Becoming a Man of Unwavering Faith (9 page)

When he gets to Jesus, he says, “Lord, if You will (if it is Your will), You can heal me.”

Jesus didn’t take long to settle the matter. He said, “I will!” This is the only man who asked about the will of God concerning healing, and Jesus settled it:
It is His will to heal you!

When our first daughter was born, she had signs of brain damage. Based on her symptoms—no sucking reflexes, no muscle tone, difficulty swallowing, couldn’t lift her arms or legs or head—the doctors said Lisa had something similar to cerebral palsy. We could see clearly with our eyes she had something seriously wrong with her. I had, up to this time, taken the typical attitude of Christians about healing. I would pray, “If it is your will…” I can never remember very much ever happening as a result of that prayer. But now we had to find out what the will of God was.

I wanted to know what Jesus would do for
my baby!
I wanted to know the will of God.

If I wanted what the leper got, I had to do what he did. I had to settle the matter of the will of God.

So I closed myself in my library. It was filled with books telling me how miracles had passed away. I didn’t want arguments
against
the willingness of God to heal. I
wanted all the help I could get. I set my face toward God, determined to find the truth from His Word. Praise the Lord, I found it!

I discovered sickness was not from God. Satan is the one who comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

When God made Adam and Eve, He made them without blind eyes, deaf ears, and diseased organs. If He had wanted and willed these things, He would have made Adam and Eve that way.

It was Satan who caused Job’s sickness. “So Satan went out from the presence of the L
ORD
, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head” (Job 2:7).

Jesus said that Satan had bound the woman with a spirit of infirmity, and she was bent over and could not straighten up into a normal standing position (Luke 13:11–16).

In Matthew 12:22, the Bible states that this man’s blindness was caused by the devil.

In Mark 9:17–27, we read the record of a boy who had convulsions and who was deaf and dumb. Jesus said it was all caused by a foul spirit and cast it out.

Jesus healed many people during His earthly ministry. The Bible tells us all these people were oppressed of the devil. Satan was the cause of their sickness. “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were
oppressed by the devil
, for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38).

This settled one thing in my mind. God had not afflicted our baby. This trouble came from Satan. It was not something to be coddled as a gift from God. It was something to be refused and fought against.

You will never rebuke your sickness as long as you think God sent it. You must know that
God wants you well!

The triune God is a
Trinity of Healing
. God is a Healer. “I am the L
ORD
who heals you” (Exodus 15:26). He does not change. “For I am the L
ORD
, I do not change” (Malachi 3:6).

The Lord Jesus is a Healer. The four Gospels record His mighty deeds, and Hebrews 13:8 says that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

The Holy Spirit is a Healer. “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11).

Yes, it is the will of God to heal you. Jesus said, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:38). Watch Him as He opens the blind eyes and deaf ears, makes cripples leap for joy, and heals sick multitudes. What is He doing?

He is doing the will of God!

If sickness is of God, then Jesus fought against His Father by healing the sick. Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Jesus wanted to show you what God’s will was about sickness—
He healed them all
. How could it be more clear? Let God be true and every man a liar.

James 5:14–16 gives instructions about ministering to the sick. “Is
anyone
among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church.” If it is not the will of God to heal all, how could he say
any
sick? It is God’s will, so
any
sick person can expect healing.

As I sought out more on this subject, I read the Psalms. I saw David pick up his harp and begin to sing: “Bless the L
ORD
, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: who
forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases” (Psalm 103:2–3).

I had always believed Jesus died for my sins, but I discovered He also died for my sicknesses. Matthew 8:17 states, “He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.” Praise the Name of the Lord!

Just as was true of the leper, I had settled the question. We presented our afflicted baby to God,
knowing
it was His will to heal her. We were no longer double minded on it. We did what the leper did and received what he did from the Lord—healing for our daughter! The doctor knows today that God performed a miracle in our child and healed her completely. She graduated from college and today she is a minister of the Gospel.

Stop hugging your sickness as though it were a gift from God! “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). Christ died for your sicknesses! You are free! Satan has no legal right to afflict your body! The prison door is open! Walk out in Jesus’ Name!

Let’s face the facts. If sickness is the will of God, then every physician is a lawbreaker, every trained nurse is defying the Almighty, and every hospital is a
house of rebellion instead of a house of mercy. Instead of supporting hospitals, would we not do our utmost to close them?

If it is not the will of God, why did Jesus command the disciples to heal the sick?

If it is not the will of God, why did Jesus say, “And these signs will follow those who believe… they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover” (Mark 16:17–18)?

If it is not the will of God, Jesus should not have said, “Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them” (Mark 11:24).

If it is not the will of God to heal, we ought not to seek healing by any means—natural or supernatural. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:17).

If it is not the will of God to heal, then Jesus violated His Father’s will because He healed people everywhere He went.

Praise the Lord, we know from the Word that it is the will of God to heal
all
the sick, which includes
you
. And we know that we should do all we can to get well. We need to take care of our bodies and seek medical help. Our oldest son, Paul, is a surgeon, and he told me once, “Daddy, we doctors can treat people, but only God can heal them.”

Whatever promise from God’s Word you are believing God for, you will not get what the leper did until you do what He did. Settle this matter in your heart. “It is the will of God for me.”

A
fter Elijah’s servant told him that there was a little cloud on the horizon, Elijah told his servant, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you’ ” (1 Kings 18:44
NIV
). The cloud out over the sea may have been little, but Elijah knew it was the beginning of a gusher rainstorm. He saw the little but believed for the big. He sent word to Ahab, “That little cloud out there is the size of a man’s hand, but I’m telling you, it’s a sign that God is moving. You’d better hurry to get out of the rain.”

Your first sign of relief may seem so small, but keep saying what God says about your situation. At the first sign of victory, don’t stop, back up, or retreat. It’s a sign the battle has turned and the enemy is on the run. It’s the time to boldly proclaim you’ll not be denied. You will have all that God has promised you.

As demonstrated by Elijah, the sixth quality of a man of unwavering faith is that he believes for the big when he sees the little.

There is an interesting account in Matthew 9:1–8 of the healing of the paralytic man. The scribes were bound up in their religious tradition that no one but God could forgive, or for that matter heal. Their lack of faith kept them from believing God’s Word for salvation and healing. But, below we read that the paralyzed man heard Jesus’ words, believed His Word, and received his healing!

“So He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city. Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, ‘Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.’ And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, ‘This Man blasphemes!’ But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, ‘Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven you,” or to say, “Arise and walk”? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins’—then He said to the paralytic, ‘Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.’ And he arose and departed to his
house. Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men.”

When the scribes thought that Jesus’ offer of forgiveness of sins was blasphemy, it paralyzed their faith. But what did this paralytic man do? He
acted
on the Word of God. Jesus told him to
do
what he could not do before, and he did it!

In Luke 5, when Jesus commanded Peter to let down his nets for a catch of fish, Peter hesitated. He told Jesus he had fished in those waters all night and had caught nothing. Peter was an authority on fishing. It seemed useless to try again, but he gave a marvelous statement of faith:
“Nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net”
(Luke 5:5). When he acted on the word of Jesus, he got results.

I realize that people have discouraged you and authorities have given their verdicts. Will you, in the face of all this, say, “Nevertheless at Your word I will act”?

Faith is an act. Believing the Word is acting on the Word. Faith without works is dead (James 2:20). One translation says, “Faith without corresponding action is dead.” It is not enough to talk your faith. To say you believe and not act as though you believe shows you have dead faith.

The Bible says, “When Jesus saw their faith…” (Mark 2:5). Faith is something you can see. If you substitute the
phrase
act on the Word
for
believe
, you will understand it more clearly.

“And these signs will follow those who believe [
act on My Word
]” (Mark 16:17). “He who believes in Me [
acts on My Word
], the works that I do he will do also; and greater
works
than these he will do, because I go to My Father” (John 14:12). “All things are possible to him who believes [
acts on My Word
]” (Mark 9:23).

Let’s put it this way—
He who acts on the Word has!
That is present tense. When you act on the Word, you
have
whatsoever you desire of God. Hope is always in the future. Acting on the Word brings it to pass
now.

The great men and women of the Old Testament never gave much thought to the matter of having faith. However, Hebrews 11 refers to them as mighty examples of faith. These men and women did not worry or fret about how to have faith.
They simply heard God speak and acted as though He told them the truth!

How do I know that Noah believed? He started acting as though God told him the truth. He started building the ark (Genesis 6)! Joshua demonstrated his faith by marching around the walls of Jericho (Joshua 6). King
Jehoshaphat and his army showed their faith by beginning to sing and shout with joy (2 Chronicles 20). They acted as though God told them the truth.

How do I know this paralytic believed? When he heard Jesus say, “Arise,” he acted as though he could and found out he was healed!

I saw this wonderful truth demonstrated in the city auditorium of Tulsa, Oklahoma. I was preaching about healing, and faith was building up in the hearts of the people. As they listened to the Word of God, they began to understand. Suddenly, I challenged them to do what they couldn’t do before—right then—in the Name of Jesus! In the audience was a young girl who had a club foot. She accepted the challenge and attempted to stand normally on her crippled foot. Glory to God for His mercy!
She discovered it was absolutely normal!