And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone. But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus (Matthew 14:22-29).

I say to you today: Get off the boat! Walk by faith, not by sight. We’re in the final hour now. It’s time to say, “I know you, Lord; I know you’re walking my waters, and I’m going to walk with you. I won’t look down; I won’t look to the left nor right. I’ll keep my eyes on Jesus!” It’s enough that one Simon sank while walking the waters; there should be no more sinking. Stay on top of the waters! Some of you have been on the boat so long you don’t know the difference between walking the waters and riding in the boat. You think you’re walking by faith but you’ve been hugging that boat for years, clinging to theory and feelings. You like the feel of the wood beneath your feet, something solid, anything but faith.

By giving your faith human ears to hear and human eyes to see, you have deceived yourself into thinking your human faith is God’s faith. You have given God’s faith your own feelings (if you feel like it you’ll use it). Because you’ve taken the five senses and mixed them in with God’s faith, you’ve had much weakness to fight, you haven’t been strong enough for some of the battles, you’ve found yourself swept away by the waves, not knowing that Jesus was right with you walking your angry sea. Crying in the darkness, “Where are you, Lord? Where are you?” you couldn’t hear Him say, “Why child, I’m right here beside you!” You had given human ears to His faith.

One night God began to deal with me, telling me that His children had used His faith in the wrong way; they had given His faith human sight, human ears, dressed it up in human fashion and then wondered why it didn’t work. Why can’t they hear His voice, the voice of their God; why can’t they walk the waters of life; why can’t they see their Lord walking with them? They have given God’s faith human sight.

Something Terrible Has Been Done to God’s Faith

Simon got off the boat with the faith of God in his heart, but after he began to walk he gave the faith of God human sight. He had started out with God’s sight or he wouldn’t have stepped off the boat, but then he mixed it with his own. God’s sight would have worked…God’s faith will work. It has been promised to you; but it works according to God’s standards, not man’s. God’s faith must go God’s way entirely. You cannot take over the supernatural miracle faith of God, add human hearing, human voice and expect it to work. God’s faith has the voice of God, the voice of the Holy Spirit. Many children of God have been in the habit of giving God’s faith their own voice instead of allowing it to have the supernatural voice of Almighty God. That’s the reason the devil has not been driven back, the reason depression and weakness linger. “Why can’t I overcome? I used the faith of God,” they say. Of course they did; but they gave it a human voice, human vision, human sight and human sound. Using God’s faith, they did something terrible to it: they drowned out the supernatural voice of God with the voice of self.

Simon in the storm lost the supernatural voice of God. “Speak, bid me come!” he said to Jesus. “Come!” answered Jesus. Simon started out walking the waters; but then he took on the voice of man, listened as it said, “Look out, you’re going down! Here comes a huge wave! Look out! This is it!” Had Simon continued to use God’s faith he would have heard only the voice of Jesus saying, “Come!” Jesus would have kept talking to him, but when Simon took on the hearing of man out there in the storm, the voice of Jesus died out. In such a fierce storm Simon could overcome only by the supernatural miracle power of God, a voice that cannot be drowned out when listened to with God’s faith. It penetrates any barrier, rises to endless heights and depths. The only limit is one you put there yourself; it’s a limit that ties God’s hands.

The faith that God has given you—how many times have you been guilty of giving it a human voice? “I have faith!” but the voice you hear says: “You’re going down! You’re sinking!” The voice is discouraging you. There was no discouragement as Simon heard the voice of Jesus, for he listened to the supernatural voice of faith that was speaking—discouragement came only after Peter began to hear the voice of self.

Jesus Did Not Drown Out the Voice of God

When Jesus was here on Earth, God’s faith had supernatural voice, supernatural hearing, supernatural everything. Jesus did not drown out that voice with natural sound. The reason I know facts at times that I didn’t know a moment before is because I listen through the ear of faith…supernatural hearing. When the Spirit of God takes me over I see through supernatural sight that which I cannot see with my own eyes. I see inside a person’s body: the heart, lungs, the cancer eating the life away, the curvature of the spine or a ruptured disc. I do not have X-ray eyes; these things are seen when the Spirit of God takes me over; the faith of God goes into operation and it’s faith sight, God’s sight, supernatural sight, the gifts of knowledge and discerning in action.

Now is the time to get off the boat. Some of you have never really walked the waters. Why? You wanted something solid under your feet; you had to feel, to see, to hear, to taste. The five senses are your measuring rod, or “no go.” You become discouraged, disillusioned because you will not use what God planned for you and what God gave you. When Jesus spoke, things happened; for although He was very man as well as very God, He spoke with the voice of God, the voice of faith. God has given us the voice of faith and faith for hearing; He has supplied everything we need through His faith. God has furnished us with His love so that we won’t doubt His faith, and yet we do. Why? We take God’s love and dress it up in human love, hindering that divine love, limiting it until it looks no greater to us than human love. Now we have crippled God’s love until it will do no more, endure no more, suffer no more than human love. People doubt God’s love because they identify it with their own.

How easy for those of you who have been disappointed in human love to doubt God’s love! You who have been scarred by an absence of human love find you have to struggle and battle to accept the fact that God really loves you, that He is concerned about you, really talking to you. It’s hard for you to understand that He wants you to do exactly what He is telling you to do; nothing more, nothing less. By taking on human faith, giving the faith that God has provided you human intelligence, you are unable to see through the eyes of God, hear through the voice of God, or speak with the voice of God; and so you are in great trouble, mixed up. You find it easy to disregard what God has told you to do. Do not use human voice, human hearing or human sight with God’s faith.

You Can Always Touch God for Your Needs

Get off the boat! Some of you won’t get off the boat; you’re just “easing by” and that’s about all. Because you won’t trust God, you need much support of this world to keep you going. If you don’t have enough human hands holding you up you think you’re going down. Get off the boat with God’s faith and you’ll know you won’t sink even though not one human hand is helping you. When you step off the boat in faith, you aren’t dependent upon human hands. Some of you have given God’s faith much human theory, but God’s faith must be fed the Word of God so the Word can be acted out.

Are you easily hurt? When you’re all feelings, being hurt is a way of life. As long as you live by feelings you will be hurt—we all are unless we use God’s faith. Get off the boat! Get away from your feelings! Who cares about your feelings, anyway? Have you ever found many people who really cared about your feelings? Man may give you sympathy, but he really wishes you would grow up and stop whining. Not unless people really have your cause at heart are they sympathetic; unfortunately, sympathy won’t cure you. Few people have your cause at heart, but you can always reach God and touch Him for your needs.

Get off the boat; walk so far out onto the water that you forget about your hurts. Delight in the miracle power of God in this final hour. This is a great hour, but some of you are going to pass it by if you’re not careful. It’s an hour that you must use God’s faith if you are to draw on the supernatural. There is great help, encouragement for you; the Lord is pouring it out because He wants you to be at your best. He wants to adorn you in the beauty of holiness every day, to give you His kiss of love. In return give the world His smile, His love flowing through you. Completely He is depending upon you, and He wants you to depend upon Him. Don’t waste your time saying, “Lord, if that be you.” He has already told you to come. “Come unto me and bring your burdens. Come unto me and I will give you help, deliverance, liberty. Come unto me and I will heal you; I will give you happiness. Come unto me and I will do for you what no other power can do.”

Feet Like to Feel the Floor

One time when going through a great trial, I suddenly woke up to the fact that I was on the boat. It was a dark trial, a hard one; but then I realized what was happening to me, that the devil was keeping me on the boat by making me think I wouldn’t dare get off, couldn’t dare launch out, saying, “It’s done! It’s taken care of! God cannot fail, God cannot lie. God has promised, and I’m going to walk with the promises of God right out there in the raging water!” I got so angry at the devil that I just jumped out into the water. Sink or swim, I was going to walk by faith. I landed on the stormy deep; and when I did, I experienced the greatest peace and calm that came over my soul. In the boat I had been walking on what I could feel, what human beings had made, on what my feet liked beneath them. You may not be conscious of it but your feet feel every step; they’re sensitive. They want something solid. Your feet let you know where the weaknesses are; and your feet can put you into bondage, great bondage. How? By preventing you from stepping out in faith, from moving away from self into the greatness of God. You must let God’s faith work with supernatural hearing, voice, eyesight. It can be done. Yes, Simon sank, but first he walked. Some of you have used God’s faith for just a little; then you turned from His faith to your own and you went down, afraid. Now you won’t try again. Simon realized he was sinking…and then remembered Jesus. He was going down in waters too rough to swim. Decide that you’re no match for the storm, the sea of life. Your little boat is not sufficient; you need something greater than yourself; you need God’s faith. Step out on the water, reach to the Lord, saying, “Lord, wherever you want me, if you say come, I’m coming. I won’t look at what is under my feet; I’m just going to step out and walk.”

Reckless Faith

Some refuse to leave the boat; they balk at reckless faith. Four lepers shut outside the gates of Samaria used reckless faith. The besieged in the city were starving to death, eating their own children; they would not use faith. Israel had failed God. The four lepers reasoned among themselves: “Why sit we here until we die?” In other words, “Let’s get off the boat. This boat is going nowhere!” With reckless faith they stepped into the sea and started walking the waters without realizing what they were doing. When they reached the edge of the Syrian camp, no one was there, For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us. Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life. And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink (II Kings 7:6-8). The lepers went in and feasted. Some of you would have used human reasoning and refused to eat, deciding that the enemy had poisoned the food. The lepers ate and then told the besieged city that the enemy had fled.

Daniel got off the boat. What do I mean? He walked the waters, prayed, honored God three times a day. He followed the path of God into the den of lions, but he came out unharmed. Had he stayed on the boat, the lions would have made a meal of him.

The three Hebrew boys got off the boat; they refused to bow down to the idol god. “We won’t bow!” they said, and they were not burned when thrown into the fiery furnace.

It’s time to not compromise, a time to accept the whole Word of God and let the greatness of God flow in you, through you and all around you. Be clothed completely in all the armor of God, in all the power, all the goodness and mercy of God. It’s an endtime hour, and you have no time to waste. You must get out of here and get your family ready to leave if you can. Do your best. Let your candle beam brighter than ever before. People won’t look into the Bible to see Jesus, they won’t go to church to see Him, and so they will have to see Jesus through you. Put God first, saying, “God is my refuge; God is my high tower, my help. I fear no one but God.”

Faith Does Not Operate through the Five Senses

The fiery furnace is waiting…so what? If you walk the waters, the Fourth Man will always be with you. Out in the deep the Fourth Man will not forsake you. Simon: the Fourth Man was out there with you. He was with you and you couldn’t have gone down; there wasn’t enough demon power or human power to have sunk you as long as you used God’s faith. But when you dressed up God’s faith with the five senses, you started to sink. You began to feel, to see, to hear what was going on around you; your five senses said: “Simon, you’re crazy! Look at the storm!” Simon looked…and sank. God’s faith will direct you to look only one way—up. Your faith will tell you to stay on the boat.

The Children of Israel had been bitten by fiery serpents. God said, “Moses, make a serpent of brass; put it on a pole, and those who continue to look will live.” The Israelites who would get off the boat—who used the faith of God—just for a look received a miracle. It couldn’t be a look with human sight; they had to look with supernatural sight. You needn’t think you can mix God’s faith with the human senses instead of supernatural senses and still obtain results. Mixing the two has been the reason you have failed so many times in the past. God gave me a revelation of this. The devil has deceived people about their faith. “I know I have the faith,” they say. “I felt it. I’ve used it!” Yes, they had the faith; they used it and it failed because they used it with the five senses. They took away the supernatural greatness of it, and it wouldn’t work. Then the devil said, “God’s faith wasn’t any good.” The faith of God is always good, but it cannot be operated in the natural. I had to stop using my five senses when it came to the faith of God.

A Divine Mission

Before I ever came to Akron God told me I would establish a work here and then He would send me to the world. God told me I was on a divine mission, but He didn’t tell me everything about it. This ministry was born by my getting off the boat. Man gave me human sense and advice; and when I took on faith sense, the hearing of the supernatural, the seeing of the supernatural, when I began to see in the miracle services as God could see, man thought I had lost my mind, that I had gone under instead of walking the waters. I shut out their voices and listened to the voice of God, the voice of faith that was coming to me. The Lord had started me on my way to take this Gospel to the world. It would be a long journey. I had to leave feelings behind—and not only feelings but people who were bound with feelings and living by those feelings instead of their faith. Again and again I left the boat and told people, “You can walk the waters, too. This is real! You can be healed. Your crippled limbs can be made well. You can be delivered by the power of God! Get off the boat!”

I thought Angel my wife would be with me all the way—she had been with me from the start and a great help. I didn’t know the stormiest night, agony beyond my imagination would come, that she would leave me. I didn’t dream it was possible for the waves to roll that high or for darkness to loom that intense. How could anyone be left so crippled, so wounded and yet live? I felt as though I were cut in two, separated, that there was no way to walk with only a part of me, no way only half of me could live. Lying on the boat, I didn’t see how I could continue another five minutes. Had it not been for God, I possibly would not have lived; for I almost bled to death. The doctor said had the blood not poured out as it did I no doubt would have had a stroke. I was under unbearable pressure. Angel and I had been so close for so long. It was like we were poured from one mold. She sensed that, she felt it. God had brought us together not only in great love but in His love. Was that the way the first Adam, the first Eve felt about each other? I just didn’t know love for another human being could be so great, that two people could really be that close. Then when God removed her from my life, it took so much of me that it seemed there wasn’t enough left to go on living. For the moment the vision wasn’t bright. My boat was tossed in all directions, and I had no will to rise and walk the waters. So many other times I had willed to do it; I had fasted so much for it. Now the devil howled in my ear, “Angel’s dead; Angel’s gone. Angel’s dead; Angel’s gone!” If I could just stop it; it was like a broken record. Only the Spirit of God could stop it…and one day He did. Onto my tossed boat He came, found me in such a terrible condition. I don’t know whether it was an angel of the Lord or Jesus Himself who came to me, but it was as real as another person in the room. I was in Angel’s office when it happened, and He just took me in His arms and hugged me to Him. I never was the same after that. Oh, I sorrowed but not like I had. That one hug…He breathed on me and I stood up. I would walk the waters. Nothing would stop me.

I had stood up in the deepest valley; there could never again be one so deep for me, nor a night so stormy. No matter the darkness, none would be that dense again—not even in that terrible prison cell in Germany. When I stepped off my boat it was to never worry about that boat of life again. My faith would have the eyes of God, the supernatural hearing and the voice of God. My faith that He had given to me would have supernatural everything, nothing lacking. I was off the boat and the waves couldn’t sink me. I was off the boat and no weakness could take me down. I was off the boat with the promises of God, and I had lost sight of everything. I left, throwing myself so completely into the arms of God that nothing counted but whatever I could do for Him. There was no turning back.

I have no life apart from Him, no life but what I can give to Him. If God wants all my life suddenly, that’s it; I’m ready. If He wants my life drawn out, fine. To live however He wants is all I want. I have stepped off the boat. I will walk the waters with Him. My life is walking with Him, doing His work and finding others to help to do His work, to have the vision of walking the waters to every person we can get to, delivering every devil-possessed person we can, setting the captives free, yielding so completely to God that there’s nothing left to give. I’m all His, every particle.

After Angel died I was in a million pieces, pieces so shattered that man could have never put me together again, but Jesus could. Carefully, with the great love He used when He stooped over and took clay to mold the first man, Adam, He put me together, little by little. He used such love, such tender care. I would be sinking, and He would speak and say, “I am the Lord that walketh with thee.” Hundreds and hundreds of times He said it. When He saw me in my weak condition all He had to do was whisper, “I am the Lord that walketh with thee.” I would stand upright, taking on His strength—there was no human strength to help me. I would take on more of His love, more of His greatness and His faith-hearing, the faith-seeing, the faith-voice. I listened. He would touch my eyes and take me into the visions, showing me things to come. He would speak and tell me of the greatness of this hour—and beyond. I was walking the waters now, but oh the waves were so high! I knew I had to make it; souls were at stake. I couldn’t go back to the boat. Human feelings tried to drown me, tears choked me, but I couldn’t allow it. I was in the deep, walking the waters like I had never walked before, and the waves were higher than ever. I didn’t know a human could suffer that much and live. Through Him I breathed. Through Him I lived. I became such a part of Him and He became such a part of me.

God Is Crying, “Come!”

Get off the boat. Get off the boat; it’s the final hour. Some of you have held onto your little raft too long already. You hear the voice of the Lord cry to you again and again, “Come!” He’s crying to you now, “Come. Come into my greatness. Come into my love.” You’re letting other things draw you away…human beings, family, friends…from the will of God. I’m glad that I heard Him say, “Come.” I put everything on the altar. I’m glad Angel was on the altar when God took her, that I didn’t resent one time God’s taking her, although it took my heart. It was His will; He had said so. I will bow to the will of God with my last breath. Nothing will stop me now.

Know Jesus in His Sufferings

We must take on the Spirit of our Master in this final hour. Study Jesus. Learn everything you can about Him. How many times have you traced His footsteps from the hour He was born until He ascended to Heaven? How many times have you asked the Holy Spirit to let you feel as He felt? How many times have you been where He was forsaken and you wanted the Holy Spirit to let you feel as He felt? Do you know what it is to feel the crown of thorns or the spikes driven into your hands and feet? That cold, cold, icy tomb of stone…do you know it? And then the jubilation of the resurrection and the ascension back to Heaven—the Holy Spirit can let you feel all those things, but you must walk His paths if you are going to be like Him. With your heart on its knees in all humility let the Holy Spirit take you over as you retrace His steps. It will be the greatest revelation you have ever had in your whole life, the revelation of Jesus Christ.

You can live for the Lord for years and not have the full revelation of Jesus Christ. Most do not. Why? Because of living by feelings, by fencing our hearts off from God, by keeping self in reserve and giving only part of self. When you come into the revelation of Jesus you want to know how He felt when He healed their sick, when He raised their dead. They hated Him for it and tried to kill Him…finally did. How did He feel when no man offered to help Him? How did He feel up there in the mountains with no place to lay His head? The birds have nests, He said, but the Son of man has no bed to call His own. Jesus presented all love; in return He was given hate. He offered Heaven’s faith; He was served Earth’s doubt. He held out Heaven’s happiness but was shown Earth’s despair. For His victory He was extended defeat. He offered life and man gave Him death that you might know Him…that you could get off the boat. Jesus did not stay on the boat. When you learn Him in His sufferings and the power of His Resurrection, then—and not until then—will you spend much time walking the waters for Him. When you learn where He is, who He is and what He suffered, then you learn the greatness of His Resurrection power toward you. Then you know you can suffer anything, endure all things because victory has to be finally yours through the power of His Resurrection.

Thus Saith the Lord:

Yea, saith the Lord: I am in the midst of my people with my faith, with my power, with my love and my Holy Spirit to operate my love and my faith. My people that are called by my name must be my people. My people must yield to me completely or souls will perish that would not have perished. My people must rejoice in time of persecution. My people must be like their Lord. My people must have vision, and my people must have understanding of the hour they now live in. My people must not doubt me, saith the Lord; and my people must love with my love. My people must love lost souls with my love—not human love but my love which is an unending love—and it will flow to the end. And it will give my people strength so that they will never give up and never stop until the harvest is in.

Oh, my people that are called by my name, I will furnish all things needed. And I will be with you, and I will make the way for you. And I will reveal myself in my greatness, and you will know that the Lord thy God is nigh unto you, and you will know that the Lord thy God is using you. And you will be in my hands, saith the Lord; and I will use you as you yield to me daily. And as you yield to me the final harvest will be brought in.

You must be strong to stand in this hour and to do my will. You can only do my will in this hour with my love and with my faith, with my wisdom and with my knowledge, saith the Lord. You will have to use the same power that my Son used when He was on planet Earth, and the same power that He used is yours—all of it—saith the Lord.

Do not be foolish, but be wise. Do not be ignorant, but have understanding, saith the Lord. Let God’s supernatural greatness be your clothing, your protection; and let the Lord be your life, saith the Lord unto this people.

This is your hour of victory. I want to shout it into every human ear on planet Earth. I want the faith of God to have all voice, to have all supernatural sight, hearing so that what the Spirit is saying can come to the children of God twenty-four hours around the clock. We must stay close to Heaven in this final hour, pulling down the powers of Heaven to defeat the powers of Lucifer. God has given us His faith to pull down. Ask, and you shall receive. If you abide in me and my Word abides in you, you can ask what you will, the Master told us. But you must ask it with the faith of God unmuzzled. Take the muzzle of the five senses off the Word, get out of the boat and walk with God. The storm is raging, but use God’s faith, faith, faith. The enemy is howling…so what? The voice of God’s faith is louder—listen to that voice. Walking on the promises of God, walking as Daniel walked, as the three Hebrew boys walked, walking as the prophets of old, as Elijah and Elisha, you will see the miracles performed. Earthquakes of power, God moving, the multitudes coming to Jesus…this old world will be reeling and rocking with the power of God as we gather in the harvest until that instant we are changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye. God’s faith, God’s love will do it. Get off the boat and walk with God. Leave the things that have handicapped you in the Lord. Nothing is worth your missing the Rapture, and by staying on the boat you may not save your household. Launch out into the deep and you will have the best chance—Heaven’s chance. God will do everything He can do; but if you fail God, His hands are tied. Get off the boat; walk the waters with God’s faith and decide that nothing will defeat you, that you will not leave God’s faith to the mercy of your five senses. Listen to the voice of God in your ear, God’s faith: Get off the boat and walk the waters. This is your hour of victory; walk the waters into the greatness of God. Get off—get off the boat!