"Your faith has made you well," Jesus said to the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years (Luke 8:48. NASB).
Where does faith come from? For a discussion on how power is released through faith, see Chapter 6. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17). Today you are hearing God’s Word on healing. God has sent His Word to you to heal you and build your faith. His Word, that living and sharp Word, has penetrated your soul and spirit, even to the marrow of your bones.
Now is the moment to call on Jesus, the One who took your sickness with the painful, bloody scourges. Jesus said, "Ask and you shall receive… For everyone who asks receives" (Matthew 7:7-8).
There are several ways your healing may come, as God may lead you to use one or more of them. The below Bible prescriptions bring healing in churches and in Spirit-filled prayer groups and Bible studies all the time. The Bible says, "God does not show favoritism" (Acts 10:34), so you can get your healing.
In the church. God has given very specific instructions for healing in the church throughout the centuries.
Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up (James 5:14-15.)
This is God’s prescription for healing in the church. Do not ignore it. If your church does not believe in or literally practice this direct command from God Himself for the benefit of His people, you should lovingly consider finding a church that does. It could mean the difference in sickness or health, and in some cases, life or death. Speaker Emily Dotson says that the church you attend can literally cost you your life!
Gift of healing. By His Holy Spirit, God gives certain people the gift or manifestation of healing, as revealed in 1 Corinthians 12:9. This may include a pastor, an evangelist, or actually, any believer. They can pray for you, and you can receive your healing. I know a layman in a church through whom God often manifests this gift, and God has used him to bring healing to many people.
By any believer. Jesus said to anyone who believes, "They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover" (Mark 16:18, KJV). Any believer, one who believes and acts on God’s Word,can do this for you. The "laying on of hands" is one of the six basic principles of the doctrine of Christ described in Hebrews 6:2 (look it up), a great truth neglected in many churches.
In their book, How to Heal the Sick, Charles and Francis Hunter devote three chapters to the laying on of hands. Charles compares the Holy Spirit's power to that of an electric generator, our hands to that of a light switch, and a sick person to that of a light bulb. If you are a believer, the Holy Spirit lives in you. Jesus said that you can lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. Your hands placed on a sick person with faith in God's Word is like turning on the switch and allowing the power to go through to the sick person and turning on the bulb, so to speak.
We can lay hands on ourselves and get the same results. Jesus did not exclude ourselves. I have seen it work. (In fact, as strange as it seems, I have seen and heard of animals being healed by the prayer of faith. Jesus loves animals too!)
Alone. We draw spiritual strength from the fellowship and prayers of others. However, your healing may also come to you directly, all by yourself, from any of the many healing promises in God's Word and as you meditate upon, believe, and receive them. See the many verses in this chapter. In some ways this is best because it relies on God's Word alone and not on people. In later attacks of doubt by the devil, which always come, we know on what we stand, and we stand.
Confession brings healing. God says:
If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. It is with your mouth that you confess and are saved (Romans 10:10).
As mentioned in Chapter 5, according to Strong's Enhanced Lexicon, the first reference to "saved" above is the Greek word sozo, which means healing and health, as well as salvation from eternal death. It means "to save a suffering one (from perishing), i.e. one suffering from disease, to make well, heal, restore to health." The second use of the word "saved" at the end is the Greek soteria, and means "deliverance, preservation, safety, salvation." It is also translated as "health."
It is important to confess out loud and continue to confess God's healing words, "for they are life to those who find them, Andhealth to all their flesh" (Proverbs 4:22, NKJV).
Never say, "my cancer," or "my arthritis," or whatever, which by such confession you are claiming possession of the disease. Do not refer to them as yours. They are not yours, but something the devil is trying to put on you. Do not accept them. As Kate McVeigh says, "Do not sign for that package!" David Ingles adds that if you sign for that package, "Satan then has the receipt!"
Receive (and keep) your healing! (1) Saturate your spirit with God's Word and promises, (2) ask, and if necessary keep on asking, then by faith, (3) receive, and begin to thank and praise Him.
Therefore I say unto you, What things soeverye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them (Mark 11:24, KJV).
As mentioned earlier, the word "receive" here is the Greek lambano, which means to "take." We do not passively receive it; we actively take it. God holds it out to us in His Word; by faith we grab it and say, "Thank you, Lord. Praise your name." I do that all the time.
The late Norman Grubb, a dear saint and former missionary to Africa, in his classic book, The Law of Faith (Christian Literature Crusade, Fort Washington, PA, 1947, page 116), makes interesting commentary about "asking" vs. "taking":
Faith is the spiritual hand, exactly as, in the natural world, nothing is received and put to use merely by wishing or hoping or by asking for it, but by taking and using it, so in the spiritual. The hand must reach out and take the food or the book. Faith must reach out and take the promises, and the spoken evidence of such taking is the spoken word of faith. Probably the effect in the realm of the Spirit is the same as in the realm of matter. God offers all in His promises. The word of faith is the act of taking and applying His power according to need. What we actually take we actually have, and when the decisive word of faith has been spoken, God in His grace begins to work; and as the stand of faith is persisted in, the answer appears.
That is why the declared word of faith is so vital and should be so stressed. It is the act of taking in the invisible, and we suggest that the serious lack in so much of our prayer life, both public and private, is that it hardly gets beyond the stage of asking. Hardly ever do we hear a person in a public prayer meeting, having asked, take and thank; yet probably it is much more important to have "taking" meetings than to have "asking" meetings. Our constant asking must have the same effect on God as would a child on his parents, who keeps asking for food, when they have set his meal before him and told him to take and eat it.
Radical faith. Biblical faith is not passive. It is active - acting on God's Word. Confess it. Act like it. The devil, and some Christians, will try to talk you out of it. Lying symptoms from the devil may even remain, or come back, but reject everything but God's Word.
Sometimes we must get "violent" in our faith. Jesus said:
From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force (Matthew 11:12, NASB).
This is referring to forceful faith often needed to obtain kingdom benefits. That is because Satan was given certain dominion in the world at Adam's fall. The second Adam, Christ, came to break Satan's power and restore God's authority on earth. This is done through the obedience and faith of Christ's followers. The gates of hell shall not prevail against the church, but God's people must be aggressive in their faith to forcefully seize back what Satan has stolen. Remember: This is spiritual warfare! (See Ephesians 6:10-18.) It may seem physical, but it is a spiritual battle. Satan may not give up easily, even though he was already defeated at the cross.
Important note: I have had many supernatural healings, but I must tell you that some of them did not come quickly but required extended spiritual battle and persistent confession. Your healing may come instantly, but not all come quickly and are progressive, so do not give up. Keep believing and confessing God's Word. Remember what the late Norman Grubb said, quoted above: "When the decisive word of faith has been spoken, God in His grace begins to work; and as the stand of faith is persisted in, the answer appears." Scripture says, "And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast" (1 Peter 5:10).
Speak to that mountain! A sickness can be like a mountain in our lives. If yours is a mountain to you, remember this powerful promise of our Lord:
Have faith in God. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it shall be granted him (Mark 11:22-23).
Jesus said to actually "speak" directly to the mountain in our lives. Speak to it! Take authority over it. Command it! Remember: Romans 4:17 says that God "calls things that are not as though they were." To receive from God, we speak His Word and call healing and health into existence! And do not doubt in your heart. God says it will be granted you!
This is not denial as some cults practice, because we admit to the sickness; we just call on a higher authority and principle to transcend it. We call those things that be not as though they were, not those things that are as though they are not!
Angelic help! As mentioned, God's angels "perform His Word, obeying the voice of His Word" (Psalm 103:20, NASB). When you speak God's Word in faith according to His will, God dispatches angels to make it happen, bringing it "into being" in your circumstances! "For He will give His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways" (Psalm 91:11, NASB). "Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?" (Hebrews 1:14).
Hold on to God and His Word. Your healing will be manifest. It is yours. "By His stripes, you have been healed."
Drive out spirits of infirmity. As mentioned in Chapter 5, spirits (demons) of infirmity can cause physical and emotional sickness in either Christians or non-Christians. Demon activity can be detected by the gift of discernment of spirits, previously described. They can be cast out of a person only by the authority of the name of Jesus Christ, which they must obey. Do not fear demons. Remember, Jesus has all the power, and that same power is operating in you if you are a born-again, Spirit-baptized believer in whom Christ dwells. Simply assert your authority, in Jesus' name. They must go. They have no choice.
Immediate or gradual. Some healings are immediate, but many are gradual. If yours is gradual, hold on. Do not give up. Never say, "Well, it's not working," which cancels your faith. If you say that, you will get what you confess! Or never say, "Well, I guess God is not going to heal me." Your healing will come in His perfect timing. Assume that it begins the very moment you believe for it - today! He wants you to keep believing His Word and His promises. He has not forgotten you and is pleased with your faith.
Again - do not ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever give up! See the story of the woman with the goiter in Appendix 1. Continue to affirm your healing. Continue to confess God's Word about your healing. Be persistent. Never stop. Never give up.