Very often, God will do miracles to show people Who He is and that he loves them very much.
(Matthew 15:29-31 NLT) (29) Jesus returned to the Sea of Galilee and climbed a hill and sat down. (30) A vast crowd brought to Him people who were lame, blind, crippled, those who couldn’t speak, and many others. They laid them before Jesus, and He healed them all. (31) The crowd was amazed! Those who hadn’t been able to speak were talking, the crippled were made well, the lame were walking, and the blind could see again! And they praised the God of Israel.
(Acts 5:14-16 NKJV) (14) And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, (15) so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them. (16) Also a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed.
(Acts 8:5-8 NKJV) (5) Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. (6) And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. (7) For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. (8) And there was great joy in that city.
The danger is this: if you look at Jesus’ ministry and what happened in the Book of Acts and think that unless healing happens that way, then it is not healing, you are wrong.
It is just as much healing whether it takes time or not.
(2 Kings 20:1-11 NLT) (1) About that time Hezekiah became deathly ill, and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to visit him. He gave the king this message: “This is what the LORD says: Set your affairs in order, for you are going to die. You will not recover from this illness.” (2) When Hezekiah heard this, he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, (3) “Remember, O LORD, how I have always been faithful to You and have served You single-mindedly, always doing what pleases You.” Then he broke down and wept bitterly. (4) But before Isaiah had left the middle courtyard, this message came to him from the LORD: (5) “Go back to Hezekiah, the leader of My people. Tell him, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of your ancestor David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will heal you, and three days from now you will get out of bed and go to the Temple of the LORD. (6) I will add fifteen years to your life, and I will rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for My own honor and for the sake of My servant David.'” (7) Then Isaiah said, “Make an ointment from figs.” So Hezekiah’s servants spread the ointment over the boil, and Hezekiah recovered! (8) Meanwhile, Hezekiah had said to Isaiah, “What sign will the LORD give to prove that He will heal me and that I will go to the Temple of the LORD three days from now?” (9) Isaiah replied, “This is the sign from the LORD to prove that He will do as He promised. Would you like the shadow on the sundial to go forward ten steps or backward ten steps? ” (10) “The shadow always moves forward,” Hezekiah replied, “so that would be easy. Make it go ten steps backward instead.” (11) So Isaiah the prophet asked the LORD to do this, and He caused the shadow to move ten steps backward on the sundial of Ahaz!
This shows us that there was a gradual healing in the word “recovered.”
John 4:46-52 NLT (46) As He traveled through Galilee, He came to Cana, where He had turned the water into wine. There was a government official in nearby Capernaum whose son was very sick. (47) When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged Jesus to come to Capernaum to heal his son, who was about to die. (48) Jesus asked, “Will you never believe in Me unless you see miraculous signs and wonders?” (49) The official pleaded, “Lord, please come now before my little boy dies.” (50) Then Jesus told him, “Go back home. Your son will live!” And the man believed what Jesus said and started home. (51) While the man was on his way, some of his servants met him with the news that his son was alive and well. (52) He asked them when the boy had begun to get better, and they replied, “Yesterday afternoon at one o’clock his fever suddenly disappeared!”
Mark 16:15-18 NKJV (15) And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. (16) He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. (17) And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; (18) they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
When we are all the time looking for the instantaneous miracle, we miss God’s wonderful way of healing called “recovery.”
Receiving from God by the process of faith is better because you learn how to obtain and maintain from God what He has said in His Word.
1 Timothy 6:12 NKJV (12) Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
Once the Children of Israel got into the Promised Land and began to occupy and live there and it begins to produce for them, someone was always trying to take it from them. These people were coming and trying to take from them the “stuff” God had given to them.
Canaan is a picture of our Christian life. There will be a fight to lay hold of what God has given to you.
You receive what God has for you by faith but there is a fight to lay hold of it and to keep it.
In the fight of faith, we need to learn to “hold on” to what is ours.
Lay hold means to grab it and hold on tight; to get a hold of in order to obtain and possess
You have to have a position in your mind if you are going to win.
Very often, we see ourselves as people who don’t have something and we are trying to get it. The fight of faith is just the opposite.
Healing is already yours and the enemy would like to keep you from receiving it or take from you what is already yours.
It is like having the title to something. The title is not the thing but if you hold the title, you have the thing. If you hold on to the title, sooner or later the thing will show up.
The devil comes to my mind and tells me I am not going to get it. He actually should be saying, “You have it and I want to take it…”
The way that he postures himself is to try and convince you that you do not have it.
How do we begin this process of fighting the good fight?
- You must know what the will of God is in our situation.
Someone said, “Faith (in God) begins where the will of God is known.”
How do we know what God’s will is? From His Word.
God’s Word is the clearest way to find out God’s will for your life.
God will never “say” something and “will” something else.
We have to learn the Word in the area that we are standing in faith for because it enhances our positioning for the fight.
1 John 5:14-15 NIV (14) This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. (15) And if we know that he hears us–whatever we ask–we know that we have what we asked of him.
John 11:39-41 NKJV (39) Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.” (40) Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” (41) Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.
Jesus did not thank the Father for raising Lazarus from the dead.
Jesus thanked the Father that He had already heard Him. That is the key.
- The confidence that you have the answer is not found in the answer itself but in the fact that God heard you.
The answer is in knowing that God has heard you because that is when the answer is received.
Your position is that you have prayed, you believe God heard you, you believe He answered you, and you believe that you HAVE the answer before you ever see it in the natural.
John 11:42-44 NKJV (42) And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” (43) Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” (44) And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.”
Jesus’ rejoicing and His gratitude was not in the actual raising of Lazarus, but rather at the moment He had prayed because He knew His Father had heard Him.
- We receive by faith when we connect with God not when the answer shows up.
- Speak the Word of God!
- Give praise to God as though you already possess the answer.
(Romans 4:20-21 NKJV)(20) He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, (21) and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.