—The Way of Faith!DFO12681/9/82

1. THESE ARE TWO SONGS ABOUT FAITH THAT CAME TO ME RIGHT AFTER A LITTLE DREAM ABOUT FAITH in the middle of the night, & I want to quickly record the words to make sure I don't forget'm! I kept singing them over & over in my head in the bed for fear I'd forget them‚ because I thought I hadn't sung them for years. Now I remember putting them on the chorus tape for MWMI. (Sings: )

2. "KEEP ON BELIEVING, JESUS IS HERE!

Keep on believing, there's nothing to fear!

Keep on believing, this is the way,

Faith in the night as well as the day!"

And the other one followed right after it:

3. "KEEP ON BELIEVING GOD ANSWERS PRAYER!

Keep on believing, He's still up There!

Sorrows & troubles will soon disappear,

Nothing can harm you when Jesus is near!

Keep on believing the storm will pass,

Look for the rainbow, 'twill come at last,

Trust in His promise‚ 'twas written for you,

Keep on believing & praise your way through!"

4. THESE TWO LITTLE CHORUSES FOLLOWED RIGHT AFTER THIS BEAUTIFUL DREAM ABOUT FAITH—"The Way of Faith" I think is a good name for it! It was a very beautiful dream‚ very touching & encouraging, although in some ways it was a little bit frustrating & a little disappointing. But it has a very good lesson to teach, so I know the Lord was in it, especially the way it came & went, & those beautiful songs that came with it. (Dad tests various tape recorders & mikes.)

5. AMEN LORD, BLESS & HELP ME TO RECALL IT AGAIN now after all this trouble & frustration the Devil's given me with these tape recorders & mikes. Help me, Lord, to be able to get it right, the way You gave it, in Jesus' name, amen.

6. WELL, MARIA & I WERE WALKING ALONG ALONE HAND-IN-HAND AS WE OFTEN DO‚ but strangely enough we were out on a deserted highway through barren desolate semi-desert country, sort of like West Texas & some places in Arizona, even like some places in Western Spain for those of you who are Europeans, or the central Australian bush, hilly & a little mountainous in the distance.

7. WE SEEMED TO BE SOMEWHAT LOST & SEARCHING FOR SOMETHING, searching for our destination or at least some sign of civilisation, & we were almost a little bit concerned, worried‚ fearful & apprehensive because we seemed to be so far out in the middle of nowhere & getting nowhere. We were walking along hoping to see some sign of life & traffic, but there was none.

8. THEN SUDDENLY WE CAME UPON THIS BEAUTIFUL LITTLE WHITE ROADWAY, like white concrete, narrow & looking more like a private drive leading off to the left & down a slight slope. And there just a hundred meters away or so was a beautiful sort of ornamental gate which was a building in itself, somewhat like you would see a castle gate with the castle built around it & the gate passing through it like a tunnel!—Pyramid shaped.

9. IT REMINDED ME A LITTLE BIT OF THE BEAUTIFUL CITY HALL GATEWAY TO CORAL GABLES DOWN IN MIAMI, FLORIDA—or I should say up in Miami, Florida now! At least when I was a boy it was a beautiful building built like a castle with a gate like a tunnel right through the center. Perhaps I can describe it or sketch it for our artist so you can get a little idea what it looked like, & if so, you're seeing it now in the sketches here in this story.

10. THE BUILDING WASN'T VERY LARGE, not as huge as some castles or palaces, but through the gate & beyond the building we could see for the first time some beautiful green verdure‚ lovely grassy lawns & trees & shrubbery & flowers, & most of all a wide expanse of beautifully trimmed golf course greens & fairway! We could see it beyond the building on both sides & through the gateway, this sort of tunnel passageway that led right through the building.

11. AND IMMEDIATELY I RECOGNISED THAT IT WAS A CLUB HOUSE, SORT OF A COUNTRY CLUB! We had stumbled onto a beautiful country club with a lovely golf course‚ stretching, it seemed, almost as far as the eye could see! So we were very happy to find some sign of life & civilisation & we walked down the little white paved road toward the open gateway, finding yet no sign of life, no one around.

12. SO WE WALKED ON THROUGH THE GATE‚ sort of an archway which reminded me a little bit of the Arc de Triumphe in Paris or the Marble Arch in London, those victory arches, & it surely was the pathway to victory in a way! It seemed that everything in the dream was, of course, symbolic, & I'll try to explain it to you later. But I'll tell you the story first & you guess!

13. WE PASSED THROUGH THE LOVELY ARCHWAY of this building onto the other side, & we were walking through a deserted parking lot which led onto the golf course, apparently where the club members would drive in & park their cars & then walk on to the golf course.

14. I DON'T KNOW WHY THERE SEEMED TO BE NO ONE AROUND, at least no one came out to greet us. There might have been a car or two but we didn't want to exactly knock or call attention to ourselves, because sometimes those places are pretty private & they don't like wanderers & intruders trespassing on their private club property. But we were very eager to see what was on the other side & felt that it was leading to some form of civilisation, because we seemed to be wanting to get to some town or city.

15. AND SURE ENOUGH‚ AS WE WALKED ACROSS THE PARKING LOT & ONTO THE BEAUTIFUL GRASSY GREEN, we saw a long row of trees along this beautiful tree-lined roadway with all trees on each side leading off into the distance toward a beautiful little country town which looked like it was only about a couple of miles away.

16. OUR HEARTS LEAPED WITH JOY THAT WE HAD FINALLY FOUND SOME KIND OF CIVILISATION & some kind of activity where we would find people & whatever it was we needed, since before we seemed to be wandering about in the desert & far from anything.

17. SO WE LOOKED OUT ACROSS THE BEAUTIFUL LOVELY ROLLING GOLF COURSE with its gorgeous landscape of lovely trees, shrubbery & flowers at this beautiful tree-lined roadway which led off into the distance toward the pretty little town, what looked like a very neat & tidy-looking town from that distance of a mile-&–a-half or two miles away, at least a couple of kilometers.

18. IT LOOKED FROM THAT DISTANCE LIKE A TYPICAL PRETTY LITTLE COUNTRY TOWN such as you so often see in the rural areas of almost any country of the temperate zones. I remember many of them like this back in the United States & in Europe, beautiful little country towns surrounded by rolling farmlands & beautiful scenery.

19. IT WAS ALMOST AS THOUGH IN PASSING THROUGH THE GATE OF THE CLUB HOUSE WE HAD ENTERED INTO ANOTHER WORLD ENTIRELY, & there we found all of this beauty & lush greenery, apparently well-watered‚ & some signs of civilisation & habitation & the possibility of meeting our needs of accommodation & food, etc., after having apparently been walking along a deserted desert highway for God knows how many miles! So we were very happy & relieved & thankful & rejoicing & thanking the Lord that we had found someplace where there was civilisation & hopefully everything we needed.

20. BUT BY THIS TIME I WAS VERY VERY TIRED because we'd apparently walked a long way & even a couple of kilometers or a mile-&–a-half or two just seemed like an awful long way to go. So I looked longingly at that beautiful distant little country town & looked at Maria rather wonderingly, like, "How are we going to still walk that much further & get there?"

21. AND THEN FOR SOME REASON IT DAWNED ON ME THAT SURELY IN A PLACE THIS CIVILISED & with a country club out here etc., they ought to have some kind of public transportation, & somehow drawn by that leading or faith, I looked around toward the club house.

22. AND SURE ENOUGH, JUST AS I TURNED AROUND & LOOKED BACK, HERE CAME THIS BUS, sort of a city or country bus, rural or interurban bus maybe, coming in from the same highway that we had been on, & driving down the pretty little white paved roadway into the arch of the club, & there it stopped to discharge & take on passengers. So apparently the club was inhabited, although we had seen nobody.

23. OUR HEARTS LEAPED WITH JOY TO THINK, "THANK GOD, A BUS! Now we won't have to walk all the way into town, we can catch that bus!" So we started to walk quickly toward the roadway along which it would drive toward the little city.

24. BUT APPARENTLY WE HAD NOT ACTED SOON ENOUGH! We had stood there too long contemplating the bus & looking to see what the bus sign said on the front indicator of the bus to see what city it would say or where it was going, etc. We had stood there studying it a little too long & it was picking up speed more rapidly than we had expected.

25. WE BEGAN TO RUN‚ but just as we were approaching the beautiful roadway to town, the bus suddenly disapproved out of sight down this slight grade behind a little green knoll of the fairways, & our hearts sank because we realised we had not started for it soon enough & it was getting away from us!

26. WE THOUGHT ABOUT YELLING & HAILING IT BUT WE WERE ALMOST TOO LATE by the time we got to the roadway & it had already gone by. And we looked down the roadway & there it appeared again, going down the beautiful tree-lined roadway between the trees & disappearing off into the distance toward the little town.

27. AND SUDDENLY A VOICE SEEMED TO SAY, "YOU DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH FAITH!"—Just like the Lord speaks in your heart, but so clearly sometimes it almost seems as though it's out loud!—"You should have had more faith!" We should have hailed the bus, we should have flagged it down, we should have reacted more quickly & had more faith that it was a bus that we could catch & was going into the little town!

28. I REMEMBER AT FIRST I THOUGHT, "WELL, MAYBE IT'S NOT GOING THAT WAY, maybe it's just stopping here to pick up passengers & going back out on the highway to go on to some other city." And through those few moments of hesitation while we stood there & studied the situation while the bus was standing there taking on passengers, we had lost precious priceless valuable time.

29. BY THE TIME WE MADE UP OUR MINDS that the bus was going to come our way & go down the little country roadway toward the beautiful little country town, it was too late. We hadn't made up our minds soon enough, we hadn't run fast enough & we hadn't called loud enough to catch it, so it disappeared off down the little road toward the country town & our hearts sank!

30. I NEARLY SANK DOWN ON THE GRASS! In fact‚ I think as this occurred I was definitely contemplating just sitting down on the grass almost ready to weep for having missed the bus, so tired & so weary that I just didn't see how I could drag on any further, not even another couple of kilometers or a mile or two to the nearby country town, so near & yet so far!

31. WE JUST ALMOST MADE IT BUT THEN MISSED IT because of our dilly-dallying & shilly–shallying & hesitating! As the old saying goes, "He who hesitates is lost" or "it's the quick or the dead"!—And we had missed the bus!

32. YOU'VE HEARD THE OLD SAYING, "YOU'LL MISS THE BOAT IF YOU DON'T HURRY!" Well‚ in the old days that meant a lot, because boats didn't call at ports very often & sometimes you might have to wait weeks or months for the next boat! If you missed the boat, you really missed something & you really lost your chance!

33. HERE WE'D LOST OUR GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY TO FINALLY GET SOME TRANSPORTATION so we wouldn't have to walk any further when we were so weary & just virtually exhausted, & I was just so disappointed & so sad & so upset about missing that bus I was just ready to sink down onto the grass in tears! I was so so sad & frustrated & discouraged.

34. BUT SUDDENLY I HEARD THESE VOICES SOUNDING JUST LIKE MY FATHER'S & MOTHERS'S‚ just the way they used to sing these two beautiful choruses together! It was just beautiful & the words of these two songs kept ringing in my ears:

35. "KEEP ON BELIEVING, GOD ANSWERS PRAYER!

Keep on believing, He's still up There.

Troubles & sorrows will soon disappear.

Nothing can harm you when Jesus is near!

Keep on believing, the storm will pass!

Look for the rainbow, 'twill come at last!

Trust in His promise, 'twas written for you,

Keep on believing & praise your way through!"

And the other little chorus which begins with the very same words:

36. "KEEP ON BELIEVING, JESUS IS HERE!

Keep on believing, there's nothing to fear!

Keep on believing, this is the way,

Faith in the night as well as the day!"

38. WHAT BEAUTIFUL LITTLE SONGS TO HEAR AT A TIME LIKE THAT FOR ENCOURAGEMENT when I was so discouraged, having missed the bus, missed the boat, missed our golden opportunity to ride comfortably & effortlessly along in provided transportation. Now we were going to have to struggle along in our own strength & trudge wearily down the roadway to try to reach the little town which seemed to be our destination.

39. WELL, IF IT HADN'T BEEN FOR THOSE TWO SONGS I THINK I WOULD HAVE ALMOST GIVEN UP! But the strains of those songs were still echoing in my mind & heart in what seemed to be my mother's & father's voices singing a duet, & I was encouraged not to give up & not to be discouraged, that the Lord was still with us & He would help us even though we had been weak in faith & had not had enough faith to act quickly & seize our opportunity & God's provision—that the Lord would still take care of us somehow!

40. I WOKE UP WITH THOSE SONGS STILL RINGING IN MY EARS! Beautiful‚ just beautiful! I was so thrilled with the happy ending of the dream! Even though it was only by faith, & in the dream I never actually reached the city‚ I knew we were going to because God had given those beautiful songs to encourage our faith & strengthen us to go on no matter what!

41. SO I LAY THERE IN THE WEE HOURS OF THE MORNING THINKING ABOUT IT & SINGING THOSE SONGS OVER & OVER AGAIN IN MY HEART to make sure I didn't forget the words, because it's been long since I've sung them. I forgot that we even put them amongst the choruses that we have sung for you folks in the tapes we made. Maria said she recognised them & remembered them & she thought she'd heard me singing them sometime, and now we remember that we did record them for you.

42. SO I LAY THERE THINKING ABOUT THOSE BEAUTIFUL SONGS & HOW ENCOURAGING THEY WERE, not to be discouraged, not to give up hope, but to "keep on believing, God answers prayer! Keep on believing He's still up there. Sorrows & troubles will soon disappear, nothing can harm you while Jesus is near! Keep on believing the storm will pass, look for the rainbow, 'twill come at last! Trust in His promise, 'twas written for you, keep on believing & praise your way through!"

43. INSTEAD OF BEMOANING & GROANING & LAMENTING & MURMURING & complaining that we had missed the bus & missed our chance because of our little faith & our slow reaction, we were to keep on believing & praising the Lord & we'd get through somehow! And the other little song: "Keep on believing, Jesus is here, keep on believing, there's nothing to fear. Keep on believing‚ this is the way, safe in the night as well as the day!"

44. SUCH BEAUTIFUL LITTLE SONGS! I believe, as I recall that they were written by my mother & father themselves, & I can remember them singing them together many many times when I was very small & during my childhood to lift our spirits & encourage us. When we were discouraged or weeping about something as little children will do, they'd break out into song & sing: "Keep on believing God answers prayer," etc.

45. SO I WAS THRILLED WITH THE BEAUTY OF THOSE OLD SONGS THAT I HADN'T REMEMBERED FOR YEARS, & then I began to think, "Now what in the World could this dream mean besides being very encouraging in those two songs?"

46. AND I GOT TO THINKING HOW LIKE LIFE THAT DREAM WAS & how many of us have gone through such desert experiences, wandering about in the wastes of this World, dry, rugged‚ rocky & harsh & long & lost, wandering out yonder over the hills seeking something, you knew not what, but feeling lost, knowing that you needed to find someplace, to go somewhere & not be wandering out there in the middle of this desert of a lonely life away from friends & loved ones & humanity & almost seeming separated from God Himself!

47. WHEN SUDDENLY THERE APPEARS IN VIEW A BEAUTIFUL LITTLE WHITE ROAD WHICH TO ME SYMBOLISED THE ROAD OF SALVATION! Not the great white way of the Devil, but the narrow white way of the Lord leading to this beautiful gateway sort of like a club house. (Mt. 7:13, 14.) Clubs have members like us & it was almost as though it represented the Family in a way.

48. I DON'T KNOW WHY SOME OF THEM DIDN'T COME OUT TO GREET US & welcome us & guide us‚ but maybe that was symbolic too that you were too busy with your affairs, & maybe you have missed some straying wandering wanders because you weren't on the job witnessing & leading & guiding.

49. BUT ANYHOW, WE STUMBLED DOWN THE RIGHT PATHWAY & THROUGH THE RIGHT GATEWAY, THROUGH THE DOOR—WHICH OF COURSE IS ONLY JESUS—& we were so saved, in a way, & so relieved & happy that we had found the way out into this beautiful new World of God's gorgeous creation of beautiful Heavenly grass & greenery & lovely shrubbery & flowers & tall trees & that almost divine country roadway that led off between the trees toward the beautiful little distant country town, which looked almost like Heaven to us at the time in the dream & possibly did represent Heaven.

50. BUT WE WERE WEARY‚ VERY TIRED, & SEEKING THE RIGHT WAY TO GO, hoping for some kind of a lift or transportation, & there it came!—But we were to slow to believe! "O fools & slow of heart to believe!" God help us! (Lk.24:25.)

51. SOMETIMES WE CAN SEE THE WILL OF GOD & WE CAN SEE HIS HAND READY TO HELP US & yet we don't catch on soon enough, we're not prayerful enough, we don't have enough faith‚ & that's what the voice said to us as we missed the bus:

52. "YOU DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH FAITH! You should have had more faith!" We should have hailed him down‚ flagged him down, in other words, stopped him. The moment we saw that bus we should have run to catch it & called out loudly to have him wait for us‚ because some opportunities knock but once & then they're gone!

53. IN A WAY, IT SEEMED THAT THE BUS REPRESENTED THE HIGHEST & BEST WILL OF GOD, the fastest way to get to our destination, the easiest way in the power of His Spirit & not the energy of our flesh!—Pulled along by the powerful motor of that bus, the Will of God, instead of stumbling along on our own poor tired weary fleshly legs in our own pitiful poor weak strength of the flesh!

54. IF WE'D HAVE HAD MORE FAITH WE COULD HAVE RUN & CALLED OUT FOR HELP & JUMPED ON THE BUS OF GOD'S WILL going in the direction He wanted us to go‚ & we could have caught the bus of the Will of God & it would have whisked us away easily & powerfully to our Heavenly destination of that Heavenly-looking little country town in the distance. It really looked like the hills & the rolling grassy expanses of Heaven itself, & this little country town in the distance a beautiful little city representing a Heavenly destination.

55. SO THIS DREAM CERTAINLY WAS TEACHING A LESSON: That even though you have left the desert wastes of sin & your past life & passed through the beautiful open gate of Salvation along the narrow white way of His way to Salvation, & through that gate, the open Door of Jesus, into the whole new Heavenly World of our lives in Him, you can still miss God's highest & best will.

56. YOU CAN MISS YOUR GOLDEN OPPORTUNITIES OF SERVICE BY NOT HAVING THE FAITH YOU SHOULD HAVE TO ACT QUICKLY IN TIME OF OPPORTUNITY to run & seize the golden opportunity of the open doors that He gives you, waiting too long, hesitating until it's lost‚ standing there debating between yourselves as to whether that really was the right thing to do & whether that was the right direction & whether you should act on it & run & seize the opportunity & climb aboard & go in that direction.

57. OUR EXAMINING THE BUS & ITS SIGN TO SEE FOR SURE whether that was the destination we wanted to go to was doubt, & I'll tell you, out there where there was so little & so few, it seemed like we should have been willing to run & grab any bus that came along to go almost anywhere rather than have to struggle along on our poor weary tired feet & legs any further under our own steam!

58. SO SOMETIMES WHEN YOU SEE ANY OPPORTUNITY AT ALL, YOU HAD BETTER SEIZE IT, run & grab it if it's the only one that shows up, because you may not get a second chance! There may not be another bus coming along that line. you may have missed the last bus & you'll sink down in weariness, despair & discouragement at having missed such a golden opportunity of God's easy way of the center of His will & the power of His Spirit which could have wafted you along on the wonderful Heavenly transportation of His leading & power, with Him carrying you along to where He wants you to go.

59. INSTEAD OF HESITATING & WAITING & EXAMINING & DEBATING & DOUBTING, YOU SHOULD HAVE HAD MORE FAITH! You should have had faith that that was His will & you should have recognised the opportunity. You should have seized the passing direction & transportation of the Lord by His Spirit so that you could have gone the easy way, God's way, in the power of His Spirit, whisked along by the wings of God & His wonderful Heavenly transportation to His Heavenly destination!

60. BUT IF YOU HAVE SOMEHOW MISSED GOD'S WILL & you have somehow missed His highest & best & it seems that the golden opportunities that He's offered you have all passed you by & disappeared into the distance & left you alone & lonely & sad & downhearted & discouraged & defeated & almost in despair at the end of your rope‚ don't give up!

61. LIFT AN EAR TO THOSE HEAVENLY VOICES that are singing to you to encourage you that all hope is not gone! There's still hope! There's still opportunity! Maybe God's going to send along another bus & maybe you can still catch one that's coming on a little later schedule.

62. MAYBE YOU MISSED THE FIRST ONE & DIDN'T GET THERE AS SOON AS YOU SHOULD HAVE, but maybe you haven't missed the last one, thank God! He's still going to be merciful to you & send along another one so that you can get back in His will & back in His service & you can find His highest & best & follow His direction to your Heavenly destination in His service, carried along by the Power & the Love & the Will of God to where He wants you to go with the ease of the power of His Spirit instead of struggling along in the weak energy or your flesh.

63. SO LISTEN TO THOSE BEAUTIFUL LITTLE SONGS & remember that God is still on the throne & prayer changes things, will you?—And believe God!—Have more faith! (Sings:) "Keep on believing‚ Jesus is here! Keep on believing, there's nothing to fear! Keep on believing this is the way, faith in the night as well as the day!"

64. "KEEP ON BELIEVING GOD ANSWERS PRAYER! Keep on believing He's still up there! Sorrows & troubles will soon disappear, nothing can harm you when Jesus is here! Keep on believing the storm will pass, look for the rainbow‚ 'twill come at last! Trust in His promise, 'twas written for you, keep on believing & praise your way through!"

65. PERHAPS YOU NEED TO GET THE VICTORY, HAVING PASSED THROUGH THE ARC DE TRIUMPH, THE ARCH OF TRIUMPH OF SALVATION with your Saviour Who is the Overcomer & will help you to overcome & triumph over the grave & over all! Perhaps you need to simply bury yourself more in the Word of God to encourage your faith. "Faith cometh by hearing‚ & hearing by the Word of God!" (Ro.10:17.) In other words, faith comes by hearing the Word of God. Perhaps you need to encourage your faith more with His Word & remember the words of these little songs, to keep on believing, God answers prayer!

66. WELL, MY TAPE'S ABOUT UP SO I GUESS I'D BETTER QUIT‚ BUT DON'T YOU QUIT! Keep on believing, God answers prayer! Just keep on believing & trusting Him, & repenting for having missed His best & His highest & the center of His will. Repent & ask God to forgive you for your little faith & your lack of faith & your lack of diligence in His Word!

67. REPENT & ASK GOD TO FORGIVE YOU FOR YOUR FAILURE & YOUR SINS & your shortcomings, & your lack of faith & ask Him for another chance, & I'm sure He'll send you another bus, another opportunity, another chance at His will & His highest & best in His service so that you can truly serve him, & the bird with the broken pinion can fly perhaps even higher than before!

68. SO KEEP ON BELIEVING, DON'T EVER GIVE UP! Keep on believing, don't be discouraged! Keep on believing‚ don't quit! Keep on keeping on! Never forget the words of these little choruses! You notice they both speak about the Word of God & His promises. Keep on keeping on! Keep on holding on to His promises! Keep on standing on the promises & keep on believing! And whatever you do, keep on going on for Jesus!

69. DON'T EVER QUIT‚ DON'T EVER GIVE UP, DON'T EVER GET DISCOURAGED, don't ever get down or in despair! Don't depart just because you feel like you've missed the last bus. Keep on waiting on the Lord a little longer & I'm sure He'll send you another bus‚ another chance, another opportunity!

70. IF YOU'RE TRULY SORRY & YOU REALLY WANT TO FIND HIS WILL, I'M SURE HE WILL SEND ALONG ANOTHER BUS OF GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY to pick you up & lift you up & lift your spirits & encourage you & inspire you & thrill you & strengthen you & heal you & carry you along in the power of His Spirit to the glorious victory of your Heavenly destination!—In Jesus' name, amen. Praise God!—Amen? Hurry! Have faith! Catch the Bus!