and imprisonment (Heb. 11:33, Amplified). Sometimes the challenge to brinkman-faith is internal. Sometimes financial reversals in society threaten to bankrupt a church. Sometimes a church board threatens to fire a pastor for preaching against polite sins of their church. Perhaps a Diotrophes threatens to split the church, 17 at other times a few begin spreading a heretical teaching. The threat may be as harmless as exploding attendance in a small auditorium and inadequate parking. Remember, you cant pour a gallon of milk into a six-ounce glass. At other times the threat is external. Sometimes government agencies try to harness the work of evangelism or stop a church from building on its property. In the future, the government may try to force a church to hire a homosexual in a political correctness campaign. Suppose the government threatens jail time for hate speech because a pastor said there is no salvation in Islam, or he says, Abortion is murder. Dont we Americans take free speech for granted? When Jesus promised the gates of hell shall not stand against us, 18 wasnt the Lord suggesting brinkmanship-faith? Wasnt Jesus using warfare terminology to suggest we bombard an enemys defense with the truth, and wasnt he expecting us to invade the enemys castle by prayer, and knock down its doors? It will take deep conviction to do that; it will take brinkmanship- faith. Gods method to overcome obstacles in ministry has been a Spirit-filled personalways, always has been, always will bea unique leader fearlessly and driven to get the work of God
done. Because he believes God, so he does whatever it takes to get the job done. His faith resides in God, not a method, a thing, a tool, or a technique. His faith doesnt rest on his courage or his vision, but in God Himself. When Gods man faces insurmountable obstacles, he usually has inadequate resources when he finds himself in difficult circumstances. But he obeys God to launch out into a project that is so traumatizing that the only way to succeed is by the intervention of God Himself. When the night is blackest, and the way is fraught with problems, and the enemy seems to have the upper hand; the manor womanof God will trust in God and God alone. He will step out into the unknown, not knowing where he is going, or how he will solve the dilemma he is in. He will continue charging up the hill of resistance. He will strike with his last ounce of courage. Then in one magnificent leap of faith into the darkness, he will confidently step out into the unknown. He will not fear, but with confidence and courage know he is doing exactly what God wants him to do. He knows its the right time, the right situation and the right place. So he puts God and His reputation on the spot. He calls for all the world to see what God can do. He practices brinkmanship, pushing a dangerous situation to the limit. Why? Because he believes God has led him to do it. He has no other choice. After he has done all he can do, the man of God waits for the inevitable to unfold. He knows God will roll back the black clouds and God will push back the enemy and God will give him the victory. The command the man of God has heard in the dark of night, whispered to him by God, is that command for which he risks his life and ministry. He knows what he has to do because he has heard God speak to his soul. He cannot go back, he cannot quit, and he cannot fail; because in the dark he recognized the voice of God talking to him. Now he must take the leap of faith that will define his life and define his ministry.
Some may take a leap of faith once in a lifetimeand only onceand forever be remembered by that leap; and he will always remember that leap. His leap decided his character. Isnt that true of Wilbur Wright the first man to fly? Isnt that true of Charles Lindberg the first man to fly across the Atlantic? Isnt that true of Neil Armstrong, the first man to fly and land on the moon? Then other men leap twice. To once do something extraordinary is not enough. They glorified God when they saw Him break through the rubbish to give victory. They become so convinced that it could happen again that they mustered up all their courage and did it a second time. It was not that they doubted God the second time, they had to see Him do His work again. No, they took a leap a second time because God told them to do it. They wanted to glorify God a second time. Some menlike Jerry Falwellhave done it many times. They could be called habitual faith-leapers. Because they walk with God, they have learned to be comfortable leaping for God, because He always comes through. Jerry is described as an active tense leaper because he did it many times. Brinkmanship could have been his nickname. Why not? He called himself a street fighter. A true brinkmanship-person obeys God and walks constantly into battle, unafraid to face the enemy. Brinkmanship means they look the enemy in the eye, and dont blink, nor do they back down. Thats how Jerry Falwell described himselfone who practices the art of spiritual brinkmanship. 19 He knew thats what he had to do, because thats what God wanted him to do. He walked point for the rest of us. When youre on a spiritual brinkmanship journey, you know Who your commander-inchief is, so you report for duty each morning. You know who your enemy is, so you go out constantly to do battle.
But you dont fight with normal weapons of war. Spiritual battles are not won easily. You fight in spiritual warfare, winning battles on your knees before you win them in the public sector. Did you see that Sunday Adaleja fasts one week out of every month? When you come to spiritual brinkmanship your marching orders are the Word of God. Remember the battle cry of Billy Graham 20, The Bible says . . . . You must bring great hope to spiritual brinkmanship. Remember the passion of Bill Bright, to fulfill the Great Commission in this generation. 21 God has always used people, thats His only method; thats His best method. When the world tumbled into demonic darkness after Adams fall, and God knew He had to destroy the world with a flood because it seemed the satanic scourge was unstoppable, God didnt look for a technique or new method. God looked for a man who would obey Him to do His work. This man would do the improbably and impossible. God looked for a faith-leaper. God wanted a man who would do what no man had ever donebuild a 450-foot boat in the middle of dry land. God wanted a man who would announce to the world a coming flood when it had never rained. God wanted a man who would beg everyone to repent and get on board the ark. God wanted a man who would put his family at risk to board the ark and save the world. Gods brinkmanship-man was Noah, a faith-leaper. Later the world was plunged into the grip of idolatry. God needed a man who would separate himself from the evil influence of an idolatrous civilization, who would move his family into the wilderness to live separate from sin and live above sin. Gods brinkmanship-man was Abraham, one who steppedleapedout on faith, not knowing where he was going, but he went where God led. He looked for a city whose builder and maker is God (Heb. 11:10).
Next God knew the world would face a life-ending famine. Gods method to reverse the famine was a young man. God brought that young man to Egypt, elevated him to the second highest office in the worlds most powerful empire. The young mans greatness was evidenced by riding in the second chariot behind Pharaoh (Gen. 41:43). Gods brinkmanship-man was Joseph whose organizing brilliance saved the world from starvation. The Jews who went to Egypt to save themselves ended up in slavery to the Egyptians. God needed a deliverer to lead them into the land of Canaan that He had promised to them. God found an adopted son of Pharaohs daughter, a boy who was really Jewish. The boy chased not riches and power of Egypt, but stepped out into the unknown. His leap of faith involved leading a nation of rebellious slaves who seemed unleadable. His leap of faith was to teach Gods principles to those who seemed unteachable. Gods brinkmanship-man was Moses, one who continually practiced brinkmanship. When Gods people were beaten from pillar to post in the Promised Land by the Philistines, God raised up a warrior-king from the sheepfold. As a lad he killed a bear, a lion and Goliath. As a man he rid Gods people of the Philistines. He raised Gods kingdom to splendor so that heathen nations praised the God of the Jews. Gods brinkmanship-man was David. Throughout history God had his faith-leapers. There was Rahab who risked all to choose God one night and she entered the Messianic line. There was also Ruth who chose to follow God and be buried in the land of Gods people. Her leap of faith earned her the right to be called grandmother of King David. Then there was Deborah who challenged men to rid their nation of the Canaanites. These women were risk-takers; who in a crisis took a leap of faith. There are other faith-leapers just as great. There was Elijah who stood against wicked King Ahab on Mount Carmel. There was King Hezekiah whose leap of faith was praying in the
Temple, God answered by visiting a judgment plague on the Assyrians so that 160,000 died. There was Esther whose leap of faith was opposing wicked Haman. Nehemiah in a leap of faith began the impossible job of rebuilding the wall and he wouldnt quit until the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt. Faith-leapers never stooped to self-gratification of name-it or claim-it faith. They didnt take a leap into the unknown for a Cadillac, nor did they plant a $1,000 seed-faith-gift in a television ministry to get rich or, get healed, or accomplish personal goals. To a faith-leaper, self gratification cannot be compared to pleasing God (Heb. 11:6). These illustrious faith-leapers had their eyes on the future of Gods kingdom and they were jealous in protecting Gods reputation in a world that denies theres a God Who created them and has a right to control them.
WRAP-UP
Brinkmanship is not a program to raise money, nor is it an evangelistic technique to investigate the Scriptures to discover the mysteries of God. No, none of these. Faith-leaping is brinkmanship, challenging the depth of your soul, to win the prize for God. Brinkmanship-faith is a persons response to God. And doesnt the quality of our responses to God depend on the depth of our relationship to God?
CHAPTER FOUR
FAITH-PRIORITY
God will bless your steps into the unknown when the priority of your actions fit into the priority of Gods program. Unknown
PRINCIPLE:
God will bless your step of faith when it meshes with Gods priority for ministry.
DEFINITION:
Priority \ pri-r-at-. 1. Qualities of being advanced or before; 2. Privilege; 3. The exercise of preferences; 4. A quality treated first; 5. Superior in attention. (Written by Elmer Towns after research using definitions adapted from Webster and Oxford dictionaries).
CHAPTER FOUR
FAITH-PRIORITY
There were two churches in different areas of a mid-sized town that needed to build a new sanctuary. The people came from the same type of socio-economic neighborhood and each congregation had a history of solid financial giving. All things seemed to be equal, but one congregation raised all the money it needed, the others financial campaign failed. Was it Gods fault? . . . No! Did both pastors have faith? . . . Yes! What was the difference in their faith? While everything seemed equal on the surface, the faith-planning of the pastors differed widely. The failed pastor based his campaign on the financial ability of the members, plus he emphasized the beauty of the new sanctuary, and he emphasized better worship. But the other pastor successfully challenged his congregation to reach more lost people than ever, and get them saved. He kept emphasizing their overflow crowd and lost people wouldnt attend where there were no seats. His appeal was soul-winning. Does God have a priority of faith so that He recognizes some steps of faith quicker than others? . . . Yes! But Gods priority of faith isnt found in the depth of sincerity or intense prayer of one pastor over the others. The priority lies with the purpose of what God does. Will God hear quicker the prayer for evangelism of lost people than for a new building? . . . Yes! God is not primarily interested in the financial bottom line of a church, or the size of its sanctuary or facilities, He takes note of its spiritual health. God looks at baptismal statistics. How many people were born again? People impress God because God is impressed with people.
So, God answers some prayers quicker than others because some requests have more importance to Him than others. God has a priority-scale in selecting what prayers He honors, and what prayers to postpone or ignore. Why is this strange to us? There is priority in healthcare; more attention is given to lifethreatening disease than to help those with discomfort. There is a priority in agriculture; crops that are vital to mankind get more priority than crops that only give enjoyment. There are priorities in budget allocations; necessities get more attention than do items that increase lifes pleasures. An editor of a newspaper cant print every news item that comes across his desk. Priorities guide him to print those items his reader must know, rather than filling his paper with entertaining items.
GODS 10 PRIORITIES 22 What faith does God honor? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. When believers establish an intimate relationship with God. When believers worship God for Who He is (John 4:29). When believers love God and put Him first in their lives (Matt. 22:37-39). When believers attempt to evangelize the unsaved (2 Peter 3:9). When believers live holy lives that please the Lord (James 1:17). When believers become actively involved in their local body of Christ. When believers carry out the commands of spiritual ministry to others. When believers minister to the needy outside the body of Christ. When believers trust God to supply their necessities: food, clothing, and shelter When believers trust God for buildings, property, equipment or stuff.
FIRST PRIORITY: When Believers Establish an Intimate Relationship with God. Some have tried to use their faith to get a great answer to prayer, but nothing happened. Why? Perhaps they have forgotten the most essential element of faith. Faith is not a power they
possess to do things for God. Faith comes from the person of God, and you must be correctly related to God for your faith to work successfully. And the more intimately a person is connected to God, the more powerful their faith. Therefore, dont seek faith, seek Jesus. Pauls passion at the end of his life is reflected in his following prayer. That I may know him, to experience His power (Phil. 3:10, Amplified). So whats the secret of faith to move mountains? Put Christ first, That in all things He may have the preeminence (Col. 1:18). So what must you do to get stronger faith? You must do what Paul did, For me, to live is Christ (Phil. 1:21). Then what can you do? I can do all things through Christ (Phil 4:13). When your first priority in ministry is to know God, then God will reward your step of faith. SECOND PRIORITY: When Believers Worship God for Who He Is. In the Old Testament the people of God lost their priority. They were worshipping Asherah (the false Canaanite fertility god) and had shrines for idols in high hills (2 Kings 18:4), and sacrificed to Balaam, and even made a god of the bronze serpent used by Moses (2 Kings 18:4). King Hezekiah brought revival to the people, beginning with the removal of every foreign god and idol. He had the Temple cleansed, then he brought back the blood sacrifices. There were two indications that the people were really repenting from the depths of their heart. First, blood sacrifices were reinstated to cleanse the people from sin. So they killed the bulls, and the priests received the blood and sprinkled it on the altar (2 Chron. 29:22). Remember, blood cleanses from sin and prepares us for service. Second, When the sacrifices were finished, King Hezekiah and everyone with him bowed down to the ground and worshipped God (2 Chronicles 29:29). Because sin destroys the strength and spirituality of Israel in the Old Testament, their enemy Assyria had previously defeated them and demanded annual taxation. When Hezekiah
led the people all the way back to God in worship, then God fought for Israel and defended His people. When Assyriathe most powerful nation on earth at that timeattacked against Israel, God defeated them. So you want more powerful faith? Has sin in your life drained your spiritual power? Then you must come back to God, you must seek Him intimately. Your intimate relationship with God is reflected in your worship. Remember, its not how you worship its who you worship. When you worship God, He becomes everything in your life and ministry. Have you been exercising faith, but you dont receive what you seek? Maybe youve not been close enough to God to hear His whispered no or maybe youve missed Gods still small voice, that tells you how to ask by faith, or when to ask in faith. Remember, effective faith grows in worship, and effective worship is based on intimacy. Worship is giving God the worthship (old Scottish word for worship) that is due to Him. When you are completely absorbed with God, you wont make foolish faith-statements. Remember Jesus said, The Father is seeking . . . worship (John 4:23). That means Hes looking for it, the Father goes to where He can be worshipped. When He comes, you can feel or experience His presence. Have you felt the Lord drawing near to you when you were praying? In the movie Field of Dreams, the lead actor heard a voice that told him, If you build it, they will come. We can apply this to worship, If you seek God in worship, He will come. I call this atmospheric worship. When you open up your whole heart to God, He will come to fellowship with you. Just as you feel a wet atmosphere before it rains, so you can feel Gods atmospheric pressure to refresh your soul. When worship is a priority of your faith, then you can successfully speak in faith the things you want from God. PRIORITY THREE: When Believers Love God and Put Him First in their Lives.
Isnt the ultimate criteria for your faith, You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind? The answer is Yes! Jesus said, This is the first and great commandment (Matt. 22:37, 38). The very nature of love is giving yourself to the one you love. What did Jesus say was the greater love? Greater love has no one than this . . . to give ones life for his friends (John 15:13, Amplified). Then Jesus pointed specifically to love, This is love . . . that God gave His Son (1 John 4:10, Amplified). The word to describe love in both verses is give. When you love someone you give them gifts, time, and your priority. You give them yourself. So God honors your faith when you give Him first-place in your life. Now look at the opposite. Why have some people had difficulty moving mountains? They havent given God first-place in their life. So to have faith to do the extraordinary, you must put Gods reputation before your own. God knows the faith of those who put Him first in every area of their life. PRIORITY FOUR: When Believers Attempt to Evangelize the Unsaved. Winning lost people to Christ is a high priority with God. The Lord is not . . . willing that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9). The word any means God wants as many saved as possible. Those who are high on Gods priority list put as much of their energy and resources into evangelizing as many lost people as possible. Think of Billy Grahams priority to preach the Gospel to as many people as possible. So how did God honor his faith? God gave him money, staff, resources, the use of the worlds largest stadiums, and exposure by the most extensive mediaall so Graham could reach more lost people than any other in history. Think of Bill Bright who built Campus Crusade for Christ 23 into the largest Christian student organization of workers (both paid and non-paid workers) on earth (has 576,000
workers) 24Bill Brights goal was to get the Gospel to every person in his generation. No wonder God honored his faith with such an extensive organizational outreach. Think of Jerry Falwell who built the largest evangelical Christian university in history. He didnt do it as an educator; Falwells passion touched the evangelistic priority of God. God honored Falwells faith because he wanted every Liberty University student to be a soul winner and to help build soul-winning churches to Capturing A Town for Christ. 25 Perhaps some have small faith because their ministry is an ego thing. Perhaps some have never moved a mountain because they dont match up with Gods prioritythey dont love souls and attempt to win as many to Christ as possible. Remember, God honors the faith of those who are attempting to win as many to Christ as possible. PRIORITY FIVE: When Believers Live Holy Lives that Please the Lord. God repeats Himself when He says something important. In the Old Testament He said, You shall be holy; for I am holy (Lev. 11:44). He repeated in the New Testament, Be holy, for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:16). Why should we be holy? So we can be like God, because He is holy. We are made in Gods image, so He wants us to be a good advertisement for Him. To be holy means to keep oneself from sin, If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the worldthe lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of lifeis not of the Father but is of the world (1 John 2:15,16). God loves those who have a passion for holiness. They live according to Gods priority; no wonder God honors their faith when they take a leap into the unknown to build the largest church in town to reach the unsaved. God honors their faith because of their passion for evangelizing but also because of their passion for holiness. The Independent Baptist movement had a revival (1965-1974) because of their extensive use of Sunday school buses to evangelize thousands of lost children. During that decade, they
built the largest church auditoriums in America. Beyond their evangelism, they were known for their separation from sin, i.e., no smoking, no dancing to lewd music, no sex outside of marriage, etc. They had a passion for evangelism of lost people and their piety moved them higher on Gods priority. They were a generation that moved mountains. 26 After 1975, there appeared large Pentecostal and/or Charismatic churches throughout the U.S. that were experiencing revival. These were bigger sanctuaries than the Independent Baptists ever thought of building. It almost seemed like Gods mantle passed from the Baptists to the Pentecostals. God loves it when His people live holy lives, and I believe we see so many huge Pentecostal/Charismatic works around the world because they fulfill Gods priority of holiness. That means God honors the faith of those who live holy lives. PRIORITY SIX: When Believers Serve Actively in Their Local Body of Christ. God loves everyone and He loves every activity that His people do for Him. But He has a special love for those who build Him up by working in a local church, which is His body. Doesnt the Bible tell us, Christ loves the church (Eph. 5:25)? That means Jesus loves His bride. So what did Jesus do? He gave Himself for it (Eph. 5:25). So you see the church is people, not buildings. Christ loves people (John 13:1; Rev. 1:5). Dont mix up saved people and sanctuaries. In Gods perspective, His people are the church. To Americans, the church is a sanctuary or Sunday school buildings, expressed by bricks, lumber, and building supplies. No question, God loves people; but we can question how deeply God loves any building that carries the title church. 27 I visited a cave in Antioch, Syria (February, 1972, Acts 11:19-30, 13:1-3) where they told me the first church of that city met. That local church was the first to send out foreign missionaries to Gentiles. God loved that church and used them abundantly for evangelism. I visited the cave on the Isle of Patmos (Easter, 2005, Rev. 1:4) where John, a prisoner, wrote the
Book of Revelation. Political prisoners gathered with John to meet as a church in that cave. That church couldnt send out missionaries, but God loved that church just as much because Jesus Christ physically appeared to John in the place where they met (Rev. 1:12-18). When you want to move mountains by faith, make sure the ultimate reason is so believers can grow in Christ and serve Him in that local body of Christ. Mark Twain said, God must love people because He made so many of them. That may have an element of truth, but there is an element here that is even greater, God made so many people, because His love is great enough to incorporate them all. If you havent been able to move mountains by faith, check out your people priority. If programs, tradition, buildings, or meetings have a higher priority for you, maybe thats the reason your faith is weak (Rom. 4:19, 14:1). Make people your priority, and youll begin to match Gods priority. If you began praying for every person in your ministryevery dayyour faith would begin to grow because youd match Gods priority. That means God will honor your faith when exercised for His people in His Church. PRIORITY SEVEN: When Believers Carry Out the Commands of Spiritual Ministry to Others. After loving God, Jesus Second (command) is . . . You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Matt. 22:39). The root of all we do for others should be our love for them. Did not Paul challenge us, Though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing (1 Cor. 13:2)? Earlier I said love is giving yourself to the one you love. Just as a mother gives her strength and body out of love for her baby, and just as a father brings home his hard earned paycheck out of love for his family; so the believer must agonize in prayer for others, and sacrifice time and pleasure in Christian service for others. Thats an expression of faith that God honors.
God wants His people to succeed and promises to bless them, I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and hope (Jer. 29:11, LB). So what do you have to do to succeed? You have to align your priorities with Gods priorities. So we cant claim by faith a bigger house to live in, or a new car, nor can we claim stuff by faith. Thats not ministry, we must devote ourselves to fulfilling the commands of Scripture to bless and help others; then we get God on our side. When you sacrifice for others, you are on Gods priority list. Then God does extraordinary things through your faith, because you have adjusted your ministry priorities to His faith priorities. PRIORITY EIGHT: When Believers Minister to the Needy Outside the Body of Christ. God has always motivated His people to give to those more needy than themselves. Throughout the centuries Christians have founded hospitals, colleges, orphanages, and fed the hungry. (When a charity loses its element of Christian sacrifice, usually their costs go through the ceiling in hospitals, schools, and colleges.) God blessed the founding of the Salvation Army because it began in the slums of London, England, to save souls and minister to the needs of the poor. Some think George Meller had the greatest faith of any man since the Apostle Paul. Maybe so! Maybe youll agree when you see that the focus of his ministry was caring for the orphans (boys and girls) of England in the 1800s. His acts of faith are legendary. When there was no food cooking in the kitchen and the pantry was bare, Meller stood in the dining room to remind over 2,000 orphans that God had always provided one hot meal for them each day. Then he lifted his hands to pray, Lord, thank You for good hot food to feed these children. I thank You for Your faithfulness to always provide for our needs.
The cooks looked around the bare kitchen and shook their heads in unbelief. They wondered how Meller could thank God for food that wasnt cookingthere was nothing there. KNOCK, KNOCK . . . a sudden pounding on the outside door ended Mellers prayer. My wagon wheel just shattered, a wagon driver announced to the whole room. I cant deliver my wagon full of pies . . . could you use pies? Bring them in and serve the children, Meller told the cooks and wagon master. But sir, the wagon master interrupted Meller, the pies are still hot, they were just taken from the oven. Yes . . . yes . . . Meller bubbled with optimistic faith, we expected that, we just thanked God for hot food. I probably havent read enough to know who has the greatest faith in all history. It might be someone not recorded in history. But Mellers great faith was tied to his humanitarian efforts to care for needy orphans. Why did God bless the faith of Jerry Falwell? Because he built Treasure Island, a summer camp for the poor of central Virginia. Come free . . . Jerry would say. Just bring some clothes . . . When they didnt have clothes, Falwells church provided for them. Over 1,200 children came each summerfree. At the height of the Sunday school busing movement, Falwells church sent out 100 buses each Sunday Morningsome over 50 miles one wayto pick up children from Central Virginia. These were children from the poorest homes. The average bus brought in 27 riders, so that meant approximately 2,700 poor children were taught the Word of God, and sang hymns in childrens church. On the way home they ate Colonel Sanders Kentucky Fried Chicken. (The rumor is that Colonel Sanders gave thousands to Thomas Road Baptist Church. Its may not be true, but maybe it is. He gave thousands of pieces of chicken to feed the children.)
Jesus said much about the poor (Matt. 11:5, 19:21; Mark 12:42; Luke 4:18, 7:22, 14:21, 18:22, 19:8). We must give to the poor because Christ expects it, not to just get a tax receipt, or just to help out the poor, or for any such secondary reason. We give to the poor out of faithobedience to Christ. A man once prayed, Lord, give me a Pentecostal mouth to shout, a Presbyterian head to understand, Baptist feet to go, and Mother Theresas heart to help the poor. God will honor your faith when you minister to the needy. PRIORITY NINE: When Believers Trust God to Supply Their Necessities: Food, Clothing and Shelter. God has promised to provide for our needs. Jesus promised, Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? (Matt. 6:25). When it comes to shelter, Jesus told them, Look at the birds of the air (Matt. 6:26). The trouble is we worry about those things, but our worry costs much more, we worry about luxuries. I have a millionaire friend who says, I can only wear one suit at a time, eat one meal at a time, and sleep in one bed at a time. He lives far below his income. Most believers in the U.S. live far above their needs. Paul has promised, My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:19). So when we claim an answer to prayer, make sure your faith is claiming Gods provision for your needsnot for your luxuries. PRIORITY TEN: When Believers Trust God for Buildings, Property, Equipment or Stuff. When believers begin to trust God for things in ministry, its amazing how Americans put building and staff at the top of their faith-list. They pray for a new sanctuary, or a large piece of land, or new computer system, or other thing that are purchased with money. Does our church building reflect more of our American society than of Gods Kingdom?
But even when we pray, we Americans get a lot of the things about which we pray. But did God really answer to give us these things, or are Americans good at fundraising? When we eventually get the stuff for which we pray, can we honestly say God answered our request with His provision? Or, was the stuff something that we wanted, and we planned to buy it anyway, or we organize a program to get the money for which we pray? Maybe God didnt answer our prayer, we just bought it. Its amazing how much stuff Jesus did without in his ministry on earth. Its also amazing how efficiently the underground church in China ministers: not much property, not many sanctuaries, but mostly house churches; yet, they have over 120,000,000 believers. Theres another consideration. Perhaps we dont get the large tract of land because we dont measure up to Gods faith-priority list. Perhaps were expressing faith for a multi-million dollar sanctuary, but were not expressing faith to win souls, or feed the hungry, or some other more basic priority of Christianity. Its entirely possible that God could get along without the huge sanctuary anyway. Remember the student in school who flunked calculus because he had not taken the prerequisite of advanced-geometry and trigonometry? Just as a student must have a foundation before advancing to the next higher level, in the same way, a minister has to master the basics of worship, loving God, evangelism, or loving othersbefore he exercises faith for a multi-million dollar plant.
CHAPTER FIVE
FAITH-VISION
See a visionshare a visionown a vision. Elmer Towns
PRINCIPLE:
You must have a vision from God that corresponds to your step of faith to move mountains.
DEFINITION:
Vision \ vizh-en \ from vidre to see. 1. Act or power of seeing what is not present, i.e., to conceive; 2. The special sense by which qualities of an object become real; 3. The unusual discernment to foresee, or conceive in the mind; 4. Bringing into the mind an awareness of what exists elsewhere. (Written by Elmer Towns after research using definitions adapted from Webster and Oxford dictionaries).
CHAPTER FIVE
FAITH-VISION
In 1973 two land developersBill Burruss and Wayne Boothbought an old run-down farm on 252 acres that was between the city of Lynchburg and Candlers Mountain. The farm once belonged to Senator Carter Glass family (he served as U. S. Senator 1920 to 1946.) The farm was covered with weeds, brush, and old cars. Farm machinery was strewn around the property. The roofs of the barn and stables all leaked and the buildings needed to be demolished. It looked like a weed-infested junkyard. Burriss and Booth were ashamed to show it to Jerry Falwell, much less offering it to him for the future home of Liberty University. Finally, they drove the young Falwell to the highest hill on the farm; Falwell jumped out of the car yelling: I see it all . . . I see dorms over there . . . I see classrooms over there . . . I see an athletic field . . . gyms . . . parking . . . The farm eventually became the home of Liberty University. Jim Moon, Jerrys life-long friend, was in the car that day. Jim had been saved at the same altar with Jerry on January 17, 1952, and was the associate Pastor of Jerrys church. Jim said, I dont see anything but weeds and junk. Faith-vision is seeing a task that is insurmountable, then seeing a way to accomplish that task. Sometimes its seeing the impossible; at other times its seeing how you can do the impossible, i.e., a new method of getting it done. Bill Hybels pastored Willow Creek Community Church 28 in the greater Chicago area, and built it to the largest congregation in America during the 80s and 90s. His original faith-vision was to develop a seeker-strategy that allowed an unsaved person anonymity to seeking God and salvation. They met in a building that looked like a civic center, not a church. They used drama teachings to attract interest, and contemporary music that was familiar to the ears of speakers.
Then in 2008 Hybels planned a video leadership training conference called The Leadership Summit 2009 to train thousands of pastors. 29 The video conference would be downloaded to over 140 cities across North America with an injection of vision, skill development, and inspiration for the sake of the local church. 30 Visionary-faith is the incendiary ability to see what God can doGods leader sees first, sees further, sees moreHe sees more than those who are followers. Vision is the twin brother of faith; to give birth to one is to give birth to twins. You cant have extraordinary faith without God-given vision. When Jerry Falwell and I began Liberty University, we set a goal of being just a little larger than Bob Jones University and Tennessee Temple schools, both reported about 4,500 students. These were the biggest evangelical colleges we knew about. So Jerry set a goal of 5,000 students. Wed greet each other holding up our two fingers, i.e., the pointer finger and thumb, with a small distance between them as if to say, Liberty will be just a little bit bigger. My goal was to be a little bigger than the biggest university I knew. But not Falwell! Something happened around six months into the first school year. I think Falwell saw the quality of our students and the high level of Christian liberal arts education. This was not just a Bible college, so he announced, Were going to have 50,000 students. Then added among other things, Well beat Notre Dame in football. Falwell saw something in our students I didnt seehe saw potential. Many leaders have proclaimed enormous goals in ministry, i.e., the biggest church in the state, or raising millions in cash, or doing great things that havent been done. But in some cases, sadly it didnt happen. Why did Falwells faith have credibility, and so many other leaders fail? We must examine carefully the nature of biblical faith to see why some fail and only a few accomplish their goal. First, a leader must give attention to his faith-relationship with God.
A leader who is walking intimately with God is kept from bragging or making unrealistic goals by his intimacy with the Indwelling Christ. (See Chapter 12). Then too, remember the principle of faith-priority (see Chapter 4). God honors faith that is concerned with worship and soul-winning. When a leader has passion for people, God rewards his faith. Next, a leader must have convergence-faith (see Chapter 6) where his calling from God and the spiritual gifts intersect with his faith. Also his faith must grow out of his past service to God. Until a leader has been tested in small brinkmanship-faith encounters, hes not ready to win the largest battles of faithbrinkmanship victories (see Chapter 3). The biggest projects demand the largest faith-leap of life (see Chapter 2). A leader must have successful experiences at initiatory leaps in order to make the greatest faith leaps ever. Faith-vision got Falwell up every morning to be in the radio studio by 6:30 and faithvision drove him every day to make 100 house visits. Faith-vision is more than just setting up objectives, or planning aims; it involves living with a purpose to reach every lost person for Christ in your immediate area. Falwell didnt begin with a vision to build the biggest church, or to reach a plateau that none had ever reached. He began with a faith-vision that gave passion to his evangelism, to reach every lost person within 10 miles, to get them saved, baptized and into the church. Faith-vision was never to build a large building, reach numbers, or even do something that no one else had done. God saw the heart of a man in his young twenties wanting to reach lost people for Christ, and God honored the priority of his faith (see Chapter 4). And then there was a thing called faith-transfer (see Chapter 7). When the church members saw the passion of Jerry Falwell to win their friends and relatives to Christ, they
willingly bought into his vision. And what is the first law of leadership? When followers buy into a leaders vision, they buy into his leadership. The writer of Proverbs states, Where there is no vision, people perish . . . (Prov. 29:18). If a leader doesnt obey the initial faith-vision that God gives him, he will never have a larger vision to do more for God. If you dont obey the faith-vision you have, youre not prepared for tomorrow. Just as automobile headlights illuminate the road for a hundred yards in the night, so you must drive the first hundred yards before you see whats in the second hundred yards. Faith-vision is walking in the light that you have, so God can give you more light. Those who leap from darkness (no light) to a goal of pastoring the largest church ever, probably have jumped beyond the reaches of their credibility. Your faith-vision grows as you meet God daily in your quiet time. Habakkuk the prophet said, I will stand my watch, and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me . . . Then the LORD answered me and said: Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time (Hab. 2:1- 3). Faithvision comes to the spiritually-alert heart that is in perfect relationship to God. The leader must be waiting on God daily for marching orders. Thats where the leader stands on his watch, and goes alone with God in the tower. Its there he gets his battle orders. Now just as troops getting ready to fight wait on orders from their commander, and in this case, our commander is the Lord Jesus Christ who gives direction to leaders who are in relationship with Him. God doesnt give faith-vision to those who dont want it, or to those who dont seek it, or to those who havent prepared themselves spiritual for it. Faith-vision is not dropped from Heaven like a sheet, nor does it flash like lightning in the dark night. Faith-vision enlightens those who are practicing, To know Christ and make Him known.
You see, faith-vision is not something you get; its something that gets youits a vision you become. You must become in your heart the large church youre attempting to build. The vision of a conquering church must live in the victors heart long before it captures the perception of followers. As a leader does ministry before his people, they will catch their own faith-vision for what they can do in the church. The Holy Spirit is the agent of faith-transfer, when followers see their pastor doing something for God, the Holy Spirit in their hearts inspire them to pray, sacrifice and work with their pastor to accomplish the same dream. There comes a time when you must write down your faith-vision on paper. God told Habakkuk, Write the vision and make it plain (Hab. 2:2). Your vision becomes tangible evidence in black and white of what you see and what you want to do for God. When you put dates, numbers and places to your vision, it becomes a passion to drive you in ministry. When you write out your faith-vision, it becomes a part of you more than ever before. Technically, the message is not yours until you can write it down. And remember, you must see the vision in your heart, then write the vision on paper, long before it will happen in the streets. Great vision is not dropped on us out of the blue. A leader must constantly pray for it. This involves passion, persistence, and begging God to make it happen. And isnt persistence part of the faith-vision? God told Habakkuk, Though it (the vision) tarries, wait for it (Hab. 2:3). What does this mean? That the vision doesnt come completely at one time. God develops the vision in the leaders heart slowly as he continues working and praying for it. If he persists, notice what happens, it will surely come (Hab. 2:3). The bottom line is that a vision is something supernatural from God. Notice the last part of what God told Habakkuk, The just shall live by his faith (Hab. 2:4). Did you see the phrase, his faith? When you get the vision, its really not your vision, its Gods vision that Hes given you. Its His faith.
Walter Cronkite was interviewing Mrs. Walt Disney at the opening of Disney World in Orlando, Florida. It was a gala night; the opening of one of the largest theme parks in history. Casually, Walter Cronkite said to Mrs. Disney: I bet Walt Disney wished he could have seen this day. Mrs. Walt Disney smiled, then answered, If Walt hadnt seen it first, you wouldnt have seen it tonight. When we think of Walt Disney we think of When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are, when you wish upon a star your dreams come true. 31 The key phrase in that song is the word who. If you have a dream, it makes no difference who you are. The star was the dream that gave it power and energy to the one wishing upon it. In the same way, the church you want to build is Gods vision for you. It will give power and persistence to drive you for its accomplishment.
CHAPTER SIX
CONVERGENCE-FAITH
In convergence, God moves a leader into a role that matches his or her gift-mix and experience so that ministry is maximized. J. Robert Clinton32
PRINCIPLE:
Faith is most effective to move mountains when it converges with your calling from God, your spiritual gifts and Gods leading up to the present time.
DEFINITION:
Convergence \ (kn-vr-jen(t)s\ where things come together, to blend, to unite; moving toward coordinated action; independent development of similar actions then brought together for a greater purpose. (Written by Elmer Towns after research using definitions adapted from Webster and Oxford dictionaries).
CHAPTER SIX
CONVERGENCE-FAITH
Tim LaHaye pastored Scott Memorial Baptist Church in greater San Diego, California, and built it to a mega church of over 2,000 in attendance. During the 70s and 80s this was a colossal achievement; less than 110 pastors in America had reached that goal. But there was another real power in LaHayes ministry that was not recognized, but the millions who bought his books knew his strength. LaHaye was a bestselling author with several books that sold almost a million copies. 33 One year at the Christian Booksellers Convention, it was announced Tim LaHaye had written more one million best sellers than any other Christian writer. So, LaHaye set out to do something newsomething that had never been done. He wrote a popular fiction story of events when the rapture happened, along with Jerry Jenkins in The Left Behind 34 series. The convergence of LaHayes faith with his spiritual gift and calling of God produced the bestselling series of all time. Could we imagine that if LaHaye put all his energy into building a church, he would have been just one of 100 pastors of a mega church? But when LaHaye applied faith to his talent, God blessed him abundantly; above all he could ask or think (Eph. 3:20).
FAITH TO BUILD A UNIVERSITY

I used to get down on myself for my lack of faith, especially in light of Jerry Falwells strong mountain-moving faith. He would announce a prayer-goal for millions of dollars, or state that God would heal a person, or that Liberty University would get accreditation, and these happened. When I tried to do the same thing in faith, money wouldnt come in, or my prayer goal didnt happen. When Liberty University was scarcely six months old, Jerry Falwell announced to the church,
Next week, were going to fast for one million dollars for our new college!! I heard the announcement like everyone else in the auditorium. Jerry and I had not talked about the million dollars; we hadnt even talked about our need. Then Jerry announced, Were going to have 50,000 students one day . . . That blew my mind. We had talked about 5,000 student and I could stretch my mind to see that many at Liberty; but I couldnt see 50,000 students. So I went to him saying, Why do we need one million, Ive already put together a budget for this year of $152,000? That was a very generous amount and I would have no difficulty ending the year within that budget. Then I reminded Jerry, I ran a college in Canada, and I can finish this year within budget and with money left over. It was then that Jerry told me something about faith that I have never forgotten, Elmer . . . this college is going to be much greater than you and I ever conceived; God is going to do something so great that a million dollars wont begin to cover our needs. I pondered Jerrys statement a long time, reviewing our original agreement. Jerry said, If you will set the academic program and hire the professors, I will raise the money, recruit the students, and build the buildings. Then Jerry made a faith-statement, Together we can build the greatest evangelical college in history to touch the world with the Great Commission. (I had no idea then that Liberty would one day actually be the largest.) Fasting for a million dollars was the greatest prayer challenge Id ever faced. I had gone without eating on many occasions, putting my work first. But I had never seriously fasted (by its technical biblical meaning) for a whole day, i.e., to go without three meals. Jerry planned that first fast, the same way the church fasted on succeeding occasions, i.e., not eating Sunday night, Monday morning or Monday noon. When the sun went down on Monday, we would eat our evening meal. (This is technically a Yom Kippur fast, according to
the Jewish practice of not eating on the Day of Atonement.) 35 Our purpose was to pray during our meal time in addition to other times in the day when we usually prayed. As we approached the day of fasting, I began to get scared. I thought to myself, What if I faint in front of a class? Or, Suppose I were to get sick and throw up in front of my students? As I look back on my preparation for that first fast, I was more concerned about my reputation and preserving my academic position than I was for God to answer prayer. I kept praying over and over, Lord, help me get through this fast. I prayed so often that it was etched in my memory. My first one-day fast came and passed successfully and the only thing that happened was the thing for which I prayed, I made it through. Then I realized fasting was easy. As the money came in I was impressed with Jerrys victory in prayer, especially since I hadnt gotten those types of rejoicing answers. I had struggled through years of ministry when I had prayed for money. I have copies of my monthly prayer requests that go back to 1951. Often I prayed for money for the schools I attended, or the schools where I taught, but I didnt get Amen and Hallelujah answers. The more I prayed with Jerry Falwell for money, or buildings, or recruitment, and saw his answers; the more discouraged I got with my lack of faith. I began praying for more faith. Quite often Id pray, Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief. But nothing significant happened. Praying for faith didnt seem to strengthen my faith.
FAITH IN DIFFERENT FIELDS OF OPERATION

Now after 37 years of ministry with Jerry Falwell, I have come to a different conclusion. Some men have dominant faith to trust God for money, others dont have that faith, but they can
have faith in another area. Some may have greater faith to trust God for winning souls, or to endure pain or martyrdom, or that God would use their gift of administration or their gift of mercy-showing, i.e., counseling. I discovered my gift of teaching, and it dawned upon me that my faith was effective to study, and to put together ideas or lectures. I had faith to write books, and discover new insight from Scripture. I have faith like Paul who said, Though I have the gift (to) understand all mysteries and all knowledge (2 Cor. 13:2). Before coming to Liberty I was a tenured professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity Seminary 36, Deerfield, Illinois. When I announced at a faculty meeting that I was leaving to help start a college called Lynchburg Baptist College (original name), one of the faculty said to me, Elmer . . . dont do it; youll go to the hills of Virginia, bury yourself in a hillbilly church, and no one will ever hear about you again. I was stunned with that sarcastic title, hillbilly. Then the faculty member went on to say, No one has ever heard of Jerry Falwell or Thomas Road Baptist Church. There have been hundreds of other small Bible institutes in the hills that never made it big. They all died, and so will your college. If faith is a leap into the unknown, when I resigned Trinity and gave up my tenured position, it was a leap of faith to go start a college that didnt exist. Because my spiritual gift is teaching and God has led me into education, there was never a doubt in my mind that the new college would reach its goals. I knew in my heart God was calling me to start this college, and I knew it would make a great contribution to the cause of Christ. Whereas I didnt have faith for money or buildings, I had faith that God would develop an academic program, and that God would gather a great faculty, and that our students would impact the world.
DIFFERENT FOCUS OF FAITH
I have discovered that those with the most effective faith express it in keeping with their calling from God and their spiritual gifts. Their faith grows in keeping with the leading of God in their lives. Also, those with the greatest faith express it in the area of their greatest spiritual gift.
Jerry Falwell, the builder:
constructed 113 buildings for the worlds largest evangelical college. organized Campus Crusade for Christ into over 578,000 volunteers and full-time workers in the worlds largest Christian organization. preached the gospel to more people and probably won more people to Christ than any other evangelist in history.
Bill Bright, the businessman:
Billy Graham, the evangelist:
Yonggi Cho, the church planter: began the Full Gospel Church in Seoul, South Korea, the worlds largest church.
Therefore, as you read this chapter, look at all the various focus of faith that people have. You will find some have faith that will absolutely chill your heart because you dont have their focus of faith. However, you may find several areas of faith where you are comfortable, these may not be considered great areas by others, but it may be where you live and serve God. So look for that one category where your faith is strongest. Whats the secret of growing your faith? Start in your strongest area and branch out from there. Dont try to develop faith where you are weakest, rather; start with your strongest area of faith and make that even richer and more effective for God. Then, youll find that you will begin to grow in other areas, like waves rippling out from a rock thrown in a pond; you can develop faith in other areas where youve never dreamed. 1. Faith for moneythe results: resources for Gods work.
Faith for money is a wonderful thing to have, and the work of God needs those who can pray for large amounts of money and get it. Think of Hudson Taylor raising thousands of dollars by prayer to send hundreds of missionaries to inland China. Many think about the inspiring stories of George Meller trusting God for thousands of dollars to house, feed and clothe over 2,000 orphans in Bristol, England, maybe someday you can do the things Meller did. But many are overwhelmed by these stories, because they know they cant do that. Why do some people not have faith for money? First, lets look inward. Perhaps some people grew up very poor and they have an internal thermostat that keeps them scared about money. Those who were always fearful of where the next nickel was coming from might have trouble praying for thousands because they cant overcome their historical poverty. Maybe some cant pray for great amounts of money, because they were taught to pray only for little amounts of money. Perhaps they were asked to pray for a million dollars for a new church building, but they knew they couldnt do it, so they blocked out any attempt saying, I dont have faith for money. What should they do? Start praying for small things. When they give ten percent of their income to God by faith, thats a first step. When they pray to give a small gift over and above their tithe, thats a second step. People can grow their faith by starting within their comfort zone, and stretching themselves. So to have great faith about money, start where you are and climb one step at a time. Maybe that small beginning is what Jesus meant when He said, If you have faith as a mustard seed (Matt. 17:20). You know what happens when you plant a seed in the ground, it grows. And when you start with a small mustard seed, it will grow your faith to trust God for something bigger.
2. Faith for tangible things like property or buildingsthe result: growth of Gods kingdom. So, lets ask the question why can some pray successfully for buildings or money? Perhaps they dont have a building and its absolutely necessary for survival. Perhaps they dont have a place to shelter their ministry from the storms of life. Maybe they cant do Gods work without an automobile. When these people take a leap of faith toward four wheels and six cylinders, God is more likely to answer because they have more urgency in their prayer. Their faith is motivated by what they dont have. There are some who just dont have faith to pray for a new Christian education wing at their church, nor can they pray aggressively for other tangible things for ministry. Why? Maybe they just dont have a great burden to pray for buildings, or automobiles, or things. This person may be so spiritually minded that they only see the kingdom of God going forth in the hearts of individuals. This person might pray for spiritual victory, or spiritual growth, or for Christians to overcome their doubts, but not tangible things. These people emphasize the kingdom of God growing within. Its not that theyre against praying for buildings or things; its just not their priority. 3. Faith to present the Gospel to lost people and motivate them to believe in Christthe result: souls are won to Christ. One of the first students at Liberty University was Steve Wingfield, 37 a very energetic young believer from greater Lynchburg, Virginia. During the first year of the college, Thomas Road Baptist Church had Friend Day where Jerry Falwell motivated everyonecollege students and church membersto bring their unchurched friends to church on Friend Day. A brand new Scofield Bible was offered to the one bringing the most visitors. Many Christians were reluctant to invite just one to church, but Steve brought 49 visitors.
I saw more than a young student winning a Bible; I saw Steves passion for souls. Later God expanded his evangelistic crusade so that today his evangelistic organization ministers out of their office building in Harrisonburg, Virginia, with a staff of over 10 full-time workers, a gospel tent that will seat over 5,000 people. 38 When Eastern Europe first opened up to the Gospel after the Berlin Wall collapsed, Steve just happened to be in Romania where thousands gathered in a large soccer stadium to celebrate their new political freedom. Some local leaders asked Steve to preach and thousands received Jesus Christ. Steve Wingfield has faith for souls, while I have faith to teach young students and prepare them for ministry. 4. Faith to correctly make a life-changing decision for Christthe results: you walk in the will of God. There is a faith-changing decision that some can re-direct their life as they follow Gods will. On the other hand, some people cannot make a great decision for God; its too much like taking a leap into the unknown (see Chapter 2). There are some who are called of God into full-time Christian service, but they dont have faith to surrender every part of their life. Why? Maybe they want to hang on to their options, or their pleasures, or maybe family keeps them from that life-impacting decision. But in the same church service, a young girl goes forward to surrender all to Jesus Christ. She has faith that God has called her to full-time service. Her faith assures her that God will take care of her. There are many other types of difficult decisions that demand faith. Some pastors cant leave one church to go to another, because there are too many unknown factors. They cant make a faith-decision to launch out into the unknown. Why? Perhaps its fear, or lack of confidence, or they moved to a new church once before and it was a disaster; so they cant make another faith-decision to follow God.
5. Faith to perceive a life-directive call from God, then respond in faith, and do everything possible to fulfill that call. The result: you are stretched for greater faith to expand the kingdom of God. I was converted to Christ on July 25, 1950 at a revival meeting at Bonna Bella Presbyterian Church six weeks after I had graduated from high school. I had won a scholarship to Armstrong State University (a junior college at the time), but I knew God was calling me into full-time Christian service. I knew I had to give up that scholarship and go to Columbia Bible College 39, 150 miles away. This was a tremendous financial leap of faith, I had saved only $237, and room, board, and tuition would be $360 dollars a semester. It might have well been a million dollars. Since Gods call to serve, is Gods call to prepare; I knew I had to get college training. I also knew where God wanted me to go, and I had a deep confidence that God would take care of my needs. So by faith, I enrolled in CBC. My faith also motivated me to stop spending my money on cold drinks and snacks; I washed my clothes by hand, and worked in the schools dining room washing dishes, plus cleaning a chandelier shop. Supernaturally, God supplied in many different ways. I wrote a personal letter to every aunt and uncle (mother came from a family of 11, Dad from a family of 9 children) telling of my conversion and call to the ministry, but most importantly, I shared the gospel and appealed to them to be saved. These long letters took several Sunday afternoons to write, but unknown to me; these letters led to money for my first semester in college. Many relatives read the letters and sent money that I then applied to my bill. Shortly after arriving at CBC I received a check for $25 dollars from the junior Sunday school class at Bonna Bella Presbyterian Church. The letter told how those young people had caught crabs in the salt water creeks around the church, cooked them in a pot in the backyard of their teacher Mrs. Alcorn, and sold them door to door. I could see them saying,
Were selling crabs for a nickel a piece to put Elmer Towns through Bible College. Many of the neighbors made donations over and above the nickel. When I read the letter, I locked the door to my room, spread the letter and check on the bed and wept before God, Lord, I dont deserve this gift. I determined to be faithful to God because of the prayers and sacrifice of the junior Sunday school class. I went home at the end of my first year with all my bills paid. Mr. Al Aldridge heard of my commitment and asked me to give a testimony at his mens Sunday school class at Independent Presbyterian Church in Savannah. For the second and third years, they paid my $360 room, board, and tuition bill each semester at Columbia Bible College. Its not just those going into full-time service that experiences a faith-call. A young twenty-year old sister went to pick up her younger brother from the nursery department after church. The young girl had not been serious about serving the Lord. She was a self-centered party girl. But when she saw a teacher sitting at a table teaching some young children in the 3 year-old department, it suddenly dawned on her, Thats what I want to do with my life, I want to work with young children and influence them for God. Based on what she saw and what she thought God was leading her to do, that young girl went to college and spent six years getting her degree in psychology at a Christian college. It took six years of working her way through college to get her degree. But the desire to help children she got from that one experience, deepened her faith to carry out the challenges God gave to her. 6. Faith to learn what is thought unlearnablethe result: personal intellectual growth. Lets start with those who feel they cant learn. Perhaps they got poor marks in school, or they didnt like school, or they have always had difficulty with memory, or understanding. They probably block out any attempt to learn new or different things. This person may be above average in intelligence and could learn; but they have convinced themselves that they cant.
On the other hand, there are believers who love the word of God and search it daily. Theyre not just academically curious; they search the scriptures because they love the author of the scripture, i.e., the Lord Himself. I spoke to the Southern Baptist Pastors Retreat at Hume Lake, California, in April 2008. I was asked to bring a series of messages on faith that I had given the previous summer at Glorieta, a Southern Baptist camp ground in New Mexico. Even as I was in the pulpit speaking about faith, I gained new insight. Even as I was explaining verses on faith, I realized I was learning new truths. When I came to the phrase, From faith to faith (Rom. 1:17), many ideas jumped off the page of scripture. I saw several different applications, from one kind of faith to another. I had announced to the audience that, I dont have the faith of Jerry Falwell; I cant trust God for money, property or buildings. Then it dawned on me as I stood before those pastors, Yes, I do have faith; but for different purposes. Yes, I have deep faith in God, and yes I believe God answered my prayer, but the function of my faith was different from Jerry Falwell. So I began to list all the different purposes for which people express their faith. This chapter came out of that experience and has a total of 11 purposes for which people express faith. Notice the play on words, I have faith to believe I can learn more about faith, and the more I learned about faith, the deeper my faith became. There are certain believersusually with the spiritual gift of teachingwho are called to a life of study and sharing the Word of God. They are not called to build college buildings (as college administrators), nor are they called to a life of evangelism, nor are they called to innovative types of ministry (rescue missions, age graded ministry, counseling addicts, etc.). Some are called to teach the scripture, so they exercise faith every time they dig into the Word of God for new insight (not new to God, but new to them). They must rely on their faith in God as they apply scripture to the many and varying needs of their listeners.
Dont get discouraged by comparing your faith-expression with someone elses. The very person you admire may wish he could do what you do, and he may wish he had your faith. 7. Faith to trust God through pain and sickness that He will glorify Himself through physical problemsthe result: believers glorify God through pain. God allows some believers to suffer more in sickness than others. Of course there are many natural reasons, some are sick more than others; some are exposed to more bacteria, some inherited illness from one of their parents, and some because of wrong eating habits, lack of exercise, work demands, or many other environmental difficulties. Yes, we get sick for many different reasons, but doesnt God know about that? Doesnt scripture say, All things work together for good (Rom. 8:28)? The answer to both is yes. To some God gives the gift of suffering to keep that person close to Him. A shepherd had a lamb that was always running from the flock. Like some believers, the little lamb had a rebellious streak. So the shepherd broke one of its legs and kept the lamb close to his side. The shepherd gathered the best of grass for the lamb and he drank from the shepherds cup. After it could walk, the healed lamb stayed closer to the shepherd, closer than any other sheep in the flock. God allows us trouble so we will see his tender care and sovereign plan for our life. We became more intimate with the Lord. And what happens, our faith grows. Look at Job. His financial and physical problems were not chosen by God, rather they were devious plots by Satan to destroy Job and embarrass God. But even when God allowed Satan to punish Job, Satan could only go so far, for God told him, You cannot touch his life. The boils on Jobs flesh were so painful that scratching with broken pottery shards didnt bring relief. Yet in the midst of all of this pain Job could witness in faith, For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God (Job 19:25-26).
Remember Paul prayed three times for God to take away pain in his life, i.e., to remove his thorn in the flesh. We dont quite know what that thorn was, whether it was migraine headaches, painful arthritis, or malaria. Whatever the problem, Paul said, I asked the Lord three times but he didnt get relief. What did God tell him? My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9). So sometimes, the person in pain has faith to claim Gods grace to go through his sufferings. A woman going through the pangs of childbirth knows that this pain will pass. Knowing that even when she cant stand another contraction, she looks beyond the pain in love to her child to whom shes giving life. She knows her child will live because of her pain, so she endures willingly. When a believer agonizes on a bed of pain, thinking he cant go on for another 5 minutes . . . when the pain hurts so bad he prays to die . . . when looking at the clock is as agonizing as the hurt itself; then in faith he accepts his pain, knowing he is in the center of Gods will. He knows whether he lives or dies, by faith he glorifies God. Those who have never been in lifethreatening pain will never experience the deliverance of faith to comfort them. 8. Faith to endure trials and persecutions for the glory of Godthe result: the believer warrants patience. James writes to suffering Christians, My brethren, rejoice when you fall into various testings (James 1:2, Amplified). They were suffering for Jesus sake, so he exhorts them, when you are tried, you shall receive the crown of life (James 1:12, Amplified). Jesus taught us, Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you (Matt. 5:11-12). Since faith is believing the words of Christ; when a martyr accepts persecution for Christs sake, he is responding in faith.
We in America have only soft persecution for our faith. People may make fun of us, or there may be some slight zoning restriction, or we might not even be able to witness or pass out tracts in some areas. But we are not beaten, tortured, or thrown in jail. But think of the underground church in China or in some Islamic nations, where the believer suffers persecution for the name of Christ, or they would be martyred if they took Christian baptism. What should be our response when we are persecuted or tortured? Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you (1 Peter 4:12). Isnt Peter telling us here to expect trials and temptations because we belong to Jesus Christ? On the night before Jesus died, He warned the disciples that, If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you (John 15:20). So how does our faith respond to persecution? Notice what Peter said, But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings (1 Peter 4:13). You get two results from suffering for Christ. First, the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you (1 Peter 4:14). Second, you should glorify God on this behalf (1 Peter 4:16). 9. Faith to solve an unsolvable problemthe result: you grow as a believer and/or the work of Christ goes forward. Sometimes a believer has faith to claim Gods help to do something that no one else can do. That happened in the 1980s in Washington, DC/northern Virginia area. Several churches were trying to get zoning variances and/or zoning approval to build new churches. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and Board of Zoning Appeals were resisting almost any church expansion in the area. The rapidly growing area was being politicized, and since church property was non-taxable, they didnt want to give permission to any churches to be built. Mark Grooms 40, a graduate of Liberty University, was pastoring Fellowship Baptist Church in Lorton, Virginia, that had purchased 5.35 acres of property. The other pastors and a Board of Zoning Appeals clerk told Mark, You cant get that zoned, and they wont give you a
building permit because it is in Fairfax County; then perhaps the most difficult place in America to get a building permit because it was influenced by Washington, D.C. But Mark felt that God wanted him to build so the church could go forward. Were not describing a super church; it was a church less than 200 people. Mark has a very winsome way with people, and he went back down to the BZA office to make another application and this time the BZA administrator waited on him, and he asked him, Will you help me fill out this application? He obliged and they went through the entire application together. The clerk knew the intricacies of the government; he told him how to fill out all of the questionsand Mark did. Whereas large, powerful churches couldnt get their program approved, Fellowship Baptist Church, one of the poorest churches in the area with no political pull, got approval. Mark simply said, I believed God wanted us to have a church, and I believed that God would help me through the red tape. Whereas some people have faith for biblical insight, and other people have faith for money, Mark Grooms had faith to solve an unsolvable problem. 10. Faith for an intimate relationship with Godthe result: you become spiritual and God is worshipped. Many who are saved feel Christianity is salvation for heaven, and deliverance from hell. Many seem to focus on Christs death for their sins, almost as a fire escape religion. But, they dont establish a deep intimate relationship with Christ. God invites them to know Him, When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek (Ps. 27:8). God has invited us to know Him intimately and to spend time worshipping Him. Some believers have faith to seek Gods presence and they spend time fellowshipping with God and worshipping Him. Its not a waste of time, its enrichment time. Is their faith the difference between those who know God intimately and those who dont?
You would think that all believers exercise faith to know God, but they dont. Some pray for things, for their projects, and for their jobs; but they dont pray for more intimate fellowship with God. Paul did, for his prayer was, That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection . . . (Phil. 3:10). There was a saint who washed dishes in a medieval monastery. He was not known for his great faith to pray for money or improvement of work conditions. He wasnt known for his great faith to learn the mysteries of God or to become knowledgeable so he could be promoted to monk or priest, i.e., or to be transferred out of the dish pit. No, none of that. Brother Lawrence had faith to meet with God over dirty dish water. The title of his book is a reflection of the faith he expressed, The Practice of the Presence of God. 41 There are saints like Brother Lawrence who realize they can know God and they have perfected a skill of communion with God that many other believers never obtain. What does that mean? They have faith to know God intimately; they have faith that others know nothing about. 11. Faith to develop a new method of ministry and implement it into actionthe result: more effective ministry. David Yonggi Cho pastored The Full Gospel Church in Seoul, Korea, building it to an attendance of 2,500 in the late 60s and early 70s. He built the church with hard work, long hours, and stressful ministry. When Yonggi Cho had a heart attack one Sunday during the church service, the elders gathered around to pray for his healing. Yonggi Cho said on tape, I wanted to demonstrate faith so I got up and walked home, even though I was hurting terribly. He wanted to act in faith, so he came back next Sunday to conduct the church services. While baptizing people at the end of the service, he had a second heart attack. This young pastor felt he had lost face before his people because he was sick. He wondered why God was allowing him to suffer.
As Cho was recuperating from his heart attack, he spent time talking to God about pastoring the church. God gave him a faith-vision of pastoring the church through small groupscellsthroughout the city. When he was able, he gathered his board of elders to share his new insight with them. He planned to divide the city up into divisions, giving each elder one section for pastoral care over the members in that section of the city. Each elder was asked to divide his section into home cell groups. No, Pastor, the board members told him, were not called to do that, thats your ministry. They not only didnt want to do it, several suggested if he were physically not able to pastor the church, he should resign. The world has been blessed because Cho didnt listen to them. Cho went back into the presence of God to pray for his new vision of cells. Since the board members wouldnt help him, Cho asked some of the ladies to help lead cell groups. At the beginning they thought he was just asking the ladies to gather together small groups of ladies to minister to them. But to everyones surprise, men started coming to the meetings where ladies were in leadership. Why? Because they received spiritual ministry. With this new innovation in ministry, Cho began organizing small cell groups to meet in living rooms, apartment recreational rooms and laundry rooms, any place where people could meet together for ministry. Very early in the development of the cells, over seventy-five percent of them were led by women. But as the men of the church began to see what God was doing, many men came forward to lead cell groups for the church. So where does faith come in? Yonggi Cho had a great passion to build a church for the glory of God, and was using all of his strength to do it. When he could not physically do it any longer, he needed help from God. As he prayed, God gave him an idea of a new method that could extend his ministry. By faith he implemented his new method. In my first meeting with Pastor Cho in 1978 he said to me, Most American churches grow by building new Sunday school classes for expansion, but constructing facilities limit their
growth. A church can only build so many classrooms, and a city will only allow a certain size church building. Cho was explaining to me why many American churches were limited. Then Cho began to talk about, By using living rooms of the homes of Christians, the space is unlimited, because as more people become Christians, more living rooms are available for cell groups. At the time of his first heart attack the church had 2,500 people, today the Full Gospel Church averages 75,000 cell group meetings, with approximately 750,000 members.
WRAP UP
The first time I preached on convergence-faith, I got an email a day later from a lady telling me that my message had changed her life. I will always be different, she wrote. She was a Christian counselor with an MA degree who had been unsuccessful in praying for money, facilities and things. She wrote me she had faith to help people through problems and she knew God had used her to transform lives. God had used her to put marriages back together and help people find freedom from addictions. She wrote, Youve forced me from the slavery of my ill-conceived expectations. The bottom line is that you should find your calling and spiritual gifts and exercise your faith in keeping with Gods leading in your life. This chapter has not covered every area where a believer could exercise their faith. We havent discussed the spiritual gift of administration or management; and the spiritual gift of giving. What about the spiritual gifts of prophecy, exhortation, hospitality, etc.? The bottom line of this chapter is to help you find your spiritual gift, then become comfortable doing what God called you to do; and go do exploits within the sphere of ministry God has given to you.
CHAPTER SEVEN
FAITH-TRANSFER PRINCIPLE:
I do not believe we give church planters their faith: we simply provide the challenges and opportunity to grow their faith. Faith comes from the Word of God (Romans 10:17), and it grows as a young man actively applies the principles of Scripture to his life and ministry. Jerry Falwell 42
Followers must get faith from their leader to believe God for the same endeavor, then join their faith with the leader to move mountains.
DEFINITION:
Transfer\tran(t)s fer, from Latin transferre, to carry, bear, 1. To convey from one person, place or thing to another, 2. To cause to pass to another, 3. To give control or influence to another, 4. To change from one vehicle or thing to another. (Written by Elmer Towns after research using definitions adapted from Webster and Oxford dictionaries).
CHAPTER SEVEN
FAITH-TRANSFER
How does a leader transfer his faith to followers? Is it a knowledge-transfer so that followers know the same content as their leader? Does the leader give the followers certain ideas or facts so that followers learn what the leader knows? Probably some knowledge transfer is involved, but faith-transfer is probably much more than fact-transfer. Is faith-transfer a deep feeling about something, or deep emotions for a project? A leader stirs the passion of a crowd so they feel the same about a project as the leader. Probably some emotions are involved, but faith-transfer is but much more than emotion-transfer. Does the leader call for a decision for his followers to act in a situation that involves faith? Yes, the will is involved, but faith-transfer is much more than followers deciding to do what their leader asks. Faith-transfer contains all of the above but also includes spiritual factors, so that the Holy Spirit makes the faith-transfer happen because He indwells the leader and also indwells the followers. The Holy Spirit is the agent who originally stirs faith in the leader, then He becomes the agent who stirs faith in the follower. And how does this happen? The Holy Spirit actually transfers faith from a leader to a follower. He uses the Word of God to build faith in followers, just as He uses Scripture to build the faith in any child of God. Examine the following illustrations where faith-transfer takes place. Some of these illustrations involve spiritual faith-transfer (Jerry Falwell); others include natural faith-transfer (King and Ghandi).
OVER 5,000 BELIEVED GOD COULD HEAL

I was waiting in the back room before chapel at Liberty University in 1980 when someone told me Vernon Brewer had stomach cancer6 weeks to 6 months to live. Oh, how awful, I thought. Vernon was a Vice President in charge of Student Life. He did a wonderful job of enforcing the rules, but even then the students loved him because he was a man of God. We cant let Vernon die, were the first words out of Jerry Falwells mouth when he heard about Vernon. Then Falwell announced the startling statement of faith, We must fast and pray to change Gods mind. (See Chapter 3, Brinkmanship-Faith). Ouch! That was hard for a marginal Calvinist like me to accept. I didnt like to hear we could change Gods mind; Hes immutable, which means God is unchangeable. Falwell instructed, Well get all the students and faculty to fast and pray for his healing, then Falwell reminded us, theres value in the volume of prayer.
Why does God answer the faith of many when they agree in prayer together?
Jerry Falwells faith stirred the faith of over 5,000 students and faculty who prayed fervently and God answered. (See Chapter 19 on Healing-Faith for the complete story of Vernons healing.) Falwell often said it was the united prayer of many that led to Vernons healing. So, the question remains: how was Falwells faith transferred to so many? I think I saw faith-transfer at work in the 70s and I gave it the name hot poker. After I had written the book, The 10 Largest Sunday Schools and What Makes Them Grow, 43 many pastors came to ask me how they could build one of the largest churches in America. (I dont criticize these men thinking it was just numbers they wanted, I believe they honestly wanted to do a great work for God).
So I told them hot poker was the secret, just as the poker gets red hot when thrust into the fire, so a man got the great spirit of evangelism when he was exposed to the pastors who are winning souls to Christ. Obviously, when exposed, a pastor got more than the flame of evangelism, they got vision, love, and faith. So here is where faith-transfer happens. When a person like Dr. W. A. Criswell had faith to build the great First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, others went to learn from Dr. Criswell, and came away with greater faith to do elsewhere, what Criswell did in Dallas. Dino Pedrone 44 was pastoring a small Church of God in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, with about 100 people when he contacted me to ask, How can I build one of the great churches in America? I explained to him the hot poker theory and gave him the names and addresses of the largest churches in America. Dino visited them . . . asked many questions . . . learned from them; then he changed the name of his church to Open Door Church and began growing. I personally went back to dedicate the first sanctuary on an enlarged campus outside the city. Then I went back to dedicate the second, third, and fourth buildings as the church grew to approximately 4,000 members. Dino is a testimony to the influence of hot poker or faith-transfer.
FAITHHOPE WAS TRANSFERRED

Think of the faith-transfer when Martin Luther King, Jr. preached the dream sermon in Washington, D.C. in 1963. There were 1,000,000 people listening to Kings message. He had a dream that one day a little black boy and little white boy could play together harmoniously in the South.
I have a dream today . . . one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. Martin Luther King, Jr. 45
Many of the 1,000,000 people in the crowd chanted AMEN. Some yelled Hallelujah. But they did more than shout AMEN and HALLELUJAH, they put feet to their faith. At the same time the doubters who heard King had no faith-transfer. Kings vision of racial equality gripped most of those who heard him. They believed they Kingthat in their lifetime they would experience freedom; as a matter of fact their watch words were FREEDOM NOW! The faith of King transferred to many marchers in many cities throughout America. When the authorities turned the dogs on themthey kept marching. When the authorities turned the fire hoses on themthey kept marching. When clubbed by deputy sheriffsthey marched on. Why? Because they believed the dream sermon of Martin Luther King, Jr. Faith-transfer had happened. The faith of their leader, Martin Luther King, Jr., became theirs. While many believe Kings faith was naturalistic-faith, not New Testament faith, nevertheless it illustrates faithtransfer. Something more than knowledge transferred, and it was more than the stirred emotions of Kings speech. Hope transferred which kindled faith-transfer. And America was forever changed.
FAITHCONFIDENCE WAS TRANSFERRED

Half-way around the world another group of people had the same taste for freedom. Mahatma Gandhi wanted to free the nation of India from British domination and control. He felt India ought to be run by Indians, for Indians, on their own cultural terms, not British terms. But how does a man without political power bring the largest ruling empire in the world to its knees? Britain sold salt to them for almost all of their food, but Gandhi inspired millions to stop buying salt; then he led a symbolic march of hundreds of thousands to the sea from which salt comes. But it was far more than a symbolic march, the masses believed their march would make
a difference; so they marched in faith. (NOTE: Their faith was natural faith, not New Testament faith, but their exploits illustrate the truth of faith-transfer). They marched in Gandhis faith, which became their faith. Then the faith of marchers became the faith of those who didnt march, and in faith-identification the masses stopped using the British salt. Next, Ghandi targeted British cloth, so Gandhi weaved cloth at a crude loom and inspired millions to follow his example. Next, Ghandi targeted British clothing products. So Ghandi began sewing on a crude sewing machine. There was Gandhi sewing his own clothes, so again millions followed his example. In non-violent passive resistance, millions and millions shared the dream of Gandhi. It was more than faith-transferalthough it was thatit was the transfer of hope that became the transfer of confidence. The multitudes knew they were making progress, and they knew eventually they would drive the strongest empire in history out of their nation.
INGREDIENTS OF FAITH-TRANSFER
Faith-transfer begins with the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to the leader. He knows what he hears and he knows what he must do. God has put a burden upon his heart, and he will have no rest until the burden is successfully carried out. Its like picking up a concrete block, as soon as you get it off the ground, your equilibrium wont rest until you put it down. Its one thing for a leader to pick up a concrete block, but how does he motivate others to pick one up? How does he motivate others to sacrifice for a project? It wont happen unless something special happens in the heart of all who follow the example of the leader, and all pick up a concrete block. Next faith-transfer happens through the Word of God. God speaks to the leader through the Scripture, and He also speaks to the followers through the same Scriptures. It usually happens when the leader preaches the Word of God to his followers. Therefore, the leader must
know what Scriptures to use, and he must interpret the passage properly, then apply the Word powerfully. But a lot of preachers do that, they preach the Scriptures weekly, but faith-transfer doesnt happen. Why? The pastor-leader must yield himself to the filling of the Holy Spirit, so that the Spirit can tell him what to say and how to say it. The pastor-leader must let the Holy Spirit speak through him. Then the Spirit must indwell the words of Scripture to make faith-transfer happen. Remember the Bible has the Holy Spirit living in its words. All scripture is given by inspiration of God (2 Tim. 3:16). The Greek word inspiration is theopneustos which means God-breathed. As the authors were writing Scripture, God breathed His message into themthe authorsto guarantee accuracy, then God breathed His life into the words to guarantee the Spirit would speak through the Bible words when they were communicated accurately. So the Holy Spirit is not seen, but is present to make sure there is Spirit-transfer when the Scriptures are preached. He becomes the basis for spiritual faith-transfer. But the Bible is also called the Word of faith (Rom. 10:8). That means the Bible is the instrument to communicate the content of faith, but is also a tool to implant faith within the believer to believe in the project, or to trust God to overcome barriers, or remove mountains. Hope and vision are two powerful tools in faith-transfer. Remember the followers of both King and Gandhi wanted relief from what they perceived as oppression. When their leaders came up with a believable plan to accomplish what both they and the leader wanted, it involved belief in the followers, i.e., natural faith-transfer. And doesnt faith-transfer happen when the leader does something to identify with his followers, i.e., King marched from Selma, Alabama, and many followers walked with him. Gandhi sewing his clothes? He did what every person could do, and eventually did, producing faith-transfer.
WRAP-UP
But faith-transfer is far more than the leader becoming an example. Jerry Falwell successfully got his followers to believe in the projects for which he believed. When he called on his followers to fast for a million dollars, or to pray for $5 million to finish dormitories, or fast for someone to be healed; God honored both Falwell and the peoples faith and gave them what they requested. Falwells past accomplishments in raising money or praying for the sick, inspired people to again believe that God would do it again. Then faith transferred and people expressed corporate faith, and God gave them the thing for which they prayed.
CHAPTER EIGHT
FAITH-BALANCE: IT TAKES TWO WINGS TO FLY
Faith, then is first the hand of the soul which lays hold of the contents of Gods promises; second, it is the eye of the soul which looks out towards and represents them clearly and convincingly to us. Arthur Pink 46
PRINCIPLE:
To move mountains you must use all your ingenuity, skills, and education; at the same time relying on God to accomplish the task.
DEFINITION:
Balance /bal-an-(t)s/ 1. to bring to a state or position of equal proportions; 2. to set one element exactly equal with another; 3. to weigh opposing issues; 4. to equalize in weight, number, or proportion one side with another. (Written by Elmer Towns after research using definitions adapted from Webster and Oxford dictionaries).
CHAPTER EIGHT
FAITH-BALANCE: IT TAKES TWO WINGS TO FLY
Without Gods work, you cannot. Without your faith, God will not.
I was speaking at Glorieta Baptist Conference in New Mexico on the topic of faith, when I walked from behind the pulpit, lifted two arms in the air to announce, It takes two wings to fly. Then I spread my feet apart and pointed to them and said, It takes two legs to walk. Then holding two hands together, I said, It takes two terminal poles to get any power out of a battery to start a car. Then I went back to my original picture saying, No bird has ever flown with one wing, yet many try to fly for God with one wing. Holding up one arm I said, The first wing is faith which uses the power of prayer, intercession, and spiritual dynamics to do the work of God. I went on to explain that many churches emphasize only a spiritual aspect of the ministry, but they ignore the rules of organizing and management. They have no effective program, nor anyone to supervise what they want to do for God. They cant fly with just the wing of spirituality. Then holding up the other arm I said, The second wing is human work. We must work . . . plan . . . put together programs . . . and be ingenious with our organization and management. Then I added, The better we plan and the harder we work, the more we accomplish for God by faith. I then waved two arms in a flapping motion, as if trying to fly. To finish my point I announced, It takes two wings to fly . . . your faith and works must be blended perfectly together.
There was a young lady in the audience that was gripped with the clarity of that visual lesson. She had been praying for money to attend grad school, thinking that it was her lack of faith that had not opened the door. She had good grades, had applied to Liberty University, but didnt have money to attend. That sermon changed her outlook; it was not her lack of faith, but lack of human initiative that kept her out of grad school. Bolstered with a new view of faith, she began to apply to organizations where scholarships were available. With human initiative, doors began to open, and she was able to enter grad school at Liberty University. Just because you attempt something by faith, does not mean that God will do everything to get it done. Doesnt the scripture teach we are workers together with Him (2 Cor. 6:1)? That means we work at the same time God is working. Flying with two wings is also called the division of labor, meaning; God does the work that only God can do, and we must do the work that only man must do. When I was nineteen years old I pastored Westminster Presbyterian Church in Savannah, Georgia. The church met in an old southern sanctuary with steeple, four columns on the porch, and five stained glass windows on each side of the sanctuary. But the church was built on one small city lot. When it rained, the water dripped off the eaves onto the neighbors property. Every time it rained I looked out at four empty lots in the back of the church and would pray, Lord, give us those lots. This was not an idle prayer, but a constant prayer, usually when it rained. The more I prayed, the higher my anxiety level rose. In frustration I would ask, Lord, why havent you given us those lots? I had lots of faith, but the church never got the property. After I left the church the lots were sold to individuals and four homes were constructed there. Then I realized the church would never get the lots, I only had the wing of faith, not the wing of works.
Many years later I looked back on my frustration and laughed at my ignorance and lack of experience. Back then those lots cost only $100 each. Today, because of experience gained in managing Christian organizations, I would get a real estate contract on each of those four lots by 9 oclock the following morning. I might walk into the congregation Sunday morning, hold up the contracts and ask, Whod like to donate a hundred dollars to buy a lot for our church to expand? If I didnt try to get someone to purchase a lot for $100, I might organize a financial capital funds program to purchase all four lots. I might print a flyer and ask the congregation to vote on the program. Then, I might distribute pledge cards and ask people to make a financial commitment to extend our ministry. I would rely on both faith and fund-raising ability. I would approach the problem with two wings. For most of my life Ive struggled with the two wing principle, going from one extreme to the other. At times, I felt as if I must do all the work. Its like I must prepare a sermon, including humor at the right time to move my audience to laughter, and I would include a gripping story at another time to bring them to tears. At the appropriate time I would move people by an invitation so they will respond to God. Then at other times, I went to the other extreme. I fasted and prayed asking God to use my sermon to move people. I didnt prepare properly, nor did I review my notes before I spoke. I wanted God to do everything. Both extremes were wrong. It takes two wings to fly. It takes both spiritual preparation and studious preparation to put together a sermon to change lives. If it takes two wings to fly and it doesthen I must pray and fast as I prepare a sermon, and I must spend hours of research, plus I must review my notes right before I speak so I can deliver my sermon both accurately and artfully. I must activate the division of labor, doing all I can naturally to prepare a sermon to move hearts; and at the same time I must trust God in faith to do a spiritual work in the hearts of people that only He can do.
There was a time I prayed for some of the books Ive written to become a bestseller. Now as I look back, thats a prayer that God couldnt answer. Some of these books were pretty thin; thats another way of saying they were weak. God cant take a poor book and make it into a best seller. Now I pray for God to help me write a best seller. If its an outstanding book, sales will reflect my effort. The two wing principle takes place in every aspect of ministry. When you begin to plan and dream about the things you want to do for God, make sure that you plan excellence and you perform excellence if you want God to do exceedingly abundantly above all you could ask or think (Eph. 3:20).
EXAMINE FAITH AND WORKS

Flying with two wings is taught in James 2:14-26, under the explanation of faith and works. The following translation by the author will help you see this truth through the eyes of Scripture.
How effective can the Christian fly? Who has the wing of faith, but not the natural wing of human effort? Can his faith-wing make him fly? If the one-wing believer sees a needy Christian and only blesses him in faith, has he done any good? No, his Christian friend is still needy. So a believer with only a faithwing, without a practical wing, cant fly. A believer cant say, I have faith Christianity but you only have practical Christianity. If they first tried to show faith without practical actions, they will not get off the ground. But if he demonstrates his faith by the things he does, he can fly. If you only have a faith wing and believe in God, what good is that; the devil also believes in one God, but they do something about it; they tremble. You are dumb if you think faith without being practical will work. As the body without the spirit is dead, so your faith is dead if it doesnt practice practical application. (James 2:14-20, 26, Expanded & Applied)
WRAP-UP
Your works are empty without faith. Faith without works is dead (vs. 17). This means when you pray for money to meet your bills, you must work harder, or longer or smarter. You
may have to work a second job, or a third one to get money. Do all you can do to make more money as you pray for God to provide for your emergencies. Your faith wont fly without works. If you only have a faith wing, and believe in God, what good is that? (v. 19, Amplified). You have to add works to faith. You wont win an unconverted friend to Christ if you only pray for a lost person. You must show them love, then share the plan of salvation, and use all types of positive motivation to move that person to conversion. Those who claim by faith the things they desire, must do more than just pray, or just believe. The depth of their faith is given credibility by the sincerity of their works. While the work of God is done by people, it is God who works through people to accomplish His will. Faith is a relationship that demands each partner fulfill their end of the bargain. God honors the faith of those people who properly honor Him. The person who dares to speak for God and speak to God; must be sure they know Godthey must know how He thinks, and how He speaks to people. They must never presume their will onto Gods plan. Nor can they by-pass the way God does things, assuming God will jump when they call on Him, or God will give what they name or claim by faith. The person of faith must forge a strong bond with God, based on the blood sprinkled way. It will be a relationship of confidence and trust. The strength of the persons faith will not rest in the strength of the persons mind, but our faith gets its strength from God Himself. For when we have strong faith, it is because of His strength. Never ours! The wing of human works expends energy, motion, and much flapping about without God. Some may even build huge sanctuaries, sway vast multitudes, and according to Jesus; they may even produce miracles (Matt. 6:21-23), but Jesus said He never knew those who did such things. One wing-faith never leaves the ground, it doesnt fly.
Some have gathered large congregations in the flesh. Others have preached on television, and even attained a PhD in religion. But without the faith of God, they havent soared with God. Paul reminds us that some of our works are wood, hay & stubble and, each ones work . . . will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each ones work, of what sort it is. (1 Cor. 3:13). This is scary, because, If anyones work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire (1 Cor. 3:15). So our works are good when tied to faith, but without faith, they have the smell of burning wood about them.
SECTION 1 ENDNOTES
1
See http://www.worldhelp.net/Vernon-Brewer/About-Vernon.aspx. See http://www.liberty.edu. See http://www.gobbc.edu/.
On the day I wrote this chapter I just happened to meet Harold Rawlings who was one of those three roommates of Jerry Falwell. His was one of the cars used to pick up 4th grade boys. He verified the facts of this story. I attended a reunion of Jerrys Sunday school class in the facilities of High Street Baptist Church in 1984. Max Hawkins was there, as well as many of the boys from that class. I heard one testimony after another of those who were converted under Jerrys ministry in that class. That illustrated to me the enduring influence of Jerrys act of faith.
6 5
See http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/HughesMearns, <accessed 9/4/2008>. See http://home.trbc.org/. See http://www.tntemple.edu/templates/System/default.asp?id=31498. See http://www.bju.edu/. See http://english.fgtv.com/drcho/Biography.htm. See http://english.fgtv.com/.
10
11
To learn more about fasting, see Fasting for Spiritual Breakthrough, by Elmer Towns (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1996). In this chapter the term brinkmanship means giving everything one has to gain a victory for the cause of God, i.e., willingness to lose everything for a spiritual victory. In brinkmanship, you deliberately create a recognizable risk, i.e., or create a situation that seems to get out of hand for the purpose of defending yourself or gaining a victory. Section 1 Big Bold Extraordinary Faith Elmer Towns 96
13
12
14
See http://www.sundayadelaja.com/.
Sunday Adelaja, Church Shift: Revolutionizing Your Faith, Church, and Life for the 21st Century (Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2008).
16
15
See http://gochristfellowship.com/.
See 3 John 9. Diotrophes was a domineering church leader who acted dictatorial to kick people out of the church, and keep out good people.
18
17
See Matthew 16:18.
Jerry Falwell preached a sermon, Spiritual Brinkmanship, from the pulpit of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, VA, February, 19, 1995.
20
19
See http://www.billygraham.org/. Documented in personal correspondence received from Bill Bright.
21
While you may disagree with the exact order of these priorities, you probably agree there is an order of priorities and that some prayers seem trivial to God.
23
22
See http://www.ccci.org/. See http://www.campuscrusadeforchrist.com/aboutus/synopsis.htm. Jerry Falwell and Elmer Towns, Capturing A Town for Christ (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell Co.,
24
25
1973). Elmer L. Towns, and Douglas Porter, The Ten Greatest Revivals Ever (Ann Arbor, MI: Servant Publications, 2000). The revival among Independent Baptists is described on pages 159-161 in this volume, and was part of a larger revival around the world. This book defines revival as, God pouring His presence on His people. This statement is cooperative. God loves people so much more than a building that there is no comparison. But when Gods leaders use their faith to construct a building so people can hear the Scripture, or worship, or evangelize; then God loves the building thats used to carry out a higher priority of faith. When our faith becomes attached to a building, so that we build it to glorify God, then God is pleased with that building.
28 26
27
See http://www.willowcreek.org/MiniSite/default.asp. See http://www.willowcreek.com/lds/events_LS_2009.asp, (accessed 3 February 2009). See http://www.willowcreek.com/lds/events_LS_2009_faq.asp#satelliteTechnology, accessed 3 February
29
30
2009). See When You Wish Upon A Star, music by Leigh Harline / lyrics by Ned Washington, performed by Jiminy Cricket (Cliff Edwards), http://solosong.net/wish.html, (accessed 10 November 2008).
32 31
J. Robert Clinton, The Making of a Leader (Colorado Springs, CO: Navpress, 1988), 46.
Tim LaHaye had written The Spirit-Controlled Temperament, Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 1993; How to Study the Bible for Yourself, Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 1998; .and The Act of Marriage, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998).
34
33
Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, The Left Behind Series (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House). Later I wrote the bestselling book, Fasting for Spiritual Breakthrough (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1996).
35
36
See http://www.tiu.edu/divinity/. See http://www.stevewingfield.org/ See http://www.stevewingfield.org. See http://www.ciu.edu/. See http://www.ttbc.info.
37
38
39
40
Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, The Practice of the Present of God (New Kensington, PA: Whitaker House, 1982).
42
41
Jerry Falwell and Elmer Towns, Stepping Out on Faith (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1985),
26. Elmer L. Towns, The 10 Largest Sunday Schools and What Makes Them Grow (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1969).
44 43
See http://www.thegatheringplacefl.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=79&Itemid=61.
See the I Have a Dream Speech, U. S. Constitution Online, <http://www.usconstitution.net/dream.html,> (accessed 17 September 2008). Arthur Pink, An Exposition of Hebrews, Chapter 56, The Excellency Of Faith (Hebrews 1:1-3), http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/Hebrews/hebrews_056.htm, (accessed 5 February 2009).
46
45

00 Evan 980 Faith - Section 1

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00 Evan 980 Faith - Section 1

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SECTION ONE

Developing Extraordinary Faith

Section 1 Big Bold Extraordinary Faith Elmer Towns 1

Section 1 Big Bold Extraordinary Faith Elmer Towns 2

Section 1 Big Bold Extraordinary Faith Elmer Towns 3

HOW FALWELL GREW HIS FAITHRELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

Section 1 Big Bold Extraordinary Faith Elmer Towns 7

FAITH IS SEEKING GOD

Section 1 Big Bold Extraordinary Faith Elmer Towns 10

Section 1 Big Bold Extraordinary Faith Elmer Towns 11

Section 1 Big Bold Extraordinary Faith Elmer Towns 12

Section 1 Big Bold Extraordinary Faith Elmer Towns 13

Section 1 Big Bold Extraordinary Faith Elmer Towns 15

Section 1 Big Bold Extraordinary Faith Elmer Towns 16

THE NATURE OF A LEAP OF FAITH

Section 1 Big Bold Extraordinary Faith Elmer Towns 17

Section 1 Big Bold Extraordinary Faith Elmer Towns 18

Section 1 Big Bold Extraordinary Faith Elmer Towns 19

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Section 1 Big Bold Extraordinary Faith Elmer Towns 29

STAND AGAINST YOUR NATION

Section 1 Big Bold Extraordinary Faith Elmer Towns 33

THE EMBASSY OF GOD

Section 1 Big Bold Extraordinary Faith Elmer Towns 34

THE BATTLE FOR OUR PROPERTY

Section 1 Big Bold Extraordinary Faith Elmer Towns 35

THE CHALLENGE OF BRINKMANSHIP

Section 1 Big Bold Extraordinary Faith Elmer Towns 36

Section 1 Big Bold Extraordinary Faith Elmer Towns 39

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FAITH TO BUILD A UNIVERSITY

Section 1 Big Bold Extraordinary Faith Elmer Towns 65

FAITH IN DIFFERENT FIELDS OF OPERATION

DIFFERENT FOCUS OF FAITH

Section 1 Big Bold Extraordinary Faith Elmer Towns 67

Jerry Falwell, the builder:

Bill Bright, the businessman:

Billy Graham, the evangelist:

Section 1 Big Bold Extraordinary Faith Elmer Towns 68

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