The Truth About Divine Healing - 3
Today we are continuing our discussion on divine healing. Just as a recap, over the past two weeks we have looked at how God wants everyone healed, we have shown you that healing already belongs to you if you are a Christian, and we have debunked the most prominent arguments against divine healing. Now today we are going to discuss faith.
What I am going to teach you today will change your life. It’s true, many Christian teachings could change your life, but few teachings can impact every area of your life like the subject of faith. In my opinion, the overwhelming majority of Christians do not understand true, Biblical faith. Then there is another large group, and I was in this group for years, that understand Biblical faith but don’t use it correctly or regularly.
Let’s start by pointing out that without faith it is impossible to receive anything from God (James 1:6-7). That needs to sink in so let me say it again, without faith it is impossible to receive anything from God. I hope that quickly shows you how important this is. Faith must be present for you to receive anything from God. For you to receive salvation, you must personally have faith that Jesus died and rose again, and in faith you must declare He is the Lord of your life. In some other areas, such as healing, you can use your faith for another person, or another person can use their faith for you. But make no mistake, faith is an integral requirement to receive from God. Furthermore, the lack of faith is why many people have failed to receive the healing that already belongs to them as the children of God.
Today I’m going to teach you how to appropriately use Biblical faith. We could describe faith in different ways, but we must recognize that faith is the force that brings God’s promises into physical manifestation in your life. Faith is the key to seeing the promises, and faith is the key to your healing. It’s true, people have written long books on faith. We don’t have time to say all that could be said. But as with all my teachings, I hope to teach you a very complex and important idea in a relatively short amount of time. From this understanding of faith, we will then see why God works with people different ways, and how divine healing can come both with and without doctors. This teaching is really going to bless you.
For our time together today please forget what you know about the words “faith” and “believe.” We just need to start fresh with those words for our quickest path to the truth. Let’s learn what the words “faith” and “believe” mean in the Bible.
In the King James translation of the Bible, the word “faith” appears 245 times in the New Testament. 239 of those times the original Greek word translated faith is “pistis.” Understanding “pistis” is the key to walking in true Biblical faith. I need you to replace your old definition of “faith” with your new understanding of “pistis.” And just forgive the linguistics lesson here. We are going to spend a few minutes in some Greek words, and then many of Jesus teachings will be opened to you like never before.
The Greek Word pistis means “persuasion”, “conviction”, or “constancy”. It comes from the verb “peitho” which means to convince, to rely by inward certainty, to assent to evidence or authority. When you have pistis, you are fully persuaded, you are completely convinced. When you have pistis about something, you are absolutely sure about something, down to a core level conviction that you would act on, that you would live by.
Before we move on, consider for a second your salvation. Most of you have pistis for your salvation. There is nothing that could happen, nothing that anyone could tell you, that would shake your belief in your salvation. On the contrary, your pistis, your complete conviction, of your salvation is the guiding light of your life. You live according to your pistis in Jesus Christ, in your eternal home in heaven. You have never seen your ticket to heaven. You have never seen Jesus. There is nothing physical about your righteousness. But you know it’s true. You know that you are saved through Jesus’ death on the cross. You are absolutely convinced that salvation belongs to you. That is pistis for your salvation.
Now let us talk about the word “believe.” The word “believe” is in the King James translation New Testament 124 times. 114 of those times the Greek word used is “pisteuo”. Pisteuo literally means “to have pistis.” So while in the English we have the words faith and belief, in the Greek the Bible is using pistis and pisteuo. When we read Jesus talking about someone believing, the person pisteuo, that person has pistis, the person has faith. Again, when you read Jesus talk about “believe” He is literally saying “have faith.” And He doesn’t mean modern English faith, He means true Biblical faith, pisits.
In the New Testament’s original Greek, all of the other words regarding belief, unbelief, little faith, faithful, etc. are related to “pistis.” The word “unbelief” in the Greek is one of two words depending on the context, either apistia or apeitho, both basically meaning “without faith.” When we read Jesus saying the words “little faith” it’s from the Greek Word oligopistos, which has the same prefix as oligarchy, which means “few”. Oligopistos means, as it is translated, “little faith.”
Here is the problem. In the English language, and probably other languages, we use the words “belief” and “faith” and they are very different from the Biblical word pistis. We say that we “believe” the ball game starts at 3 p.m. We say that we have faith in a person’s honesty or trustworthiness. We refer to a religion as a “faith.” That’s fine for the English language, but those are not pistis. Those are not Biblical faith. At best the English faith and belief would mean “pretty sure” or “really hope.” They are a long way for completely convinced or fully persuaded.
When it comes to your Christian life, and the faith you must have to walk in all of God’s promises, you need to forget the English versions of faith and belief, and you need to replace them with pistis and pisteuo. It’s time that we walk in Biblical faith, in pistis. Now let’s look at a few verses to understand how Biblical faith really works.
This first passage comes to us from Mark, after Jesus had cursed the fig tree that bore no fruit.
(Mark 11:21-24 NLT) “Peter remembered what Jesus had said to the tree on the previous day and exclaimed, “Look, Rabbi! The fig tree You cursed has withered and died!” Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours. ”
First notice here that Jesus says, “Have faith in God.” As you might guess, the word for faith is pistis. Interestingly the word “in” isn’t present in the Greek, so Jesus actually said “have God’s faith” or “have the faith of God.” But we don’t need to get into that right now. We can just focus on the fact that in this passage Jesus is very clearly teaching us how to use pistis.
He says you can tell a mountain to be lifted up and thrown in the sea, and it will happen. He says, however, that you must really believe it will happen. Believe here is the word pisteuo, which we have looked at. Now it makes perfect sense. Jesus says to have faith, or have pistis. Then He says you can command a mountain to be moved, but you must pisteuo, or you must have pistis. He is teaching us how to use pistis. In the English the amazingly close connection between pistis and pisteuo aren’t shown as well in the words “faith” and “believe.”
Jesus is saying that if you have pistis, you can move mountains. To put it another way, pistis is the key to moving any mountain in your life. Lots of Christians have tried to move mountains of many kinds, but many have failed because they didn’t have pisits. No pistis, that mountain goes nowhere.
Jesus then goes on to say that you can pray for anything, and if you believe, or have pistis, that you have received it, it will be yours. First you pray, then you believe you receive, then it shows up. So please understand, Jesus is describing a temporal issue here, the time difference between when we pray or declare something, and when we see that thing show up in the natural realm. This is a major key to Biblical faith. We must believe we receive, we must have faith that it’s done, and then the thing shows up. You must believe it before you can see it. Remember, we walk by faith and not by sight.
Let’s talk about this in some detail. This makes no sense to the natural mind. In the natural world, seeing is believing. We believe what we can see. We have rules and laws based on natural evidence. There is nothing wrong with that when functioning in the natural order, like when you are constructing scientific principles or formulating a medicine. But when we are working in the realm of the supernatural, when we are trying to bring God’s will from the spiritual realm into our natural reality, we need to move beyond these limitations.
You command the mountain to be moved, you have pistis that it’s done, and then it happens. You haven’t seen anything yet, but you are completely convinced that it is already done. You worship, you keep your mind in faith. You stay patient. Then it happens. You pray for something. You don’t see it in the natural, but you have faith that it’s already yours. You have faith that it’s done. Then it shows up.
I know, if you haven’t heard this teaching before this probably sounds crazy. But my friends, this is how it works. This is the master key. This is how Jesus operated. Jesus spoke, stood in faith, and then it manifested. A lack of pistis is most likely the reason every Christian you know has experienced prayers they think weren’t answered. This is the reason people believe God says “no” or “wait” sometimes when we pray. We have been praying, but we haven’t been in faith. We haven’t been in pistis. We have operated according to natural law, that God has answered a prayer when we see the thing show up in the natural realm. But that’s wrong. We need to be completely convinced, full of faith, that God answered the prayer because His Word says He did. We need to believe that it’s done with complete conviction. Then it shows up. That’s how faith works.
My friends, a true revelation of this teaching, which I received when studying these Greek words, is changing my life one prayer at a time.
Let’s look at Hebrews 11:1 in two translations, the New Living Translation and then the Amplified translation which expounds on these ideas.
(Hebrews 11:1 NLT) “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.”
(Hebrews 11:1 AMP) “Now Faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].”
Remember what I told you. Pistis is conviction and persuasion. Biblical faith is being convinced that something is done, something is yours, even when you can’t see it. This verse in Hebrews details this quite clearly. Faith is the confidence. Faith is the assurance. We have conviction of the reality of these things, even though we can’t see them. We perceive them as real fact even though we can’t naturally discern them. We are assured of their reality. That’s faith.
Hope is not faith. Belief is not faith. Really think so is not faith. I am absolutely sure of the reality of something that I cannot physically perceive because I am standing on God’s Word that says it’s a reality, now that’s faith.
I know this sounds wild. The first time I ever heard this teaching was 15 years ago when I was driving between Atlanta and Tampa. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I listened to that section of the tape at least 10 times, rewinding and listening again and again. Somehow, even driving through the night, my spirit picked up that this part of the tape was essential information.
Let me give you a very simple example as an illustration before we go on. I like to run. Often, while I’m running, I experience pains in various parts of my body. I know that’s not uncommon for runners. Just as Jesus told us to speak to the mountain, I speak directly to the pain. “Pain in my knee, I command you in Jesus’ Name to get off of me.” “Knee, I command you in Jesus’ Name to be healed right this second.”
So what happens next? I still feel the pain. I still think about the pain. I can think that it didn’t work, or I can stand in faith that it did work even though I don’t feel it yet. That’s the decision that you must make. I must decide that it worked. Why do I believe that it worked, how can I make such a decision? I can decide that it worked because I am taking my biblical authority over pain just as Jesus taught me to do. I am doing what the Bible says to do, so I am convinced that it worked. I must allow my mind to move on. I decide that it’s done even when it still hurts. Now I am in faith. And sure enough, the pain goes. I don’t mean that I just stop thinking about it. I don’t mean I just tough it out. I mean that the pain physically leaves.
Let me give you another example, perhaps a touch more complicated. The other day my 9 year old daughter was having a hard day for seemingly no reason. I just couldn’t understand it so I felt like it was a spiritual issue – jealousy, anger, and other negative spiritual attacks against her. So I began speaking to those things and commanding them in Jesus’ Name to get off of her. We were about to go in the food store as I prayed this prayer and I probably looked weird to other people in the parking lot, but you just have to get used to that. Anyway, after I prayed God reminded me about pistis and that I needed to just stand in faith for a few minutes that it’s already done. When you start standing in faith, the supernatural power of God, and the angels, go to work for you.
So I stopped talking and we went inside and did our food shopping pretty much in silence. When we got home I sensed, from the Holy Spirit, an opening to speak to her, just to logically speak to her about her attitude and why it didn’t make sense. She didn’t jump into my arms and say I was right and she was sorry. But she did listen. I made my points and she agreed to calm down. The rest of the day went on without a single problem, and we had a great night in the activities that were planned (which were a big reason why I was concerned about her attitude).
For too long we have thought that God answers prayers with “no” or “wait” when really the problem is our lack of faith concerning God’s answer. We are thinking God said no or wait when really He said yes but we didn’t stand in pistis and expect the thing to show up. We weren’t convinced that it was already done. We were hoping it would happen, and that would determine how God answered our prayer.
(1 John 5:14-15 NIV) “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us–whatever we ask–we know that we have what we asked of him.”
That verse is pretty clear my friends. If you ask God for something according to His will, the answer is “yes” every single time. One major problem is that we don’t know God’s will. Hopefully you are listening to my podcast and that is getting cleared up for you. Healing is always God’s will. Financial prosperity is always God’s will. All of God’s Biblical promises for your life are always His will. All we need to do is ask, but we must ask in faith. Again, without faith, nothing will manifest in the physical realm.
(James 1:5-8 KJV) “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that gives to all men liberally, and upbraids not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”
Who is the doubleminded man here, a man that asks God for something but doesn’t have faith that it’s done or that God will provide the wisdom. This awesome passage tells us that wisdom for every situation in our lives is always God’s will. God wants to give you wisdom. So you must ask for it in faith. You ask for wisdom over your situation, and you believe that you immediately receive it. Maybe you can’t perceive it that moment, so give it time. Stand in faith. Believe you have received it. Know that it’s done. Remember, faith is the title deed. You already have it. But if you don’t ask in faith, you won’t get it.
This is how we must begin to operate, especially in the area of divine healing. Just because the healing doesn’t manifest instantly in the physical realm doesn’t mean that it didn’t work or that God doesn’t want you healed. You just need to stand in the place of faith that it is done. Decide that it’s done because you are doing exactly what the Bible said to do and you are praying in perfect alignment with God’s will. That’s how you move your mind over to faith, over to pistis.
As for your body, start moving in the direction of healing. Keep running. Start walking. Raise your arms and worship God. Start working to do what you couldn’t do. You are not “checking” to see if it worked. You are moving in line with your faith. You know that it’s done, so you are moving in that direction and acting accordingly. Let God’s Spirit lead you here. Don’t go crazy. Just move slowly, with wisdom, as God leads you to do.
Let’s take a minute and look at some of Jesus’ statements on faith in connection with divine healing.
Matthew 9:22, when the woman with the issue of blood touched Jesus’ garment and received her healing, “Daughter, be of good comfort, your faith has made you whole.”
Matthew 9:29, when Jesus healed the two blind men, “According to your faith be it unto you.”
Matthew 15:28, when Jesus freed the woman’s demon possessed daughter, “O woman, great is your faith, be it unto you even as you will.”
Mark 10:52, when Jesus healed the blind beggar, “Go your way, your faith has made you whole.”
Luke 7:9, when Jesus healed the centurion’s servant, “I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.”
Luke 17:9, when Jesus healed the leper, “Arise, go your way, your faith has made you whole.”
These verses show the amazing link between faith and healing. Where is your faith? Do you have true, Biblical faith (pistis) for your healing? Faith was involved in every healing miracle in the Bible. Sometimes it was the person’s faith, sometimes it was a parent or friend who had the faith for Jesus to heal someone else, but faith was always involved. They all had pistis, they were all convinced that when Jesus released His healing power into their bodies they would be healed.
But let me point out a key distinction here. These people all believed that Jesus would personally do something for their healing right then and there. They came to Him in faith and believed that His Words, His touch, His power would heal them. We must believe differently. Jesus is not here with us in the natural as He was then. So we must make adjustments.
Jesus no longer walks the earth as He did 2000 years ago but we can still access God’s healing power. Those people had faith in what Jesus would do for them. We must have faith in what Jesus has already done for us. We can also have faith in God’s Word which tells us how to access God’s healing power. I agree, it would be nice to still have Jesus here in some respects. But now He is in all of us, and God’s healing power is everywhere in the body of Christ. Innumerable people around the world can receive healing now through the church.
We will discuss those different ways to receive God’s healing power in detail next week, but I want to point them out now briefly. We can go see a church elder for prayer according to James chapter 5. We could have a fellow Christian lay hands on us according to Mark 16. We could command the sickness, disease or unclean spirits to be removed for ourselves or those in our lives, according to Luke 9. We could also believe God will perfectly give doctors wisdom and the right treatment plan, according to Mark 11 where we can ask for anything and see it done.
All of these methods are fine, IF you use faith with them. Faith is the common requirement to all methods of divine healing. If you have an elder pray for you and then wait to see if it worked, that is not faith. If you go to a healing evangelist to lay hands on you, but then continue doing all the things you previously did for your illness, that is not faith. If you take the doctors treatment plan, but stay anxious and worried about the future test results, that is not faith. Remember, faith is assurance, faith is conviction. After you do what the Bible says to access divine healing, you must stand in faith that it’s done, that it worked, that you’re healed.
Please don’t hear me say that you must have absolute, rock solid, perfect faith to receive divine healing. This is a longer subject, but Jesus knows that we can have both faith and unbelief at the same time. Jesus knows that the devil and natural world will attack our minds with fear and doubt constantly. Thank God, Jesus said that to move a mountain we only need faith as a grain of a mustard seed (Matthew 17:20). So maybe you are struggling with doubt or unbelief, use your faith at the same time. Then command the unbelief to go. Worship God. Pray in the Spirit.
Thoughts of fear and doubt will come. That’s just the world we live in. When my wife was in her healing journey from cancer, it seemed like we couldn’t turn on the television without a character dying from cancer or seeing commercials for the latest cancer drug. One of the worst was the constant barrage of phone calls from the insurance company telling us about the end of life care included in our plan. The natural order is going to war against your faith, against your pistis, against your conviction that what you can’t see is actually yours already. Get ready for this. They will not understand when you say “by Jesus’ stripes I am healed” when the test results don’t show it yet. You must stand in faith despite their unbelief.
Our role is to stay in the place of faith. We pray, we believe that it’s done, and then we stand in faith. That is how to operate in pistis. That is how to see mountains move. That is how to “peitho” – “believe” – “have faith.” Faith is the door opening for the power of God for manifestation in your physical life. Pistis creates an unbreakable bond between your physical reality and the promise of God. Stay in faith. It will manifest.
I like to both worship God and pray in tongues. Both of these activities keep my mind focused on God and away from the natural realm. Both of these activities keep me in the place of faith. If you just heard “pray in tongues” and got turned off or thought I’m a weirdo, don’t worry about it. Most of the church world is deceived about that too. But praying in tongues is a very powerful way to war over the promises of God and do battle in the spiritual realm. I will talk a lot more about that in the future.
Look at Luke 18:8, “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”
Jesus is looking for faith. Jesus is looking for pistis. Pistis is the key. According to your pistis you will receive, and without pistis it is impossible to receive from God. Do you have pistis for your doctor’s treatment plan? OK then, keep praying and stay in faith and listen for God in case you need to do anything differently. Do you have pistis that when the healing evangelist laid hands on you then you were healed? OK then, keep worshipping and thanking God for your healing. Listen to God for any instructions. Take steps in the natural to work with your body – get up, tell your body that it’s healed by Jesus’ stripes. Command in Jesus’ Name the pain to get off your body.
Before we go I will give you a final example of this working in my life, the first time I actually recall deliberately using pistis faith. It was February of 2006 and I was living in Atlanta. My wife’s engagement ring was to arrive at my apartment by UPS and then we were going to Ashville for the weekend where I would propose. When the UPS driver arrived at the apartment complex he told me that he was supposed to have my package but didn’t, and he didn’t know why not. You can imagine how I was freaking out. I made some calls to the sender and UPS, but that didn’t seem to be working. So, having understood faith for maybe only a few months, I decided to use it. I prayed that God would get me that ring before we were supposed to leave that afternoon. I then chose to believe it was done and I began worshipping God and thanking Him that it was already done, that I had the ring even before I could see it. Later that day the sender told me that UPS was coming back. When the driver got there he said he had never made a dedicated, single package run like that before. I don’t know anything about UPS, but that day I got my miracle in about 5 hours. I know that using Biblical faith, pistis, produced a miracle. It was hard to stay convinced that it was done even before the ring showed up, but worship helped keep my mind in the place of faith.
Pistis is a master key to seeing the healing manifest in your body. Pistis is a master key to seeing all of God’s promises manifest in your life. You need to fundamentally change your personal definitions of faith and belief so they line up with the Biblical words pistis and pisteuo. You are praying according to God’s Word, so you know that He hears you and the answer is yes. When your prayer is over, stand convinced that it’s already done. Decide that you are persuaded, that you’ve already got it. Remember what we discussed last week, God designed the entire faith and grace system to make sure that nothing stands in the way of your receiving His promises.
Now that we understand true Biblical faith, we can move on to discussing how to see divine healing manifest in our bodies and in the bodies of others. The methods of divine healing all require faith, that’s why we had to discuss faith first. The absence of Biblical faith is, I believe, the main reason people asking God for healing don’t see it manifest. But now that we understand pistis faith, we can see God’s healing will manifest every time. We are ready to take our place in Jesus’ healing ministry. God bless you, and don’t hesitate to let me know if we can ever pray for you.
What I am going to teach you today will change your life. It’s true, many Christian teachings could change your life, but few teachings can impact every area of your life like the subject of faith. In my opinion, the overwhelming majority of Christians do not understand true, Biblical faith. Then there is another large group, and I was in this group for years, that understand Biblical faith but don’t use it correctly or regularly.
Let’s start by pointing out that without faith it is impossible to receive anything from God (James 1:6-7). That needs to sink in so let me say it again, without faith it is impossible to receive anything from God. I hope that quickly shows you how important this is. Faith must be present for you to receive anything from God. For you to receive salvation, you must personally have faith that Jesus died and rose again, and in faith you must declare He is the Lord of your life. In some other areas, such as healing, you can use your faith for another person, or another person can use their faith for you. But make no mistake, faith is an integral requirement to receive from God. Furthermore, the lack of faith is why many people have failed to receive the healing that already belongs to them as the children of God.
Today I’m going to teach you how to appropriately use Biblical faith. We could describe faith in different ways, but we must recognize that faith is the force that brings God’s promises into physical manifestation in your life. Faith is the key to seeing the promises, and faith is the key to your healing. It’s true, people have written long books on faith. We don’t have time to say all that could be said. But as with all my teachings, I hope to teach you a very complex and important idea in a relatively short amount of time. From this understanding of faith, we will then see why God works with people different ways, and how divine healing can come both with and without doctors. This teaching is really going to bless you.
For our time together today please forget what you know about the words “faith” and “believe.” We just need to start fresh with those words for our quickest path to the truth. Let’s learn what the words “faith” and “believe” mean in the Bible.
In the King James translation of the Bible, the word “faith” appears 245 times in the New Testament. 239 of those times the original Greek word translated faith is “pistis.” Understanding “pistis” is the key to walking in true Biblical faith. I need you to replace your old definition of “faith” with your new understanding of “pistis.” And just forgive the linguistics lesson here. We are going to spend a few minutes in some Greek words, and then many of Jesus teachings will be opened to you like never before.
The Greek Word pistis means “persuasion”, “conviction”, or “constancy”. It comes from the verb “peitho” which means to convince, to rely by inward certainty, to assent to evidence or authority. When you have pistis, you are fully persuaded, you are completely convinced. When you have pistis about something, you are absolutely sure about something, down to a core level conviction that you would act on, that you would live by.
Before we move on, consider for a second your salvation. Most of you have pistis for your salvation. There is nothing that could happen, nothing that anyone could tell you, that would shake your belief in your salvation. On the contrary, your pistis, your complete conviction, of your salvation is the guiding light of your life. You live according to your pistis in Jesus Christ, in your eternal home in heaven. You have never seen your ticket to heaven. You have never seen Jesus. There is nothing physical about your righteousness. But you know it’s true. You know that you are saved through Jesus’ death on the cross. You are absolutely convinced that salvation belongs to you. That is pistis for your salvation.
Now let us talk about the word “believe.” The word “believe” is in the King James translation New Testament 124 times. 114 of those times the Greek word used is “pisteuo”. Pisteuo literally means “to have pistis.” So while in the English we have the words faith and belief, in the Greek the Bible is using pistis and pisteuo. When we read Jesus talking about someone believing, the person pisteuo, that person has pistis, the person has faith. Again, when you read Jesus talk about “believe” He is literally saying “have faith.” And He doesn’t mean modern English faith, He means true Biblical faith, pisits.
In the New Testament’s original Greek, all of the other words regarding belief, unbelief, little faith, faithful, etc. are related to “pistis.” The word “unbelief” in the Greek is one of two words depending on the context, either apistia or apeitho, both basically meaning “without faith.” When we read Jesus saying the words “little faith” it’s from the Greek Word oligopistos, which has the same prefix as oligarchy, which means “few”. Oligopistos means, as it is translated, “little faith.”
Here is the problem. In the English language, and probably other languages, we use the words “belief” and “faith” and they are very different from the Biblical word pistis. We say that we “believe” the ball game starts at 3 p.m. We say that we have faith in a person’s honesty or trustworthiness. We refer to a religion as a “faith.” That’s fine for the English language, but those are not pistis. Those are not Biblical faith. At best the English faith and belief would mean “pretty sure” or “really hope.” They are a long way for completely convinced or fully persuaded.
When it comes to your Christian life, and the faith you must have to walk in all of God’s promises, you need to forget the English versions of faith and belief, and you need to replace them with pistis and pisteuo. It’s time that we walk in Biblical faith, in pistis. Now let’s look at a few verses to understand how Biblical faith really works.
This first passage comes to us from Mark, after Jesus had cursed the fig tree that bore no fruit.
(Mark 11:21-24 NLT) “Peter remembered what Jesus had said to the tree on the previous day and exclaimed, “Look, Rabbi! The fig tree You cursed has withered and died!” Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours. ”
First notice here that Jesus says, “Have faith in God.” As you might guess, the word for faith is pistis. Interestingly the word “in” isn’t present in the Greek, so Jesus actually said “have God’s faith” or “have the faith of God.” But we don’t need to get into that right now. We can just focus on the fact that in this passage Jesus is very clearly teaching us how to use pistis.
He says you can tell a mountain to be lifted up and thrown in the sea, and it will happen. He says, however, that you must really believe it will happen. Believe here is the word pisteuo, which we have looked at. Now it makes perfect sense. Jesus says to have faith, or have pistis. Then He says you can command a mountain to be moved, but you must pisteuo, or you must have pistis. He is teaching us how to use pistis. In the English the amazingly close connection between pistis and pisteuo aren’t shown as well in the words “faith” and “believe.”
Jesus is saying that if you have pistis, you can move mountains. To put it another way, pistis is the key to moving any mountain in your life. Lots of Christians have tried to move mountains of many kinds, but many have failed because they didn’t have pisits. No pistis, that mountain goes nowhere.
Jesus then goes on to say that you can pray for anything, and if you believe, or have pistis, that you have received it, it will be yours. First you pray, then you believe you receive, then it shows up. So please understand, Jesus is describing a temporal issue here, the time difference between when we pray or declare something, and when we see that thing show up in the natural realm. This is a major key to Biblical faith. We must believe we receive, we must have faith that it’s done, and then the thing shows up. You must believe it before you can see it. Remember, we walk by faith and not by sight.
Let’s talk about this in some detail. This makes no sense to the natural mind. In the natural world, seeing is believing. We believe what we can see. We have rules and laws based on natural evidence. There is nothing wrong with that when functioning in the natural order, like when you are constructing scientific principles or formulating a medicine. But when we are working in the realm of the supernatural, when we are trying to bring God’s will from the spiritual realm into our natural reality, we need to move beyond these limitations.
You command the mountain to be moved, you have pistis that it’s done, and then it happens. You haven’t seen anything yet, but you are completely convinced that it is already done. You worship, you keep your mind in faith. You stay patient. Then it happens. You pray for something. You don’t see it in the natural, but you have faith that it’s already yours. You have faith that it’s done. Then it shows up.
I know, if you haven’t heard this teaching before this probably sounds crazy. But my friends, this is how it works. This is the master key. This is how Jesus operated. Jesus spoke, stood in faith, and then it manifested. A lack of pistis is most likely the reason every Christian you know has experienced prayers they think weren’t answered. This is the reason people believe God says “no” or “wait” sometimes when we pray. We have been praying, but we haven’t been in faith. We haven’t been in pistis. We have operated according to natural law, that God has answered a prayer when we see the thing show up in the natural realm. But that’s wrong. We need to be completely convinced, full of faith, that God answered the prayer because His Word says He did. We need to believe that it’s done with complete conviction. Then it shows up. That’s how faith works.
My friends, a true revelation of this teaching, which I received when studying these Greek words, is changing my life one prayer at a time.
Let’s look at Hebrews 11:1 in two translations, the New Living Translation and then the Amplified translation which expounds on these ideas.
(Hebrews 11:1 NLT) “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.”
(Hebrews 11:1 AMP) “Now Faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].”
Remember what I told you. Pistis is conviction and persuasion. Biblical faith is being convinced that something is done, something is yours, even when you can’t see it. This verse in Hebrews details this quite clearly. Faith is the confidence. Faith is the assurance. We have conviction of the reality of these things, even though we can’t see them. We perceive them as real fact even though we can’t naturally discern them. We are assured of their reality. That’s faith.
Hope is not faith. Belief is not faith. Really think so is not faith. I am absolutely sure of the reality of something that I cannot physically perceive because I am standing on God’s Word that says it’s a reality, now that’s faith.
I know this sounds wild. The first time I ever heard this teaching was 15 years ago when I was driving between Atlanta and Tampa. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I listened to that section of the tape at least 10 times, rewinding and listening again and again. Somehow, even driving through the night, my spirit picked up that this part of the tape was essential information.
Let me give you a very simple example as an illustration before we go on. I like to run. Often, while I’m running, I experience pains in various parts of my body. I know that’s not uncommon for runners. Just as Jesus told us to speak to the mountain, I speak directly to the pain. “Pain in my knee, I command you in Jesus’ Name to get off of me.” “Knee, I command you in Jesus’ Name to be healed right this second.”
So what happens next? I still feel the pain. I still think about the pain. I can think that it didn’t work, or I can stand in faith that it did work even though I don’t feel it yet. That’s the decision that you must make. I must decide that it worked. Why do I believe that it worked, how can I make such a decision? I can decide that it worked because I am taking my biblical authority over pain just as Jesus taught me to do. I am doing what the Bible says to do, so I am convinced that it worked. I must allow my mind to move on. I decide that it’s done even when it still hurts. Now I am in faith. And sure enough, the pain goes. I don’t mean that I just stop thinking about it. I don’t mean I just tough it out. I mean that the pain physically leaves.
Let me give you another example, perhaps a touch more complicated. The other day my 9 year old daughter was having a hard day for seemingly no reason. I just couldn’t understand it so I felt like it was a spiritual issue – jealousy, anger, and other negative spiritual attacks against her. So I began speaking to those things and commanding them in Jesus’ Name to get off of her. We were about to go in the food store as I prayed this prayer and I probably looked weird to other people in the parking lot, but you just have to get used to that. Anyway, after I prayed God reminded me about pistis and that I needed to just stand in faith for a few minutes that it’s already done. When you start standing in faith, the supernatural power of God, and the angels, go to work for you.
So I stopped talking and we went inside and did our food shopping pretty much in silence. When we got home I sensed, from the Holy Spirit, an opening to speak to her, just to logically speak to her about her attitude and why it didn’t make sense. She didn’t jump into my arms and say I was right and she was sorry. But she did listen. I made my points and she agreed to calm down. The rest of the day went on without a single problem, and we had a great night in the activities that were planned (which were a big reason why I was concerned about her attitude).
For too long we have thought that God answers prayers with “no” or “wait” when really the problem is our lack of faith concerning God’s answer. We are thinking God said no or wait when really He said yes but we didn’t stand in pistis and expect the thing to show up. We weren’t convinced that it was already done. We were hoping it would happen, and that would determine how God answered our prayer.
(1 John 5:14-15 NIV) “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us–whatever we ask–we know that we have what we asked of him.”
That verse is pretty clear my friends. If you ask God for something according to His will, the answer is “yes” every single time. One major problem is that we don’t know God’s will. Hopefully you are listening to my podcast and that is getting cleared up for you. Healing is always God’s will. Financial prosperity is always God’s will. All of God’s Biblical promises for your life are always His will. All we need to do is ask, but we must ask in faith. Again, without faith, nothing will manifest in the physical realm.
(James 1:5-8 KJV) “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that gives to all men liberally, and upbraids not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”
Who is the doubleminded man here, a man that asks God for something but doesn’t have faith that it’s done or that God will provide the wisdom. This awesome passage tells us that wisdom for every situation in our lives is always God’s will. God wants to give you wisdom. So you must ask for it in faith. You ask for wisdom over your situation, and you believe that you immediately receive it. Maybe you can’t perceive it that moment, so give it time. Stand in faith. Believe you have received it. Know that it’s done. Remember, faith is the title deed. You already have it. But if you don’t ask in faith, you won’t get it.
This is how we must begin to operate, especially in the area of divine healing. Just because the healing doesn’t manifest instantly in the physical realm doesn’t mean that it didn’t work or that God doesn’t want you healed. You just need to stand in the place of faith that it is done. Decide that it’s done because you are doing exactly what the Bible said to do and you are praying in perfect alignment with God’s will. That’s how you move your mind over to faith, over to pistis.
As for your body, start moving in the direction of healing. Keep running. Start walking. Raise your arms and worship God. Start working to do what you couldn’t do. You are not “checking” to see if it worked. You are moving in line with your faith. You know that it’s done, so you are moving in that direction and acting accordingly. Let God’s Spirit lead you here. Don’t go crazy. Just move slowly, with wisdom, as God leads you to do.
Let’s take a minute and look at some of Jesus’ statements on faith in connection with divine healing.
Matthew 9:22, when the woman with the issue of blood touched Jesus’ garment and received her healing, “Daughter, be of good comfort, your faith has made you whole.”
Matthew 9:29, when Jesus healed the two blind men, “According to your faith be it unto you.”
Matthew 15:28, when Jesus freed the woman’s demon possessed daughter, “O woman, great is your faith, be it unto you even as you will.”
Mark 10:52, when Jesus healed the blind beggar, “Go your way, your faith has made you whole.”
Luke 7:9, when Jesus healed the centurion’s servant, “I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.”
Luke 17:9, when Jesus healed the leper, “Arise, go your way, your faith has made you whole.”
These verses show the amazing link between faith and healing. Where is your faith? Do you have true, Biblical faith (pistis) for your healing? Faith was involved in every healing miracle in the Bible. Sometimes it was the person’s faith, sometimes it was a parent or friend who had the faith for Jesus to heal someone else, but faith was always involved. They all had pistis, they were all convinced that when Jesus released His healing power into their bodies they would be healed.
But let me point out a key distinction here. These people all believed that Jesus would personally do something for their healing right then and there. They came to Him in faith and believed that His Words, His touch, His power would heal them. We must believe differently. Jesus is not here with us in the natural as He was then. So we must make adjustments.
Jesus no longer walks the earth as He did 2000 years ago but we can still access God’s healing power. Those people had faith in what Jesus would do for them. We must have faith in what Jesus has already done for us. We can also have faith in God’s Word which tells us how to access God’s healing power. I agree, it would be nice to still have Jesus here in some respects. But now He is in all of us, and God’s healing power is everywhere in the body of Christ. Innumerable people around the world can receive healing now through the church.
We will discuss those different ways to receive God’s healing power in detail next week, but I want to point them out now briefly. We can go see a church elder for prayer according to James chapter 5. We could have a fellow Christian lay hands on us according to Mark 16. We could command the sickness, disease or unclean spirits to be removed for ourselves or those in our lives, according to Luke 9. We could also believe God will perfectly give doctors wisdom and the right treatment plan, according to Mark 11 where we can ask for anything and see it done.
All of these methods are fine, IF you use faith with them. Faith is the common requirement to all methods of divine healing. If you have an elder pray for you and then wait to see if it worked, that is not faith. If you go to a healing evangelist to lay hands on you, but then continue doing all the things you previously did for your illness, that is not faith. If you take the doctors treatment plan, but stay anxious and worried about the future test results, that is not faith. Remember, faith is assurance, faith is conviction. After you do what the Bible says to access divine healing, you must stand in faith that it’s done, that it worked, that you’re healed.
Please don’t hear me say that you must have absolute, rock solid, perfect faith to receive divine healing. This is a longer subject, but Jesus knows that we can have both faith and unbelief at the same time. Jesus knows that the devil and natural world will attack our minds with fear and doubt constantly. Thank God, Jesus said that to move a mountain we only need faith as a grain of a mustard seed (Matthew 17:20). So maybe you are struggling with doubt or unbelief, use your faith at the same time. Then command the unbelief to go. Worship God. Pray in the Spirit.
Thoughts of fear and doubt will come. That’s just the world we live in. When my wife was in her healing journey from cancer, it seemed like we couldn’t turn on the television without a character dying from cancer or seeing commercials for the latest cancer drug. One of the worst was the constant barrage of phone calls from the insurance company telling us about the end of life care included in our plan. The natural order is going to war against your faith, against your pistis, against your conviction that what you can’t see is actually yours already. Get ready for this. They will not understand when you say “by Jesus’ stripes I am healed” when the test results don’t show it yet. You must stand in faith despite their unbelief.
Our role is to stay in the place of faith. We pray, we believe that it’s done, and then we stand in faith. That is how to operate in pistis. That is how to see mountains move. That is how to “peitho” – “believe” – “have faith.” Faith is the door opening for the power of God for manifestation in your physical life. Pistis creates an unbreakable bond between your physical reality and the promise of God. Stay in faith. It will manifest.
I like to both worship God and pray in tongues. Both of these activities keep my mind focused on God and away from the natural realm. Both of these activities keep me in the place of faith. If you just heard “pray in tongues” and got turned off or thought I’m a weirdo, don’t worry about it. Most of the church world is deceived about that too. But praying in tongues is a very powerful way to war over the promises of God and do battle in the spiritual realm. I will talk a lot more about that in the future.
Look at Luke 18:8, “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”
Jesus is looking for faith. Jesus is looking for pistis. Pistis is the key. According to your pistis you will receive, and without pistis it is impossible to receive from God. Do you have pistis for your doctor’s treatment plan? OK then, keep praying and stay in faith and listen for God in case you need to do anything differently. Do you have pistis that when the healing evangelist laid hands on you then you were healed? OK then, keep worshipping and thanking God for your healing. Listen to God for any instructions. Take steps in the natural to work with your body – get up, tell your body that it’s healed by Jesus’ stripes. Command in Jesus’ Name the pain to get off your body.
Before we go I will give you a final example of this working in my life, the first time I actually recall deliberately using pistis faith. It was February of 2006 and I was living in Atlanta. My wife’s engagement ring was to arrive at my apartment by UPS and then we were going to Ashville for the weekend where I would propose. When the UPS driver arrived at the apartment complex he told me that he was supposed to have my package but didn’t, and he didn’t know why not. You can imagine how I was freaking out. I made some calls to the sender and UPS, but that didn’t seem to be working. So, having understood faith for maybe only a few months, I decided to use it. I prayed that God would get me that ring before we were supposed to leave that afternoon. I then chose to believe it was done and I began worshipping God and thanking Him that it was already done, that I had the ring even before I could see it. Later that day the sender told me that UPS was coming back. When the driver got there he said he had never made a dedicated, single package run like that before. I don’t know anything about UPS, but that day I got my miracle in about 5 hours. I know that using Biblical faith, pistis, produced a miracle. It was hard to stay convinced that it was done even before the ring showed up, but worship helped keep my mind in the place of faith.
Pistis is a master key to seeing the healing manifest in your body. Pistis is a master key to seeing all of God’s promises manifest in your life. You need to fundamentally change your personal definitions of faith and belief so they line up with the Biblical words pistis and pisteuo. You are praying according to God’s Word, so you know that He hears you and the answer is yes. When your prayer is over, stand convinced that it’s already done. Decide that you are persuaded, that you’ve already got it. Remember what we discussed last week, God designed the entire faith and grace system to make sure that nothing stands in the way of your receiving His promises.
Now that we understand true Biblical faith, we can move on to discussing how to see divine healing manifest in our bodies and in the bodies of others. The methods of divine healing all require faith, that’s why we had to discuss faith first. The absence of Biblical faith is, I believe, the main reason people asking God for healing don’t see it manifest. But now that we understand pistis faith, we can see God’s healing will manifest every time. We are ready to take our place in Jesus’ healing ministry. God bless you, and don’t hesitate to let me know if we can ever pray for you.
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