Faith
By Phil Pringle
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About this ebook
It is men and women of faith that have changed this world for the better. In this book, Ps. Phil will lead you towards becoming one of this uncommon breed of people who transform this earth. God has given to every man, woman and child a measure of faith which needs to be directed, developed and grown through use. God's 'aliveness' is discovered through faith – because faith is what He responds to.
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Faith - Phil Pringle
Faith by Phil Pringle
Published by PaX Ministries Pty Ltd ABN No: 97 003 162 392
Locked Bag No 8, Dee Why, 2099, Australia
Tel: +61 2 9972 8688 Fax: +61 2 9972 8640
www.philpringle.com
Cover Art and Layout by Velvet Creative www.velvet.com.au
Printed in Australia by Hyde Park Press www.hydeparkpress.com.au
This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise - without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by Australian copyright law.
Scripture taken from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996,
2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
Scripture taken from the New King James version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982.
By Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION.
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.
Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.
Scripture quotations are taken from The Living Bible, copyright ©1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189 USA. All rights reserved.
Words in capitals, in bold or in scripture quotations are the emphasis of the author. The words him
, his
, he
, or man
are sometimes used generically to describe people of both genders.
Copyright 2003 by Pax Ministries Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Paperback ISBN0: 9585827 8 5
EBook ISBN: 978-981-07-7027-3
EBook Published by Faris Adal, Singapore.
5th Edition. Reprinted 2013
Dedicated to my beautiful daughter Rebekah - whose mother rescued her from being named Faith just in the nick of time. Concurrent with her birth, Rebekah’s father (yours truly) was apparently so enamoured with the entire subject of faith, that he declared she should receive the same name as his current revelation!
My daughter is now 40- married to Matthew, and mother to our two grandsons- Finn and Sonny. Currently, she is our PAX Business Manager and delightful co- worker!
Over the years, Rebekah has been many things to her mother and me, but one thing she is - a living landmark to me, of when the Lord deposited the gift of faith into my life.
As I look at her, I am reminded of when, and how long ago, God began to work into this feeble frame - a faith that has conquered many mountains. She has also provided us with ample opportunity to exercise this faith in regard to her own life, and to see just how real it is.
Thus, it is my pleasure to dedicate these pages to my beautiful and only daughter, Rebekah Faith Wilcock [ née Pringle]
Line.jpgFOREWORD
Line.jpgAs we go to press with this fifth edition in 2013, many years have passed since I first drafted this book. I find it enormously exciting, that my concepts about faith outlined in this material have not changed, but rather grown stronger.
'My deepest thanks, as I come to the conclusion of penning this book, to my sweet wife Chris. She has walked with me closely through the valleys and the mountains of this tremendous life. She has also spent countless hours editing the material in this book. It has been a supreme delight to work together on this project.
I wrote this book after we had birthed our church in Sydney, in 1980, and had begun planting a few churches in Australia. At that time, we were meeting in a large rented warehouse. We had not put up a single building at that point, but were still in the planning stages. We had purchased land, but were still seeking authority from the local government to build on it. We encountered immense opposition to our building program from all quarters for eight years. Our proposal had been rejected three times by the local government in a highly public debate. The story was covered on national television and local newspapers, with a very negative slant. Most of the local community seemed to have taken a heated position against our development plans. We prayed and remained in a state of committing it all to God, surrendering ourselves to His plans.
Even though there were some bleak days in that time, I found it very difficult to not believe that we would eventually see God's great hand move.
I had prayed the prayers, believed God and seen the dream. It lived in me on days when I even didn't want it to.
Once faith has given birth to the substance of things hoped for, that substance lives within us, like a child in a mother's womb.
Finally, we had an amazing season of breakthrough. Everything changed. The council voted unanimously for our application to be approved. We staggered the building program over four years. When it was finally completed, we invited the [former]Prime Minister of Australia, the Honorable John Howard, to open the facility. Amazingly, he accepted. This was a first in Australian history. All the councilors, politicians and many local residents, as well as many who had opposed us, came to the opening with handshakes and congratulations. We were once again on national television on the six o'clock news - but this time, with a totally different angle. The endorsement of the Prime Minister sent a powerful signal through the city. This was great, but one of the greatest things about the suite of buildings, valued today at many millions of dollars - is that they are almost debt free.
A young minister said to me a few years ago, that he wasn't so sure of the faith message I was preaching - until he saw these results! He said he now believed what I had been preaching. However, the essence of faith is this - believing something before you can see it.
Currently, we have over 320+ churches in our movement, many of them birthed from our church in Sydney.
At our church in Oxford Falls, we are running C3College - to train men and women in ministry, leadership, the arts and many areas of creativity. We graduate hundreds of ministers every year.
Our School, Oxford Falls Grammer, which started over 25 years ago in a small rented hall with thirteen students, now has over eleven hundred students covering every grade- from Kindergarten to Senior Graduation. It is situated directly across the highway from our Church buildings- is architecturally beautiful and considered academically excellent. Around two hundred million people currently view our television program, ' Your Best Life', produced in our own onsite C3television studio. Our church continues to grow, increase and expand - doing the most important work on planet Earth, saving thousands and thousands of lost people.
The only reason I share some of the great blessings God has graced us with, is to underline the principles in this book. All that we have done, are doing, and are going to see come to pass - is because of a steady, strong faith from God, that lives in our leadership team, our ministers and in our congregation.
We have dreamed a dream, believed in God, stood on His Word, and are now walking into the fulfillment of all those praying hours.
The accomplishments of faith are always going to be a great story, but I also know that faith has a wider application than this. Tragically, in recent years we have seen the demise of many great ministers, the falling away of many Christians and then a large number of believers who have simply settled for less than their best. For me, one of the greatest achievements faith can have in our lives, is that we survive the trials and turbulence of living for God in a world going the opposite direction. To be able to maintain a sunny attitude in spite of the great variety of pressures and stress that we all face, is one of the greatest signs of Christ living in us. This faith is the same courage, boldness and endurance of the heroes of Hebrews chapter eleven.
Faith is not an option for a select few to lay hold of. Faith is an imperative for us all as Christians. Without faith, we cannot please God. By faith we are saved. We walk, live, breathe and pray by faith.
Our pathway to heaven is the pathway of faith.
~~~
Line.jpgINTRODUCTION
Line.jpgWhen I was just a very young Christian, I was drawn to faith like a child to ice cream. I cruised Christian bookstores for hours, poring over every imaginable book on every imaginable subject. Well-intentioned members of the church we belonged to encouraged us to read all kinds of books. Whatever emphasis they felt was particularly important for us young Christians, we needed to read. Chris and I read everything from Watchman Nee’s Spiritual Man (all three volumes) to more easily digestible material like Dave Wilkerson’s ‘The Cross and the Switchblade’. We covered Hal Lindsay’s last day signs, Richard Wurmbrand’s prison experiences and Merlin Caruthers’ praise. For me at that time, spending time in a large Christian bookshop was like dying and going to heaven.
All these books, I am sure, did something for my spiritual life. However, one day I came across a book to end all books. There are books that God himself places in our hands and they are able to actually impart the life of the topic they’re covering.
The gift of the writer travels from the book to the reader.
The book was called ‘Ever Increasing Faith’ - the biography of Smith Wigglesworth. He was the English plumber who lived an extraordinary life of faith and dedication to God. I read only the first page and was so set on fire, that I put it down, went to the centre of town and witnessed on the streets for the rest of the evening. When I managed to pick it up again I finished reading it. Smith Wigglesworth was my hero overnight. As I read, I discovered that he had chosen to never read any book other than the Bible. That cured me of reading any other books! For about eighteen months that is. As I read, IT FELT AS THOUGH THE MAN WAS LAYING HIS HANDS ON ME.
Faith was pouring into my spirit from every page. Everything I read thereafter in the Bible, seemed to address the subject of faith, genealogies included.
It began a season of my life in which God taught me faith. He imparted into my spirit the gift of faith.
Every believer is required by God to walk in faith. It is essential to the Christian life. We are saved by faith. We walk by faith. We pray in faith. We come to God without unbelief. We imitate Abraham, the great patriarch of faith. The shield of faith, part of our military equipment for the battle, is to be ‘over all’ - that is faith is to be covering every area of our lives for successful combat against Satan. There is a supernatural gift of faith given by the Holy Spirit to believers at certain times, to accomplish extraordinary feats for God. There are many areas faith relates to. In fact it relates to every area.
I am excited about writing this book. As I share these things of God you will be inspired for a faith-filled life. We are about to embark on a journey of faith. Throughout the Scripture, God set men and women on their journey of faith.
Abraham was told to leave his country, his father’s house, and his land. God did not tell him where he was going. The man was seventy-five years old. Not exactly the time to be setting out on a new adventure. But he did. He could have stayed in the security of the life he had built for himself amongst his own people. But he decided to obey God. He has been remembered throughout history as one of Earth’s greatest. He began as a man just