324 Is Faith Essential to Healing

 

Today, I am continuing my series of sermons on Divine Healing and if you missed part one, then write me for a printed copy of the text. Before I begin, I ask again that you don’t run ahead of me with questions that I may not answer in this message, I will answer your questions in the messages yet to come – as this series of FIVE sermons is an exhaustive study on Divine Healing.

Today’s message is part two and asks

“Is Faith essential to healing?”

 

Our Health and our Healing is important to our Father in Heaven, but we should never seek the Healing without FIRST seeking the Healer.   Faith, is all about a relationship with Jesus, and without Jesus your faith is misplaced.

 

You may ask me, “Do you believe that I must have faith? Do you not think I could be healed through your faith?” The Bible says, Without faith it is impossible to please God. We are supposed to walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, you may be healed according to my faith, but being healed through another person’s faith is the scriptural exception, not the rule. I would advise you to abide by the rule rather than by the exception. I am certain that when you have heard the word of God – that word, if given heed to, will always produce faith and you will be healed through your own faith.

 

The Father planned that every believer should be a conqueror – not just a favoured few.   God wants you to discover that you have power over the devil. He wants you to know that you have power over sickness, that you are a victor, that you are a conqueror,

that you can rebuke disease and sickness and see the

symptoms melt away. You will never be able to walk in this victory as long as you are depending on the faith of someone else. Nor if you don’t or won’t believe that you can!   You know that

the faith of another person cannot set you free from sin.

You must hear the gospel and be forgiven of your sins. You must personally believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as your own Saviour. Then you will be saved. This is true also in respect of healing, you must hear the word of God; You must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as your healer; Only then by his stripes, are you healed.

 

Consider the fact that FAITH CAN BE SEEN

In most cases Jesus did not heal anyone until after He had

obtained that person’s confession of faith, or until He had

observed some act of faith for healing.

This was so in the case of the centurion in Matthew 8:8.

The Bible says of the palsied man who was let down

through the roof on a cot: And Jesus seeing their faith said

to the sick of the palsy, Arise, and take up your bed, and

go your way. Matt 9:2 & Mark 2:11

If you were bedridden, would you allow four men to carry

you up onto a roof and then let you down, cot and all,

through a hole in the roof? Not unless you believed that

something would happen to you when you were placed

before the Lord. Faith is better seen than heard. Jesus saw their faith in their actions. Faith without works (or actions that correspond) is dead. Gods word does the miracle, but the word stands alone, until we cooperate with the word.

 

In the case of the two blind men who followed Jesus,

crying, Son of David, have mercy on us. Jesus said to

them, Do you believe that I am able to do this? They said

to him, Yes, Lord. Then he touched their eyes, saying,

According to your faith be it done to you. And their eyes

were opened. Matt 9:27.

 

Note also that FAITH is ALWAYS HONORED

To the woman of Canaan who sought mercy from the

Lord for her daughter who was lying at home grievously

vexed with a devil, Jesus replied, after He had seen her

persistent and unwavering faith, “O woman, great is your

faith: be it done to you even as you will.” Matt 15:28

And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. This is a classic example of the “exception” that I spoke of a moment ago.

The Mother had faith for her Daughter!

 

To the woman who had an issue of blood for twelve years,

and who pressed through the crowd, saying within

herself, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole,

Jesus said, your faith has made you whole; go in peace, and be whole of your plagues. Mark 5:34.   To the blind man in Mark 10,52 Jesus said, Go your way; your faith has made you

whole. To the one leper who returned to give thanks, Jesus said,

Go your way: your faith has made you whole.

When a certain man asked Jesus to come to his house and

heal his son because he was at the very point of death, Jesus

said, Go your way; your son lives, and the Bible says, The

man believed the word that Jesus had spoken to him, and

he went his way. And while on his way home, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Your son lives.” John 4:47-53

 

There are many cases in the gospels that do not state whether or not the people who were healed had faith, such as the woman bowed over with an infirmity, the man with a withered hand, the man by the pool at Bethesda, the multitudes, and many others.

But it is certain that they had faith to be healed, because

when Mark says, “and he (Jesus) could do no mighty work

there, except that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk,

and healed them” – His inability to do mighty work there

was because of their unbelief, their lack of faith. Mark 6:1-16

 

When Paul was preaching the gospel at Lystra, one of his

hearers was a man whose feet were crippled. He had

been born in this condition. No doubt Paul desired that

the man be healed immediately. Instead, Paul waited until

the lame man had heard the word of God and had

obtained faith for his healing.

Then Paul steadfastly beholding him, and perceiving that

he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, Stand

upright on your feet. And he leaped and walked. Acts 14.

 

The preaching of the word always produces faith when

believed. The Bible says that, By faith, people of God obtained a

good report. God was pleased with the patriarchs and

matriarchs of old when they demonstrated great faith.

For without faith it is impossible to please God.

 

Consider next what I’m calling INDIVIDUAL FAITH.

God’s promises are for you personally. You have an

individual right to pray for and receive every blessing

promised to the believer.

Jesus said in the Sermon on the mount in Matthew 7:8, Everyone that asks receives. He emphasizes this fact six times, so that you will clearly understand that He wants you to feel free to ask Him for what you want. He says, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you: for everyone that asks receives; and the one that seeks finds; and to the one that knocks it shall be opened.

 

All through the Bible, God seeks to impress on everyone of

His children that we all have equal rights. He respects

none above another. He has no favourites. He expects each

one of us to have faith. Jesus says: The one who comes to me I will not cast out. That means you. Christ is saying: “Those that come to me for any need, whatever it may be, I will not refuse them.”

Jesus says: If you live in me, and my words live in you, you

shall ask for what you desire, and it shall be done to you. John 15:7. He adds: “Whatsoever things you desire, when you pray,

believe that you receive them, and you shall have them“. Mark 11:24 Paul said: “If you shall confess with your mouth the Lord

Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised

him from the dead, you shall be saved“.

 

So I’m encouraging you to SPEAK FOR YOURSELF!

 

To be saved, you must do your own repenting, your own

believing, your own confessing, your own accepting, your

own receiving; then you will be saved. To be healed, you have the right to do your own asking, your own believing, your own claiming, your own receiving; then you too will be healed.

 

Thousands of Christians are spending their lives

depending on the prayers and the faith of other people, as

though others were closer to God than they; as though

others could pray better than they; as though God will

hear the prayers of others quicker than their own

prayers.   Regularly, people phone or write me to pray for them and for the crisis they are passing through, but God wants his children to come to Him themselves.   I am happy to pray for anyone who asks, but Every Christian has equal rights, and it is God’s will and desire that each of His children expect, claim and accept all of His blessings and benefits. Every person can pray and receive the answer. Jesus said, Everyone that asks receives.

 

In the past I have known believers phone around half of the countryside to get people to pray in a crisis.   But this shows ignorance of the Word, and pure folly. God is not moved by Prayer alone, God is moved by Faith. Consider this:

Every sinner who has ever been saved had to prove

Christ’s statement to be true; otherwise, they never could

have been saved. If the privilege, Everyone that asks receives, is available to the unconverted, how much more is it available to God’s children. That is, if this privilege was available before we

were saved, how much more is it available after we have been

saved. Just ASK!

 

Do you realize that EVEN BABIES CAN ASK

Every child can do its own asking from its parents. Do you realize that every baby does its own asking, even before it can speak

a word?   Unable to do anything but cry, it does its own

asking. Certainly the other children in the family do not

have to beg the mother to please feed the baby. The baby

asks for itself. There are thousands of Christians who have

never learned the privilege of asking for themselves. They

spend their time writing and calling on others to pray for

them, to do their praying for them, to ask God for them.

Others may pray with you (there’s nothing wrong in that)

but never substitute the prayers of others for your own asking, because Jesus said, everyone that asks receives!

 

Everyone who has a bank account can use it personally.

How unreasonable it would be for me to ask someone

across the town to go to the bank and try to get some money

out of my account.   It is my money. I can draw my own

cheque without any problem.   I have a right to demand the

money because it’s mine. You have the right to ask God for what is already yours – and, all of heaven is yours!

 

Consider next that …

BECAUSE God SAID IT, YOU can BELIEVE IT

Every blessing which Christ died to provide is the private

property of every person for whom He died.

In the Exodus from Egypt the people were being bitten by snakes, and many died. Numbers 21:6 …God commanded Moses to lift up a Brass Serpent so that every snake-bitten Israelite, when

they looked on the brazen serpent, lived. (v9)   Everyone of

them had to do their own looking at the brazen serpent.

The people were near to death; but when they cried to the

Lord, He sent his word and healed them.

 

Faith is believing that God will do what He has said in His

word that He will do. God has never asked anyone to

believe Him for anything that He has not promised to do.

God has said: I am the Lord who heals you.

The prophet Isaiah said: He (Jesus) was wounded for our

transgressions, and with his stripes we are healed. Isa 53:5.

Jesus said to the leper: I will; be clean.

He said to the centurion: I will come and heal him.

To the blind man, He said: Receive your sight.

Peter said: His own self bore our sins; by whose stripes

you were healed.

Jesus said: They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall

recover, and In my name they shall cast out devils.

James said: Is any sick among you? The prayer of faith

shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise them up.

Faith is merely believing that God will do these and other

things, which He said in His word that He would do – if we

would only believe. If you can believe, all things are possible to them that believe. I say again “ALL THINGS”.

 

We could sum up the matter by quoting the command of

Jesus: Have faith in God. Mark 11:22   I have heard it said and indeed in the past may have said it myself that “A Prayerful Christian is a Powerful Christian”.   But I have discovered now that power with God does not come by Prayer alone. Power from God comes by the Holy Spirit and the key to releasing that power is FAITH. Faith will always move the hand of God. Faith always possesses. Faith is a persistent force. Faith relies on the ability

of God. Faith knows no defeat, and Faith thrives on a test.

 

Faith never argues. Faith never gets excited. Faith never

brags on itself. Faith is never nervous. Faith never

trembles. Faith is never overpowered. Faith looks directly to the word of God. Faith knows what God has said, because it has been born by the word of God. Faith knows that what God says

is a revelation of His will – His desire.

Faith accepts God’s word as final. Faith claims that word

and steps out on it. Faith possesses the promises. Faith

demands results. Faith claims its covenanted rights.

 

When reason argues; when one fears, trembles and becomes nervous; when nothing seems to work, and nothing changes in ones circumstances, – real faith stands steadfast and immovable because it knows what God has said. That settles the matter with faith. Faith is invincible. Faith is irresistible. Be grounded in the word of God. Know His word; that way you will know His will. Bring your request to Him and leave the results with Him. Give Him a chance to do for you what He has been waiting so long to do, but could not do, until you were ready to act on His word in faith. If it does not happen immediately, don’t let go, it will happen. Every seed takes time to grow, and Gods word takes time to penetrate your whole being and your whole body.

 

Do as Abraham did. He believed God. And being not weak

in faith, he staggered not at the promise of God through

unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;

being fully persuaded that, what God had promised,

he was able also to perform. Romans 4:19-21   Many of us

are persuaded – but as yet not fully persuaded?

 

Right now, go to God and quote any of His promises that

you want Him to fulfil for you. Ask Him to do it. Pray the

prayer of faith for that promise; place your order in the

letter-drop of faith and turn it loose. Trust it to the

heavenly authorities to take it through and to bring you

the order properly filled.

 

You don’t need to keep praying again and again for the things

you need. Release your faith and let it bring you the answer.

Maintain this attitude of faith. Refuse to be moved. Let

nothing budge you from your stand on the promises of

God, and your prayer will be answered to the fullest extent

for God will say to you: Go your way; and as you have

believed, so be it done to you.

 

NOW THIS FINAL WORD.

 

Whether the people are Black or White; British or Irish, whether they are educated or illiterate; whether they are rich or poor,

I know one thing:   They all respond to Christ when they see

His unchanging compassion in healing the sick.

From the days when Elijah accepted the challenge at Mount

Carmel and the people turned from the worship of Baal to

Jehovah, until our present day, people are ready and are

glad to serve the God of miracles.

 

Regardless of what religious priests, pastors or professors may teach, the undeniable fact remains that there is no substitute for the demonstration of the Spirit and of power. The Apostle Paul repeatedly attributed the success of his ministry to the fact that God always confirmed his message with miracles.

(signs following)

 

Millions, all over the world are waiting for the church

to return to her knees in fasting and prayer asking God as

the early church did: to “Grant to your servants, that with all

boldness they may speak your word, By stretching forth

your hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be

done by the name of your holy child Jesus“.

 

The songwriter said:

A bell is not a bell ’til you ring it;

A song is not a song ’til you sing it.

Love in your heart is not put there to stay;

Love is not love ’til you give it away.

 

Never again put down what cost God so much to

raise up. Don’t reject the full Gospel and its double cure, and don’t settle for less. Jesus paid for it all, a life abundant, to the full – ‘till it overflows, and a life eternal. Jesus showed us God by what He did for us, and we best show our faith by what we do for others. When we value people like God values them, we will heal

them rather than bruise them. We will lift them up rather

than put them down. We will esteem them rather than

criticize them. We will forgive them rather then judge

them.

 

When Christ lives in you, your new life is really His life in

you. Learn to say, Jesus: Here is my brain; think through it.

Here it is my face; glow in it. Here are my hand; touch with them.

Here are my eyes; see through them. Here are my ears; listen with them. Here are my lips; speak through them. Here is my heart; love through it.

 

“Learn to practice the awareness of Jesus in you: And like him you too will bring hope and healing wherever you go”

 

God Bless You …Amen.