Faith for Healing is Based on Knowledge

At one of my Gospel Truth Seminars, I ministered to a man who had detached retinas. I was standing right in front of him, and he said I was just a blur. With the service about to start, I only had a moment to minister, so I told him to come forward at the end, and one of our prayer ministers would continue the process. He did and, after further ministry, gave a great testimony. Not only could he see me clearly, but he could see the faces of the people at the back of the auditorium. Thank You, Jesus! That's a miracle!

In the same service, a woman came forward whose eyes were clouded with cataracts. She could barely see, but after the prayer minister prayed for her, the white glaze over her eyes was gone, and she said her eyesight was great. Another man came off the oxygen tank he had been attached to for months. Deaf ears were opened; cancers were cured; and backs were healed. Hallelujah!

The most exciting thing to me about these miracles is that I'm NOT the one who prayed for most of these people.

Not long ago, I was doing all of the ministry. Don't misunderstand; I enjoy ministering God's healing to people. But, as the crowds grew, it became difficult to pray for everyone. I often prayed with people till after midnight, and yet there were many more that couldn't stay and left without their healing. Now that we have prayer ministers, hundreds of people can be ministered to each night. Many more miracles are taking place, and it's especially satisfying to see them experience the same and even better results than I do.

I think this sends a much needed signal to all who will listen; television ministers are not the only ones who can operate in this miraculous power of God! Praise God for the true men and women of God on television, but Jesus said that believers will lay hands on the sick, and the sick will recover (Mark 16:18). The job of the minister is to train the body of Christ so that they can do the work of the ministry (Eph. 4:11-12). The day of the one-man show in the body of Christ needs to come to an end, and we're literally seeing that take place in our meetings.

Some of the local prayer ministers we train have never seen a miracle happen through them before. I remember one man who helped us at a seminar. He received the pre-seminar instruction and training, and on the very first night saw a person's blind eyes open when he prayed. He told us the next day that he was so excited, he didn't sleep all night. Not only did the blind person get healed, but I can guarantee you, that young man will never be the same. That is awesome!

Would you like to see the blind receive their sight or the lame walk when you pray? Do you desperately need healing yourself? Here's the good news whether you're praying for another's healing or receiving your own, it's available to every true follower of Christ! Jesus gave every disciple who believes the power and authority to do the same works that He did. What a statement! But it is absolutely true. John 14:12 says,

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

All believers will do the same works that Jesus did; it's not limited to ministers. There's just a shortage of believing believers.

How do you get to the place where you can see the miraculous happen in and through you? It starts with the renewing of your mind. Faith is based on knowledge, and everything we need to know to be a victorious Christian is explained in God's Word. That's what the Apostle Peter said in 2 Peter 1:3-4:

"According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."

Knowledge of a few basics truths, when properly understood and applied, will make a huge difference in releasing His power and receiving your healing. Last month I shared one of the most important things the Lord has ever shown me: God has already placed His healing power within us, and it is now under our authority. It isn't up to God to determine who receives healing; it's up to us! What a powerful statement! It's our failure to understand and use the authority we have that is keeping God's healing power from flowing as it should. It's imperative that we discover what we have and learn how to release it. If you don't have my album entitled The Believer's Authority, you need to get it. The message will not only affect the way you receive and minister healing, but it will change the entire way you relate to God. It's a powerful teaching.

Here's another indispensable basic truth you must know and understand about healing: It's never God's will for us to be sick; He wants every person healed every time. That's nearly-too-good-to-be-true news, but that's the Gospel. Most Christians don't know or believe that. They think the Lord makes them sick, or at the very least, He allows Satan to make them sick to either punish or correct them. That kind of thinking will get you killed; it's not what the Bible teaches.

One of the most elementary principles in God's Word is given in James 4:7. It says,

"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

This verse clearly teaches that some things are of God, and some things are of the devil. Notice it doesn't present a third category: from God through the devil. No! Sickness has nothing to do with God! Submit to the things of God, and resist the things of the devil. It's that simple. To believe that God allows or approves of Satan's actions defies the logic of James 4:7. It eliminates our responsibility to resist and places ultimate responsibility for everything back on God.

The widely-accepted doctrine that God controls everything is a deception. If Satan can confuse and deceive you on that issue, he's got you! Why? Because you'll stop resisting. No one wants to resist God's will, and if you think that God is behind your sickness, you'll submit to it. That violates the instruction of James 4:7, it won't get you healed, and it lets Satan have his way in your life.

You must believe God always wants you healed. It's so simple, it takes help to misunderstand. But sadly, most Christians receive plenty of help from religion in misunderstanding this. Look at it this way: If God wanted you sick, for whatever reason, then why visit the doctor or take medication? It would seem more logical to allow the sickness to run its course so God's purpose could be accomplished. Of course I think that's foolish, and hopefully, so do you.

What's the bottom line on God's will for our healing? His Word reveals that to us in 3 John 2, which says,

"Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth."

John was writing a letter to believers under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He revealed that the Lord wants us healthy just as much as He wants us to prosper emotionally and mentally.

When Peter preached the Gospel to Cornelius in Acts 10:38, he summarized the ministry of Jesus by saying,

"How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him."

Today some preachers are saying that healing is of the devil, but that's not the message Peter gave. Notice what Peter said under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Not only was Jesus doing good when He healed people, but He healed all that were oppressed of the devil, not of God. That scripture clearly proves that sickness is not from God.

Isaiah 53 should end all debate. It was written prophetically about Jesus, the Messiah. Isaiah 53:4-5 says,

"Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 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."

These verses reveal that physical healing is a part of the atonement of Christ. The Lord redeemed us from sickness just as much as He redeemed us from sin. He would no more want us to be sick than He would want us to sin. Those are radical statements to many Christians because we've been taught that forgiveness of sins is what salvation is all about. Well that's certainly a vital part of salvation, but that's not all that Jesus accomplished. We were also healed by His stripes. Sickness is not of God just as sin is not of God. Thank You, Jesus!

Just in case anyone might be thinking that the healing spoken of in Isaiah 53:4-5 is not physical but only emotional, the Bible gives a commentary on Isaiah's prophecy. In Matthew 8:16 Jesus healed all the sick people brought to Him, and verse 17 says this was done &

"That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses."

Therefore, Scripture comments on itself and makes it very clear that the healing spoken of by Isaiah is referring to physical infirmities and sicknesses. If Jesus bore our sicknesses, then we don't have to.

You may be asking yourself, "What about Paul's thorn in the flesh?" I wish I had space to answer that in this article because those scriptures are not talking about a sickness of Paul's that the Lord would not heal. However, I do have an entire teaching revealing what Paul's thorn in the flesh was. That teaching is the second in a four-part series I have entitled God Wants You Well. The first teaching in that series deals with healing as a part of Christ's atonement, the second deals with Paul's thorn in the flesh, the third reveals reasons why people are not healed, and the fourth teaches that healing is governed by laws and reveals some of those laws. I encourage you to take advantage of these resources we are offering on healing.