We would like to comment once more concerning the "faith" movement. We have noted that those who advocate getting one's way by faith stress that the Bible is Jesus, that the living Word and the written Word are one and the same.

It seems so right to "stand upon the Word," to declare what the Scriptures state and maintain that such will become reality provided we think it, speak it, hold to it. This approach sounds so positive, so victorious, so hopeful.

But there surely is death in the pot. The Bible encourages us to pray to God through Jesus, not simply to say something is true in any situation of our choosing merely because the principle may be set forth in the Scriptures. Also, the "faith" advocates do not emphasize nearly enough the Presence of the Holy Spirit or of the Lord.

Let us say someone is ill. We can pray with him and beseech the Lord concerning his health, or we can ignore prayer, ignore the Lord, ignore the Spirit of God, and state positively it is God's will the sick be whole. He was healed by Jesus' stripes.

Both of these approaches cannot be correct. One is correct and the other is incorrect.

We may note that nowhere in the Scriptures, Old Testament or New Testament, is there an emphasis on presumptuous faith. In fact, "standing upon the promises," as the phrase is employed today, is reminiscent of Satan's exhortation to Jesus to leap from the pinnacle of the Temple.

None of the Prophets or Apostles of the Lord ever attempted to utilize the Scriptures in a presumptuous manner. Rather, in strict obedience they followed the Lord Himself and stood on what He had told them personally. The eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews, the "faith chapter," contains no concept of an aggressive use of the Scriptures to achieve one's desires.

We are not ministers of the letter of the Scriptures but of the Spirit (II Corinthians 3:6). It is not true that Jesus and the Scriptures are one. Jesus is One with the Father, not with the Scriptures. The Scriptures are to lead us to the Person, Jesus. They themselves are not the Lord Jesus. There is no life or healing in the Scriptures. There is life and healing in the Lord Jesus.

Every true saint learns the Scriptures and trusts in them. What God has said He will do, He shall do. The Holy Spirit is the One who guides us, who teaches us when and how to apply the promises of God. When the Holy Spirit is applying the Scriptures, when we have the sense of the will of the Spirit, we can stand in faith on the Scriptures.

When we are using our own mind, our own faith, in an attempt to make the Scriptures work on our behalf, we are out of Divine order. It appears to us that the "faith" advocates, in their attempt to force the Scriptures to work according to their own desires, sometimes pass over into that which is satanic—namely, the release of the latent powers of the subconscious mind. Because they were not willing to humbly take up their cross and follow the Lord Jesus they have become deceived. They have entered into a relationship with the Antichrist spirit, the spirit of man making himself a God. They have become the prey of the False Prophet, the spirit of religious delusion.

To be continued.