The Spirit of Faith, Part 2 - Jerry Savelle

Full Sermon

Jerry Savelle: Hello everyone, I'm Jerry Savelle. Welcome to our broadcast today. We certainly appreciate you watching. Today, I have with me my wife Carolyn. We have been married for 51 years. We are so blessed to the Lord. I wanted her to join me today in wishing you a Happy New Year, Merry Christmas. We just thank each and everyone of you for watching our broadcast, and especially those of you that are partners with us, thank you for believing in this ministry. Thank you for believing in the call of God on our lives.
CAROLYN: As I was praying this morning, I came across this Scripture. I wanted to read it to you. "If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasure." That is the will God for us, to spend our days and years enjoying the fruits and the goodness of our God. I want to say Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you who support us. We really do appreciate it.
Jerry Savelle: Amen. Listen. I want to read a Scripture to you as well. This is what I'm praying for each and every one of you in this coming new year. Psalm 115, versus 12 through 15. It says the Lord hath been mindful of us. He will bless us. It goes on to say, "And the Lord shall increase you more and more, you and your children." That's our prayer for you in this coming new year that God's blessing will overtake you, that you will experience increase beyond anything you've ever experienced before and praise God, we're expecting testimonies of that from you as we get into the new year. Listen, stay tuned. In just a few moments, I'll be back with today's message.
Jerry Savelle: Hello everyone. Welcome to our broadcast today. We're so grateful that you have been watching faithfully over the years. We thank you for believing in the vision of this ministry, and friends and partners, we are so grateful for you. You help us reach the world with the message of faith. I want you to know that I do not take that lightly. Thank you for believing in our ministry. Thank you for believing in the call of God on our lives. Thank you for believing in the anointing that we are privileged to operate in. Last week we talked about the spirit of faith, and my special guest was John Bendixen from South Africa. He's with me again today. I want to welcome you to the program John.
JOHN: Thank you, brother Jerry. It's wonderful-
Jerry Savelle: Thank you so much once again for being such a great friend, and a great co-labor in the Lord. You've been working with this ministry for many, many years. Of course, you know how you feel about your family.
JOHN: Yes, sir.
Jerry Savelle: I love them dearly. I've watched your sons grow up and become great men of God as well. We're just so grateful that you're here. Thank you, once again, for all that you've done in support of the vision of this ministry. JOHN: Thank you for inviting me to be part of the show. Brother Jerry. It's my honor, it's my privilege to be here.
Jerry Savelle: Praise God.
JOHN: Thank you, sir.
Jerry Savelle: John, we've been talking about the spirit of faith. On last week's broadcast, I talked about how that in 1969 when Kenneth Copeland came to my hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana and preached the message of faith. I not only heard a message, but I caught the spirit of faith. You know, it only took one service, one service. My wife Carolyn, you know very well, she begged me to go every service. I had a paint and body shop back in those days. I would be in my shop at 7 o'clock in the morning. Sometimes I wouldn't get home until 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, or 12, whatever it required, you know? I worked hard. I'd come home. I was tired. The last thing I wanted to do was go to church. JOHN: Yes. JERRY: I was tired. I didn't want to hear preachers anymore. When Carolyn and I first married, she took me to a lot of services. I just got tired of hearing it. Not only that, but some of the preachers she took me to, how shall I say it? They were not reputable men. I just got tired of going. Brother Copeland came. He was there for a week, for three services a day. Carolyn didn't miss a service. Every night when I would come home. She would say, "Jerry, please go with me tonight. I've never heard anything like this man preaches." Now, my wife had been filled with the Holy Ghost when she was eight years old. She sat under William Branham's ministry, she sat under Oral Robert's ministry, she sat under T.L. Osborn, all those great men of God. Now, she's telling me she's hearing things like she never heard before. I said, "Carolyn, how can you say that? You grew up in this," you know?
JOHN: Yes.
Jerry Savelle: She said, "I'm telling you, I've never heard anybody preach about faith like this man. Please, go with me." I said, "No, I don't want to go. I'm tired. You go." The last night, she begged me to go. She said, "This is his last night." Then she said this John. I'll never forget it. She said, "If you go tonight and you don't like him, then I'll never ask you to go to another service." I thought, "Now, that's the deal I've been waiting on." I thought, "You serious? If I don't like him, you won't ask me to go to another service." She said, "I won't ask you to go again." I went thinking that I wasn't going to like him, because I thought he's going to be like all the rest. That night, I heard the Word like I've never heard it before. He preached a message that I still have the reel to reel tape in my archives. He preached a message entitled The Word of Faith, just simply The Word of Faith. What I heard that night, Carolyn, she was correct, I'd never heard anybody talk about faith like he did. Now, in previous meetings that I had gone to earlier, we had already been married almost three years, and those early meetings that I went to when we first married, I heard people talk about, "You ought to have faith." I heard people talk about, "Here's what you could do if you had faith." I never heard anybody talk about how you get faith, you know?
JOHN: Right.
Jerry Savelle: I knew what it would do if you ever got it, but how do you get it? There didn't seem to be anybody know. Man, he made it so simple. He just laid out there line upon line, word upon word. I'll never forget his closing remarks that night. He picked up his Bible, and he turned to the audience, and he said, I'll never forget it John. It was so powerful. He said, "If you hear it and you get it, it'll work for you. If you don't, it won't. Good night." He walked out of there. I thought, "Wow, John Wayne has come to the pulpit," you know? He was a man's man. He was. He was so matter of fact, you know?
JOHN: Embolden.
Jerry Savelle: He didn't pull any punches. I like that. Shortly after that, a lady that we knew who was in those meetings, she came to my house. She said, "Jerry I bought a copy of all of those messages that Kenneth Copeland preached, and the Lord told me to bring them to you." She had a paper sack full of reel to reel tapes, a message on each side. She said, "Here." I took them, and I said, "Well, what am I supposed to do with these?" She said, "Listen to them." I said, "Well, I don't have any way to listen to them." She said, "You don't have a tape player?" I said, "No, I don't." She said, "I'll be right back." She came back with this huge type player that you sat on a desk. You didn't carry it under your arm, you sat it on a desk. She said, "I was hoping you had one. I didn't want to have to give you mine, but the Lord told me to give you my tape player." I set that up in my bedroom. I listened to it every night when I came home from work. I was in that bedroom for hours listening to those messages. Here's what happened, I caught the spirit of faith. Once again, as I said on the previous broadcast, you can hear the word of faith, but you have to catch the spirit of faith.
JOHN: Yes.
Jerry Savelle: Have you found that to be true?
JOHN: You know, Brother Jerry, we did our heritage of faith, Jerry Savelle Ministries missions outreach into what we in South Africa call cross-border missions into Zambia and Malawi just recently. It was a very small church in Livingstone in Zambia that I preached at on a Sunday morning. This pastors been through your Bible school, which you saw it on the tablet, you know?
Jerry Savelle: Right.
JOHN: He was graduating. When he'd preach at his church, and right at the end of me preaching at his church, he asked me to come. We're talking about Africa. They meeting up in a classroom, and so they have another classroom that they ask you to come and sit in as a guest of honor. It's just a couple of chairs. He called me there because he wanted to present me with a seed. He presented me with a seed that was so large for him. It's hard for me to say in dollars, because it was his currency, but I know in his currency how large a seed it was. For me, it might have paid for a couple cups of coffee, you know?
Jerry Savelle: Right.
JOHN: For him, this might have been a whole month's salary that he sowed into my life. What happened was, there was a demonstration right there of the spirit of faith that he had caught through going through your Bible school and catching all those messages in his heart. He had a son who had been out of work. He had some health problems. After he presented the seed to me, he brought his son into the room. He said, "Will you please pray for my son?" I said, "I will." I laid hands on him, and instantly his son was healed of that sickness, because it had an effect on his body, you know?
Jerry Savelle: Yeah.
JOHN: He was instantly calm. He was instantly healed from that. The last report I heard, he had found a job and was working in a job. That spirit of faith is what makes the difference. It's believing that Jesus is real, that Jesus' Word makes the difference. If that attitude is an attitude that consumes you, it doesn't matter whether you're in a little village in Zambia or in a town in Malawi or in a big city of Johannesburg or in a big city of Fort Worth, Dallas, wherever, that's the same spirit of faith, Brother Jerry.
Jerry Savelle: That's right. That's right. JOHN: It will rise up inside of you. It will dominate your circumstances. It will pull you through it. Yes, we will have trials and tribulations, but He brings us through it all. That spirit of faith continues to just be the determining factor between who wins. Jerry Savelle: That's right.
JOHN: We win, if we have the spirit of faith, Brother Jerry.
Jerry Savelle: That's right. Praise God. JOHN: Yeah.
Jerry Savelle: We got this term, and I read it on last week's broadcast, from 2nd Corinthians, chapter 4, and verse 13. Listen to what Paul says here again, "We, having the same spirit of faith." Now, when I read that for the first time many years ago, I'm thinking, "Who's he talking about?" "We, having the same spirit of faith." "We, having the same spirit of faith." I'm meditating on that. I'm thinking, "Is he telling me that I have the same spirit of faith on me that he had on him?" Imagine that.
JOHN: Yes.
Jerry Savelle: That I have, you have the same spirit of faith on our lives that the apostle Paul had on his life. If you read through the Book of Acts and see what Paul's faith accomplished.
JOHN: Yes, all he did.
Jerry Savelle: I'm telling you, it's so powerful.
JOHN: It is.
Jerry Savelle: Just the thought of that same spirit of faith that he operated in, that I can now operate in, that brings great joy to your heart.
JOHN: Yes, sir.
Jerry Savelle: Notice also, we having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, he's quoting David from the Psalms, I believe and therefore have I spoken. We also believe and therefore speak. Apparently, the spirit of faith affects your tongue. The spirit of faith affects your mouth. The spirit of faith affects your heart. In other words, if you have the spirit of faith in and on your life, you're going to be talking words about of faith. You can't talk like you used to talk. That's the that's the first thing I learned back there in 1969 listing to Brother Copeland talk about the word of faith. One of the first things I learned. Of course, he was teaching from the 11th chapter of Mark where Jesus said that you can have what you say, if you believe in your heart and doubt not. Brother Copeland was talking about the power of words and how when you have the spirit of faith in and on your life, it changes your vocabulary. He said, "Put a guard over your vocabulary." I began to take notice of what was coming out of my mouth. At that time, I was talking lack, I was talking poverty. I was talking needs. I was talking wants, I was talking sickness. I was talking disease. I was brought up that way. I mean, I was conformed to the world, and consequently, that's the way I talked.
JOHN: Yes.
Jerry Savelle: Then after seeing these things in the word, and seeing the results of what would happen if I changed the way I talk to begin with, then man, it excited me. Carolyn and I, I remember, we made a pact together. We joined hands right there in our living room. We said, "In the name of Jesus, we're going to get so full of the Word that it changes our vocabulary. If we can't talk the Word, we're just going to shut up." JOHN: Absolutely.
Jerry Savelle: We said this, "We will be each other's coach. If we hear one or the other talking negative, and talking doubt and unbelief and sickness and disease and poverty, lack and want, then we will correct them." We made this agreement, that we'll not get offended over it. We're helping each other to learn to talk the Word, because the spirit of faith has an effect on how you talk. A lot of times, you can tell if a person has the spirit of faith or not by what's coming out of their mouth.
JOHN: Yes sir. Sharon and I, not surprisingly, Sharon and I did the same thing in the early years of our marriage. When we got a hold of that faith, we used words that were in the word. We used words towards each other that changed our language. It changed the way we began to see each other. It affects relationship. It affects everything that's in your life, if what's in your heart, that spirit of faith that's in your heart, comes out of your mouth, and then it just feeds on it. It keeps growing. It changes, and it keeps changing all through your life.
Jerry Savelle: Yeah. Our oldest daughter, Jerriann, was born in 1968. Terri was born in 1969, the year that I surrendered my life to the Lord. They were both telling me not too long ago, "Daddy, when you talk about that old man, the way you were before you made Jesus Lord of your life, we don't even know that guy. We've never met that man. The man that we know has always been a man of faith, has always talked faith. We never heard you talk doubt and unbelief. We'd never heard you talk lack and want. All we've ever heard you talk is the Word of God and the word of faith." Wouldn't you have loved to have grown up in a home where all you heard all your life was the word of faith. I can understand, and it's easy to understand why both of my daughters are faith preachers today, because that's all they know. That's all they've seen. They've seen the results in the lives of their mother and dad. Why not-
JOHN: Why not?
Jerry Savelle: ... be a preacher of faith? Praise God. Just like we caught the spirit of faith from Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin, Oral Roberts, T.L. Osborn, our daughters have caught the spirit of faith from us. Now our grandchildren-
JOHN: Amen.
Jerry Savelle: ... are catching the spirit of faith. Praise God.
JOHN: Amen, amen.
Jerry Savelle: It's an exciting way to live.
JOHN: It's exciting. I remember, early, when my son was a little younger. He was going through some of his own identity, as a young teenager, his own identity of who he was as a person, and what he wanted to believe, and how he would go. He would see me come back from work at that time. He would see me believing God for business to come in. He would hear conversations that I would be having with my executive director at that point of how it doesn't look good for us. The deal doesn't look good for us in the natural. But every time I would finish a conversation, I would say, "But I believe that deal, that business is mine." He acknowledged later, he said, "Dad, I watched your faith work. As a teenager, it was the working faith that actually saved my life, because I couldn't help but recognize the power of God at work. When things were looking impossible, the power of God actually made the difference." It's that spirit of faith that people, it's irresistible to them, Brother Jerry.
Jerry Savelle: He caught the spirit.
JOHN: He caught the spirit of faith.
Jerry Savelle: He and his wife live it today.
JOHN: Yeah, they do.
Jerry Savelle: Praise God. It's exciting. John, Hebrews 10, verse 38 says, "The just shall live by faith." Another translation says, "They will have their lives sustained by their faith." The word, "sustained" implies upheld, maintained, and supported. That means that with our faith, when you catch the spirit of faith, then your life will be upheld, maintained, and supported. Even though it's a life-changing force ... This thing called faith, it's a life-changing force, you can't allow it to lie dormant in your heart. I remember Brother Hagin used to say when he was teaching, particularly in his morning services back there in the early days, when he'd go into churches and he'd teach faith and prayer, and so forth, and he would be teaching on the subject of faith and prayer, and then he would call people up at the end of the service and have them gather around the altar in the church and pray. He was, obviously, hoping that he'd hear ... He'd just walk in front of them and listen to how they were praying, obviously, hoping that they had learned something, and they had corrected some things in how they prayed. He said one time he just stopped and asked somebody, "What are you praying for?" They said, "Oh, nothing in particular." He said, "Well, that's exactly what you're going to get, nothing in particular." Then he said he walked by someone and said, "What are you believing for?" He said, "Well, Brother Hagin, I've got all the faith in the world. I don't know why nothing's happening." He said, "Well, that's your problem. You still got all the faith in the world. You're not releasing any of it." It's possible to have faith but it be lying dormant in your heart. You're not using it. A lot of Christians are walking around today with world-overcoming faith, mountain-moving faith, and they're not releasing it. They're not using it. The Bible says, "The just shall have their lives sustained by their faith." In other words, faith was put in your heart to be used, to help you, to help you to overcome, to help you to live in victory, to help you to live the kind of life that God has planned for you to live. This is what Paul is referring to when he talks about the spirit of faith. This means that you not only know the word regarding faith, and you not only know that it's in your heart, but you're actively using it. You're actively engaging in faith every day of your life. That's what the spirit of faith means. Once again, it's not enough to just know that there is the word of faith. It's not enough just to know that Jesus said you can have it. It's not just enough to know that it's on the inside of you. What you need to learn to do is release it, because your faith, just like my faith, John's faith, and every other Christian's faith, and just like Paul's faith, and Jesus' faith, it's designed by God to help you overcome the world. I want to encourage you, don't waste anymore time. Get in the Word. Spend quality time in the Word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word. You can grow your faith. You can be strong in faith. You can have world-overcoming faith. Praise God, it's time for you to make the quality decision that no one's going to talk you out of your faith, that you're going to use it. You're going to live by it. Praise God, you're going-
JOHN: Amen.
Jerry Savelle: ... to live in victory-
JOHN: Amen, yes sir.
Jerry Savelle: ... for the rest of your life. That's what God has promised you if you determine that you're going to live by faith. Catch the spirit of faith today. Amen.
JOHN: Amen.
JERRY: Thank you, John-
JOHN: Thank you Brother Jerry.
Jerry Savelle: ... for joining me. Praise God, it's been fun sharing the Word with you-
JOHN: Wonderful.
Jerry Savelle: ... and you sharing the Word with our audience. Praise God.
JOHN: Thank you. Thank you, Brother Jerry.
Jerry Savelle: I appreciate you so much. John and I will be back in just a few moments. I want you to listen to our announcer for some special product and resources that we have available for you. John and I will be back in just a few moments.
ANNOUNCER: Proverbs 28:20 tells us, "A faithful man shall abound with blessings." Are you ready to go all out for God and hold nothing back? In the timely three CD series, The Faithful Shall Abound With Blessings, Jerry Savelle shares from God's Word on faithfulness and what it means for you. If you're willing to give your all to God, he will give his all to you. Your faith is the title deed to God's promise for the things you are believing to receive from him. In the life-changing book, Life of Faith, Jerry Savelle teaches how to release your faith and how to see through faith beyond your present circumstances. Living by faith is not a suggestion, but a Biblical command from God. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Don't wait. Call or go online now to JerrySavelle.org and request the Spirit of Faith combo, including the three CD teaching, The Faithful Shall Abound With Blessings, and the book, Life of Faith. Your faith has the ability to grow. You can learn to live by faith and be the winner that God has called you to be today.
Jerry Savelle: Welcome back, and thank you once again for joining us today. I appreciate you spending this time with us. I love reading these testimonies that we're receiving. They are awesome. God is no respecter of persons. What he's done in my life He'll do in your life.
JOHN: Amen.
Jerry Savelle: Just dare trust Him. Just determine that you're going to believe Him no matter what your circumstances are. You just watch, He'll come through for you. Here's one from Debra. She said, "I contacted your ministry with a prayer request for my grand baby who was born prematurely. Someone from your ministry called me and said they were praying for my prayer request. Praise God, the baby is now doing great. Thank you so much for your prayers." Debra, I rejoice with you. Thank God for a healthy grand baby. Praise God. Here's one from Craig. "Early this month God gave me a 2006 Cadillac DTS debt free. I am now reaping the best I have ever experienced in my life."
JOHN: Hallelujah.
Jerry Savelle: Praise God, Craig, that's a wonderful testimony.
JOHN: Praise the Lord.
Jerry Savelle: A new Cadillac, well it's not a brand new Cadillac, but it's new to you. Praise God.
JOHN: Amen.
Jerry Savelle: It's debt free. God is faithful. Here's one from Joyce. It says, "I play volleyball. At one point in the season, I banged up my knee so badly that I was unable to walk properly. One day I was having difficulty sleeping and came across one of your sermons where you said to write down what I'm believing God for. I wrote it down that I was believing God for complete healing in my knees. The day after I made this list I realized that I had received my healing. There was no pain when I played volleyball shortly after. It was like I was never injured at all. Thank you for standing in agreement with me and for teaching me how to trust in Jesus." That is awesome, Joyce. Praise God.
JOHN: Hallelujah.
Jerry Savelle: It's always wonderful hearing about what God is doing in the lives of others. If you haven't sent us your testimony, please do so. We loved reading them. We love sharing them on the broadcast from time to time. As I've said before, your testimony will inspire somebody else's faith. Please keep sending them. Once again, we thank you for taking the time to do it. Once again, our special offer, The Life of Faith book. I wrote this some time back. It's a book that talks about how that you can develop your faith in the Word of God, in God himself, and in the Lord Jesus Christ, your Savior, and learn how that you can take God's Word and apply it to the affairs of your life, apply it to every circumstance in your life, and expect God to come through for you, just like He has for me, and just like He has for Brother John. Then right along with that, three CDs, The Faithful Shall Abound with Blessings, that's God's will for you. He doesn't want you to experience blessings every once in a while. He want's you to abound in them. He wants you to flourish in His blessings. This will teach you how to position yourself to experience that. Go to the website. Look on your screen, right now, for ordering information. Place your order right away. John, thank you again for joining me.
JOHN: Thank you Brother Jerry.
JERRY: Have a good trip back to South Africa.
JOHN: Yes sir, thank you.
JERRY: I'll be seeing you there real soon.
JOHN: Yes sir.
JERRY: Amen. Thank you, again, for joining us. Remember this, your faith will overcome the world.