Written by Johnny Israel
johnny@cityroompress.com
We first learned that a measure of faith is given to every person at the time of their new birth. We also learned in order to grow in faith, we must study the Word of God, and then we are to remind the Lord of His Word in Prayer.
Not to long ago one of my friends was sick in the hospital. He had been praying for healing, but his condition turned from bad to worse. Needless to say, he was greatly discouraged. He just could not understand why the Lord did not heal him. Was it his lack of faith, he questioned?
I reminded my friend that God has many alternatives to healing. One of His alternatives is using the skilled hands of surgeons and medicine. Yet he was told by other preachers that real faith only accepted the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit for healing. I responded, “Should your car blow a head casket, would you not take it to a mechanic to be fixed? The God kind of faith is using wisdom in time of our need. It allows God to choose His ways and means in our deliverance. The Lord may opt for a miraculous healing without a doctor, or he may elect to guide the skilled hands of a surgeon. Either way, our faith lies confidently in His Word for healing.
Once I was able to convince my friend that faith is not limited to a single decision, he was able to accept that fact that God honors our faith, yet it is His decision to the method for our deliverance. Faith accepts God’s Word as the final authority for what we believe for, no matter what form of method He prescribes.
Faith is simply accepting God’s Word at face value. What the Word declares, God will do. It is up to us to accept His Word as the final authority of our faith. In the case of my friend’s need for healing, faith does not deny he is sick, rather it denies the right of sickness to remain. The disease is real. Pain is real. We can’t deny these facts. Yet God’s Word is the final authority over the disease and pain.
Faith is a simple process, we accept God at His Word, even in the mist of the most trying times. Then we allow Him to take the necessary action through the power of the Holy to accomplish the end result of our faith. The Holy Spirit is moved by faith, and faith is the key to God’s power. As we worship Him in faith, the Holy Spirit responds in our behalf. Jesus said in the Book of John, “Whatever you ask in my Name, that will I do.” Faith is asking, and then believing what we ask for is ours, and then we accept it as fact, even before we see the results. Faith is a substance of things hoped for. Whatever you are hoping for, faith is the key to receiving it.
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