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Founder/President, Marilyn Hickey Ministries
President, Marilyn Hickey Bible College, which offers Associate Degree in Biblical Studies
B.A., Foreign Languages, University of Northern Colorado
When we are going through tough times, we are often encouraged to "just have faith." Marilyn says that would be good advice if we knew what faith really was. To have faith in God, we must believe in and believe for things we cannot see. This can be very difficult when we are surrounded and even overwhelmed by the visible world pressing in from all sides, demanding our attention. The enemy would have us believe only in the troubles of this world, but true faith is living successfully in the visible world by trusting in the goodness of a God we cannot see. This world can weaken, even defeat us; faith gives us vitality and victory.
The invisible gives form and substance by our faith: "for we walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7). God will reveal a truth from His Word, but we may not see immediate physical manifestation of it. This does not mean His Word is false; it only means that we are not able to see the truth with our eyes or recognize it with our senses. "When you put your trust in God, you believe in something you can't touch or see," Marilyn says. Hope is more than wishful thinking - it is the vision in faith of your desire.
Sometimes we have to keep hoping when all hope seems gone. God rewards the earnest seeker, not the casual inquirer. Red-hot desire gets results. Since faith is the "assurance of things hoped for," we need to put in our hearts the assurance of the answer even if it doesn't come right away.
"Faith is a process and we want answers in 24 hours," says Marilyn.
Marilyn's father had a nervous breakdown and her mother prayed for his healing.
Slowly her dad recovered and improved each day. For 19 years, Marilyn prayed
for the doors to open for a crusade in Ethiopia. "After a while, I just
forgot about it," she says. But then God opened the doors for her to
minister to over 40,000 people in 2002.
GOD IS FAITHFUL
There are different kinds of faith:
Marilyn relates one incident when daughter Sarah was 5. Marilyn was to host a church luncheon, and Sarah needed to be picked up after school. The lady who was to pick up Sarah got confused and went to the wrong street. After waiting for an hour, 5-year-old Sarah prayed and safely made her way home. Overcome with guilt, Marilyn told the Lord that it was hard to do other church work while her child needed her. "When you're about My business, I'm about your business," the Lord said. "God is faithful when we are faithful," Marilyn says.
PRAISE IN PANAMA
Recently Marilyn ministered in Panama for 10 days. A two-night crusade was
held at a stadium where people from 500 churches commuted to the crusade and
more than 18,000 attended. Countless people were healed and between 10 - 12,000
people swarmed the altar to give their lives to Christ and 5,000 people were
filled with the Holy Spirit. The crowd was so large that Marilyn wondered
whether they had misunderstood, so the call was clarified three times!
On the second night of the crusade, 12,000 people stood in torrential rains and praised God. Nearly 4,000 were baptized in the Holy Spirit. At first, Marilyn and the team were disappointed by the downpour. Later, they learned that the rain was an answer to prayer as the city was in the midst of a drought.
A caring friend will be there to pray with you in your time of need.
