Building Faith in a Christian’S Life to Please God

By Elder William Holmes

In this book, Elder William D. Holmes talks about the importance of having faith in God. It is necessary to live a life to please God in true holiness and righteousness. He uses real-life testimonies and experiences of sanctified, Holy Ghost-filled believers he grew up with in the HolinessPentecostal Church. It is through these powerful, real-life testimonies and his own life experiences that cause him to speak with boldness that Jesus truly is a healer, miracle worker, and savior.

He also uses Bible accounts of the miracle-working power of God through our lord and savior, Jesus Christ. He explains about the different tactics of Satan and how he will try to hinder a person from getting their deliverance from God, how we can defeat Satan and get our blessing, why it takes so long for God to answer prayers, the difference between healing being made whole, and what divine healing is and how God can work with medical profession to bring about healing. He talks about the different levels of the Spirit a believer can climb in God.

This book gives a clear statement that, without holiness, no person shall see the Lord. Jesus came into the world, not only to forgive us of our sins, but to take sin out of us. Jesus also comes to deliver us from all sickness and disease. Through the stripes of Jesus, we can be healed. Take the limit off of God! This is a very powerful book to increase the faith of a believer to trust God through his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, to meet your every need.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 9, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524571139

Elder William Holmes

William Dennis Holmes was born September 27, 1963, to Floyd and Lizzie Mae Holmes in Greensville County, Virginia. He attended Greensville County public schools and graduated in June 1982. He grew up in a Christian home with a praying mother and father. They went to a powerful sanctified Holy Ghost-filled church called Rising Sun Holiness Church Emporia, Virginia, under the leadership of Eldress Lillie P. Williams. It was there along with other churches under the Pastor Mother Williams. That William Holmes witnessed the supernatural power of God working among the saints of God. William would see how devoted his mother was to serving God and how she put in him to love the Lord and serve Him with a perfect heart. She would pray faithfully, calling on God from her beside. She would talk to him about Jesus. His Father would provide for them and love them. He would read the bible to them at night. His father would also pray. When he went to church, he saw the saints of God acted the same as his mother and father. He concluded that this was real because they held up holiness more important than education or anything else in this world. They were happy people to be free from the world of sin. They gave up the world and dressed and looked like the saints of God. They kept their testimony year after year. William knew these people were real. Also, when William was six years old, he was stricken with a serious illness and placed in Medical College of Virginia Hospital Richmond, Virginia. His father called Mother Williams who prayed for him and God wonderfully brought him out. Even the doctors who attended his case said, “It was the hand of God that brought him out.” So William devoted his heart to the Lord and got saved, sanctified and Holy Ghost-filled and fire-baptized at the ages of thirteen to fourteen years old. He was nourished in the Word of God under his Pastor Bishop William H. Easter who succeeded Mother Williams as pastor of Rising Sun Holiness Church along with former bishop Rufus A. Easter, pastor of New Jerusalem Holiness Church Garysburg, North Carolina. God wonderfully worked in his life and took him through many trials and tests. He remained steadfast in the faith and rejoiced in the Lord. He did not cause the church to be ashamed of his conduct. He lived a saved, sanctified life no matter how people treated him. He was called into the ministry and preached his trial sermon October 1990 at New Jerusalem Church under the leadership of the former eldress Rosa Banks. In June 1993, he was united in Holy Matrimony to Velvet Lee Mangum Holmes, and God has blessed them with a beautiful marriage. William Holmes joined the United States Navy Reserve in February 2000 and served in Operation Liberation of Kuwait in 2003. He established an international prison ministry in the year of 2005, which is a great blessing to many prisoners across the United States and around the world. He, along with Sister Velvet, hosts a prison ministry show on radio which reaches many prisoners and established a prison ministry website www.heavenboundtrain.org, which gets hundreds of visitors each month from around the world. They send bibles and other religious materials all free to prisoners, and they make personal visits to Inmates preaching the Gospel. Their ministry also reaches India with bibles and other life changing materials to prisoners over there. In 2010 William Holmes graduated from ECPI University with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and minor in computer science. He currently pastors a church in the Richmond, Virginia area, where he resides. Other books by Author William D. Holmes are A Healthy Christian That Pleases God and The Great Awakening.

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Copyright © 2017 by Elder William Holmes.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2016921154

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5245-7115-3

                Softcover        978-1-5245-7114-6

                eBook             978-1-5245-7113-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

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Rev. date: 01/06/2017

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CONTENTS

Introduction

Dedication

Chapter 1 What is Faith?

Chapter 2 Different Levels of Faith

a. Mustard Seed of Faith

b. Great Faith

c. The Gift of Faith

Chapter 3 Unbelief

a. Spiritual Laws

b. Natural Laws

c. Unbelief

d. Healing and Miracle Power of God

e. Law of Death

Chapter 4 The Glory of God in the Lives of the Believers

a. Faith is Managing your Finances

Chapter 5 Hindrances of Faith

a. Spiritual Warfare

Chapter 6 Levels for a Believer to Climb in The Holy Ghost and Fire

Chapter 7 Healings and Miracles

Chapter 8 Learn the Tricks of Satan

a. Faith is Eating the Whole Roll

Chapter 9 Defeating Satan

a. Casting out Devils

b. Demon Activity with a Child of God

Chapter 10 Bringing It Altogether

Chapter 11 Greater Works Shall Ye Do

Examples of Faith and Unbelief

a. Classes of Christians

b. Classes of Sinners

Summary

Prayer

Note from Author

This is a powerful book to increase your faith in God. I want all of you to read this book carefully and pray unto God to help you receive with joy what I am trying to give unto you! May each chapter encourage you to take the limit off of God and by the end of reading this book you will be ever more encourage to trust God like you never have before for every part of your life. Enjoy!

Elder William D. Holmes

INTRODUCTION

The Lord has inspired me to write this book to encourage all believers in Christ Jesus to allow the power of God to work fully in your life to fulfill all areas of needs. It is God’s Will for you to be healed in your body of all sickness, disease, saved from all of your sins and blessed with natural blessings. There are some Christians who can believe God for salvation for the soul but cannot believe God for healing of the body. Others can believe God for natural blessings such as money, houses, vehicles, spouse, jobs etc. yet they cannot believe God can deliver them from all of their sins. Also some can believe God for healing of their body from some diseases but they cannot believe God can heal other serious diseases. In other words they put a limit on God.

In this book we are going to take a closer look at how we can develop Faith to get the power of God to work in our life to fulfill every need. We are going to discuss the different levels of Faith and explain the gift of Faith. Testimonies of true events will be shared of how Christians use their faith to get the power of God to work in their lives. The power of Miracles and its benefits; the differences between healing and made whole and having the patience to wait on God will be discussed. I am going to talk about having patience to wait on God.

An in depth look at what hinders the power of God from giving us our deliverance will be shared. How can we overcome those hinders? How can Fear impact our Faith in God? How can Satan use doubt to make you lose trust in God? How can the spirit of Spirit of Unbelief be a major hindrance in our Faith in God? I am going to provide insight to overcome these obstacles, so you can have an open avenue for the power of God to work fully in your life.

Finally, I will discuss the importance of Sanctification through the blood of Jesus to be truly saved and the power of the Holy Ghost. Let us see how we can climb so high in the levels of the Holy Ghost to have more power to fight against Satan. I use Scriptures from the King James Version of the Bible for reference. This is book is being written by the leading of the Holy Ghost.

DEDICATION

I give honor unto the Apostle Thomas whom the world nickname "Doubting Thomas" because he would not believe in the Resurrection of Jesus unless he could see the nail prints in his hands and thrust his finger in his side. Jesus appeared unto Thomas and showed him his hands and told him to thrust his finger in his side. When Apostle Thomas saw this he declared "My Lord and My God". (St. John 20:25-29) This was necessary because it was through Apostle Thomas’ testimony that destroyed Satan’s chance to raise a big movement to get people to believe the lie that Jesus never arose from the dead. If that movement had taken place many, many souls would have been lost in the Fires of Hell. Thank God for Apostle Thomas’ testimony Satan’s plan was overthrown! This promotes faith. For Jesus told Apostle Thomas, "Thomas, because thou hath seen me thou hast believe: blessed are they that hast not seen me and yet still have believe." This establishes faith in God to believe and not actually see it! We believe because it is true. God will be pleased. I hope to see Apostle Thomas in Heaven and discuss this marvelous event with him!

Author William D. Holmes

CHAPTER 1

What is Faith?

Somebody may ask what is Faith? The Bible declares in Hebrews 11th Chapter "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Faith is taking God at His Word. You must confess out of your mouth that God’s Word is true. Confessing the Word of God will make it a reality in your life. For example in the book of Isaiah the prophet Chapter 53:5 "But He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed." We must take this Word and confess that we are healed by the stripes of Jesus. This is regardless to how we feel. Feeling has nothing to do with it! We say it because the Word of God is true.

We must know the major rule is IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR GOD TO TELL A LIE!!! The Bible is the Divine Word of God. It is so important to believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God. Satan will spread lies for people not to believe in the Bible such as who wrote the bible? That book is full of man’s ideas. I have heard someone say William Shakespeare wrote the Bible. Satan wants people to lose faith in the Bible, so they cannot get blessed by God. If people do not trust the Bible, there is no way under the Sun they can be delivered from the trap of Satan. Therefore Satan will lead them straight into darkness, down the road to Hell Fire! I want all to believe the Bible. It is your only hope of escape. The Bible was written by men who were moved by the Holy Ghost. It is of no private interpretation. (2 Peter 1: 20-21)

Satan will spread more lies such as what does the Bible Scriptures mean to you? Jesus said, "And what I say unto you, I say to all." (St. Mark 13:37) The Word of God is the same to everybody. It is of no one’s private interpretation. It is not your opinion what the Word of God means! The revealing of the meaning is given by the power of the Holy Ghost. Satan plays tricks on people living off of their opinions of the Bible. We cannot go to Heaven on opinions! Our way is not God’s way. (Isaiah 55:7-9) God’s way is Holiness. (Isaiah 35:8) We must live on facts! The Holy Ghost gives us facts. You must know the truth and the truth shall make you free! (St. John 8:32) God is going to strike down everybody’s opinions! They are all excuses. There is no excuse for not obeying the Word of God! In order to please God we must be in agreement to the Holy Ghost and God’s plan of Holiness.

It is Holiness or Hell with the whole round world and that is a fact. (Hebrews 13:14) Holiness is not just a religion. It is more than just joining a church, being baptized in water and shaking a preacher’s hand. It is a life that will get in you and cause you to live holy in a sinful world. It will be Jesus walking and talking in you twenty-four hours a day.

When we confess with our mouth and give God the praise for healing, truly the power of God will visit you. The Holy Ghost will anoint your body and will cause that germ, bacteria which causing you to be sick to die and pass from the body! Your body will begin to see results of healing! You will begin to feel better! This will increase your faith. There is power in the mighty name of Jesus! Faith is confessing God’s Word as Jehovah-Jireh. "The Lord will provide." This is true no matter how much trouble is going on in your life. It is important not to let your circumstances cause you to doubt the Lord. Jesus may not come right away, but this one thing you will know, He is always on time. He is an on time God.

I want to stress it is so important to confess out of your mouth what the Bible says. Do not deviate from it! Anytime you start confessing and then stop that shows a sign of doubt. This is what Satan wants you to do. Satan wants you to take back your testimony. But the devil is a liar! Hold on to your testimony based upon the Word of God, regardless of what is going on in your life. Just like I said, confess it out of your mouth. If you believe the Lord has forgiven you of your sins. Confess it out of your mouth. Testify it to the people. Do not change your testimony. The question will arise what if a person sin after they confess the Lord has forgiven them of their sin, are they still saved? Even though you sin, still do not change your testimony, just stop it and continue. Never stand up in Church and testify saying, "I thought I was saved, but I didn’t have it or I don’t have anything." When some Christians say things like that Satan is laughing. That is a sign of unbelief. What you need to do is go into your secret closet and pray to God, asking Him to forgive you and deliver you from that sin. Die daily, denying yourself of worldly lusts. Clean your life up until you are totally clean from all committed sin. It is important to die indeed dead to sin, so Jesus can sanctify you through the blood of Jesus and take out the old Adam Nature of sin. (Romans 6:11)

Once the root of sin has been taken out, then that old desire of sin will not be in there anymore to force you to do wrong. When a believer accomplished all of this, they will have power over the devil and live a life with victory over sin. The Holy Ghost and Fire will come and preserve them. Satan will be fire hot mad! Your faith is at work. This goes for all believers in Jesus. If the Word of God comes forth and you see you don’t have enough to make it to Heaven go to your secret closet pray and fast. Ask God to deliver you and sanctify your soul. Let the power of God satiate your soul. When you pray in secret, the Lord will reward you openly. Whatever you ask of God to do for you; when you feel the power of God say, "This is it." When you say those words, the power of God will take control of you doing what you desire him to do. This is true for those who desire to be healed from sickness and disease. Also this is true for those who desire to have their sins forgiven, to be sanctified through the blood of Jesus and filled with the Holy Ghost and fire. That is why it is so important to get in the praise and allow the power of God to quicken your body! The joy of the Lord is your strength. Faith is in action when you are shouting, dancing and praising God!

Once you confess faith out of your mouth you can start practicing it in your ways and action. In other words testifying you are saved live a saved life. Sins you used to commit; you don’t do those sins anymore. Your conversations and way of life will change; no more dirty jokes, profanity, lies, stealing, drinking strong drinks, gambling, smoking plants, not going to any prostitute houses, casinos, and dance club to party for Satan. Your whole life will change, when Jesus comes in. People will come out of those common law relationships and get married according to what the Bible says in (Hebrews 13:4). That is faith at work. If a person just confesses it out of their mouth they are saved and still living the same way that is not faith. They are liars! Faith without works is dead! (James 2:20) It is like this on the natural side. You can say all day you I am going to the Bahamas but if you do not make any preparations such as packing clothes in a suitcase, packing hygiene items, getting your transportation straight by Purchasing a plane tickets there is no evidence you are going to the Bahamas You are just talking out of your mouth! Faith is vocalizing God’s Word in action!

People can say, I am going to church and will get saved. If they do not make any effort to come into the door, or come to the altar to repent of their sins; they are just talking. I have seen sinners sit in the church service as though they are content while the Preacher is warning them about being saved to escape a burning Hell. What the Preacher saying does not concern them. That is not faith but unbelief, which I will talk about later. Faith is an action word. Take God’s Word as truth and act upon it! This will bring positive results. The power of God will work and give you complete deliverance! Yes, God is real because His presence is made known throughout our everyday lives. Just look at nature how flowers bloom, puppies and kittens are born, storms created, seasons of the year come around, planets rotate and revolve around the Sun without bumping into each other, is enough to know without a shadow of a doubt there is a God.

On top of all of that, just to know how Jesus came into your life delivered you from the bondage of sin. Heal your sick body when the doctors said you are going to die and not live, is enough to know God is real. Faith is thanking God for what He has done and what He is going to do. It is very important to thank the Lord. Keep on thanking Him. The more you thank Him the stronger your faith will become. When people do not continue thanking the Lord, their faith dwindles. It is the job of Satan to encourage people to stop praising God. Satan delights when people lose their faith in God. He can rob them of their blessing and lead them back into captivity. Some people may say, "I already thank the Lord." When they treat God like a man that is unbelief. God desires continually thanks and praises. Faith in God will cause you to continue to give Him thanks and praises. We cannot thank Him enough!

Testimony service is wonderful. It gives members a chance to tell what God has done for them and give him thanks and praise. Each time you witness what God has done for you that is faith in action. You are sowing seeds of faith in others to believe God for what is going on in their life. If the Lord saved, healed you, he can do the same for them. It is the job of Satan to discourage testimony service and mock the people of God saying, "You are saying the same thing over and over again. People are tired of hearing that testimony!" I want you to know when you tell your testimony the same every time, that is evidence you are telling the sincere truth. Anytime a person changes their story that is evidence they are liars. Satan wants us to change our testimony which promotes unbelief. But don’t do it! You can add to it, but do not change it. When you do this, it will promote faith. It is so important for every child of God to testify and let the people know, "I am converted, justified by faith, sanctified and Baptized and Filled with the Holy Ghost and Fire."

When you confess this you are putting the devil on notice! Satan does not want Christians to testify to the full life, so he will try to distract them by allowing them to talk about natural things. They focus on what went on in the community, on the job, in their home instead of edifying the church. This is not what testimony service supposed to be about. A testimony is telling what the Lord has done for you, whether it is healing, miracle or most important salvation for your soul. We give God the glory. God gets no glory when you have Church members throwing at each other! Satan is laughing when the testimony service is turning over to a battle session! Stick to the point and tell how Jesus gave you that miracle. Testify how Jesus healed your body of that sickness when the doctors said, "We have done all we can do. You are going to die with that sickness!" Testify how you got converted, justified, sanctified and Baptized and Filled with the Holy Ghost and Fire. When you tell it right, it will edify the church; also help you to overcome Satan and all of his forces of darkness. Sinners will know exactly how to get saved by hearing you testify.

Faith is feeling so positive about what God can do that you know it and nobody can change your mind! No matter what Satan does and say he cannot cause you to doubt the Lord. Faith such as this is well pleasing to God. We must keep a positive mind shutting out all forms of negativity. Satan loves to throw in negativity. His job is to get you to doubt the Lord and say it is not real. We must know all bad comes from the devil. That is right; no matter what it is. It could be a sickness in your body, accident, loss of a job; finances are low and children in trouble such as in prison, bad grades in school, disobedient to parents, arrested by police etc.

No matter what is bad, Satan is behind it. It is the job of Satan to get people to believe that bad things come from some other source such as yourself or the flesh. Satan has placed a spirit in some Christians to tell people, "Don’t put everything bad on the devil." I want to know why have mercy on Satan wicked as he is? You must know who brought you that bad idea at first. The thought came from no one but the devil. Satan uses images to promote his wicked deeds. In the book of (Genesis Chapter 3) Satan used the serpent to carry out his evil scheme to fool Eve and Adam into sin! So put the blame where it belongs, all bad come from Satan. Don’t show him any mercy because he will not have any mercy on you!

It is the job of Satan to fill many people with unbelief; so they will be disobedient to the Word of God. When tragedy happens they will blame God for the tragedy. This is through their ignorance. One main rule: Never Charge God foolishly! God is one hundred percent Good and Holy in all of His ways and actions. When Jesus is in the midst something good is going to happen. When Satan is around bad things will happen. He can only work as much evil as God allows him to work. Satan loves to stir up trouble, but God brings peace.

I stress the importance of taking God at His Word. Confess it out of your mouth daily and obey it. When we obey the Word of God, it is faith at work. Obedience is what causes the power of God to work on your behalf. If you believe the Word of God, you will obey it. The reason why people will not obey some parts of the Word of God is because they do not believe it. Just for example the Scripture (I John 3:9) "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin because he is born of God." Those who believe will get sanctified through the blood of Jesus, so the old Adam Nature will be taken out. When Jesus breathe a life in your soul, he will take the sinful nature out of you and put his nature in you that do not want to sin. That is being born of again.

Those who do not believe will give some excuse to be disobedient. Some will study some other source to find a reason to contradict that verse of Scripture. Others will try to read into the verse to find some excuse to sin. We have to watch Satan because he is so crafty in giving people reasons to be disobedient to the Word of God. Just like I said, if you believe you will eat the Word of God and say, "Umm so good!" You will not try to challenge it. Those who are disobedient will try to challenge it. They will use their education and knowledge to challenge the Servant of God. Some will say things like, "This is how they were taught. They ought the read further in those other verses in the Bible. This they will do to try to divert the attention from the main subject unto something else or say this, Let us read another version of that verse in another Bible." This is the general rule for all tactics launched out by Satan.

Faith is confessing God’s Word out of your mouth. Confess it aloud before the people. Say it daily making it habit forming. Next obey, demonstrate it in your everyday life. Apply it in every part of your daily activities. Then shut out all negative actions from Satan. Don’t let Satan cause you to doubt. God’s Word is true and it is impossible for Him to tell a lie. Give God the praise, bless the Lord. By His stripes I am healed! Refuse to accept fear no matter what Satan throws your way. Satan loves to use fear to make people feel they must be in control of the situation. They fear if nothing be done it will get out of control. "Waiting on God takes too long!" Satan will put you in a hyper mode to do a quick fix but what you do instead of fixing it you just put a band aid on it. The problem is still there or becomes worse.

For example a young girl desires a husband, instead of waiting on God for a Christian husband which will love her and treat her right she falls for a charming young man because he has a good job, nice place to live, money and soft voice. He lures her to commit fornication, common law relationship and child out of wedlock. The choices she made cause her to suffer consequences. If she had waited on God, no doubt she would have received a much better situation. Satan pushed her saying, she just could not wait! So she jumped for what she saw with her eyes. Your eyes can deceive you! Wait on the Lord! Trust the Lord and God will give you complete deliverance! Jesus never lost a case and He is always on time for your breakthrough. God is much stronger than you, to fix your situation. Give it totally over to him. When God blesses you, `it will be a blessing worth waiting for. God will give you someone that will last you for a very long time in joy, peace and good pleasure. I understand it is not easy to wait on God especially when the situation seems hard and Satan is attacking at all sides. Satan loves to back a child of God up in a corner and make it appears you have no way out.

For example a Christian gets fired off a job and career destroyed for any other future jobs in that field. You may ask why this happen? This person worked faithfully, excellent attendance, did a great job, often worked double shifts and strived always to be professional. In other words could be considered being a workaholic and burnt out. This Christian witness to many people on the job about Jesus and live a life to prove he was genuine. Satan got mad in some of the other employees and began to persecute the Christian by accusing him of situations that were beyond his control. They pushed until they got rid of the Christian. Their indignation was so great it impacted other jobs in this field. That is a bitter pill to swallow.

How would you feel if you lost a job you worked faithfully on for over ten years? (It is not because you have committed a crime). Where are you going to get the money to pay your bills? You pray and the Lord Provides. The Lord shows great mercy by giving you pick up jobs to help bring in income. Years go by and the Christian still survives on temporary work and help from his spouse. The Christian is still praying unto God to give him a better job. This is what I call waiting on God?

Satan loves to spread unbelief, doubt and fear in a situation such as this especially when you have prayed for an answer and it does not come right away. It is so important to have patience. God is