Your Healing Door 4a482s

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Your Healing Door

ISBN 978-0-615-20202-0

eISBN 978-1-4835421-0-2

Printed in the United States of America Copyright ©2008 by Greg Mohr

Healing Door Ministries

P.O. Box 7702 – Woodland Park, Co. 80863 Email: [email protected] www.yourhealingdoor.com

Cover Design By: Jeremiah Mohr

Foreword

A man is far more important than any book he could ever write. Greg Mohr is first of all a man of God who is hungry and thirsty for more of God. He is a faithful husband, father, and pastor. Greg Mohr is a student of the Word. He is also a gifted, anointed preacher and teacher of the Word. I have been honored to speak into his life over the years. He is a man of authority, who is under authority.

We are a blessed nation, but we are also a nation that desperately needs to read, believe, and, in faith, speak God’s health and healing power in our lives.

This is a “must read” book. It gives a fresh approach to the subject of divine healing. I have already been blessed by its contents. I know your faith will surge as you read this blessed book, written by this blessed minister of the Gospel.

Dr. Bob Nichols, Senior Pastor Calvary Cathedral International Fort Worth, Texas

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my wife, Janice, who has served faithfully by my side for 36 years, and to my four children; Brian, Michael, Michelle, and Jeremiah. I have the greatest family on earth!

Janice, you are my closest counselor and best friend. Thank you, Honey, for your constant and for championing every cause God has led us to commit to together. I am a blessed man to have you with me as my covenant partner in this lifelong walk together. Your love and commitment to Jesus, to me and our family, and your unswerving faith in God’s Word is the primary reason for this book.

Brian, Michael, Michelle, and Jeremiah, I am so proud of each of you. The greatest honor of my life is the way that each of you has determined to follow the Lord, to serve others, and to raise your children with the same values we have tried to model for you. You are doing it so much better than we did. Your lives give great pleasure to the Lord, and to your mom and me. You guys are amazing!

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Judy Williams, Ronald C. Jordan, Jack Skidmore, and Jeff and Natalie Alling for their assistance in editing this manuscript. Thanks also to Cammy Walters for her many hours of research on several of the quotes and for recording some of the interviews used in this book.

My personal assistant, Kathy Gregg, deserves special recognition for the skill, dedication, and time she invested in coordinating all the details involved in publishing this book as well as helping me manage my time and obligations.

A special thanks to Stuart and Irene Bell for their contribution to the text and for encouraging me to write this book. I also want to thank Dr. Garnet Pike and John Chasteen for their encouragement and counsel on writing this book as the thesis for my master’s degree at Southwestern Christian University Graduate School.

Thanks to Alan and Debbie Moore for the use of their home while writing the book. I also appreciate the great work my son, Jeremiah Mohr, did on the design for the cover of the book. Finally, a huge thank you belongs to The River Church leadership team and family for allowing me to invest significant chunks of time needed to complete this book.

Greg Mohr Husband, Father, Grandfather, Pastor, Author

Table of Contents

Introduction

1 According to Your Faith

2 Jesus Took It for Us

3 It’s Your Move

4 You Are Loved

5 Examine Your Heart

6 See Yourself Well

7 Aggressive Faith

8 Exalt the Truth over the Facts

9 Surround Yourself with Faith Builders

10 Hear and Be Healed

11 Dealing with Counterattacks

12 If Healing Does Not Manifest

Bibliography

Introduction

In July 1977, doctors removed a cancerous growth from my neck. The primary surgeon was certain more surgery would be required, including the removal of my thyroid and possibly my voice box, depending on how far the cancer had spread. Obviously, the diagnosis struck fear in my wife, Janice, and me and caused us to seek the Lord earnestly. While we were in prayer, the Lord gave us specific instructions to have three individuals pray for me so that I would be healed. After following these instructions, I went to a hospital in Houston, Texas, for tests to determine how far the cancer had spread and how extensive my surgery would be. After three days of testing, the doctors could find no trace of cancer in my body. Needless to say, they were very puzzled.

The Lord had healed me supernaturally, and I have been cancer free ever since. Praise God!

One year later, our 15-month-old son, Michael, was afflicted with a juvenile muscular/arthritic condition. He was unable to crawl or turn his head. Most of his ts were swollen twice their normal size, leaving him in tremendous pain. The doctors gave us no hope that Michael would ever improve. Instead, they said if this condition continued to progress our son would never walk and probably would not live past 10 years of age. This time, as we sought the Lord, He directed us to saturate ourselves in His Word and to speak the Word daily over Michael. After three months, Michael crawled. Three months later, he walked for the first time!

Michael’s healing was more of a process than mine had been the year before. God’s direction to my wife and me was different for both situations, but the results were the same.

Over the years, we have seen similar results in many lives that have been attacked by some form of sickness or disease. In each case, as the opportunity permitted, we encouraged individuals to take time to seek the Lord and follow His instruction for them. And scores have found healing—just as Janice and I did for myself and our young son.

God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34). He does the same for anyone who will trust Him and believe His Word.

The ion and purpose behind the writing of this book are two-fold. First, it is to encourage faith and restore hope in the hearts and minds of people—Christian and non-Christian alike—who are shackled with the bonds of chronic illness or have received a terminal sentence from medical science. Second, it is to restore confidence in average Christians to function in healing ministry. Jesus, the Head of the church, has commissioned His body to lay hands on the sick (Mark 16:18). Yet, many have allowed themselves to become “sidelined” from this important ministry because of some personal failure to either receive or impart healing in the past.

John Osteen makes the following assertion about healing ministry in the church: “Ministering to the sick is not optional It is your responsibility to bring healing to the sick.” 1

John G. Lake makes a similar statement: “The apostles were called to go into all the world and make believers in every section. The signs were to follow the believers, not the apostles only.” 2

I believe the Lord is calling every member of His church from the sidelines and back onto the field of ministry—including the ministry of healing. Let me give you some Scriptural basis for this. Matthew 4:23, New King James Version,

says,

And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.

According to this Scripture, Jesus’ ministry included teaching, preaching, and healing. Clearly, one third of His ministry involved healing the sick. If that is true of Jesus’ ministry, then it is also true of the ministry of His church—you and me—today.

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also, and greater works than these will he do…” (John 14:12, NKJV).

“So Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you…’” (John 20:21, NKJV).

These are powerful verses. If they are true, then you and I can do the same works that Jesus did, because He sent us to do the same things. What did He do? He preached, taught, and healed the sick. Where does that leave you and me? It leaves us with the responsibility to get involved in healing ministry, like it or not.

Healing is not just a ministry for the specialists. It’s not just relegated to the crusade or television evangelists. It is also not limited to the medical profession through their skilled hands and care. Thank God for healing evangelists and for doctors and nurses. We need them. Many of us would not be alive today without them. But what about others like you and me, who have been assigned to be His healing agents in the earth? How many more people would be well today if all

three of these means of healing worked together: evangelists with special healing ministry, doctors and nurses who have been trained in medical science, and of the body of Christ laying hands on the sick as Jesus commanded?

First Corinthians 12:9 tells us there are gifts of healings (plural) available to the church. The goal of this book is to share practical wisdom keys my wife and I, and others we know, have discovered that have opened the doors of healing for people. Many Christians generally believe in healing, but they do not understand how to activate it or walk it out in their own lives on a consistent basis. In the following chapters, we will identify 12 wisdom keys and describe how they can be applied to unlock healing doors for you and those you minister to.

You don’t have to activate every key to receive or impart healing. One wisdom key can open up a healing door for you! Get ready to unlock your healing door and take action on the knowledge you receive in the following chapters.

1 John Osteen. How to Minister Healing to the Sick. (Houston, Tx.: John Osteen Publications, 1981), 8 2 John G. Lake. John G. Lake: His Life, His Sermons, His Boldness of Faith. (Ft. Worth, Tx.: Kenneth Copeland Publications, 1994), 376

Chapter 1: According to Your Faith

Never attempt to act on the faith of others. That is a recipe for failure and spiritual disaster. The first wisdom key for healing is that it has to be real and genuine with you. 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 in the following way:

“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” (Matthew 9:28–30).

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.

Over the years I have watched a number of people try to mimic what they saw someone else do according to that person’s faith, and they ended up shipwrecked in their own faith walk. In one instance, an acquaintance in the church we attended gave his car away because he had heard someone else testify that God led him to give his car away and now he had a brand new car. Unfortunately, our acquaintance did not end up with a new car. In fact, he ended up “bumming” rides from friends until he could save up enough money for another car. The Bible encourages us to have unfeigned faith (1 Timothy 1:5) or, in other words, sincere and genuine faith. Someone else’s belief that has not yet become real or genuine in our own heart is not real Bible faith to us. And God does not expect us to act on it. Kenneth Hagin Jr. says it this way in his book, Faith Worketh by Love:

Faith that is not founded on a good foundation always will act in presumption.

Faith founded on the Word of God always will act in line with God’s Word and will not do anything foolish. 3

When I first went to the doctor to be examined for the growth in my neck, he responded with a four letter expletive. His reaction certainly didn’t build my faith or confidence for a positive outcome. He immediately scheduled an appointment for me with the head surgeon at one of the area hospitals. After examining me, the surgeon scheduled me to have the growth removed a month later. During that month one of my mentors, a man of faith whom I respected, encouraged me to “just believe God” rather than have the surgery. Though he did not actually say that I would not be “in faith” if I had the surgery, it was strongly implied. After talking with him, I attempted to “muster up” the faith to trust God for healing without having the surgery. He had faith for me not to have surgery, but I just did not have peace about following his advice. It was a struggle, because I respected him. However, I had my family to consider. I refused to allow either my pride or guilt to influence my decision. I had a strong peace and confidence about following through with the surgery, so that is what I did.

What happened next proved to be very interesting. After the surgery to remove the growth, the surgeon met with me in my hospital room. He told me he was 99 percent sure the growth was cancerous and that I would need to have more tests and further surgery. When he left my room, I immediately got on my knees and began to seek the Lord. God’s presence overwhelmed me and brought great peace and confidence to me. God assured me that I was healed and gave me specific instructions to follow that would manifest my healing. Even though the surgeon gave me a negative report, I now had faith that I would recover.

Some people, out of ignorance, do presumptuous things in the name of faith that are not faith at all just because they heard their favorite radio or television preacher share how God led them in a particular way.

That gives God and faith a bad reputation. It is very important that whatever we

do in the name of faith is based on God’s Word and is real to us before we act on it.

Years ago, there was a young couple in the church we pastored in South Texas who desperately needed a new car. Their car smoked and leaked oil, the transmission was slipping, and it looked like a wreck—inside and out. They had a 12-year-old son and a child on the way. The husband came to me and wanted me to agree in prayer with him for a new car, which I was glad to do. I was just about to pray with him when he stopped me. He said he heard a famous radio minister say he could have whatever he said, so he told me that his confession was for a brand new, cherry apple red corvette. He wanted me to agree with him to receive that particular car. I told him that was an ignorant, selfish prayer that God would not hear, much less answer. (I was not too tactful in those days.) I also told him it wasn’t sensible for him to exercise faith for a two-seat automobile when his was a family of four. Faith works in the context of love, not selfishness or pride. Not long after that, he left the church because I would not agree with him that he could have faith for that car.

When it comes to the area of having faith for healing, it does not violate our faith to go to doctors and take medicine. I have actually heard some people condemn others and tell them they were not in faith if they used medical science. As far as I can see, God and medical science are working together for the same end result: restoring health to the sick. They are not in opposition to each other. Some men, like me, are hesitant to go to the doctor unless they are close to dying. (Shhh! Don’t let the secret out. That is pride). However, the Lord has dealt strongly with me in the past to go to the doctor, take the medicine, or have the surgery—and that was faith for me at the time. The issue isn’t whether or not to have surgery or to take medication, but it is an issue of obedience to God and living a healthy life.

During a ministers’ conference at Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, in 1987, John Osteen made the following comments:

Some people have asked me about my doctrine on faith and healing since I chose to have open heart surgery last year, when several years earlier I was led by the Holy Ghost not to have the same surgery. Well, I want everyone to understand clearly, my doctrine is living! Hallelujah! 4

The result of John Osteen’s obeying God and applying the faith God gave him to have that surgery was several more years of a productive life and ministry. For me it was health and living cancer-free to this day. God will do the same for you as you are faithful to act on what you have faith for, not on someone else’s faith.

When it comes to ministering healing to others, do not attribute your faith to them. Instead, take time to help people identify where they are spiritually and what they believe. Encourage people in their faith. Unless a special gift of healing manifests by the Spirit, those you are ministering to will not receive healing according to your faith, but according to their own faith. The apostle Paul perceived the lame man at Lystra had faith to be healed (Acts 14:9). You can actually see and recognize faith in others. There is a spiritual hunger, expectation and tenacity in people who are in faith. Be careful not to push your faith off on those who are not yet demonstrating the same faith level as you for their healing. Take time to find out where they are spiritually and what they want God to do for them. Then agree with them in prayer where you can.

God always meets people where they are. To become Christlike in your ministry, you must meet people where they are and attempt to take them from the known to the unknown.

Don’t allow yourself to get frustrated because people don’t “get it” right away. Be patient with them. Share the Word with them as well as personal testimonies about healing and God’s faithfulness in your life. Do not pressure people to agree with you or to act on your faith.

Whatever you do, do not make them feel stupid, unspiritual, or faithless if they are not ready to act in faith you desire them to.

Author Ken Blue writes in his book, Authority to Heal, “Pop theologies clobber the sheep for not having enough faith.” 5

We want to make sure our ministry doesn’t become a “pop theology” that hurts people. Instead, be faithful to give people the Word and allow faith to rise in their hearts. Once faith comes, nothing can stop them from their appointment with healing.

3 Kenneth Hagin Jr. Faith Worketh by Love. (Tulsa, Ok.: Rhema Bible Church Publications, 1979), 28 4 John Osteen. Lakewood Minister’s Conference. Lakewood Church. Houston, Tx. 10 June 1987 5 Ken Blue. Authority to Heal (Madison, WI: InterVarsity Press, 1987), 97

Chapter 2: Jesus Took it For Us

This key is essential to receiving anything from God, especially healing. 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. What’s more, you will become vulnerable to the enemy’s lies that produce doubt and unbelief in your heart and mind. In his book, Healing, a Forever Settled Subject, Kenneth Hagin Jr. describes it like this: “You cannot build a ‘healing building’ without first establishing the foundation that healing is forever settled.” 6

Look at the central atonement age in the Bible in Isaiah 53:4–5:

Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

This age describes Jesus’ future suffering on the Cross which was vicarious suffering—what He accomplished on our behalf. When we speak of the atonement of Jesus, we are talking about what He paid and suffered for us. In this age, Isaiah prophesied what Jesus’ sacrifice would accomplish for us. It covered our sins, our iniquities (sin patterns and generational sins), mental anguish, and physical ills (sicknesses and pains). It wasn’t just spiritual healing that Isaiah was speaking of here. In fact, Matthew’s Gospel declares that Jesus fulfilled this Scripture in Isaiah by healing physically sick people.

When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it

might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses” (Matthew 8:16–17, NKJV).

Jack Hayford III describes the atonement’s complete package for covering the needs in every area of man’s life in his notes in “Kingdom Dynamics”, taken from The Spirit Filled Life Bible:

In Christ’s suffering and death, He bore more than our sins. The penalty for sin is death, but Christ did not need to suffer as He did to provide atonement. This chapter tells us why He suffered. He suffered to bear our griefs and sorrows and He suffered for our peace and healing (v. 5). Surely atonement for sin is our greatest need; yet God, sending His Son to suffer and die, provided more than an escape from judgment (from sin): He provided for abundant life beginning today. 7

Jesus could have died as an innocent sacrifice without all the additional suffering. The Hebrew words for “griefs” and “sorrows” that Isaiah 53:4 says He bore for us literally mean “sicknesses” and “pains.” Thank God that He bore our sins on the cross. But the fullness of the atonement included His bearing our sicknesses and pains as well!

Once we get a revelation of Jesus’ bearing our sicknesses as well as our sins through His atonement for us on the cross, receiving healing becomes no more difficult than receiving forgiveness of sins. Kenneth E. Hagin describes his understanding of this vital wisdom key for receiving healing in his book, How to Keep Your Healing. He writes:

After I read in my Bible that Himself took my infirmities and bare my sicknesses, I decided there wasn’t any need for both Him and me to bear them, and I’ve been free ever since! 8

Jesus amplified this principle in Luke’s Gospel. Four men brought a paralyzed friend to Jesus to be healed. When they arrived at the house where Jesus was, they could not get to Him because of the crowd. They used their corporate ingenuity and found a way to achieve their objective by climbing up on the roof of the house, tearing a hole in the roof large enough for their friend to get through, and then letting him down through the roof. Jesus noted their faith and declared that this man’s sins were forgiven. The Scribes and Pharisees were indignant at Jesus’ claim to release this man from sin’s penalty. Jesus’ response to these religious legalists was:

Which is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven you,” or to say, “Rise up and walk”? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins – He said to the man who was paralyzed, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house” (Luke 5:23–24).

The Bible says that immediately this man rose up and walked and all were amazed and glorified God for this miracle.

We can learn one very important lesson from this story on the truth about the full scope of Jesus’ atonement by answering the question He asked the Scribes and Pharisees, “Which is easier: to say ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise up and walk’?” Which one is easier for God to provide for us today: forgiveness of sins or healing? The correct answer: neither! Why is that? They were both provided in the atonement!! The same sacrifice paid the price for our healing and forgiveness of sins. That is why whenever you confess your sins and ask for God’s forgiveness, you don’t have to wait in anxious concern about the answer. The answer already came on the Cross! He forgave all our sins—past, present, and future. The same is true regarding physical healing. Jesus already sacrificed and atoned for our healing once and for all.

John G. Lake communicates this truth so powerfully:

It is my aim to show that the Atonement of Christ lays the foundation equally for deliverance from sin and deliverance from disease; that complete provision has been made for both; that in the exercise of faith under the conditions prescribed, we have the same reason to believe that the body may be delivered from sickness as we have that the soul may be delivered from sin; in short, that both branches of the deliverance stand on the same ground, and that it is necessary to include both in any true conception of what the gospel offers to mankind. The atoning sacrifice of Christ covers the physical as well as the spiritual needs of man. 9

Let me share with you an example that emphasizes the importance of recognizing and appropriating healing as part of the atonement. There is a real difference between these two situations: 1) going to a bank officer and requesting an unsecured loan that you are not sure will be granted; and 2) going to the same bank and presenting a check to the same bank officer to withdraw money that is already on deposit in your . If you are requesting an unsecured loan from a bank, you have no assurance you will receive your request. However, if you are making a withdrawal from your that has sufficient funds on deposit to cover your check, you can be absolutely confident of receiving your request.

Many Christians are praying for healing in the same way they approach that loan officer at the bank—with no assurance their request will be granted because they fail to see what they have on deposit in their spiritual . Prayer for healing must come on the same basis as prayer for forgiveness of sins—Jesus’ atoning sacrifice for each of us that placed unlimited forgiveness, healing, and peace of mind into our spiritual .

When we ask for forgiveness of sins, we know that we can receive it immediately because of the atonement of Jesus. The same is true for healing. It was provided for us by that same atonement. Understanding this truth helped my

wife and me to enter into rest in our faith for our son’s healing. Once we saw it was already on deposit in our —that Jesus’ sacrifice provided sufficient health for Michael—we had assurance of his recovery in our hearts before we saw it manifest with our eyes. What we had assurance of—and appropriated by faith—we received. Michael became whole. That is why Jesus could say, and we can say, “Man, your sins are forgiven you…Take up your bed and walk—your sicknesses and pains are released from you.”

F.F. Bosworth says it like this in his book, Christ the Healer: “The Atonement was Christ’s reason for making no exceptions in healing the sick who came to Him.” 10

If we believe that healing is in the atonement, then we will make no exception for anyone who is sick and comes to Him for healing—ourselves included.

6 Kenneth Hagin Jr. Healing, a Forever Settled Subject. (Tulsa Ok.: Rhema Bible Church Publications, 1981), 5 7 Jack Hayford III. The Spirit Filled Life Bible, “Kingdom Dynamics Notes”. (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1991), 1032 8 Kenneth E. Hagin. How to Keep Your Healing. (Tulsa, Ok.: Rhema Bible Church Publications, 1983), 2 9 John G. Lake. John G. Lake, His Life, His Sermons, His Boldness of Faith. (Ft. Worth, Tx.: Kenneth Copeland Publications, 1994), 380 10 F.F. Bosworth. Christ the Healer. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Fleming H. Revell, 1924), 63

Chapter 3: It’s Your Move

The will of God concerning healing is no more automatic than it is concerning salvation or forgiveness of sins. This is a very important principle I have learned over the years in ministering healing to people. Many people I have met who need healing have put all of the “healing initiative” in God’s court. In other words, whether conscious or unconscious, their thoughts are something like this: If God wants me well, then I’ll get well. That is His business, and there is nothing I can do about it. That type of thought pattern places all of the responsibility on God and none on the recipient. That was not typical of Jesus’ healing ministry. More often than not, Jesus required the recipient’s participation and involvement in some way. The following are some examples of His instructions to those who received healing from Him:

To the leper -“See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” (Matthew 8:4, NKJV)

To the man with the withered hand -“Stretch out your hand.” (Matthew 12:13, NKJV)

To the paralyzed man – “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” (Matthew 9:6, NKJV)

Then there were others, like the woman with the issue of blood, the centurion, and Jairus, who initiated steps of faith toward Jesus without His instruction that released healing to them or their loved ones.

Real faith involves action. When I had cancer, the Lord instructed me to have three men pray for me. When I obeyed His instruction, healing was manifested. When our son was sick, the Lord instructed us to spend time meditating and confessing the Word. We did that and after a period of time Michael’s condition totally changed for the better. When either ministering healing to others or receiving healing for yourself, it is important to listen to the Spirit for any specific steps of action He is leading you or others to take that will release faith and healing. John Osteen describes this vital aspect of faith in his book, The ABC’s of Faith:

If it is a physical need, and you cannot do much physically, start doing a little bit. If you say, ‘I can’t run the one hundred yard dash,’ well then run a hundred inch dash. Begin where you can. Start with a foot, two feet, then a yard, two yards, then three. 11

That is great advice to get us moving in faith. Start doing a little bit of what you cannot do all of on your own and God’s healing and miracle power will manifest in your life.

It is important that we take some step, however small, toward our healing to release our faith. Everything we receive from God is by grace (God’s provision) through faith (our response to God’s grace). Faith cannot receive what God’s grace has not provided. You can only have faith for healing when you know God’s grace has provided it for you. Likewise, grace is not received where faith is not activated by the recipient. You can know that God’s grace has provided healing and yet take no steps of faith toward receiving it because you are expecting God to do everything for you. Let me tell you that you and I will go without healing if we believe like that – and many do! The truth is that healing does not happen automatically, even though it is the will of God. An individual’s will and belief sytem affect what part of God’s will and Jesus’ atonement he or she receives. Scripture teaches that God is not willing that any man should perish, but men do perish every day without knowing and receiving Christ Jesus as Lord (2 Peter 3:9). This is proof positive that an individual’s will does affect

the proportion of healing or forgiveness he or she can receive. Nathaniel Van Cleave explains this principle in his notes on “The Ministry of Divine Healing”:

That the words “borne” and “carried” (Isaiah 53:4) refer to Jesus’ atoning work on the Cross is made clear by the fact that they are the same words used to describe Christ’s bearing our sins in Isaiah 53:11 and l Peter 2:24. These texts unequivocally link the grounds of provision for both our salvation and our healing to the atoning work of Calvary. Neither is automatically appropriated, however; for each provision—a soul’s eternal salvation or a person’s temporal, physical healing—must be received by faith. Christ’s work on the Cross makes each possible: simple faith receives each as we choose. 12

What people believe depends on how much or little they are grounded in the Word. And that knowledge drastically affects what they receive from God. When I was a teenager, our family attended a denominational church that taught us to add the phrase “if it be Thy will” on the end of every prayer we prayed. I am sure they meant well, but all that did was give us an “out” if we didn’t receive an answer to our prayers. That way we could blame God if things didn’t work out as we prayed. I had a nephew who was born in 1974 with complications and died three months later. Our prayers in his behalf were ineffective because all we knew at the time to pray was “if it be Thy will” prayers. This personal loss taught me a costly lesson. What we don’t know can hurt us. Instead of becoming angry with God, I became ionate to understand the truth about healing. In my quest for truth from the Word, I discovered there are situations in which it is appropriate to pray “If it be Thy will,” such as praying for direction about a move, a career decision, or a major financial investment. I also discovered whenever the Bible is clear about God’s will it is inappropriate to pray that way.

For example, in 1 Timothy 2:3–4, the apostle Paul said: “God… who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” This Scripture tells us absolutely that God’s will is for the salvation and discipleship of men and women. We don’t have to question God’s will about this fact. He already expressed His will in His Word. The same thing is true about everything

provided for us by the atonement of Jesus, including healing. I don’t have to wonder whether it is God’s will for my life or to add “if it be Thy will” to my prayer for one of the benefits of the atonement in order to sound humble. Whatever has been provided for us in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus is without question the will of God for us.

We must help those who need healing to see that they have a part to play in the healing process. It is not all up to God. When I am ministering to someone who is sick, I normally give them the following analogy. Though it is certainly the will of God for each of us to walk in forgiveness and freedom from sin, we can still hold onto habitual sin if we want to. That does not make a lifestyle of sin the will of God. In the same way, healing is the will of God for us, but we can keep and nurse sickness in our bodies if we want to. That does not change God’s mind and will about His desire for us to be well. The will of God is not just going to fall on us like ripe cherries falling off a tree. Our participation in the process is vital. First John 5:14–15, NKJV, confirms this truth:

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.

The question the age presents to us is this: “If the will of God is automatic, why would we have to pray about it?” The apostle John instructs us here to ask for those things we know to be in accordance with God’s will. Why? Because he knows that the will of God is not just going to happen automatically. He knows that God’s will for all men to be saved doesn’t cause universal salvation apart from the faith response of each individual. Each of us has a part to play in cooperating with and inviting His will to be done in the earth. God has given us authority on the earth through His Son Jesus in a co-laboring partnershiprelationship.

No promise from the Word of God—salvation, forgiveness of sins, healing,

provision, peace, etc.—is automatic, even though each one is the will of God for our lives. We must respond in faith to His promise of health to us. We must take some faith action toward our goal of healing. Begin by asking for it and receiving assurance that it is the will of God for you. Spend time meditating on and confessing His promises relating to healing. Listen for the Spirit’s promptings in taking some step of action that you would normally take if healing were already manifested in your body. We cannot wait for God to do something else for us before we begin to believe we are healed. The sacrifice of His Son that provided healing for us is done. It is finished. We’re not waiting on God. God is waiting for us to believe and take action on our faith. It’s our move now!

12 Nathaniel Van Cleave. The Spirit Filled Life Bible. “The Ministry of Divine Healing”. (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1991), 1032

Chapter 4: You Are Loved

This is one of the most important wisdom keys for healing you will read in this book. In fact, I believe it is at the top of the list of principles necessary to understand in order to receive from God. You and I are loved by our Heavenly Father! F.F. Bosworth amplifies the Father’s love for His children (you and me) in his book Christ the Healer this way: “He loves His own sick and suffering child even more than He loves the sinner.” 13

What a powerful notion, but a true one. If God unconditionally loves and makes healing available to the sinner, who has no personal relationship with Him, then how much more does He love you and me? In some ways, this is a difficult fact to grasp. We live in a “performance oriented” society. Everything we receive in our culture is based on our skills, talents, or work ethic. We earn most everything we have, based on our own merit. That mindset makes it hard to conceive of receiving anything based solely on God’s grace and love for us. Yet this is the only way to receive from God.

When Michael began to suffer with the acute arthritic/muscular condition, my wife and I really struggled to stay in faith. His ts were swollen twice their normal size, he broke out in a terrible rash, and he cried most of the time. He stopped crawling and could not move or even turn his neck without pain. There was very little respite. This was our situation 24/7 for three months. We were desperate. It was as if we were trying to build a “healing house” for Michael in the midst of a terrible hurricane. To top it off, the doctors could offer no comfort.

There was no known cure for Michael’s sickness. One doctor offered to do experimental treatment on Michael, but he could offer no guarantee that the procedures would be successful. We did not feel comfortable with that option and refused the treatments.

Our real comfort came from the Word of God. The more time we spent reading and studying what God had to say about healing, the more confident we became that Michael would recover, but we were still struggling because we had seen no improvement in his condition. Because we were desperate, we were willing to do anything we thought would help Michael to get better. The danger there, though, was that we became vulnerable to “grasping at spiritual straws.” We became so desperate to see our son healed that we were willing to push any button or pull any lever that gave us hope for Michael’s health. We tried removing all sugar and dairy products from his diet, but that didn’t help his condition. We asked everyone we knew to pray for him and even took him to some healing evangelists to have hands laid on him. Still there was no noticeable improvement in his condition. One day, about two months into the battle for Michael’s healing, my wife told me she was going to fast for at least three days for Michael’s healing. There is nothing wrong with fasting, but this was not a fast to which God had called her. Rather, it was something she was doing out of desperation to try to make God move on behalf of our son.

After two days of her going hungry, something surprising happened. The Lord impressed her that neither she nor I had entered into the “rest” of faith concerning Michael. We were unconsciously doing religious works to try to merit his healing. He told her she needed to eat and to begin to trust in His love for our son. He went on to say that He loved Michael more than Janice and I possibly could and that He wanted him well more than we did. When Janice shared that with me, it seemed like a dark cloud lifted from both of us. That night, Norvel Hayes was a guest speaker at the church we attended. We took Michael to the service and sat in the back of the church where we would not create a disturbance. Brother Hayes preached a message on the subject “The Comion of the Lord” and then gave an invitation to pray for the sick. Since the Lord had revealed to us that we had slipped into trying to work for Michael’s healing, we had purposed we would only do those things that the Spirit prompted us to do—including responding to invitations for prayer for healing. We both felt a strong impression to respond to this particular invitation. When Brother Hayes came to Michael and me in the prayer line, he prayed for us and then continued to pray for others. Suddenly he turned and walked back toward Michael and me, wrapped his arms around both of us and began to weep with a very strong

comion. He did this for several minutes. I don’t know how to describe completely what happened to us through that experience, except to say that somehow the Father’s love for us, and particularly for Michael, became more real at that moment than Michael’s physical condition.

It was not long after that experience that Michael’s condition began to improve gradually and eventually his body was completely restored to normal. Praise God! Since that time, my wife and I have shared our testimony about Michael’s healing with others, appearing on several national radio and television broadcasts. I also compiled several categories of Scripture in a book called Scriptures to Live By that has had wide distribution. The publication of the book has caused many people who were in a similar situation to us. They were desperate because their son or daughter or loved one had some dreaded disease. They were looking for some glimmer of hope and wanted us to tell them what to do. Most of them had slipped into doing religious works, just as Janice and I had, hoping to earn healing instead of simply trusting in God’s love for them. This is very different from the acts of obedience by the prompting of the Spirit that I referred to in the previous chapter. Our response to them is simple: Stop looking for some magic formula you can apply to make your child or loved one well. We encourage them to focus on God’s love and care for them and to commit only to act on those things they feel led by the Lord to do. That helps them to enter into the “rest” of faith that will bring God’s provision of health to them without struggle.

In Christ the Healer, F.F. Bosworth writes:

“It is not what God can do, but what we know He yearns to do, that inspires faith.” 14

The Bible says faith works by love (Galatians 5:6). In other words, faith works best where we understand that we are loved. Janice and I have four children: three sons and a daughter. Each is very secure in our love for them. As a result,

any time I tell one of them I want to take them somewhere and buy them a new outfit or some new gadget they’ve been wanting, they have no problem believing they will receive it. In fact, they will start planning and expecting it to happen. There is no struggle in their faith, because they know their parents love them. The same thing is true for us in our relationship with the Father. Once we are convinced of God’s love for us, then faith is no problem. Author Ken Blue says it like this in his book, Authority to Heal: “Saturating our minds with the truth of God’s unconditional love will do more to create a healing environment than anything else we may do.” 15

Understanding you are loved is a prerequisite to becoming convinced that God’s will to heal includes you. My experience has been that it is much easier to believe God’s love and healing power does not exclude others than it is to believe it for myself. But to receive healing from the Lord, I must include myself on that list. The problem is we know ourselves too well and therefore exempt ourselves from His love. We mistakenly make our behavior, weaknesses, or failures the basis for receiving from God instead of accepting His grace, mercy, and love. We fail to receive healing because we don’t feel worthy to receive. But the Bible says God is no respecter of persons. What He has done freely by His grace for others He will just as surely do for you, because of His love for you. Only His blood and sacrifice make us worthy. Stop focusing on your past failures and look to what Jesus has done for you. Put your focus on God’s Understanding you are loved love for you. Matthew 7:11 says:

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those (children) who ask Him?

Think about your own children or loved ones for a moment. If any of them became ill or was diagnosed with some terminal disease, wouldn’t you desire more than anything for them to be well? Certainly! If they needed expensive medical treatment and you had the means to pay for it, would you provide it for them? Absolutely! Well, I want to ask you the same question Jesus asked in the

verse we just read: How much more will your Father provide healing (good things) to those (you and me) who ask?

God wants you well. He sent His Son to secure every need His children—you and I—would ever have, including healing. He loves you, and that’s the basis for your healing—not your works or performance, good or bad. Once you become convinced of His love and help others become convinced of it, healing will flow like a river to undo satan’s works of physical bondage. Because the Father loves you, He has freely provided all the healing you will ever need. What an awesome Heavenly Father we have. You and I are loved!

13 F.F. Bosworth. Christ the Healer. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Fleming H. Revell, 1924), 65 14 F.F. Bosworth. Christ the Healer. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Fleming H. Revell, 1924), 71 15 Ken Blue. Authority to Heal. (Madison, Wis.: InterVarsity Press, 1987), 103, 104

Chapter 5: Examine Your Heart

“How are things in your close relationships?” Bill asked me. I told him about some strain with one particular family member. This was someone for whom I had great respect who had rejected me when I became a Christian. Bill talked to me about forgiveness and said I needed to release that person from the debt I perceived he owed me because of his rejection of me. He went on to ask me, “How is your relationship with Jesus? Are you as close to Him and as in love with Him as when you first received salvation?” I let him know about the business pressures and demands for my time that had been crowding my devotional time with the Lord. He also asked me about my thought life and encouraged me to establish some spiritual disciplines in my life. Then he led me in prayer over these areas and we took communion together. After all of this, Bill prayed for my healing. I really didn’t get it at the time, but later I understood how important it was to my healing that Bill asked preliminary questions and led me to deal with issues in my life before he prayed for me.

When I received the news from the surgeon that I had cancer, the Lord led me to go to three different men to pray for me. Each one was a spiritual leader in my life. Bill was one of those men. He was the first one I went to see. My expectation was that each would pray a simple prayer of faith over me and something supernatural would happen. Something supernatural happened all right, but much of it was connected with how these men helped me address spiritual issues in my heart. Prior to my visit with each of them, I had not seen how essential righteousness, faith, my love walk, my relationships, and my priorities were to receiving from God. What I needed was healing from cancer. These men helped me to see that what I needed most was to remove all barriers in my heart that had the potential to block the healing God had provided for me. They taught me some things I did not realize. I found out that one of the keys to my health was developing a prosperous soul: “Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers” (3 John 2). They also taught me I needed to guard my heart so that the issues of life, which include healing, would flow unhindered in my life. “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23, NKJV).

The bottom line is that, with the help of the Holy Spirit and these three men, some major obstructions were removed from my heart and I was free to receive from God. When I went in for further tests at the hospital, the doctors could find no sign of cancer. God’s healing power had been released to flow from my spirit to my physical body and it had eradicated all traces of that dreaded disease.

In both letters to the church at Corinth, the apostle Paul charges them to “Examine yourselves” (see 1 Corinthians 11:28 and 2 Corinthians 13:5). What is that all about? What was his motive for repeating this command? Paul was ionate about the church receiving all God had for them and not giving the enemy place to work in their lives. He knew unforgiveness, bitterness, pride, offense, anger, hatred, or tolerated and unconfessed sin would hinder the flow of spiritual life in their lives. These things actually can contaminate the soul and act as a dam that shuts off the flow of life from the spirit man to the natural realm, including the physical body.

Author Kimberly Daniels shares the following insight from her book, From a Mess to a Miracle, where she writes:

The heart gets spiritually infected when there is no circumcision. Infection of the body occurs when agents invade it and cause it to operate out of synchronization with its natural system. In like manner, the uncircumcised heart is filled with contamination that will always keep mankind out of synchronization with God. 16

A circumcised heart is one that stays in constant communion with God and allows for regular examination and ability to others. The truth is each of us has blind spots and we need the help of the Holy Spirit and others in order to see them. and we need the help of the Holy Spirit and others in order to see them.

Do you have anyone in your life you can trust to be able to and vulnerable with regarding matters of your heart? I needed those three men several years ago to assist me in examining my heart. I still need men today who can help me keep my heart circumcised and clear. In addition to my wife, I have a small group of men to whom I have voluntarily made myself able. I have given them the right to speak into my life if they see anything—whether it is my words, my attitude, or my behavior—that is questionable, out of order, or lacks Christlikeness. I also go to them to help me find peace whenever I am experiencing internal or relational struggles that I have not been able to process effectively. This small, trusted group of people is a great resource of wisdom and help to me in keeping my heart and attitude in the right place. I want to encourage you to pray and find someone you can be able to as well. This ability is essential in keeping your heart free from things the enemy will use to block the flow of God’s life and healing to you describes this process. Look at what 1 Corinthians 4:4–5, NKJV, says:

For I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; but He who judges me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God.

Ask the Lord to show you your heart the way He sees it— to bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of your heart. Most of us are afraid of this process because we don’t want the junk we have tolerated in our hearts to be revealed. The truth is there is nothing to be afraid of because there is nothing in your heart that God doesn’t already know about! Bringing it to the surface and into the light simply allows you to deal with it and get free from it. In his book You Can Change Your Destiny, John Osteen communicates this truth very well. He writes:

If you sent for the medical doctor and let him in your front room, but refused to let him go back into the bedroom where the patient was, he could do very little

good. Our hearts have many rooms. Some are locked and barred with bad memories, unconfessed sin and other things we are ashamed of. OPEN WIDE EVERY ROOM TO JESUS. HE CANNOT DO US ANY GOOD UNTIL WE LET HIM GO WHERE THE TROUBLE IS. 17

This is a good place for me to encourage you to stop reading and to receive communion. Something powerful and supernatural happened in my life years ago when Bill urged me to receive communion with him. I believe strongly that the same thing will happen for you when you receive the Lord’s Table. Let me share with you the three-fold purpose of communion so that you may receive the full benefit of it:

1) Remove any barriers to receiving the benefits of the Cross. You accomplish this by making Jesus your primary focus and by allowing the Holy Spirit to assist you in examining your heart.

2) Close the door on the enemy’s access to your life. This is accomplished by placing faith in and applying the blood of Jesus to your life and through repentance when necessary.

3) Appropriate the power of the Cross to forgive, cleanse, deliver, and heal.

Now, partake of the Lord’s Table with these things in mind. May His cleansing, delivering, and healing power manifest in your life—spirit, soul, and body!

There is one final point I want to make before ending this chapter. When ministering healing to others, never assume the condition of an individual’s heart. They may be saved, or they may not. I have led many church to

the Lord because I didn’t assume they were saved, and I took the time to help them identify their real spiritual condition and what they were trusting in. Some people are experiencing chronic sickness in their lives because of an unresolved spiritual problem that is rooted in their heart. However, that doesn’t mean personal sin is always the cause of an individual’s sickness. The point is, don’t be presumptuous about these things. If you have opportunity, before you pray for healing, take time to check out the individual’s spiritual condition. Do they have a close relationship with the Lord? Do they know what the Word of God says about healing? How are their primary relationships? Is there any noticeable unforgiveness, bitterness, or offense in their lives? Bitterness is a root that can defile many and greatly hinder the healing we are praying for in the life of the sick one. Kenneth Hagin Jr. describes the effects of bitterness in his book Seven Hindrances to Healing as

one of the greatest enemies of the human spirit. If allowed to continue, it will poison your heart and hinder you receiving from God. Also, if you are full of bitterness you cannot walk in love. And faith works by love. 18

In my experience in dealing with people who have cancer, I have discovered a large number of them have allowed a root of bitterness to occupy their souls.

Certainly this is not true of everyone who has cancer, so I do not automatically assume this in every case. But if the opportunity is there, I will help the individual take a “spiritual heart check-up.” If I can help people examine their hearts and get rid of that root—if it exists—then I have helped them remove a huge barrier to their physical health. Once you help people identify and deal with any spiritual root that exists in their heart, they are on the road to physical recovery. Once the axe of God’s Word is laid to the root problem, the bad fruit that it produced such as sickness and disease will eventually dry up, die, and leave their body. A prosperous soul is one who has removed the barriers from the heart that obstruct the life flow from his spirit to the physical realm. May you not only discover this freedom yourself but also be used mightily to set others free.

16 Kimberly Daniels. From a Mess to a Miracle. (Lake Mary, Fla.: Creation House Press, 2002), 155 17 John Osteen. You Can Change Your Destiny. (Houston, Tx.: John Osteen Publications, 1978), 21 18 Kenneth Hagin Jr. Seven Hindrances to Healing. (Tulsa, Ok.: Rhema Bible Church Publications, 1980), 16, 17

Chapter 6: See Yourself Well

“What is the base emotion in your heart when you think about your physical condition—hope or fear?” I asked Jim. He had received a bad report from his doctor concerning his health and had come to me for help in receiving healing. Jim answered me truthfully: “Well, to be honest with you, Pastor Greg, I would have to say right now it is fear.” I went on to ask him, “What is the primary picture on the canvas of your heart, sickness and death or life and health?” Jim responded: “Again, I would have to say that at this moment it is sickness and death more than life and health, because the doctor told me if this condition does not go into remission it will very likely become terminal. Plus, two of my close relatives have died from this same disease.” I asked Jim these questions because I knew first-hand the inward struggles one goes through to believe for healing when he receives a negative report about his health. Once a “worst-case scenario” is communicated from a doctor to his patient, the devil will quickly create a picture of death on their heart—unless a picture of life and health has already been “etched” on their heart by the Word.

I didn’t have a strong picture of life and health painted on the canvas of my heart when I was told by the head surgeon that I had cancer. To make matters worse, before the surgery to remove a golf-ball size growth from my neck, I told the surgeon I had placed my trust in God to heal me supernaturally. I am sure those comments influenced his communication with me following my surgery. When I awoke from recovery, he came to my room, sat down and talked with me. He said, “Son, I am a Christian, too. But I want you to know that God is not going to heal you. We removed the growth and I am 99 percent sure it is cancer. We got everything around it, but that was just the pup. We need to run more tests and do more extensive surgery to identify and get rid of the mama that has produced this pup.” They later identified “the mama” as my thyroid and planned to remove it and anything else where the cancer had spread, with the possibility of removing my voice box.

The first vision my wife and I had after hearing the “C” word was my body in a

casket and all of my family getting saved at my funeral. I am not exaggerating. Janice and I both had the same vision. Thank God the Lord showed us that this vision did not line up with His Word. It was Jesus’ death that paid the price for the salvation of my family and friends—not mine. The point I’m making here is that whenever we receive a bad report like the one I got from that doctor, it has the potential to paint a picture on the canvas of our heart that contradicts God’s Word. Once a different picture than the truth is painted on your heart, it becomes difficult to believe the Word of God in that area. That is why I asked Jim if hope or fear was the base emotion of his heart. Identifying that emotion helps us determine the strongest picture that is etched on our heart.

What is the predominant picture on the canvas of your heart? Is it life and health, or is it sickness and death? I want to give you hope today. After hearing the bad report from my doctor, Janice and I started out with the wrong picture in our hearts. At first we were only able to mentally assent to the Scriptures we were reading and hearing about healing. If you had asked us if we believed in healing we would have responded positively. Yet the truth was that God’s Word about healing had not yet displaced the picture in our hearts of cancer and death. As we spent more time meditating on God’s Word, the Holy Spirit painted a new picture of health on our hearts that displaced the old picture of death. That new picture resulted in my physical healing. Doctors ran a battery of tests over a three-day period. At the end of the three days, the chief radiologist told me they could find no trace of cancer in my body. In fact, he asked me, “Why did your surgeon send you here for these tests? You don’t have cancer.” Of course, I was ecstatic. When I went back to the surgeon for a follow-up appointment, he told me, “I don’t know how to explain what has happened to you, but I think that it would be wise for you to allow us to remove your thyroid anyway, just to be on the safe side.” My response to him was, “No thanks. That would be like taking my heart out to see if it’s beating. I’ll keep my thyroid, thank you.”

The same results are possible for you no matter how bad the report from the doctor is. The important wisdom key that will help you overcome every negative report is to see yourself well! If the negative picture in our heart is going to change, it is imperative that we change our focus until we see ourselves well on the inside. The apostle Paul describes this process to the church at Corinth in the

following way:

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18, NKJV).

What a powerful verse. Paul tells us here that we become like whatever we behold. We are transformed into the image we focus on. If this is true, then I can become healed by focusing on Jesus and His Word to me about healing. Or, I can focus on the disease and the negative report and become chronically ill or die. Which of these options should I choose? The answer is obvious, but keeping our thought life focused in the right place requires discipline and self-control. Kenneth E. Hagin talks about how he fought this battle of focus in his mind when he was given up by doctors to die. He said:

If God’s Word was true then that meant I was healed from the top of my head to the sole of my foot! I also knew that five doctors said they couldn’t do a thing for me, that I had to die. But I began to see myself well! When some of those heart attacks would come then, and I’d seem to get worse, I’d laugh. Just laugh! Right in the face of them! I asked myself the question “What would I be doing if I were up?” 19

We cannot afford to make our temporal symptoms, feelings, or the condition of our bodies our primary focus. To do that is to ultimately give those things authority in our lives. If we want to walk in divine health, we cannot allow a health crisis to dictate to us the outcome of our situation. Let me share a Bible example with you that will illustrate this point.

Jesus got into a boat with His disciples one day and instructed them to cross over to the other side of the lake. On their way Jesus fell asleep in the boat, and a

great windstorm came down on the lake and filled their boat with water. This must have been a bad storm because it frightened the seasoned fishermen. In a panic, they awakened Jesus, proclaiming: “Master, Master, we are perishing” (Luke 8:24, NKJV). You know the rest of the story. Jesus arose, rebuked the wind and raging water and there was a great calm. Then He rebuked His disciples, not because they were afraid but because they misplaced their faith. They placed greater value and authority on the circumstances and the storm than they did on Jesus and His Word. Jesus told them to cross over to the other side. That word was sufficient to give them faith that their outcome and destiny were on the other side, no matter what came against them. Yet they had allowed the storm to dictate their outcome, declaring “we are perishing” instead of standing on Jesus’ word to them.

That is what happens to us whenever we begin to focus on the storms of life rather than looking to Jesus. I told you about the great physical storm and battle we were in with our son, Michael. This sickness and disease raged for three months. Every day that storm screamed at us, “Your son will never walk. He will never get better. He will die at a young age.” We couldn’t deny the reality of the circumstances and the fact that we were in a great storm. But we could deny that storm the right and authority to shape the ultimate outcome of Michael’s health —and our lives. To keep our focus on what God said about Michael’s health, I compiled three categories of Scriptures that my wife and I spoke over Michael several times each day. About six weeks into this process, my wife had a vision. In the vision she saw Michael running around the corner from our living room and into the kitchen, calling out, “Mama! Mama! Mama!” At that point he could not crawl or walk, much less run. That vision was so real to Janice that she thought it would happen that day. It did not happen that day, or the next day, or the next week, or even the next month. But within a few months, it became a reality. That vision helped our focus stay on the outcome the Word promised us instead of what Michael’s present physical condition dictated. Charles and s Hunter make a powerful statement about spiritual vision in their book, How to Heal the Sick. In it they write:

“Imaginations can get you into trouble, but a faith vision can bring you answers.” 20

Janice and I discovered those words to be true in the case of my healing from cancer and Michael’s healing from muscular disease. The ion for this book is that you and others you are ministering to may find it true in your lives as well.

How we see ourselves is a critical factor in receiving from God. The children of Israel saw themselves as grasshoppers and that kept them from going into their land of promise for 40 years. In fact, it was their children—not they—who eventually possessed the land.

Let me ask you the same question I asked Jim that day: “What is the predominant picture on the canvas of your heart?” How do you really see yourself: sick or healthy? failing or succeeding? Do you see bad things or good things happening to you? Be honest with yourself about this. If you are not seeing the right thing, meditate on the Word until God’s picture of you becomes clearly stamped in your soul. Let God’s Word paint a new picture on the canvas of your heart as it did for Janice and me. Then what Proverbs 23:7, (NKJV), says will become reality to you, just as it did for us: “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.”

19 Kenneth E. Hagin. God’s Medicine (Tulsa, Ok.: Rhema Bible Church Publications, 1977), 17 20 Charles and s Hunter. How to Heal the Sick. (New Kensington, Pa.: Whitaker House, 1981), 91

Chapter 7: Aggressive Faith

“Pastor Greg, we just received a terrible report from our daughter, Jennifer,” Jammie, a member of our church, said to me one day while I was visiting the business where she worked. “They did an MRI on her and her unborn child and the doctor gave her some bad news. He said the baby has a hole in her diaphragm and that her stomach, liver, and intestines have moved up into her chest. Her heart also has moved and she only has 22 percent of her right lung. Would you pray for them?”

“Sure, I’ll agree with you in prayer for Jennifer and her baby, Jammie,” I replied. While I was praying with Jammie, I sensed a strong impression from the Lord. After we prayed, I told Jammie, “You tell Jennifer the Lord is saying to her that if she wants her baby to be healed and come home and live a normal life, it’s going to be because of her faith, not mom and dad’s faith, and not the faith of others.” “Thanks, Pastor Greg. I’ll tell her,” she replied with a sigh of relief.

Jennifer had been away from home, away from God, and out of church for a while. In her recent past she had demonstrated a pattern of depending on the faith of her parents and others to get her through a crisis. But I was certain she knew the Lord and had been taught the principles of the Word, both at home and in church, since she was a child. I was confident she would receive that word and act on it. I had opportunity to talk with Jennifer about her situation the following day.

On May 3, 2004, Jennifer’s baby, Alicia, was born with a congenital diaphragmatic hernia. According to medical records, only a small percentage of babies born with this condition actually survive. Alicia had a six-inch hole in her diaphragm, along with all the other problems the MRI had revealed. Because only 22 percent of her right lung was functional, she could not breathe adequately and her blood did not circulate properly. The doctors placed her on a

machine designed to do the work of the heart and lungs and surgically repaired the hernia. From there, all they could do was to wait to see how little Alicia responded. Miraculously, the child went home from the hospital within six weeks—TOTALLY HEALED! During those six weeks, three other babies that were being treated for the same condition at that hospital died.

Here is a brief testimony from Jennifer regarding her daughter’s miracle:

“After I received the report from the doctor on the MRI, at first I cried. But strangely enough I knew what I was going to have to do. If my daughter was going to come home, I was going to have to use my faith. When I talked with Pastor Greg later, he confirmed that. He said, ‘Jennifer, the Lord is telling me that it’s going to be on your faith that your daughter will be healed, not on your mom and dad’s faith, or the church’s faith, but yours. Of course we will stand with you and back you up, but it’s going to be your faith that brings her home.’ I immediately responded to him, ‘Well, if it’s on my faith then she’s coming home,’ and I meant it.

“Alicia was born by C-Section. The first time I saw her I cried because I hated to see her go through all that treatment. Then a great peace came over me. I knew that she was coming home. I just knew it and I never forgot it. I had three verses of Scripture printed out and hung them over Alicia’s bed. Every time I went in to see her, I spoke those over her. One of them was Psalm 118:17: ‘I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.’ Alicia was only supposed to be on the ECMO machine for twelve days. They allowed her to stay on it for 21 days, which was a miracle in itself. In the information package they gave us about ECMO it said that 75 percent of the children that are on this machine will develop problems with their eyesight, hearing, and have brain damage of some sort. When I read that, I said, ‘NO, I rebuke that, in Jesus’ name. Alicia will grow up normal and healthy with none of those problems.’ It was like God had placed me in a protective bubble so that I refused to receive anything negative about my daughter. Whenever the doctors would give us some negative report or possibility, I would tell them, ‘You are wonderful doctors, but what you can’t fix,

God can.’ The nurses used to give me funny looks because I would not talk about the negative possibilities with them. They would say, ‘What if,’ and I would say, ‘She’s not, because she’s coming home.’

“And she did come home six weeks after she was born. Now, Alicia is almost three and has not taken any medication since she was one year old. She is a picture of health, a happy, healthy, perfectly normal child, thanks to the Lord and the strength that He gave me to stand in faith and fight for her life when it looked like she would not make it. God is so good to us.” 21

What a great testimony of what God can do through one person who will use their faith to fight the enemy off. One thing is important to note: God did this through someone who had just come back to Him—who had been away from Him for years—not someone who was mature in every area of life and had it “all together” spiritually. That should give each of us hope that we can win battles of faith over our health at any stage of spiritual growth—right where we are.

The key lesson from this chapter is that we must become aggressive in our faith when it comes to our health or the health of friends and loved ones we are praying for.

We cannot have a ive attitude when it comes to dealing with sickness and disease. Matthew 11:12, (NKJV), says, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.”

Wake up, Christian! We are in a spiritual battle. There is conflict over our souls, our inheritance in God, and our physical health. There is a real devil out there who is after our faith, and he will tempt us to get angry at God or to blame Him or others for our circumstances. He will use sickness, lack, relational conflict,

and anything else he can think of to get our focus off our relationship with God. We must realize what is going on behind the scenes—in the spirit realm—and take appropriate spiritual action. We must become violent in our faith. That is exactly what Jennifer did. She refused to stop believing or to become ive in her faith when she heard negative reports about her daughter. Every time she heard a negative report, she just held onto what God had told her about her daughter—that she would come home well.

Years ago, my wife and I were of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. On several occasions, Pastor John Osteen shared with the congregation how his mother took a strong faith stand and refused to accept a report from the doctor that she had Parkinson’s disease.

My mother went to the doctor when she was seventy-five years old because her hands were constantly shaking and she had a hard time holding things steady. After running some tests the doctor sat down with her and said, “I am sorry to tell you, ma’am, that you have Parkinson’s disease.” My mother stood up and shook her finger in that doctor’s face and said, “Well, I’m not going to have it.” And you know what, she never did. From that day forward she never had any of those symptoms again. Praise be to God forevermore!

We must be as strong and determined as Brother Osteen’s 75-year-old mother. We, too, must become intolerant of the devil’s works in our lives and the lives of those we love. To be certain, sickness and disease is the work of the devil. T.L. Osborn, in his book, Healing the Sick, clarifies this fact for anyone who may still have questions about it. He writes:

Sickness is part of satan’s works. Christ, in His earthly ministry, always treated sin, diseases, and devils the same. They were all hateful in His sight. He rebuked them all. He was manifested to destroy them all. 22

Sickness and disease should make us angry—not at God or others, but at the devil who brought it. We must develop a holy anger at the enemy’s plan to destroy our lives and the lives of others through his wicked means of attacking our health. We cannot afford to be ive, lie down, or play dead. Instead, rise up and take authority over the devil, sickness and disease in Jesus’ Name. He gave us authority over all devils. It is time to stand up and use that authority over every spirit of infirmity and every physical sickness that is afflicting our bodies.

The Gospel of Matthew records Jesus’ words to us on this important subject ing the authority He gave us:

I will build My church, and the gates of Hades (hell) shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven…. (Matthew 16:19–20, NKJV).

What this verse clearly says is that whatever you and I bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever we don’t, will not. In other words, the gates of hell (hell’s authority to kill, steal, and destroy) are only removed wherever you and I bind or take authority over them. The Sovereign God has given you and me authority and dominion on the earth and He is not going to exercise that authority for us.

We must rise up and say “no” to the enemy and to sickness and disease if we want to be healed. It’s all right to pray and cry out to God for help, but along with that draw on His strength and boldly exercise your authority. Stop speaking to God about your mountain and speak to your mountain about your God. Command it to be removed. (See Mark 11:23.)

Let me ask you men a question. What would you do if you caught a burglar

breaking into your home? You would do everything within your power to chase him off and protect your family, right? Well, the Bible says our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19–20). Neither cancer, heart disease, arthritis diabetes, Alzheimer’s nor any other disease belongs in the temple of the Holy Spirit. These are all evil intruders and tresers, and are off limits to God’s people. It is time to run these tresers off! John Osteen says it like this:

Stop hugging your sickness as though it was a gift from God. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Christ died for your sickness. Therefore do not tolerate in your body what He died for and took in His own body for you. 23

Stop treating sickness like a pet and start treating it for what it really is—an enemy. Get aggressive in your faith. Rise up and tell the enemy “no.” Command him and sickness to leave your body in Jesus’ name. It is all right to get reinforcement through the prayer of agreement with someone else, but don’t substitute that for the exercise of your own authority.

That is what I encouraged Jennifer to do. Because she exercised her own faith and took authority over the devil and disease in her daughter, Alicia is alive today. Far too many times I have witnessed people going through less of a health crisis than Jennifer and Alicia who put all their faith and confidence in the prayers and authority of others.

Because they were not really believing and using their authority themselves, they became vulnerable to believing the negative reports and worst-case scenarios they heard from the physicians. I have nothing against medical science. Thank God for all they do for us. It’s just that when it comes to faith and trusting God for our health and the health of our loved ones, the physicians don’t have the last word. Time and time again, I have watched people who do not become aggressive in their faith and use their own authority over the devil and disease fail to receive the desired results in their situation. Some of them have even died prematurely.

My purpose with this chapter is not to condemn anyone for being ive in the past. When it comes to being ive, we all can plead guilty for having been there at some point in our lives. Rather, I want to stir you up to use the authority God gave you and to be aggressive with your faith today—and in the future. People’s lives are on the line. Eternity, for some, is at stake. Arm yourself with the Word of God and resist the enemy and sickness with that Word. Respond to the devil the way Jesus did. Tell him: “It is written,” “It is written,” and “It is written again.” (Matthew 4:4, 7, 10). He cannot withstand the power of the Word on the lips of a believer.

Acting on this important wisdom key and principle from God’s Word helped me become cancer-free and brought healing to our son, Michael. Because God is no respecter of persons, I am confident it will work in your life as well. I want to close this chapter with an example from Kenneth E. Hagin about how he exercised authority over sickness and disease in his own body. It will work for you, too!

In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I exercise authority over this body of mine. Sickness and disease, I refuse to allow you to stay. This body, this house, belongs to God. It is a temple of God. Satan, you have no right to tres on God’s property. Now you get out. You leave my body. I’ve got authority over you. I know it, you know it, and God knows it. 24

21 Jennifer Cruz, interview by Cammy Walters, River of Life Church, 5 March, 2007 22 T.L. Osborn. Healing the Sick. (Tulsa, Ok.: Harrison House, 1951), 226 23 John Osteen. You Can Change Your Destiny. (Houston, Tx.: John Osteen Publications, 1978), 27 24 Kenneth E. Hagin. How to Keep Your Healing. (Tulsa, Ok.: Rhema Bible Church Publications, 1983),

Chapter 8: Exalt the Truth over the Facts

“Hey, Larry, it was good to see you guys today. What’s going on with you? You look like you’ve lost weight and your color isn’t normal.” I had just run into Larry Phillips in the church foyer following the morning worship service. “That’s why I haven’t been to church for the last couple of weeks,” Larry told me. “The doctor thought I had the flu at first, so he treated me for that but I haven’t gotten any better. So then he sent me home with medicine for my liver, and look, I’ve turned yellow: my eyes, my fingernails, my skin—everything. I’m going back to him this week.” I prayed for Larry right then and told him to let me know the outcome of his next visit with the doctor. The fact that Larry let me pray for him there in church was a big deal. He came from a church background that didn’t believe in healing and he had let everyone know when they came to our church that he didn’t pray in public.

I received a call from Larry’s wife, Shirley, later that week. She said they were on their way to a hospital in the Metroplex area where Larry was to have further tests. The doctor was concerned there might be some sort of blockage—or even cancer. I reminded Shirley I had been teaching on Sunday mornings that the negative report or first report we hear about our health or finances is not the final report. In other words, it doesn’t carry final authority in our lives unless we let it. I went on to encourage her and Larry to exalt the truth of God’s Word above the facts of Larry’s present physical condition. She said they were standing on some healing verses, and she assured me that they would speak God’s truth instead of the natural facts regarding Larry’s health.

The doctors diagnosed Larry with pancreatic cancer, which, in a great majority of cases, turns out to be terminal. They sent him home and scheduled him for surgery three weeks later. I visited with Larry in his home during that time and found him to be very positive and upbeat. His positive attitude did not surprise me because Larry can make people laugh even in the worst situation. He said the doctor had found malignancy in his pancreas and suggested he set his house in order. He said the doctors planned to do extensive surgery and they would give

him no guarantee how long he would live following the surgery. Larry said he was ready to die but that his wife really needed him so he wanted to live. He was expecting a miracle healing from God. He then told me that he was expecting the doctor to remove only his gall bladder, and he was expecting to come through the surgery fine. From here, I’ll let you read Larry’s story in his own words:

“On our daughter’s birthday, April 9, 2004, I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. They ran a tube down my throat through my gall bladder into the pancreas and took a picture of the blockage. When it was over the doctor sat down on my bed and told me that I had a tumor on my pancreas. I asked him, ‘Well, that can be benign, right?’ He said, ‘No, I have never seen one benign.’ I went on to ask him, ‘Well, you can operate on the pancreas, right?’ He said, ‘No, because the pancreas will not heal.’ He sent me over to this other doctor to do some CT’s and this doctor told me they planned to remove one third of my intestines, one third of my stomach, one third of my pancreas, and my gall bladder.

“One doctor tells me that you can’t operate on the pancreas and this one says he is going to take one third of it. Oh well, I guess that whatever is left will be mine. I had lost about twenty pounds at this point so they sent me home to regain my strength before the surgery. Before the surgery, Shirley and I met with the surgeons, Dr. Levington and Dr. Prescott. They both told us that of the 31,000 pancreatic cancer diagnoses they had made they had never seen one that wasn’t cancerous. They went on to explain that only 361 of those had survived. That is only a 1 percent survival rate for this type of cancer. Shirley responded, ‘Well, Larry will be the first one to survive and to be cancer-free.’ They both replied, ‘We hope that is true, Mrs. Phillips.’ I asked them one more question: ‘If I am the first one to make it through this without cancer, will you put my picture on your wall to show others that someone beat the odds?’ ‘We will certainly do that, Mr. Phillips,’ they responded with doubt in their voices.

“A lot of people prayed for me during this time and then the day of surgery came. I told Shirley to come in after the surgery and tell me, ‘There’s good

news,’ if it went well and I would know what she was talking about. But before Shirley could get to me, a nurse woke me up in recovery and said, ‘Mr. Phillips, wake up. I have good news.’ Then Shirley came in and he told her. Then a few minutes later the doctor came out to talk to Shirley and a waiting room full of people. He said, ‘I spent six hours looking for the cancer, sticking the pancreas full of holes. Normally this surgery doesn’t take that long, but I was trying to find the cancer and IT WASN’T THERE! I cannot explain it; it wasn’t there. So all that we did was remove his gall bladder.’ I told him later that I knew who it was that took that cancer. I told him that ‘God did it.’ I stayed two weeks in the hospital, though, after the surgery. I told him that it took me a long time to get over his ‘hole making’ in my pancreas. I left the hospital on May 11, 2004, which is our anniversary.” 25

In all my years of ministry, this is one of the greatest miracles I have ever witnessed. When I walked into that waiting room moments after the doctor had given them the good report, all of their family and friends, Christian and nonChristian alike, were crying tears of joy and praising God. It happened just like Larry said. All they did, besides poking his pancreas full of holes, was to remove his gall bladder.

This is an outstanding example of someone applying the wisdom key and truth that is presented in this chapter. Larry and Shirley exalted the truth of what God’s Word said about his healing above the facts that said, “You have pancreatic cancer and you are 99 percent certain to die from this disease.”

The primary truth I want to convey in this chapter is that until you make God’s Word the highest authority, it will not have complete authority in your life. If God’s Word doesn’t have authority, then someone or something else does. The word of doctors or well-meaning, sympathetic family and friends and their testimonials of death and failure can carry authority in your heart where your health is concerned if you allow them to. My wife and I had to deal with this issue when the doctor told me the growth they had removed was cancerous, that they would have to do more extensive surgery, and that I wasn’t going to be

healed. We dealt with it again when the doctors told us concerning Michael, “If this disease progresses he will never walk; he will be in a wheelchair all of his life; get prepared for it.”

The same thing held true for Larry and Shirley when the surgeon told him, “We have discovered malignancy in your pancreas. You need to get your house in order.” Doctors mean well and should be honest with their patients, but worstcase scenarios communicated as inevitable outcomes can carry functional authority that is hard to overcome. If you have failed to make God’s Word the final authority in your life, the negative words of others—especially those you have confidence in—can rob your faith and your health. I several years ago my pastor, Bob Nichols, preached a great message during a ministers’ conference on making God’s Word final authority in your life. During this message, he made a statement that has stuck with me ever since. He said,

Whose report do you believe? The report of sickness and disease, poverty and lack, failure and loss, and all the other things satan will try to send in your life? Or do you believe God’s report of blessing and prosperity, healing and life, success and favor? Just , the first report is not the last report! If you believe God’s report, His arm of power will come through for you in the midst of every other evil report. 26

The Scripture he used to validate this principle is found in Isaiah 53:1, (NKJV): “Who has believed our report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

Every person I know needs and desires the arm of the Lord revealed to them. But the condition for God’s arm of power to manifest in our lives is to believe His report—the report of His Word—above every other report. The problem for most of us when the crises of life come is that it is easier to believe what we see or hear right in front of us than to believe the report of God’s eternal Word.

Just a few weeks after Andrew and Jamie Wommack had heard Pastor Nichols preach that message, they got a call in the middle of the night that their youngest son, Peter, had died of a drug overdose. Andrew and Jamie are the founders of Andrew Wommack Ministries and “The Gospel Truth” international radio and television ministry, and they are good friends of ours. It was their oldest son, Joshua, who called them with the devastating report. Joshua said that Peter had already turned black and the hospital had put a “toe tag” on him to send him to the morgue. Andrew and Jamie jumped in their car and headed to the hospital, which was over an hour’s drive for them. All kinds of emotions and feelings of loss and helplessness overwhelmed them. Then they ed the word Pastor Nichols had preached: “The first report is not the last report.” Andrew and Jamie began to praise God for His resurrection life being manifested in their son. They reminded themselves, God, and the devil that God still had a purpose for Peter’s life. They also reminded themselves of all the prophecies that had been spoken over him. They began regarding the report of the Lord as higher authority than the report of death they had received regarding their son.

By the time they got to the hospital, Peter had revived. God had raised him up after he had been dead for close to four hours! The arm of the Lord was revealed to them because they believed God’s report over the report of death. Not long after that, Peter gave them their first grandchild. Praise God!

This principle will work for you in your health, your finances, your marriage, your children, and every area of your life. Real spiritual warfare works like this: When the enemy comes to you with a lying symptom in your body, or some lying rebellious behavior of one of your children, he is bringing an evil report. Your response should be: “That may be the facts, devil, but let me tell you the way it really is.” Then, tell the devil the truth about the situation. Give him the Word and he won’t stay around long. The symptoms will leave. Your child’s behavior will change. Your marriage will be healed. Hold fast to what the truth says about your health, marriage, finances—about everything in your life. It is not lying to agree with God’s Word and to declare what it says about your health, even when you are feeling bad. Neither is it a bad confession to it you are

having a physical struggle.

Faith is not denying the facts, but rather exalting the truth. I like to say it like this: “But” the facts with the truth, not the other way around. Instead of saying, “I know that God’s Word says that by His stripes I am healed, but I am really sick,” it is better to say, “I am really not feeling well today, but the Word says by His stripes I am healed.”

Do you see the difference? I tell people this: Whatever is on the other end of their “but” is what they really believe. In his book, The Normal Christian Life, Watchman Nee shares a great personal example that underscores this important wisdom key to our healing. He writes:

“Whatever contradicts the truth of God’s Word we are to regard as the devil’s lie, not because it may not be in itself a very real fact to our senses, but because God has stated a greater fact before which the other must eventually yield. Some years ago I was ill. For six nights I had high fever and could find no sleep. Then at length God gave me from the Scripture a personal word of healing, and because of this I expected all symptoms of sickness to vanish at once. Instead of that, not a wink of sleep could I get, and I was not only sleepless but more restless than ever. My temperature raised higher, my pulse beat faster and my head ached more severely than before. The enemy asked, ‘Where is God’s promise? Where is your faith? What about all your prayers?’

“So I was tempted to thrash the whole matter out in prayer again, but was rebuked, and this came to mind; ‘Thy Word is truth’ (John 17:17). If God’s Word is truth, I thought, then, what are these symptoms? They must all be lies. So I declared to the enemy, ‘This sleeplessness is a lie. This headache is a lie. This fever is a lie. This high pulse is a lie. In view of what God has said to me, all these symptoms of sickness are just your lies, and God’s Word to me is truth.’ In five minutes I was asleep, and I awoke the following morning perfectly well. We must believe God, no matter how convincing satan’s arguments appear.” 27

Jim from Chapter 6? He is living in this chapter right now. His healing hasn’t manifested completely yet so he is faithfully exalting the truth that he is healed above the present facts that try to paint a different picture for him. Healing is not always instantaneous, as Watchman Nee discovered. In fact, many times it is a process. The last words of Jesus as recorded in the Gospel of Mark were His instructions to His disciples that they “will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover” (Mark 16:18, NKJV). Recovery implies a process. I love testimonies of instantaneous healing.

But don’t give up on your healing just because it didn’t happen instantly. Keep the switch of faith turned on. Keep exalting the truth above the facts and the truth will eventually win out.

A couple approached my wife and me one day and expressed their discouragement over the lack of improvement in the husband’s condition after several people had prayed over him and after several months of their holding onto the Word. I asked the husband: “Have you ever cut down a large tree with an axe?” He said he had. Then I asked, “Which chop of the axe brought down that tree?” He thought for a minute and then responded, “Well, I guess all of them.” I said, “You’re right. And the same principle is true when it comes to your healing. Every prayer of faith, every step of obedience, and every confession exalting the truth above the facts is another swing of the sword of the Spirit that will eventually cut you completely free from that sickness and disease. Your ‘suddenly’ will come. Don’t stop swinging the sword of the Spirit. Don’t stop declaring your healing. Don’t stop exalting the truth above the facts.”

That analogy seemed to help them. Keep exalting the truth above the facts and the truth will eventually win out. We all love one-round faith fights. But not all of them are over in one round. If they go longer, we need to add patience to our faith. God said He would always cause us to triumph as long as we don’t quit (1 Corinthians 2:14). Keep swinging your sword. Keep exalting the truth above the facts and God will bring you the victory, just as you have seen and heard Him do

for others!

25 Larry Phillips, Interview by Cammy Walters, River of Life Church, 4 March 2007 26 Bob Nichols. “Whose Report Will You Believe?” Buena Vista, Col., Andrew Wommack Ministers Conference. 4 October 2000, Audio cassette 27 Watchman Nee. The Normal Christian Life. (Ft. Washington, Penn.: Tyndale House Publishers, 1982), 75, 76

Chapter 9: Surround Yourself with Faith Builders

“What an amazing celebration service that was this morning,” my wife and I commented excitedly to Stuart and Irene Bell. The Bells are friends of ours in Lincoln, England, where they pastor a large church and oversee a network of churches in that region. We had just sat down for lunch following their Sunday morning service, where they had announced their son, David, had received a “cancer-free, clean bill of health” report from the doctors.

“We are so thankful for God’s goodness and faithfulness to us and to David, and we are glad that you could be here with us to share in our joy,” Stuart graciously responded. It was one year earlier that David, at age 16, had been diagnosed with a cancerous tumor behind his right eye. At first he complained of a “sleepy eye” which he said was starting to droop, especially if he was extra tired. But when the eye began to swell he was sent for a scan, which revealed a tumor.

Later, a biopsy was scheduled and the tumor was discovered to be cancerous. This diagnosis was followed by a series of nine chemotherapy treatments, which David came through amazingly well. Then radiation treatment was scheduled, which had a number of possible side affects including permanent damage to the tear duct, a cataract, permanent loss of eyebrow and lashes, damage to the pituitary gland and possible bone deformation. Stuart and Irene relayed to us that God had spoken to them that David would go through the “murky waters of chemotherapy” and he would come up well. Then when the radiation was scheduled, they were similarly impressed that he would go through the fire of radiation and not be burned.

Just the week prior to this celebration service the doctors had given David a clean bill of health. He has no trace of cancer and the tumor is gone! His sight is good and he has strong eyebrows and eyelashes. There is no deformity of David’s face and his tear ducts produce tears. Praise God!

Now you understand why this Sunday morning celebration service was so special. During lunch Stuart and Irene discussed with us the process that God led them through to receive David’s healing. What struck my wife and me was the number of similarities between how God led us to receive healing for myself and Michael several years before and how He led them with regard to David. They were faithful to follow the steps God led them through instead of following someone else’s faith. They were confident Jesus provided healing for David by His atonement. They were secure in God’s love for them. They were aggressive in their faith and exalted the truth above the facts. In fact, this discussion with the Bells has been a major impetus for this book.

I saw that the same things that brought healing to Michael and me had brought healing to David. I knew then that these were wisdom keys that would unlock healing doors for others as well. One of the major points we talked about at lunch that day was the subject of this chapter: Surround yourself with faith builders. We talked about the importance of being around people of faith and constantly hearing words of faith, especially during times of crisis. Irene shared with us that while David was in the hospital receiving treatments she and Stuart made it their focus to keep David’s spirit and faith built up. In an environment where acute physical situations abound, and “worst-case scenarios” are normal communication from medical professionals, it is essential that we take strong measures to guard our hearts from doubt and fear. When we are in a faith fight, it is critical who we expose ourselves to. We need to avoid “faith killers” and “unbelieving” believers who possess an eternal negative perspective and feel it is their duty to inform us of all the negative possibilities of our situation.

Later, Stuart shared some insights with me that God had shown him about this principle that I would like to share with you:

Jesus certainly knew the importance of this. On one occasion he put people out of the room when, instead of believing for healing, they were happier with the “ministry of wailing”. There are far too many people who see the darker side of

life. For some there is almost an unhealthy desire to talk about ailments and aches and pains. We are far more likely to hear people say, “I think I’m catching a cold” rather than, “I think I’m catching a healing!” For some, negative confession becomes second nature. The last thing people who are under pressure want to hear is a story of someone who died of the same disease they are facing. Well-meaning people have endless horror stories of things that went wrong for them in the operating theatre or about receiving wrongly prescribed medication. King David encountered this problem in Psalm 41:7 where he says, ‘All my enemies whispered together against me; they imagine the worst for me saying, “A vile disease has beset him; he will never get up from the place where he lies.”’ With friends like that, who needs enemies? 28

When Michael was suffering so much, Janice and I determined to allow certain family and friends to see him only when absolutely necessary. We kept those visits at a minimum because we could not afford to expose ourselves to human pity and sympathy. We learned a very important lesson: Human sympathy always leads to despair, while Godly comion brings hope! Limit the amount of time you spend with those who leave you emotionally drained and discouraged. In fact, it’s best to remove yourself from that environment altogether, as much as possible. You should spend time with people who help to strengthen your faith, encourage you, and leave you with hope—especially in the midst of a crisis.

It is imperative that we are selective about our close circle of friends and counselors during such critical times of physical and spiritual attack. Stuart shares the following testimony about how God led him and Irene to surround themselves with “Faith Builders” during their crisis with David:

“As a church leader with responsibility for a growing local church and network of churches, I felt an enormous weight descend upon me when we heard the news that David had a cancerous tumor behind his eye. There was now a huge expectancy upon me to deliver the goods and see my son healed, but this mountain seemed too high for me.

“Alongside this sense of inadequacy however came a sense of strategic direction. One morning I awoke with the phrase, ‘Call David’s mighty men.’ I instinctively thought of the mighty men who fought for the well-being of King David and so I began to call people who were friends or prayer warriors to stand with us each day throughout the week until we received the prognosis we desired. It is imperative that we are selective about our close circle of friends and counselors during critical times of physical and spiritual attack. We chose people who were willing to stand with our focus, which was to see David delivered, set free, and healed. On our first prayer meeting I gave a clear ultimatum. I said, ‘The only people we want to be involved are those who will stand with us for David’s full healing.’ I did not see this as trying to avoid reality but as a clear focus on God’s perfect will for our son. The people who gathered around us really did become ‘David’s mighty men.’ Each of them carried weight in the battle. We felt our arms were consistently being lifted up. “Not only did these mighty men and women pray, they also prophesied. Week after week Scriptures were declared over David concerning his future. We pronounced that he would not lose his sight. Week by week new levels of confidence began to grip us. On occasions David would say, ‘I feel guilty. Other people around me on the hospital ward are struggling with infections and I always have my treatment on time.’ We then began to name other children on the ward and told their parents we were praying for them. Answers to prayer began to flow. Men and women of faith surrounded us during this critical time in our lives. They believed in us enough to stand with us for as long as it took. David’s healing has now manifested. I am now in a position to with thanks two of the first verses God gave me from Psalms: ‘The Lord will sustain him on his sickbed and restore him from his bed of illness,’ and ‘We have escaped like a bird out of the fowler’s snare; the snare has been broken, and we have escaped.’ — Psalm. 41:3, (NKJV); Psalm 124:7, (NKJV). GOD HAS ANSWERED ALL OF OUR PRAYERS!” 29

What a powerful testimony of the power of agreement and the results of being surrounded by men and women of faith. Now, I don’t suggest that you do exactly what Stuart and Irene did. what we learned in Chapter 1—it’s according to your faith. They did what God led them to do in gathering their people of faith around them. This is what I am encouraging you to do: Find people of faith who will help you stay focused and in faith during a crisis and

spend time with them. Charles and s Hunter write in their book, How to Heal the Sick:

When you say you are healed by the stripes of Jesus, say it to someone whose faith and understanding is on the same or a higher level than yours, and your own faith will build! 30

It is also important during a faith crisis, or any other time for that matter, to control the information and knowledge that is fed into our lives. The Bible says faith comes by hearing (Romans 10:17). We need to read books and listen to CD’s and various other media that encourage our faith and build our expectation. We should shut off the voices and resources that discourage us or diminish our faith.

I have heard Kenneth E. Hagin say on numerous occasions that “believers should starve their doubts and feed their faith.”

This principle was a very important part of the process in receiving Michael’s healing. During that terrible sickness, Janice and I spent the majority of our time focusing our attention on God’s Word—reading Word-based books and listening to teaching tapes that helped build our faith and give us hope. I recorded my voice quoting healing Scriptures that dealt with God’s faithfulness and our authority and played them in Michael’s room at night and in other parts of the house during the day. I also wrote out those 70 verses of Scripture that Janice and I spoke over Michael several times a day. After speaking the Word over Michael for weeks, one day Psalm 119:89–90 leapt off the page and into our hearts. It reads: “Forever, O Lord, your Word is settled in heaven. Your faithfulness is to all generations.” Those generations include Michael’s generation.

That verse settled our hearts and gave us assurance that Michael would experience God’s faithfulness to heal and deliver him. It was from these original 70 verses of three categories of Scripture that I received the inspiration to compile a book of 41 categories of Scripture titled Scriptures to Live By. This book has been a blessing to many people.

Also, our faith was strengthened by playing worship music and faith-building songs during that time. One song in particular, “New Creation,” helped my faith tremendously. When it seemed Michael’s condition was getting worse instead of better and I was becoming very discouraged, I played that Word-based song over and over again. At the Lord’s instruction, Janice and I would forego some normal information venues to focus a greater portion of time on God’s Word. This focus on the Word created an environment for faith and healing. I would compare it to receiving aggressive medical treatment that requires great change and adjustment in our schedule. I call it “the attention factor.” The book of Proverbs describes this important principle:

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 find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life (Proverbs 4:20–23, NKJV).

This age tells us that life and health flow wherever attention to God’s Word is given. That is exactly what Janice and I did during that crisis with our son. We shut out all distractions of other voices and turned aside to give attention to God’s Word. The results were health and life for Michael. Stuart, Irene, and David Bell applied the same principle and received the same results. You can experience those results in your life or in the lives of those you are ministering to. Determine to surround yourself with people of faith and words of faith and you, too, will experience life and health in all your flesh!

28 Stuart Bell, “Surround yourself with faith builders,” 12 May 2005, personal email (12 May 2005) 29 Stuart Bell, “David Bell’s Story,” 12 May 2005, personal email (12 May 2005) 30 Charles and s Hunter, How to Heal the Sick,

Chapter 10: Hear and Be Healed

Paul, a longtime friend and elder in my church, asked if he could speak with me before service started one Sunday morning in November of 2004.

“What’s up?” I asked as we sat together in my office.

Paul explained that his mother had several X-rays taken recently that showed she had an ulcer and a mass in her stomach that could possibly be a tumor.

“It doesn’t look good,” Paul explained. “They’ll do a scope on her later this week to determine what kind of surgery she will need. She told me this morning that God instructed her to have the elders pray over her and anoint her with oil. She said she is not going to leave the church building today until the elders pray over her, even if she has to stay all day.”

I assured Paul that the elders would be glad to pray for his mother. “It will also be a point of drawing our entire church body together in faith for her healing,” I told him.

After our worship time, I called our elders and their wives together and we prayed over Paul’s mom, Nelda Milligan, and anointed her with oil. The presence of God was so powerful and tangible during that time of prayer that it felt like electricity was in the air. Because Nelda was such a beloved and longtime church member, there was also a strong sense of corporate love and faith that flowed from the church body to her. It was really a precious time. She had the scope performed by a local surgeon the following Thursday. I will let

Nelda describe what happened next in her own words:

“In October of 2004 I started having problems with my stomach. Everything that I ate made my stomach feel bad and it was just real raw. I thought at first that it must be ulcers, so I went to see my doctor. After he took X-rays he sent me to a local radiologist because it did not look good to him. The day I went to the radiologist I knew that something was wrong. After he took the first set of pictures he came back and started taking them all over again. I thought to myself, ‘What’s going on here?’ After he completed all of the X-rays he wouldn’t tell me what he saw, except to say, ‘It looks like there might be a problem.’ He sent me back to my doctor who told me that there was an ulcer and a mass in my stomach that they thought was probably cancer. He then set up an appointment for me the following week with a surgeon to put a scope down my throat into my stomach and make clear pictures of what was there so he would know better what he was dealing with.

“After that appointment was set, I felt led to go home and meditate on the Book of James. When I read James 5:14–15, I knew that it was God speaking straight to me. It says, ‘Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up.’ I knew after meditating on those verses that God was telling me to go and ask the elders to pray for me.

I had gastrectomy surgery in 1967 when they took out forty percent of my stomach and repaired a hiatal hernia. I just did not want to go through all that again so I asked God to do a miracle for me this time. I believe that for every miracle we need there is an instruction for us. If we seek the Lord He will always come and give us instruction for our situation. I don’t think that God heals or performs a miracle the same way every time. That is why we need to ask God what He wants us to do to cooperate with Him to receive our miracle.

“I went to our church the following Sunday morning and told my son, who is an elder there, ‘The elders have got to pray for me this morning because God instructed me that was how I was to receive my miracle. I’m not leaving here today until you pray for me.’ They did pray for me that day, and afterward I just knew that I was going to be fine. I went to the surgeon the following Thursday for him to perform that scope on me. When this surgeon finished the scope, he went out to the waiting room to tell my son and daughter-in-law what he had found. He apologized to them for putting me through all that was involved in that test. He said, ‘I don’t know what the other doctors saw, but there is nothing there! In fact your mother’s stomach is as pink as a baby’s. There is no ulcer and no mass. Whatever they saw on those X-rays is no longer there!’ This was all the more a miracle because I should have had scar tissue from the surgery in the past.

“Thank God I am healed and thank God for His faithfulness and His instruction to me that helped me receive this miracle!” 31

What a great testimony and example that illustrates the primary principle of this chapter. There are several Bible ages that connect our hearing with our healing. The following three verses make the connection very clear:

Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them. — Matthew 13:15, (NKJV)

…great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities. — Luke 5:15, (NKJV)

…a great multitude of people…came to hear Him and be healed of their diseases. — Luke 6:17, (NKJV)

This principle requires us to go inside our relationship with Jesus, listen to Him and depend on Him for the specific strategy He has for our healing. There are many different methods God uses to heal. Also, He does not use the same method with each person every time they need healing. The reason is that He wants us to depend on Him, not the method. Since He doesn’t manifest healing the same way all of the time, it becomes imperative that we look to Him for the specific step of obedience we are to take to cooperate with His healing power. Benny Hinn writes in his book, Good Morning, Holy Spirit: “The Holy Spirit, however, takes the voice of the Father and the Son and makes it quiet, lovely, and perfectly clear.” 32

In their book, How to Heal the Sick, Charles and s Hunter describe the connection between hearing and healing this way: “You have to listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and then you’ve got to be a doer of the Word and not just a hearer only.” 33

I am not suggesting we “work” for our healing, because everything we receive from God is by grace through faith. But our faith response does require some action. Knowing what action to take only comes by learning to depend on Him and by listening to His voice—in other words, by having a relationship with Him. As Nelda said, we must learn to listen for His instruction when we need healing or a miracle.

Let me give you several examples of healings performed in Jesus’ ministry in which He used different methods:

1) Jesus touched the leper with His hand and commanded him to tell no one except to show himself to the priest. — Matthew 8:2–4

2) The Centurion’s servant: “Speak the Word only and my servant will be healed.” Jesus’ response: “Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” — Matthew 8:8, 13

3) Peter’s mother-in-law: “He touched her hand and the fever left her.” — Matthew 8:15, (NKJV)

4) Paralytic: “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you…Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” — Matthew 9:2, 6, (NKJV).

He first dealt with the sin factor in this man’s life.

5)Man blind since birth: “‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned’…He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And He said to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.”’ — John 9:3, 6–7, (NKJV).

Jesus did not deal with sin in this instance of healing.

6) Mute man: “When the demon was cast out, the mute spoke.” — Matthew 9:32, (NKJV).

Healing in this instance followed the casting out of devils.

7) Deaf mute: “He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his

ears, and He spat and touched his tongue…. He sighed and said, ‘Be opened….’ Immediately his ears were opened… and he spoke plainly.” — Mark 7:33–35, (NKJV).

There was no casting out of devils in the healing of this deaf mute.

8) Man with withered hand: “‘Stretch out your hand.’ And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other.” — Matthew 12:9–13, (NKJV)

9) Blind man: Jesus led him by the hand out of town. He spat on his eyes and put His hands on him. Then He put His hands on him again and he was restored and saw everyone clearly. — Mark 8:23–26, (NKJV)

The bottom line is this: Jesus did not heal people the same way every time. He listened to the Father, followed the Spirit and involved the recipients of healing. The principles are always the same, but the methods are not. Again, Charles and s Hunter confirm this all-important wisdom key to healing in their advice on ministering healing to others. They write:

If one method doesn’t work for you, you should try another way, because if God had wanted us to heal only one particular way He would never have had Jesus heal in so many different ways in the Bible! 34

As stated earlier, when I heard the report that I had cancer, I sought the Lord in prayer and received a strong impression that I was to go to three spiritual leaders in my life and have them pray for me. The result of obedience to that instruction was complete healing. The following year when we received the negative report from the doctors about our son’s health, guess what the first thing was that we

did? That’s right, we took Michael to the same three men who prayed for me and asked them to pray for him. What do you suppose happened as a result of that action?

Nothing.

In fact, Michael became worse.

Was it because the prayers of those three men were not effective?

Absolutely not! The fact was that we had not received instructions from the Lord where Michael’s situation was concerned. We had moved out on our own.

And that was the wrong thing to do. Each battle over our health is different. That requires us to remain dependent upon the Lord and to listen for His voice.

When we realized our mistake, we were quick to seek the Lord for His instruction to us for Michael’s healing. This time the Lord instructed us to immerse ourselves in His Word and to speak the Word over Michael every day. Our obedience to that instruction brought healing to Michael. He crawled after three months and walked six months later.

In subsequent battles where sickness afflicted me, my wife, or one of our four children, we learned that we could not always receive healing the same way He led us with me or with Michael. Each battle over our health is different. That requires us to remain dependent upon the Lord and to listen for His voice. I

one time the Lord clearly instructed us to go to the doctor when one of our children was sick but it didn’t seem to be anything major. When we took him to the doctor, we discovered he had “walking pneumonia” and could have died had he not been treated. Another time, the Lord led my wife to go to the hospital and pray for other children who needed healing when our own child was sick. On another occasion when we were fighting sickness in our bodies, He led us to just praise Him audibly.

At other times, the Lord has led us to go to others to pray the prayer of agreement with us. Then, there have been times when He has simply led us to exercise, eat right, and take care of our bodies. The point is that God does have healing for us all the time, but He doesn’t always use the same methods to bring healing.

Whenever you experience an attack against your health, the first thing to do is to take time to seek the Lord. Sometimes you will find that you need to seek counsel or agreement in prayer, or simply stand, take authority over the enemy, and speak to the mountain of sickness, commanding it to be removed from your body. There will also be times when you may be led to go to a service where the gifts of healing are in operation, or the Lord may instruct you to simply get in the Word, meditate on it and speak it until the manifestation comes. The bottom line is to get into God’s presence, listen for His instruction, and follow the leading of His Spirit. If you don’t receive specific instructions from the Lord, then act on whichever wisdom key for healing you feel strongest about. God will confirm His Word with signs following.

When you are ministering healing to others, don’t lay hands on every individual suddenly. If possible, take time to talk to the person, ask questions and listen to them. Also, listen and be sensitive to the Holy Spirit concerning them. The Bible says He will teach us all things and guide us into all truth (John 14:26, 16:13). He knows everything . Sometimes He will give you instruction concerning the person’s relationship with God or with others. At times, He will impress you about a simple point of obedience they need to act on to release

their faith. Many times Jesus gave Spirit-inspired instructions to the recipients of His healing ministry that involved them and their faith. Other times He just spoke the Word and released healing to them as He laid hands on them. Be followers of Him in your ministry to others. Listen for His voice. Follow the Spirit. Hear and be healed. Hear and bring healing to others!

31 Nelda Milligan, Interview by Cammy Walters, River of Life Church, 3 March 2007 32 Benny Hinn. Good Morning, Holy Spirit. (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990), 71 33 Charles and s Hunter. How to Heal the Sick, 99 34 Charles and s Hunter. How to Heal the Sick, 19

Chapter 11: Dealing with Counterattacks

After Michael walked for the first time, at 22 months old, Janice and I were overjoyed and spent much time praising God. The doctors had told us if this disease progressed he would never walk. Yet, here he was walking; all praise and glory to God! We felt a great sense of relief. Along with that relief came a temptation to “lay down our guard” spiritually. We had been in such a fierce spiritual battle that we were just glad it was over and were looking forward to some rest from our “fight of faith.” Since that time, I have realized we are actually most vulnerable immediately following a great victory. At these times when we feel invincible, we are more susceptible to deception and giving in to our flesh. We must continue to be vigilant and not let our guard down if we desire to maintain the healing and freedom God has brought to us.

About a month after Michael took his first steps, our pastor, John Osteen, preached a message called, “The Counterattack of the Devil.” Was that ever a timely and applicable message for us! The basis for this “word in season” to us was the following age from Matthew’s Gospel:

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 also be with this wicked generation (Matthew 12:43–45, NKJV).

I still have the notes I made from that message. One of the most striking statements Pastor Osteen made in that message was this:

More battles are lost in counterattacks than any other kind of battle. It is true that you and I have authority over the devil because of Jesus. But the devil doesn’t give up just because he leaves you the first time. Demons can’t find rest outside of bodies. Jesus said that there is a demon that calls your body his house. Spirits of infirmity, iniquity, or uncleanness say, ‘I will return to my house.’ Don’t give the devil any room. Whom the Son has set free is free indeed. Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost now and that devil cannot come back if you don’t let him. 35

Understanding this truth didn’t put fear in Janice and me. Rather, it actually prepared us for future attacks of the enemy and caused us both to be vigilant and ready. In fact, just one month later Michael’s wrist and hand began to swell up again. Instead of allowing fear and doubt to consume us with thoughts that Michael’s healing was short-lived, we just took authority over the enemy, rebuked that swelling, and commanded it to leave his body in Jesus’ name. Within 24 hours the swelling was gone. Praise God!

The point of this chapter is this: Don’t be naïve and don’t let down your spiritual guard once you experience a spiritual victory. The devil 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” (Matthew 4:4). 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.

It would be like a burglar who gets shot and wounded while attempting to break into a home. One thing is for sure:

Though he may burglarize other homes, he is definitely going to stay away from

that resident who exercised his authority to keep him out. He will go to other houses where it is “easy pickings” and there is no resistance. That is exactly how it is with the devil. If you consistently resist him with the Word, he will flee and go somwhere else.

Jesus told us the kind of house where the devil can regain control. It is a house that is swept and clean, but empty. It is a house that is not filled with the Word and the Spirit. That explains why so many people who are healed by the 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 so the healing God gave us cannot be stolen by the enemy later through a counterattack. Kenneth E. Hagin describes this responsibility well in his book, How to Keep Your Healing. He writes:

Yes, the devil will try to put things back on you. But if the Word of God has been built into your spirit – if you’ve meditated on it long enough, fed on it, and put it into your spirit until you know it has become a part of your inner consciousness – you can put the devil on the run every time. If temptation comes – if pain comes – instead of being afraid and panicking, you’ll just start laughing. 36

It is important that we stay in faith about our healing even after it has manifested.

Peter explains this vital principle in 1 Peter 5:8–9, (NKJV). He says we are to “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him steadfast in the faith…”

The devil can only devour those who are not sober and vigilant—those who do not resist him steadfastly in faith. In other words, those who have let down their

guard and become ive. When he comes, they are vulnerable to his attacks. Be ready for the devil’s counterattacks and you won’t be defeated by them. Stay in faith and in the Word regarding every aspect of your being. Don’t doubt your healing when the devil comes cloaked in a pain or a lying symptom of sickness or disease. Resist him steadfast in the faith. Run him off with the Word and he will mark your house as a place he and all demons will fear to approach again.

I want to let my friend, Stuart Bell, finish this chapter by describing how he and his family have been led to remain steadfast in faith following David’s healing. His focus is on how they dealt with attacks in their thoughts and on their faith after David was healed, and I really couldn’t say it any better.

Here are Stuart’s comments:

“Our good friend Grace Saidu is a wonderful intercessor. From the beginning she declared that David would receive double for his trouble. As healing has come we are increasingly aware of the favour and blessing of God. We also see the need to remain vigilant and alert. With people like Grace around we feel secure. She represents praying people who, with violence, are taking the Kingdom. They are intolerant towards the enemy and stand firm upon God’s Word.

“When we received the news that David’s scan was clear we were jubilant and, as a family, we spent a night in a good hotel to celebrate. We were overwhelmed with thanksgiving, but there was still a long way to go. David was still bald and wanted to return to his normal weight overnight. Strangely, within a few days, we found ourselves plunged into a vacuum. We were deeply grateful to God but would be taken by surprise by those lurking fears. David had come through his treatment with dignity. Only occasionally did he become angry at his situation, but now he found things more difficult. It was as though his focus of getting well had been taken away and uncertainty about the future was growing.

What would he do in of education? His exams had been disrupted but did he really want to concentrate on such trivial things? Would he get a job? What about marriage? Would he have children in the future? Following the clarity of focussed prayer, suddenly everything now seemed uncertain.

“Though the scans were clear, we decided to keep the prayer mobilised. We also centred our prayers on others. During our ordeal we had learned lessons that could help other people in similar circumstances. Our attention was directed towards another situation within our church. A young couple, Graeme and Charlotte, were newly married. On their wedding day, Graeme delayed his arrival because he did not feel well. Within a short period of time this couple were catapulted into the realisation that Graeme had a cancer in his chest. Our prayer team were immediately ready to stand with them. God had taught us many things and with these principles in place we entered into another battle. Graeme is now also clear of the disease following his gruelling treatment. We are grateful to God. Praying for others is a vital ingredient in our own wellbeing.

“Another issue David had to face was the realisation of just how serious his battle had been. Recently, he had a routine check-up and a student nurse was present. As David was being examined the nurse asked the senior physician, ‘How long will David be monitored?’ Turning to David, the doctor asked: ‘Do you know, David?’ He replied, ‘For five years, I think!’ The student nurse then replied, ‘No, David, we monitor you for the rest of your life.’ I think the student thought she was delivering good news, but for David the thought of medical issues overshadowing him for life was foreboding. Our prayer team underlined the fact that God will look after David for the remainder of his days. A prayer that has been permanently stationed at the side of David’s bed reads, ‘With long life will I satisfy Him and show him my salvation’ (Psalm 91:16).

“We believe in God’s overshadowing presence and His angels, who guard us in all our ways (Psalm 91:11). In our vulnerability the ongoing declared Word of

God remains a priority for us. In the early days of David’s illness we took time to spiritually ‘put on the armour of God’ as recorded in Ephesians 6:11. This is armour of light for every area of a person’s life. We still declare that this armour is available for our protection and well-being. We are determined not to be negligent in the areas God had shown us. However, we should not do these things out of a sense of fear but out of continued faith in God. “Upon reaching the end of David’s treatment we declared, ‘It is finished!’ — the words of Christ from the Cross. It was not long before the double dimension of blessing appeared. One evening, four representatives from the Make-a-WishFoundation came to our home. They asked David to think of something he would especially like to do or a person he would like to meet. From a young boy David has loved the guitar playing of Eric Clapton, so his wish was to meet this famous man. It wasn’t long before we received a package in the mail that included first-class rail tickets to London. The package included sightseeing, a meal at the Hard Rock Café and two nights in a five-star hotel near Harrods. The big day arrived and a stretch-limousine came to pick us up. David sat in the back seat with an open window enjoying a ‘celebrity’ moment. We were taken to The Royal Albert Hall where we met Eric Clapton and stayed for his concert.

“Later, another charity arranged for us to meet Elton John in Birmingham. Once again a limousine took us from our hotel to the National Exhibition Centre. During his concert, Elton John dedicated a song to David.

“After Eric and Elton came a meeting with singer Little Richard. The Make-aWish Foundation arranged a fundraising event in the East End of London. David and his girlfriend, Sarah, got the red carpet treatment. Atlas, the band in which David played lead guitar, was given a 20-minute set as the act for Little Richard and his 12 piece band that had flown in from America. During the set David gave his testimony. He said, ‘Two things helped me through my ordeal; my love for music and my faith in God. God has saved my day!’ “The audience applauded loudly. Who would have imagined that these doors of influence and opportunity would be opened following the months of pressure and pain? It is essential after healing has come to look forward to the future. Be

thankful for God’s healing power and be filled with faith in God’s keeping power. There is no doubt in my mind that what the enemy intended for harm God has turned around for good. Through the process of suffering God has given new levels of determination and perseverance that have culminated in hope for the future, and this hope will not disappoint us. We have found the following to be helpful guidelines.

• Live with an attitude of thankfulness. • Don’t give any room for ‘what-ifs’. • Continue to be vigilant in prayer. • Keep reciting faith promises. • Surround yourself with faithful friends. • Recognise the importance of the armour of God. • Reject negative statements. • Face each day with a fresh faith. • Get involved in praying for the needs of others.”

35 John Osteen. “The Counterattack of the Devil”. Lakewood Church, 29 April 1979 36 Kenneth Hagin. How to Keep Your Healing, 23

Chapter 12: If Healing Does Not Manifest

Notice what the title of this final chapter does not say. It doesn’t say, “If Healing Does Not Come.” I believe healing always comes when an individual asks for it, but it doesn’t 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 to us 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 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 the devil exploits the weakened physical condition of overworked Christian ministers and attempts to take them out. We see this as the case with Epaphroditus in Philippians 2:25–30.

These are just a few of the reasons some people fail to see healing manifest in their lives. Several years ago, I heard Kenneth E. Hagin preach a message called, “The Secret Things Belong to the Lord.” His text came from Deuteronomy 29:29, (NKJV), which says: “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

In his message, Brother Hagin told the story of his sister who had died of cancer in her fifties. He and his wife had ministered to her the principles of faith that had brought healing to hundreds in his meetings. They had prayed the prayer of agreement with her and were convinced she was trusting God for healing. Then, suddenly one day she died after having slipped into a coma.

Her death was quite a shock to Brother Hagin. It also raised a number of questions, as would be the case with anyone who loses a loved one. While he was praying and asking God why his sister died and what could have been done differently to help her receive the manifestation of her healing, Brother Hagin had a vision. He saw a beautiful young lady walking up a path toward heaven. When she turned around, he saw that she was his sister. She looked to be about 25 years younger, Brother Hagin recalled. She glanced and said: “Don’t feel badly, Ken, that you couldn’t get healing to me. You didn’t fail. There are some things I cannot tell you now that you will understand later on. Tell my children that I love them and that I’m just fine.” Brother Hagin came out of that vision with Deuteronomy 29:29 resounding in his spirit.

Honestly, I thought he was preaching false doctrine at the time. I was young and very idealistic about what I believed. I was certain if we walked in faith and in the Spirit like Jesus did we would see everyone we prayed for healed. Certainly, there would be no premature deaths. It was not long after that we discovered that Willie Mae, the primary babysitter for our young children, had been diagnosed with cancer. She was a good Christian and a member of a denominational church. Some of her family were not walking close to the Lord at the time, so my wife and I made ourselves available to minister faith and healing to Willie Mae. We were convinced when she received the manifestation of her healing and got a clear doctor’s report, it would be a sign to her family that would draw them to Jesus and cause them to receive salvation.

After several weeks of our ministering the Word to her, Willie Mae announced to us one day, “If God wants me to be healed, then I’ll be healed. If He doesn’t, then I won’t.” It wasn’t long after that she ed away. That same Scripture Brother Hagin preached came back to me, “The secret things belong to the Lord.” We didn’t enter into judgment that Willie Mae had no faith. Her faith was to go home and be with the Lord. No matter how much we preach the truth, we do not have control of people’s lives or wills. Understanding this principle didn’t cause me to lose my confidence in praying for the sick. Rather, it helped me to commit Willie Mae to the Lord, knowing there was something secret and special between her and her Lord that was none of my business. I needed to leave that with God and trust Him even when I did not understand everything about

everyone. The message we heard earlier from Brother Hagin that I thought was false doctrine actually helped us properly process Willie Mae’s homegoing.

I have heard a lot of messages preached on the book of Job by teachers and preachers who attempted to explain the reasons Job was in the mess he found himself in (fear, unbelief, putting his children before God, etc.). The goal of each of these messages was that we could learn from what Job did wrong and avoid facing the same type of tragedy and crisis. Certainly there is truth that we can glean along these lines, but I don’t believe that is the primary message. I am convinced the primary message of the book of Job is to help us respond to God in faith and trust when life’s circumstances do not line up with our theology. What do we do when life throws us a curve that is much different from either what we have prayed or what we have believed? The bottom line is that Job maintained his trust in the Lord and eventually prayed for his condemning friends. The results were that his situation turned around and he received double what the devil had stolen from him.

What do we do with our apparent “faith failures?” That is the purpose for this last chapter. You know what I am talking about—those situations when you prayed for someone and they died or they have not improved significantly in months or even years. Let me share with you some simple keys I have learned over the years that have helped me stay in faith and maintain my trust in the Lord when circumstances are going “haywire”.

First of all, don’t blame God or allow yourself to get angry at God. I performed a funeral a number of years ago for a 40-year-old woman who had died in an auto accident. She was born again and now was in the presence of God. I encouraged the large, grieving crowd at the funeral service that it was not possible to honor their friend and loved one by becoming angry at the Lord she was now so happy to be with. God is not our problem. He is good and just and right all the time. He is not to blame. When you and I get to heaven, we will discover that is true, so we might as well agree with it now because God’s Word declares it is so. If anything, focus your anger and blame at the devil by serving God with all your

heart and by ministering life and health to others.

Do you what Jesus did after He heard John the Baptist had been beheaded? He went to a place of prayer and then came out to heal and minister miracles to the multitudes (Matthew 14:1–14). Instead of blaming God or stirring up a riot against Herod, Jesus set people free from satanic bondage! I am confident it would please God for every individual who experiences some similar tragedy in life to respond in the same way.

Second, don’t allow the situation to separate you from God’s love. Determine that nothing satan or people throw your way in life will convince you that God does not love you. The apostle Paul says it so well in 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.

Refuse to allow anything temporal to affect your relationship with God.

Third, don’t allow your doctrine to be shaped by your experience. A lot of good and sincere people attempt to interpret the Word of God based on their experience. That is not good theology! It is never wise to give your personal experience greater authority than the Word of God in your life. Let God be true and every man a liar (Romans 3:4).

Next, worship God. When disappointment, loss, or tragedy happens to us, we have two choices: Either worship God or become bitter. Francis Frangipane, in

his article, “Bitterness in the Garden of Our Hearts,” compares Naomi and Job and how each of them responded to great loss. He wrote:

How we handle sorrow reveals the depth of our worship of God. When life cuts us, do we bleed bitterness or worship? Job bowed and drew close to God. Naomi withdrew and talked about the Lord with her back to Him. She was angry that God had allowed hardship in her life. 37

Several years ago, a couple in our church lost their daughter in a tragic auto accident that happened in another state. One of the leaders in our church graciously provided his private airplane to fly this man and his wife to pick up their granddaughter who had survived the accident. On the way to their destination, the man knelt down in the aisle of this small plane, lifted his heart and hands to heaven and worshiped God. In the midst of the greatest loss he had ever experienced, he chose to surrender his pain to God through worship. I cannot any single event that has humbled me as much as this man’s response to personal tragedy. Whenever the enemy comes to steal from us and we respond in worship instead of drawing back from God, it reinforces satan’s defeat.

Finally, keep praying for the sick. Don’t stop praying for sick people because someone you prayed for died. Failure in praying for the sick is no different than failure to see a lost person saved that you shared your faith with. Just because that individual, or 10 others you share the gospel with, did not respond positively, don’t stop witnessing to the lost! If someone I shared the gospel with dies without Jesus, I am not going to stop witnessing to the lost. In fact, that will motivate me to be more resolved to share my faith with others. We should approach healing ministry and praying for the sick in the same fashion.

I refuse to stop praying for the sick because of those who don’t experience the manifestation of their healing and leave this life prematurely. Whenever I have prayed for someone’s healing and they die, I become more resolved to pray for

others’ health to be restored so that the enemy won’t have opportunity to keep them from finishing their course with joy. One third of Jesus’ ministry involved healing the sick. If I am to represent Him in ministry, then I must keep reaching out to the sick and hurting by giving them hope that they can be well.

Immediately prior to Jesus’ departure and return to the Father, He left us an irrevocable assignment: Preach the gospel to the lost, set captives free from demonic bondage, and minister healing to the sick (Mark 16:17–18). In spite of our weaknesses, our sense of inadequacy, and past failures, and as long as we have breath, we must keep functioning in healing ministry. Jesus wants people well. He needs you and me to minister in His stead. If you accept this assignment, the Holy Spirit will confirm His Word with signs following in your life. Many lives will be spared. People’s destiny and inheritance will be discovered. Jesus will be pleased.

My prayer for you, and more importantly Jesus’ prayer for you from the right hand of the Father, is that you take these wisdom keys and with confidence go out and unlock healing doors for sick and hurting humanity. Amen.

37 Francis Frangipane. “Bitterness in the Garden of Our Hearts”. [email protected], 2

Bibliography

Bell, Stuart. “David Bell’s Story.” 12 May 2005. personal email (12 May 2005).

Bell, Stuart. “Surround yourself with faith builders.” 12 May 2005. personal email (12 May 2005).

Blue, Ken. Authority to Heal. Madison, WI: InterVarsity Press. 1987.

Bosworth, F.F. Christ the Healer. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Fleming H. Revell. 1924.

Cruz, Jennifer. Interview by Cammy Walters. River of Life Church. 5 March, 2007.

Daniels, Kimberly. From a Mess to a Miracle. Lake Mary, Fla.: Creation House Press. 2002.

Frangipane, Francis. “Bitterness in the Garden of Our Hearts.” [email protected].

Hagin Jr., Kenneth. Faith Worketh by Love. Tulsa, Ok.: Rhema Bible Church Publications. 1979.

Hagin Jr., Kenneth. Healing, a Forever Settled Subject. Tulsa, OK: Rhema Bible Church Publications. 1981.

Hagin Jr., Kenneth. Seven Hindrances to Healing. Tulsa, OK: Rhema Bible Church Publications. 1980.

Hagin, Kenneth E. God’s Medicine. Tulsa, OK: Rhema Bible Church Publications. 1977.

Hagin, Kenneth E. How to Keep Your Healing. Tulsa, OK: Rhema Bible Church Publications. 1983.

Hayford III, Jack. The Spirit Filled Life Bible. “Kingdom Dynamics Notes.” Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishers. 1991.

Hinn, Benny. Good Morning, Holy Spirit. Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishers. 1990.

Hunter, Charles and s. How to Heal the Sick. New Kensington, Pa.: Whitaker House. 1981.

Lake, John G. John G. Lake: His Life, His Sermons, His Boldness of Faith. Ft. Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Publications. 1994.

Milligan, Nelda. Interview by Cammy Walters. River of Life Church. 3 March 2007.

Nee, Watchman. The Normal Christian Life. Ft. Washington, Penn.: Tyndale House Publishers. 1982.

Nichols, Bob. “Whose Report Will You Believe?” Buena Vista, Col., Andrew Wommack Ministers’ Conference. 4 October 2000. Audio cassette.

Osborn, T.L. Healing the Sick. Tulsa, OK: Harrison House. 1951.

Osteen, John. How to Minister Healing to the Sick. Houston, TX: John Osteen Publications. 1981.

Osteen, John. Lakewood Minister’s Conference. Lakewood Church. Houston, TX. 10 June 1987.

Osteen, John. The ABC’s of Faith. Houston, TX: John Osteen Publications. 1978.

Osteen, John. “The Counterattack of the Devil.” Lakewood Church. 29 April 1979.

Osteen, John. You Can Change Your Destiny. Houston, TX: John Osteen Publications. 1978.

Phillips, Larry. Interview by Cammy Walters. River of Life Church. 4 March 2007.

Van Cleave, Nathaniel. The Spirit Filled Life Bible. “The Ministry of Divine Healing.” Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishers. 1991.