Victory in Your Healing Journey

         As many of you know I have spoken a lot about divine healing, and I’ve also written a book called Understanding and Receiving Divine Healing, which is available on Amazon.  If you are going through any kind of medical situation, or if you have any friends or loved ones who are, I highly encourage you to read it.  In the book I go through all the basics on divine healing and show you how any Christian can receive God’s healing power for any medical problem. 

Today I will talk about three great revelations I’ve received and how they relate to divine healing.  What I mean by revelation is that I’m going to look at three passages from the Bible that have become very clear and very important to me.  These are three passages where I truly had a moment where God’s Holy Spirit opened my understanding to them. 

Furthermore, I think you can take these three passages and use them to both obtain your healing and exit your healing journey.  I know that’s a strong statement, but by the end of this teaching I think you’ll see what I mean.  Nobody wants to be on a healing journey for years.  God doesn’t want you on a healing journey for years.  But how do you get out, especially when the doctors tell you that you need to keep coming in for check-ups or to keep taking the medicine?

Today I’m also going to spend some time discussing the Bible’s instantaneous healings and why we don’t see that as much today.  I think this will help you understand your own healing journey and how to see victory in healing or really any faith journey.

Some of you may have been on a long healing journey.  I know that can be hard as you live with the appointments, medicines and other complications a healing journey brings to your life.  It can also be very hard to study the Bible about healing for a long time and still not receive your full manifestation.  Perhaps for our time together today just try to relax a little bit. Listen as if you’ve never really focused on healing before.  I want you to hear this teaching fresh, and don’t hear it through everything else you’ve already learned, or through any frustration you may be feeling. 

I’m not going to spend time today showing you that healing is always God’s will.  I hope you know that by now but if not please go back and listen to my other teachings on healing. Regardless of what anyone thinks, God’s will is healing all the time, every time.  God’s will for you, my friend, is healing and an end to your healing journey.

However, we must remember that while God wants healing for all of us, God’s healing will is not automatic.  And the devil doesn’t want you out of your healing journey.  It’s crucial that you understand this.  God is not in Heaven with lightening bolts of healing power that He just shoots down at people as He wills.  In fact, whether you get healed is not up to God.  I know that statement might sound crazy, but think of it this way, whether the lights are turned on in your house right now is not up to the power company.  The power company has supplied the power.  It’s up to you to flip the switch.  God has turned on the power plant in Heaven, and His healing power is completely available to every Christian.  Jesus paid the bill for you to have a lifetime supply of unlimited healing power.  But you must flip the switch in your body.  You must take specific actions to see God’s healing power flow to your need.

            The first of my three great revelations, or moments of wonderful clarity with God’s Word, that I will discuss today, concerns the healing of the woman with the issue of blood.  Meditating on this miracle unlocked my understanding of divine healing.  This miracle helps us understand that God’s healing power is completely available to us and we just need to take it.

             (Luke 8:43-48 NIV)

And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. "Who touched me?" Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, "Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you." But Jesus said, "Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me." Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace."

             Jesus did not take deliberate action to heal this woman.  Jesus did not decide to heal her.  In fact, Jesus didn’t do anything to heal her.  She simply walked up to the power switch and turned it on.  To put it another way, she walked up to the power source and plugged herself in.  She realized that healing power was inside of Jesus, and she only needed to touch Him and she would be healed.  Many people touched Jesus, but at this moment only she was healed.  That’s because she was the only one who touched Him in faith for healing.  When she touched Him in faith, when she turned on the healing power switch for herself, God’s healing power immediately flowed into her body.

            God’s healing power still has the same type of availability.  You just have to take it.  It’s right there for you, no matter what your medical problem.  You can just go and take His healing power for yourself.  That understanding alone totally revolutionizes your approach to divine healing.  Please cement this into your mind, God’s healing power is available, you must take it.

However, Jesus is not walking around on the earth anymore.  You cannot go and touch His physical body.  But, if you are a Christian, according to Romans 8:11, God’s healing power resides in your body already.  The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is in your body.  Furthermore, you also have Jesus’ authority over sickness and disease (look at Luke 9:1 and Mark 13:34).  You just need to direct this power and authority to your physical need.  My friends, the healing power of God, enough power to heal every medical need you could ever have, is already in you and you have the legal right to use it on demand. 

The Bible shows us a number of ways that we can flip the switch so that healing power will flow into our bodies.  You need to use one of them.  Sure, the doctor’s treatments may work for you, and if they do that’s wonderful, praise God.  Your body’s internal healing mechanisms may also work for you, and if they do that’s wonderful, praise God.  But if you want to use God’s healing power, you need to do it according to the Bible’s teachings.

Mark 16:18 tells us that Christians can lay hands on the sick and they will recover.  Mark 16:17 tells us that Christians can cast out devils.  As we see in the Gospels, sometimes a medical problem is caused by an unclean spirit in a person’s body.  James 5:14-15 tells us that a sick person can have the elders of the church pray for him, and the prayer of faith will save the sick. We can use our words and rebuke a sickness or even release healing power. Two examples are when Jesus rebuked the fever afflicting Peter’s mother-in-law, or when Jesus told the man with the withered hand to stretch out his hand for healing.  Also, we can go see someone with a spiritual gift described in 1 Corinthians 12 such as the Gifts of Healing or the Working of Miracles, and God will work through them to deliver healing to our bodies.  We can also take the healing promises from God’s Word and stand in faith on those promises and receive them as our inheritance.  I talk about that a lot in my book on healing, and I do think it should be combined with the laying on of hands or releasing God’s power through words.  All of these are ways that we can see God’s healing power flow into our physical bodies. 

Today’s next revelation concerns faith that our prayers are answered, or faith that God’s healing power works immediately.  After you use a Biblical method to tap into God’s healing power, you need to have faith that it worked.  Let me state this very clearly - when you use one of the mechanisms to receive God’s healing power, you must believe that it worked immediately, even if you don’t see any physical signs that it worked yet. 

When we correctly tap into God’s healing power, it flows into our bodies immediately.  Our prayers are answered immediately.  I know, most of us pray and then we don’t see anything in the natural immediately, but our prayers, our declarations of faith, our Biblical connections with God’s power, they all actually work immediately.  I received this understanding from 1 John 5:14-15, which I will now read.

 (1 John 5:14-15 NKJV)

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, 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 the petitions that we have asked of Him.

 When you pray for anything according to God’s will, the answer is yes, and God releases the answer instantly.  I’m going to say that again because it is so radical and revolutionary to how we typically think.  When you pray for anything according to God’s will, the answer is yes, and God releases the answer instantly.  Even if you don’t see it yet, God answered your prayer, and as far as God is concerned it’s done.  We just need to be patient.

How many times does Jesus tell us to pray and that what we ask for will be done.  I count at least 10.  Matthew 7:11, Matthew 18:19, Matthew 21:22, Mark 11:24, John 14:13, John 14:14, John 15:7, John 15:16, John 16:23, John 16:24.   But how many times have you prayed for something and not seen the answer to your prayer?  I’m sure, like me, you have prayed and not seen the answer many times.  Is God’s Word not true, was Jesus wrong about our prayers?

The short answer is that God’s Word is true and Jesus was not wrong.  God has been answering many of our prayers, but we haven’t had the correct faith and patience to see the answer show up in the natural realm. 

One important part of the problem is that we are often asking God for things which are not His will, but we don’t need to engage in that analysis today.  We already know that healing is God’s will all the time, every time.  So when I’m praying for healing, or when I’m laying hands on the sick, or when I’m casting out a demon, or when I’m using my words to direct God’s healing power, or when I’m standing on a healing promise from the Bible, or when I’m doing anything else that the Bible shows me will direct God’s healing power, I know that I’m in line with God’s will.  And when I am praying and acting in line with God’s will, then according to 1 John 5:14-15 I know it worked, that God has answered my prayer, that God’s power is flowing, that the demon has left, that I have my petition, so on and so forth, every single time, and I have it immediately.

You must forever separate two things in your mind.  You must separate God’s answering your prayer from the physical manifestation of that answer.  Let me say it another way, regardless of what you see in the natural realm, you must believe that God has answered your prayer immediately.  The Bible tells us that our prayers in line with God’s will are answered every single time, so that’s what we must believe.  I talked about this a bit last episode especially in the context of Mark 11.  When you make a prayer or declaration of faith, you need to believe that it worked instantly.  Just because you don’t see the answer instantly doesn’t mean God didn’t answer your prayer.  Manifestation is a separate issue.

God answered my prayer immediately, the healing power started flowing immediately, and I must remain in faith that it’s done even while I’m waiting to see it in the natural.  God’s answer to my prayer and the physical manifestation of that answer are two separate issues.  But knowing that God’s part is done, that God’s yes answer has been given immediately and that God’s healing power is flowing now, greatly helps me stay in faith until I see the manifestation.

Now we are going to spend a few minutes talking about instantaneous miracles and why we don’t see them as often in the world today, at least not in our American world. 

With very few exceptions, the healing miracles shown in the Bible are virtually all instantaneous.  Several of Jesus’ healing miracles involve Him casting out an unclean spirit.  Once the spirit left, the person immediately received the manifestation of their healing.  Most of Jesus’ other healings involve Him using a spiritual gift, such as the working of miracles or the gifts of healing.  Typically, when one is healed through a spiritual gift the healing is immediate.  We should also recognize that many of the healings performed by the apostles were also through a spiritual gift.  My friends, that is a very different spiritual operation from you standing in faith to inherit one of God’s promises.  The first key to understanding why the Bible’s healings were immediate is understanding that those were mostly healings through a Spiritual gift or removing a demon.  Many healings today are God’s Word working in your body over time.

Furthermore, we should recognize that Jesus had perfect, doubtless faith.  In addition to His perfect faith, He constantly walked in complete authority over the unclean spirits around Him.  If He encountered an unclean spirit, He recognized it and He dealt with it.  Jesus’ doubtless faith and perfect spiritual discernment undoubtedly helped tremendously, and this is another reason why He typically saw such quick results in His healing ministry.   

Many of the people who came to Jesus and the apostles for healing also had strong faith.  Honestly, I think it would be easy to have faith when you see a bunch of other people get healed.  Many of the people who got healed either had seen others get healed first or had heard of others being healed.  So when many of those people received a Word or a touch for healing, there was strong faith on both sides.  Jesus had faith and they had faith and therefore they got quick results. 

Remember that doubt and unbelief will hinder the flow of God’s power.  Jesus didn’t have any doubt or unbelief, and many who came to Him for healing had very little or Jesus dealt with it.  But even Jesus was limited when the people had doubt or unbelief, and we see this limitation in Mark 6 when Jesus went to Nazareth. 

One time I was working in the prayer line at a healing meeting.  This woman came up to me for prayer.  She had fallen in a broken chair at work and had seriously injured her shoulder.  So I laid hands on her and prayed.  I then told her to move her arm and do what she couldn’t do before.  But she wouldn’t.  She even joked about suing the church if it made her arm worse.  She had so little faith that the prayer worked she wouldn’t even try to move her arm.  All of the healing power of heaven could have flowed into her body, but her unbelief immediately blocked it from doing anything for her.  That woman might be perfectly well today, and I hope she is.  I know healing power flowed from my hands into her body, because the Bible says it would, but she had no faith that it worked.  If right at that moment God had spoken from heaven and told her, “according to your faith be it unto you,” she wouldn’t have been better at all.

The presence of doubt and unbelief today is a big problem and a big reason we don’t see many instantaneous miracles, at least not in everyday America.  Also, many churches don’t even give people a chance to receive prayer from the elders or the laying on of hands.  They don’t believe in divine healing anymore, at least not as they should.  Even fewer churches have someone with an actual spiritual gift for miracles or healing.  It’s very, very rare to see these gifts presented such that people have an opportunity to receive.  I’m not saying these gifts don’t exist, but you would need to go seek it out.

Let me just say this to those of you who want to go find someone with a ministry gift or to have someone lay hands on you.  Before you go, get your faith right.  Go in faith that it’s going to work.  Go knowing that when the man or woman of God lays hands on you, the power of God will flow into your body and you will be healed.  Study the Word for healing before you go.  Meditate the Word.  Confess the Word.  Pray in the Spirit.  Then stay in faith that it worked even if you don’t feel anything immediately.  I did that once years ago.  I got really built up in my faith and I went to Rodney Howard-Browne to get prayer for my back.  He prayed for me.  I didn’t get my healing instantly, but after a couple of minutes of staying in the faith my back started spasming and the pain was gone for good.  It was a true miracle.

I’m sure there are other reasons that we don’t see as many instantaneous miracles in the world today, but they certainly haven’t disappeared.  In other countries where the people are more open spiritually they don’t have the same doubts.  There are still some Christians with true spiritual gifts operating and seeing miracles.  But don’t let any of this bother you or discourage you in your healing journey.  God’s will is still healing for you and you don’t need any of those other people.  Furthermore, if you get healing on your own through the principles we discuss today, it will produce a very strong and faith-filled healing, and you can use the same principles for divine healing as often as you need to. 

Your focus must remain on the fact that healing is God’s will for you and that if you stay in faith you will have your manifestation.  Remember, according to our passage from 1 John, the moment you released God’s healing power according to the Bible’s directions your prayer was answered and the healing power started working in your body.  Remember to separate God’s answer from the manifestation.  God has given you your answer.  Now you must be patient and stay in faith for the manifestation.

I have come to believe that one of the most significant enemies to divine healing, in this day and age, is people expecting it to work immediately, and then giving up their faith if it doesn’t.  I am going to say that again because it’s so important, and understanding this will greatly, greatly help you.  I have come to believe that one of the most significant enemies to divine healing, in this day and age, is people expecting it to work immediately, and then giving up their faith if it doesn’t.

I simply can’t overstate the importance of what I’m about to share.  This applies to healing and every other area of your life.  This will revolutionize your prayer life and this will dramatically increase your success in prayer.  This will change your life.

Today’s next revelation comes from the parable of the sower.  You are probably familiar with the parable of the sower which appears in Matthew 13, Mark 4, and Luke 8.  You’ve probably heard it during a sermon about money or giving.  While it’s true that Biblical finances do work according to the principles of seedtime and harvest, the parable of the sower is not about money.  The parable of the sower is about how to see the Word of God produce in our lives. We will now review this parable and I’m going to look at several verses from Matthew, Mark and Luke for this discussion.

             (Mark 4:3-8 NKJV)

Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away. And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.

           (Luke 8:11 NKJV)

Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

             (Matthew 13:19 NKJV)

When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside.

            (Luke 8:15 NKJV)

But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.

             Now let’s put these verses together and gain a better understanding of the parable of the sower, and let’s understand how this applies to our healing and to receiving anything from God. 

            The seed is the Word of God and the soil is your heart.  When you sow the Word of God into your heart, it will be attacked a number of ways so that it won’t produce.  But if you believe the Word, and if you protect it, and if you have patience, the Word of God will bear fruit in your life.  Fundamentally, the parable of the sower is about how we can take God’s Word and use it to produce God’s will in our natural lives.

            God’s Word shows us God’s will, both His written Word and His spoken Word that He speaks directly to us.  We must hear God’s Word and allow it into our hearts.  This includes both His Word that shows us His will, and His Word that shows us how to get it.  For example, His Word promises us both healing and that we can lay hands on the sick and see them recover.  His Word promises us both financial prosperity and that we can sow bountifully and reap bountifully.  Again, His Word shows us His will and how to get it.

            Suppose I have a medical problem with my leg.  I know that God’s will is healing, so I lay hands on my leg and say “Leg, be healed in Jesus’ Name.”  “Any unclean spirits afflicting my body, I take authority over you in Jesus’ Name and I command you away from my body, never to return.”  “Healing power of God, in Jesus’ Name I send you to my leg and to restore my health and heal my wounds.”  “By Jesus’ stripes I was healed.” 

            Everything I just said and did totally lines up with God’s will and God’s Word.  Just like the woman with the issue of blood, I have correctly tapped into God’s healing power.  According to 1 John 5:14-15, God has heard me and I have what I prayed.  God answered my prayer instantly.  The healing power started flowing instantly.  Furthermore, I have sowed God’s Word of healing into my heart.

            Now that I have sown God’s Word of healing into my heart, according to Luke 8:15 I must keep it and bear fruit with patience.  The devil is going to try to steal the Word.  Perhaps I can’t feel the healing yet or I still feel a symptom.  Perhaps I’m worried about a recurrence or some symptom coming back.  Perhaps the doctors tell me I need some sort of medicine.  There are rocks and birds and weeds and a scorching sun and all sorts of things that want to steal this Word or one way or another keep it from producing the fruit of healing in my life.

            God’s Word is designed to produce God’s will in your life.  There are many enemies to that process and many things that will stop that from happening, but you can’t let them.

What’s going to happen if this Word gets stolen out of my heart?  What’s going to happen if this Word gets choked or withers?  Even if I received an instantaneous miracle and I’m totally healed, what’s going to happen if this seed gets destroyed in my heart.  The Word won’t bear fruit in my life, and even what growth I may have experienced will be destroyed.

            Luke 8:15 tells us we must keep the Word and be patient.  That is exactly like Hebrews 6:12 which tells us we inherit the promises through faith and patience.  You keep the Word by believing it and protecting it from all doubts and unbelief.  You keep the Word by keeping your faith in the Word intact and rock solid, regardless of what would attack your faith or tell you it didn’t work.  Again, listen to my last teaching about defeating doubt.  You must protect the Word and be patient.  But, if you will keep the Word with doubtless faith, and if you will be patient, then you will have your manifestation every single time. 

We must, must, must remember that even though God has said yes to our prayers and released our answers, it might take some time before the answers show up in the natural realm.  Andrew Wommack looks at the book of Daniel to illustrate this point.  Twice God answered Daniel’s prayers with an angelic visitation, and both times God answered Daniel’s prayers immediately.  But the first time the angel showed up in about three minutes, and the second time it took three weeks.  The second time the angel shows up he explains that a demonic spirit hindered his arrival.

            There can be different reasons for the delay in the natural realm, but you must accept that a delay in the natural realm does not mean your prayer wasn’t answered.  Just stay in faith and be patient.  It can take time for the seed of God’s Word to produce healing in your natural body.  Seeds take time to produce in the natural and they take time to produce in the spiritual. 

            While these times of patience can be difficult, we have things we should do.  Take authority over any unclean spirits that might be resisting you. Worship.  Pray for any other people that might be involved.  That last one may not apply so much to healing, but to many other areas of life.  Remember that hearing God’s Word causes faith to increase and that praying in the spirit builds you up on your most holy faith.  Remember also that prayer and fasting remove doubt and unbelief. 

            Also, don’t do anything that will work against the healing power of God in your body.  It’s going to be tough to lose weight if you eat fast food every day.  Similarly, God told me I can only expect so much for my back if I’m going to sit in a chair without breaks for eight hours each day. 

            You know that you have correctly tapped into the healing power of God, you know that you have your answer, that God’s healing power is flowing into your body, and you know that you have planted God’s Word of healing into your heart.  Now you are standing in faith and patience to inherit this healing promise. 

            In the same way a seed grows over time, your healing will grow over time.  The Word of God sown into your heart starts to produce in the natural realm.  First the symptoms aren’t so bad.  Then maybe you have more energy.  Then your blood work starts to look better.  Then your scans look better.  Whatever the situation might be, it’s ok if the healing manifests over time.  It’s not that God’ wants you in a long healing journey, but the Word is working in your heart and in your body to produce God’s will. 

There might be various reasons it’s taking time, but stay in faith and remember to stay close to God so He can tell you anything you need to do in the natural for any reason, including to overcome anything resisting you.  Also, confessing the Word, worshipping, praying in the spirit and fasting will also protect and water the seed for your quicker manifestation.  That’s true for any prayer journey, not just healing.

            We should also resist the devil according to James 4:7.  This is a form of faith’s corresponding action discussed in James Chapter 2.  Start endeavoring to do what you couldn’t do before.  Command your body to get up and get moving.  Command the pain out of your body.  Go for a walk, then a longer walk, then a longer walk.  If the devil wants to keep you in bed, then get out of bed and do something productive.  If the devil wants to keep you from church, then go to church.  Whatever you feel the sickness or pain or symptom preventing you from doing, fight against it with God’s Word, prayer and worship.  Physically resist.

            If the doctors want you to get scans, then get scans in faith.  It doesn’t matter if the scans don’t show you are totally healed yet, you know that you are healed by God’s Word and God’s power is working in your body.  Stay in faith, and over time the scans will look better and better. 

Keep confessing and standing until you really feel that peace and rest that Hebrews 4 talks about.  Those who have believed do enter rest.  That’s when you know that you know that you know that you’ve got it.

            Today we have covered three of my most important understandings from God’s Word, and we have focused on them in the context of healing.  To recap, (1) you can tap God’s healing power at any time, (2) God’s healing power is released the moment that you do so, and (3) God’s healing Word is a seed that will grow up and produce healing in your body over time.  These three revelations, or areas of Biblical clarity, help me tremendously in healing and in every other area of my life.  They help me have doubtless faith and they help me have peace and rest because I know that God’s Word is working mightily in my heart and I will have God’s will in my life.

            My friends, healing is God’s will for you.  I hope today’s teaching has helped you as it has helped me.  If you ever want to talk about any of this or pray together, just let me know.  God bless you and we’ll talk again soon.