THE KEY TO HEALING IS FAITH

Sermon

The Key to Healing is Faith

Talking on faith a few weeks ago Ps John Hardy quoted Smith Wigglesworth. Who said

“ I believe that there is only one way to all the treasures of God, and that is the way of faith. By faith and faith alone do we enter into a knowledge of the attributes and become partakers of the beatitudes, and participate in the glories of our ascended Lord, All His promises are yea and Amen to them that believe.”

As believers we will walk along many paths and experience many victories and what seems at times like many defeats.

In all of this we can either lean on our own understanding or we can trust that God wants the best for us and the people we love.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

To trust in anyone or anything you have to have faith.

When we pray for people, we do it having faith that they are healed but we don’t always see them healed?

This has puzzled me for years as I’m sure it has many of you.

So, there must be something happening here that we don’t grasp or understand yet.

So together let’s take a look at what I believe will give us a new perspective on the faith journey of physical healing for us and those we have the privilege of praying for.

Galatians 2:20 says “we have the faith of Jesus Christ”

God has given each of us a measure of faith, but one thing to remember is this, Never attempt to run off someone else’s faith, God has given us our own faith, the faith of Jesus in-fact!

 If we are relying on the faith of other’s we are not using our own.

Faith is of the heart, not the head, what you believe in your heart is what matters, because that is how you will receive from God.

It must be according to your faith, not that of someone you perceive has faith, Jesus responded to two blind men who came to Him for healing: Mathew 9:28-30 “Do you believe that I am able to do this? They said to Him, ‘Yes Lord. ‘ Then He touched their eyes, saying, ‘According to your faith let it be to you.’ And their eyes were opened.”

Proverbs 4: 20-22 “My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart: for they are life to those who finds them And health to all their flesh.”

If we want life, we need to be speaking life and that life only comes from the word of God. Jesus said John 6:33 “The words that I have spoken to you they are Spirit, and they are life.”

Healing Keys

1. Expect to be healed

If we are going to experience healing in our lives, we need to have a positive expectation, a hope that we are going to be healed. Hope is the positive, intense anticipation of good.

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

When I pray for someone, I expect that the person I’m praying for is expecting to be healed. I’m expecting it , I can run off My faith but what I can’t know is the faith that the other person has.

Have they come from a positive environment or a negative environment? have they come wishing for a miracle? Wishing won’t get them healed anymore than standing in a carport will make them a car.

That is why we need to have faith, Your view of life, of God and of yourself carries a subconscious or conscious expectation. That expectation will either suffocate faith or allow it to grow and prosper. This is really important, You cannot believe for healing if you are simultaneously expecting to live a life of failure, sickness, and defeat. Faith cannot flow from the soil of negative expectations. That is why the thoughts of our hearts are so important.

Proverbs 23:7 “as we think in our hearts so are we.”

We cannot believe for healing if we live a life of negativity expecting to be sick, talking failure and defeat and then come to church and proclaim “I’m believing God for my healing! That sort of faith is false, and it won’t get you healed. It will get you into doubting God and that is not a good place to be because it opens a door for the enemy to attack you.

Come for prayer with a hunger to be healed, fervent desire, a faith that says God said it, I, believe it I claim that healing, its mine, see yourself healed. Then faith will rise up in you to receive the healing you crave.

2. Jesus took it for us.

Isaiah 53:4-5 “ Surely, he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

Know that the enemy will do all that he can to get you to receive a lie. Its not a new trick it’s a very old one, He used it in the garden of Eden.

When you have had a diagnosis from the doctor it may be a fact that they have found something, but that disease or sickness is a lie from the devil. That sickness or disease that you’re experiencing, It’s not yours it never has been, and God did not give it to you. Faith is not denying the facts, but rather exalting the truth.

If you are not certain that the blood of Jesus and His sacrifice on the Cross has provided for the promise you are claiming or the prayer you are praying, you will lack confidence in your prayer life. You will become vulnerable to the enemy’s lies that produce doubt and unbelief in your heart and mind. To do this you need to establish in your heart once and for all that Jesus paid the price for sickness and disease for everyone and that includes you.

3. Surround yourself with faith builders.

When you’re standing on a scripture that God has given you for your healing the last thing you want are faith killers.

Unbelieving believers who possess an eternal negative perspective and feel it is their duty to inform you of all the negative possibilities of your situation.

Jesus certainly knew the importance of this. On one occasion he put people out of a room when, instead of believing for healing, they were happier with the ministry of wailing.”

For some, negative confession becomes second nature. We need to guard our heart from these people, if need be, distance yourself from them, if they can’t talk positive they don’t deserve to be in your presence.

Ephesians 4:29 “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that It may impart grace to the hearer.

Be around people of faith, people that talk words of faith encouragement and hope, especially during times of crisis, people who will stand beside you and pray with you and for your Healing.

4. Beware of counter attacks.

When you have received healing be on your guard from counter attacks. More battles are lost in counter attacks than any other kind of battle, We are more vulnerable immediately following a great victory. 1 Peter 5:8. “Stay alert! Watch out, for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”

Mathew 12:43-45. “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says , ‘I will return to my house from which I came. And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first, So shall it be with this wicked generation.

The enemy will be back, just be ready for him, at the very least he will attack your mind with thoughts of doubt and defeat. He is after the Word. Don’t let the Word go. When he comes to steal it stick him with it!

He is the one who is in doubt and is already defeated- not you.

Be prepared to respond to every counterattack by saying what Jesus said: “It is written and then quote the scripture you’re standing on.

When you are ready for these counterattacks and you run the enemy off with the Word, it puts fear in him about trying to attack you again. He will think twice about coming to your house to try to steal from you.

Jesus told us the kind of house where the devil can regain control. It is a house that is swept clean, but empty. It is a house that is not filled with the Word and the Spirit of God. That explains why so many people who are healed by gifts of the Spirit lose their healing. It is because they have not taken time after receiving their healing to receive instruction in the Word regarding faith and healing. We must take responsibility to fill ourselves up with the Word of God each day so the healing God gave us cannot be stolen by the enemy later through counterattack.

I have experienced first-hand the enemy stealing healing from my body. Way back in 2006 when we had been in Sun City Christian centre about a year. I received a Miracle healing from the Lord for my back. I had been a tyre fitter on and off for around 25 years and the physical toll of that job had almost crippled me. Back then I was young and stupid and very careless with the stuff that I lifted and how I lifted it.

I was invincible in my eyes, and I could lift anything or so I thought, pride will do that to you, you know!

But the damage had been done to my back and I had at many times been laid up for weeks in bed or moving around the house on my hands and knees in excruciating pain. The pain would come and go with regularity 4 or 5 times a year. Then I went to church one Sunday morning. We had a visiting minister from Africa that day. I can’t remember his name, but I do remember very clearly that he was a tall man dressed in a long goldy coloured cloak from his neck to the ground and he had a tall head dress of the same material.

During the service, the Pastor did an alter call for anyone who wanted healing. When I heard him say that, I thought, that’s what I want! so I went up. I stood in a long line at the front, and he started to pray for people. I didn’t know what was going to happen as I hadn’t seen anyone healed before, but I did know one thing I wanted to be healed. He walked up to me put his hand on my head and the next thing I knew I was laying on the ground, when I got up after several minutes, I was a bit wobbly but all the pain in my back was gone completely. God had healed me through this visiting minister. I kept my healing for about a year and then slowly, it started coming back and it ended up worse than it was before. I didn’t know what to do! I had no idea that it was up to me to keep my healing!

I wasn’t in my Bible much and I certainly didn’t understand the Authority that I had been given by Jesus.

So, the enemy had a great time bringing me back to my knees and once again I was in extreme pain and defeated. So, there I stayed for 14 months, this time on Tramadol and Morphine, Walking Stick as well, and I thought my life is over! I couldn’t work, what use am I to anybody, I went into bouts of depression. The doctors wanted to fuse my back together with steel rods.

But God had not finished with me yet and through a series of events I was led I believe by God to a man that had healing hands and within 9 days I was walking again with no pain, he physically released the muscles in my back. From that I ended up owning my own business becoming a Muscle therapy Practitioner for 7 years, helping a lot of people out of pain Physically. But I had a burning desire in my heart to pray for people and see them healed. God changed my heart during that time.

   That season ended with God leading me into ministry, He wanted me to be in a place where it was all about Him and not about me. Pride was a big part of my life back then, but God has changed me for good now.

  I am here today to testify that God can turn a tragedy into a testimony. He gets all the Glory. If you trust God, He will do amazing things with your life.

5. Hear and be Healed

Romans 10:17 “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God”

Luke 5:15 “Great multitudes came to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities.”

Luke 6:17 “A great multitude of people came to hear Him and be healed of their diseases.”

John 5:24 “I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.”

If we are Hearing the Word of God, and proclaiming the word of God over our lives, we position ourselves to receive healing.

6. What about when healing doesn’t manifest? I believe the following explanation gives us some of the answers why.

Ps Greg MOHR in his book “Your healing Door”

Writes and I Quote “I believe healing always comes when an individual asks for it but does not always manifest. And there is a myriad of reasons why this is true.

It certainly isn’t because God is fickle—that He gives healing and then takes it back. In some instances, healing doesn’t manifest because of a lack of knowledge about healing by the individual asking for it. In other instances, people just get so tired of the fight against sickness and disease and give up. Others open the door to sickness and disease through unrepentant sin in their lives. Still others get close to death, have a vision of Jesus or heaven, and decide there is nothing on this earth to hold them or to compare to the glory that is waiting for them.”

Sometimes life’s circumstances don’t line up with our Theology but in all of this we need to trust God.

God did not make you or your loved one sick, so don’t blame Him, Focus your anger, and blame at the enemy by serving God with all your heart and by ministering life and health to others.

God loves you more than you could ever imagine, and he wants you well.

Romans 8:38-39 NKJV “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

7. Keep praying for the sick

No matter what keep praying for the sick.

We have all been touched by tragedy and the loss of loved ones. But we need to keep praying for healing.

I’ve prayed for family members that later passed away from the sickness but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop believing for healing.

 I’ve seen that much proof of God’s healing power, amazing physical, and Spiritual miracles right in front of my face and through me to others that I cannot deny that God is real and that He heals us and Loves us.

Jesus heals our broken corrupted bodies, but his ultimate goal is that not one would perish but that all would come to repentance that we would spend eternity with Him in heaven.

2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

One third of Jesus’ ministry was healing people. If we are to represent Him in Ministry, we must keep reaching out and praying for people to be healed, to give them hope that they can be well. Because they can!

If you have never prayed for someone to be healed, can I encourage you to give it a go, what have you got to lose! Don’t leave it up to the Pastors and leaders, we have all been given the gift of healing, you can reach people I may never meet, it’s a simple step to ask can I pray for you? (95% of people will say yes). Remember its not up to you if the person you’re praying for is healed, your faith is to pray, their faith is to believe and receive. Do this and you will see amazing miracles, If I can, you can too.

You might have worked it out that God doesn’t use perfect people, he uses flawed people who know they can’t do this by themselves, that they need Jesus. Have I perfected it yet? No, but I do Believe.

Mark 16:17-18 TPT “ And these miracle signs will accompany those who believe: They will drive out demons in the power of my name. They will speak in tongues. They will be supernaturally protected from snakes and from drinking anything poisonous. And they will lay hands on the sick and heal them.”

Sometimes things happen that we will never understand this side of heaven. But know this, God loves you dearly and He wants you well.

If you need healing in your body today, please be bold, raise your hand and other believers are going to come around you and pray, place your hand on the area you want healed.

Let’s pray together. Father There may be sickness or disease in my body, the physical evidence may be there, and I may have had a diagnosis from the doctor. But it is written Philippians 2:9-11 “Therefor God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name, which is above every name, That at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow. Of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father,”

So, in the name of Jesus, I command sickness and disease to leave my body now and never return. I will not bow down or be pulled down by you, I will not back down, sit down or shut up because you are a lie from satan, I curse you and command you to go and pain you can go too. I claim my healing today by faith In Jesus name. Amen

If you’re hear today or watching this recording, I want you to know that God loves you more than you can ever imagine. He sent his Son Jesus to take the consequences of your sin and set you free, restoring the relationship between you and God for eternity.

This is a free gift that He wants you to have, it’s called Salvation and it is available to anyone who wants it.

If you want healing in your body today, God want’s that for you too.

If you want salvation today were all going to say this prayer together church.

Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, today I turn from that sin. I confess with my mouth you Lord Jesus, and I believe in my heart that God raised You from the dead. I declare that I am saved according to your Word. That says “ For with the heart one believes unto righteousness , and with the mouth confession is made unto Salvation. I am saved I am Free in Jesus Name. Amen

If you just prayed that prayer for the first time or maybe you have just rededicated yourself to Jesus, come and see me or our prayer team. We would love to pray for you.

If anyone would like prayer for any reason, please come forward and our prayer team would love to pray for you.