Bill Johnson: ‘Mario Murillo Changed My Life With THIS Book’
Around 35 years ago, my friend and mentor, Mario Murillo, told me about this little book by Charles Price called The Real Faith.
At the time, I was a pastor in Weaverville, a young father and husband, and I remember The Real Faith having such a great impact on me. The way Price teaches on faith unraveled my understanding of the subject in the most profound ways.
I’ve gone on to recommend this book to countless others, because I believe it is a significant masterpiece. I still find myself discovering new things, like peeling back layers of an onion, because of the profound nature of Price’s teaching. The Lord is so kind when He teaches us things. Every revelation comes with an invitation: “Here is the truth. Now, come and know Me.” That is the invitation I’ve encountered in this book. It is the invitation to surrender, to encounter God as the Author and Finisher of our faith.
I thought faith was something I could work for, an aspect of walking with Jesus that I could choose to manifest in my life. My prayer life used to be so focused on outcomes. I was desperate to see certain diseases eradicated, for a breakthrough to come, to see specific miracles take place. Not all of that has changed. I still long to see those things happen, but it’s no longer the focus of my time with the Lord. My focus has shifted to Him. I really just want to be with Him, to interact, to hear His heart, to be close to Him. When your focus shifts, you don’t grade yourself on the outcomes. You don’t punish yourself for not seeing this or that result. You’re in it for the relationship.
Many of the things we ache for in life—the encounters, the experiences with God, the breakthroughs—are products of the faith-filled life. So often, we can slip into a striving, anxiety-filled connection with the Lord. We begin to focus on our own efforts, evaluating our faith in God by the results we see. But when we’re born again in Christ, our natures are changed. Our hearts are aligned with Him. The faith we so often feel like we’re fighting for is actually a gift of the Holy Spirit. It is the faith of God, given to us.
When we are born again, we are actually given Jesus’s own heart of absolute surrender to the Father’s will. We are given an invitation to know Him deeply, to understand the hope that is in Him to such an extent that all of our anxiety-filled efforts fall away. In exchange for our striving self-governance, we are given the gift of the Person of God. His heart, His faith, His strength, and His hope are now available to us through Jesus.
In the parable of the Sower, Jesus tells us about “he who received seed among the thorns” (Matthew 13:22 NKJV). The picture is of a garden choked with weeds. The seed represents the living, present word of God; the soil is the condition of our hearts. In the parable, we are shown four different kinds of soil, three of which were not compatible with life. The seed is consistent, but in these unhealthy soils, fruit could not develop. In the soil with the thorns, the good seed was planted, but the weeds competed for nutrients, absorbed the moisture, and eventually overshadowed the plants that were supposed to bear fruit.
The word of the Lord is the same way. The Bible says that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17 NKJV). It doesn’t say that faith comes from hearing the Word of God. If it did, we could all just go home and put on a recording of Scripture being read and play it for 24 hours a day. We’d have the faith of Smith Wigglesworth in a few days!
But it doesn’t work that way. Faith comes from hearing Him. It’s our connection to the voice of God, our intimate relationship with the Father. Steeping ourselves in His Word trains our ability to hear Him, but it doesn’t supplant the relationship. When God speaks a word over us, the challenge is to not let all of the other voices in our lives—other ideas, disappointments, criticism, complaints—compete for the same nutrients in the soil of our hearts. The Bible says that the cares of the world can actually “choke the word” of God (Mark 4:19 NKJV). We have the ability to choke that seed of faith, given as a gift from God, with our other interests, burdens, and the sheer busyness of life. Learning to dismantle the obstacles and come to Him fully surrendered is our challenge and our joy as believers.
Faith is not about striving; it is about surrender. The Holy Spirit is not something we struggle to obtain, but rather Someone we surrender to. The shift, as small as it may seem, has had a huge impact on me and continues to speak to me to this day. I wish I could say this truth is fully evident in every aspect of my life, but I am still walking it out. I am still peeling back layers of revelation found in Price’s book.
Faith is not complicated. Jesus said His yoke is easy, His burden is light (Matthew 11:30). We don’t have to be geniuses to walk in the kind of faith that moves mountains, because it’s not our faith to create. Faith is a gift from Jesus, a product of our complete surrender. It is not a concept obtained by our intellect; it is a gift received into the soil of a surrendered heart.
God has made Himself available to us. It is almost unfathomable, but true. He wants to pour His love, His peace, His righteousness, His faith into us. Our job is to receive, to stay humble and surrendered to Him, walking in full dependence on our Creator. Only then will we begin to reveal to the world what Price calls, “the living, pulsating reality of His diving indwelling.” May we all learn to walk with Him in this way.