Where Should I Draw the Line Between Presumption and Divine Possibilities of Healing?
Question : When I find many faith fanatics go to the extent of saying that we should not take medicine if we really have faith in God's healing power, I am scared of it because I have seen and heard many people dying before their time because of such fanaticism. At the same time when people say, I take medicine for everthing or anything and tend to neglect the faith of God's healing power, I feel sad that they do not trust in the Lord who is ready to heal all those have faith in Him. My question is, where should I draw the line between presumption and possibilities of healing through my faith in God?
Answer : First we should understand what faith is. The Bible says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Heb 11:1). Faith is not a feeling that comes and goes away, but faith is a tangible spiritual substance of the things we hope to receive from God, it is the evidence within us of the things we are hoping for God to do for us which we do not see in the present time. So a person who has faith knows deep within them that something they believe for will happen because they hold this spiritual substance of God's tangible photographic image of faith within them which makes them believe that God will do something for them because He has spoken for sure about it to them personally in their spirit-man. They will definitely be able to believe that God will reward them surely because of patiently waiting for God to do that which He has promised to do for them (Heb 11:6). Such confidence in God that makes a person to wait for God to act on behalf of them by holding the spiritual substance of faith within them will always will please God to act on behalf of them to fulfill what He has promised to them personally (Isa 64:4). Faith strengthens people and makes them, mount higher and higher in relationship to God which will make them fly spiritually within and brings the external manifestation of what happens inside them supernturally to the outside world naturally (Isa 40:31; Rom 4:20). Faith is a definite tangible confidence in the ability of God and etertains no presumption which assumes something in the logical mind as true when there is no evidence, which in a chain reaction causes spiritually unacceptable expectations out of our owm will rather than based on the voice or the word of God.
One time during Jesus' earthly ministry when a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged Jesus to heal him as though Jesus was not willing to heal him. Then he asked a important question regarding God's willingness to heal when faced with the curse of sickness due to the root cause of sin. He then asked Jesus, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” (Luke 5:12). Just at that time Jesus forever settled this question of unbelief regarding the will of God and his willingness to heal people forever. Here is what happened, "Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him." (Luke 5:13). Jesus neither questioned this lepers faith as He knew that this man was begging for healing because he was unsure whether Jesus is always willing to heal, nor asked Him to first get right with God by setting right all his faults of sin and them come to ask him for healing because this man's disease was due to sin for sure as it was leprosy which is symbolic of sin in the Old Testament times. Jesus has forever once for all has revealed that He is always willing to heal those who come to Him. God's will is that we should be healed and live healthily in our body as much as we live in the healthy soul life of God's abundance through His forgiveness when ever we are in need of it (3 John 2; 1 John 1:7, 9). In fact it is as easy for God to heal us as He forgives us if we have faith for receiving healing for our body just like we have faith for receiving forgiveness for our soul (Matt 9:5-8). If we have faith like Jesus to connect to "the power of the Lord" God and appropriate healing, we could easily be healed and also bring divine healing to others around us (Luke 5:16). The good news is, God has made healing very easy for us now because we need only two thing to receive a healing miracle in our lives. First, the name of Jesus which means that we are saved by our Lord Jesus and faith in the name of Jesus which will make ourself and other easily receive healing (Acts 3:16). Now Jesus says to us, "Believe that I am able to do this healing for you and according to your faith be it unto you." (Matt 9:28-29). It means Jesus has given an open cheque to all of God's people and have told them to encash it in the supernatural divine bank of heaven to receive healing miracle through faith in Jesus. Now it is up to us. Never forget that faith is the only legal currency that is accepted always in the miracle bank of heaven everyday!
God is always willing to heal and it is up to our faith in God's healing power and promises that decides whether we will be healed or not. Many times if we fail to receve healing, it is not that God is not willing to heal us or that He want us to beg to Him to heal, the problem is not with God ability or willingness to heal but with our lack of faith as always. We need to resist our unbelief of our flesh through starving it by fasting to rise up in faith to receive healing and also supply it to others who need it (Matt 17:19-21). If we do not have faith for healing what should we do? What does the Bible say about it? The Bible says, "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Rom 10:17). This means, because faith is a tangible spiritual substance, we do not have the ability to produce with out natural thinking. By supernatural impartation only faith can come in to our heart. When we start to develop our inner spiritual hearing ability to hear God's voice for our present circumstances or needs, faith gets activated to bring miracle for our needful circumstances. This supernatural alignment of our mind to hear God's voice is received through the hearing the word of God with our natural ear. When we make ourselves to think more and more inline with the will of God which is revealed in His word, God can easily release His present tense miracle word in our spirit-man when ever we are in need of healing miracle in our lives. The more we grow in this ever increasing faith, the more God will be able to use us in receiving as well as giving healing to other's who are in need of it. Healing is a children's bread which God supplies primarily to his children of faith (Matt 15:24-28). God wants and sincerely desires to be as much of a healer to us as He is a Savior to us (Exo 15:26; Matt 1:21).
Many people die in their illness because of walking in presumtion rather than in real faith. We can draw a line to seperate faith from presumption based on a inner assurance that God gives. As faith is a tangible spiritual substance that can be known within us, we should acknowledge humbly to God and people when we do not have faith within us. If we know we do not have faith for healing, we can seek God through His word and increase in our faith. But there are certain times God has given us a sound mind to walk in the provisions that He has already given us (2 Tim 1:7). For example, we may mistakenly ask the Lord to heal us supernaturally when God himself has already given us a good doctor, medication and money within our reach and thus wants us to take medicine to get healed. God will not be displeased if we go to a doctor as Jesus Himself said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick." (Luke 5:31). By saying that a sick needs a doctor, Jesus has revealed that God has appointed doctor's to supply medicine through the knowledge He has given to them in order to supply healing to the sick humanity like as He is primarily appointed to give healing to the sick souls of men who are dying because of sin and make them healed through His righteousness (Mark 2:17; Matt 9:12-13).
There is a story of a man who has been caught in a great storm. He is a very devout man in his village and every one knew about it. But the bad thing about him was that he was a fanatic when it comes to exercising faith. He would move easily from faith to presumption because of lack of his imtimate knowledge of God (Hos 4:6). One day a storm came to his village and it started to rain cats and dogs. It did not stop for more than a day and it started to flood. The villagers who were all moving out of the place started to plead this devout man to come with them as they were all blessed by God through him in the past. As this man was full of faith or atleast as he thought so, he did not want to leave the place when one by one after pleading with him for a while started moving out of the village to safe places with a heavy heart. But this man believed that God will stop the rain. Then as the flood started to increase to knee level, his family pleaded with him greatly and as they could not convince him, they submitted his life in to the hands of God and moved out of the village in much difficulty with all the animals and livestock they had. Finally as this man realized that flood is filling his home, he started to go up in to his open terrace and there stayed with faith so that the flood might stop. As the flood kept rising up heavily, he started to pray to God to stop the rain and also supernaturally save him from death. Just then a rescue helicopter which flew over the place in its last ditch effort to save any people who have got stranded in their places, spotted him and lowered their rope to rescue him. But he said to the rescuers that because he was believing God's supernatural way of rescue, which he has experienced many times in his life preiviously by faith, he is sure of God acting on his behalf again. So the rescue helicopter left because of his stubborness to be rescued. The flood them rose up and completely drowned him a little bit later. Then this man who died and appeared in the Presence of God, asked God angrily, "Why have you failed me when I had faith and was trusting you to rescue me like you have done for me manytimes previously?" Then God said to him, "My loving son, I wanted you to first go along with your family when the villagers left for safe place, but you did not. Then when your family pleaded with you, again I wanted you to go with your family atleast, but then you did not heed me again. Finally when you prayed to me to supernaturally rescue you and save you from death, I sent a rescue helicopter and they spotted you as I wanted you to hold the rope and go to a safe place, but you finally did not want to go with them too. So I thought that because you did not want to get rescued at all, you might have been hard-pressed between living in the flesh or to depart the earth because of a great desire to be with me in heaven like Apostle Paul (Php 1:22-23). So I let the flood drown you and here you are..." What can we learn from this story, we should recognize God's voice and should not presumptiously assume that because God has done something for us previously in a particular way, He is indebted to act towards us in the same way. This is stubborness of the flesh and is not real faith. We should humbly acknowledge our mistake to God when we have failed in our so called faith which is actually an assumed one and not based on the knowledge of God's word within, immediately we should change our way to recognize God's will and alter out foot step to again walk in His way. Follow God's voice in humility and your faith will never fail!
Smith Wigglesworth, often referred to as ‘the Apostle of Faith,’ was one of the pioneers of the Pentecostal revival that occurred a century ago. He was a great healing technician of God who got almost all people healed through his authoritative command and actions of faith and prayer. But such a great man whom God has used so greatly has humbly shared some pragmatic wisdom of God in the following real life events which he has narrated.
Smith Wigglesworth said,
What a heavenly wisdom we need to walk practically in faith to believe for healing supernaturally some times and also through guidance from doctors at other times. Whatever may be the way, perfect healing, health and all good things can come only from the Father of light in whom there is no shadow of turning (Jam 1:17-18). No matter what kind of trials that come our way, God is in control of our life as we are the child of God. If we ask for wisdom to walk practically in faith, God has promised to give it liberally without rebuke when we ask God without doubting His promises (Jam 1:2, 5-8). Ask for wisdom and receive it to walk with the wisdom of God in faith and glorify Him in all things through your life lived out fully for Him and Him alone.
Much Blessings.....
Answer : First we should understand what faith is. The Bible says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Heb 11:1). Faith is not a feeling that comes and goes away, but faith is a tangible spiritual substance of the things we hope to receive from God, it is the evidence within us of the things we are hoping for God to do for us which we do not see in the present time. So a person who has faith knows deep within them that something they believe for will happen because they hold this spiritual substance of God's tangible photographic image of faith within them which makes them believe that God will do something for them because He has spoken for sure about it to them personally in their spirit-man. They will definitely be able to believe that God will reward them surely because of patiently waiting for God to do that which He has promised to do for them (Heb 11:6). Such confidence in God that makes a person to wait for God to act on behalf of them by holding the spiritual substance of faith within them will always will please God to act on behalf of them to fulfill what He has promised to them personally (Isa 64:4). Faith strengthens people and makes them, mount higher and higher in relationship to God which will make them fly spiritually within and brings the external manifestation of what happens inside them supernturally to the outside world naturally (Isa 40:31; Rom 4:20). Faith is a definite tangible confidence in the ability of God and etertains no presumption which assumes something in the logical mind as true when there is no evidence, which in a chain reaction causes spiritually unacceptable expectations out of our owm will rather than based on the voice or the word of God.
One time during Jesus' earthly ministry when a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged Jesus to heal him as though Jesus was not willing to heal him. Then he asked a important question regarding God's willingness to heal when faced with the curse of sickness due to the root cause of sin. He then asked Jesus, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” (Luke 5:12). Just at that time Jesus forever settled this question of unbelief regarding the will of God and his willingness to heal people forever. Here is what happened, "Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him." (Luke 5:13). Jesus neither questioned this lepers faith as He knew that this man was begging for healing because he was unsure whether Jesus is always willing to heal, nor asked Him to first get right with God by setting right all his faults of sin and them come to ask him for healing because this man's disease was due to sin for sure as it was leprosy which is symbolic of sin in the Old Testament times. Jesus has forever once for all has revealed that He is always willing to heal those who come to Him. God's will is that we should be healed and live healthily in our body as much as we live in the healthy soul life of God's abundance through His forgiveness when ever we are in need of it (3 John 2; 1 John 1:7, 9). In fact it is as easy for God to heal us as He forgives us if we have faith for receiving healing for our body just like we have faith for receiving forgiveness for our soul (Matt 9:5-8). If we have faith like Jesus to connect to "the power of the Lord" God and appropriate healing, we could easily be healed and also bring divine healing to others around us (Luke 5:16). The good news is, God has made healing very easy for us now because we need only two thing to receive a healing miracle in our lives. First, the name of Jesus which means that we are saved by our Lord Jesus and faith in the name of Jesus which will make ourself and other easily receive healing (Acts 3:16). Now Jesus says to us, "Believe that I am able to do this healing for you and according to your faith be it unto you." (Matt 9:28-29). It means Jesus has given an open cheque to all of God's people and have told them to encash it in the supernatural divine bank of heaven to receive healing miracle through faith in Jesus. Now it is up to us. Never forget that faith is the only legal currency that is accepted always in the miracle bank of heaven everyday!
God is always willing to heal and it is up to our faith in God's healing power and promises that decides whether we will be healed or not. Many times if we fail to receve healing, it is not that God is not willing to heal us or that He want us to beg to Him to heal, the problem is not with God ability or willingness to heal but with our lack of faith as always. We need to resist our unbelief of our flesh through starving it by fasting to rise up in faith to receive healing and also supply it to others who need it (Matt 17:19-21). If we do not have faith for healing what should we do? What does the Bible say about it? The Bible says, "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Rom 10:17). This means, because faith is a tangible spiritual substance, we do not have the ability to produce with out natural thinking. By supernatural impartation only faith can come in to our heart. When we start to develop our inner spiritual hearing ability to hear God's voice for our present circumstances or needs, faith gets activated to bring miracle for our needful circumstances. This supernatural alignment of our mind to hear God's voice is received through the hearing the word of God with our natural ear. When we make ourselves to think more and more inline with the will of God which is revealed in His word, God can easily release His present tense miracle word in our spirit-man when ever we are in need of healing miracle in our lives. The more we grow in this ever increasing faith, the more God will be able to use us in receiving as well as giving healing to other's who are in need of it. Healing is a children's bread which God supplies primarily to his children of faith (Matt 15:24-28). God wants and sincerely desires to be as much of a healer to us as He is a Savior to us (Exo 15:26; Matt 1:21).
Many people die in their illness because of walking in presumtion rather than in real faith. We can draw a line to seperate faith from presumption based on a inner assurance that God gives. As faith is a tangible spiritual substance that can be known within us, we should acknowledge humbly to God and people when we do not have faith within us. If we know we do not have faith for healing, we can seek God through His word and increase in our faith. But there are certain times God has given us a sound mind to walk in the provisions that He has already given us (2 Tim 1:7). For example, we may mistakenly ask the Lord to heal us supernaturally when God himself has already given us a good doctor, medication and money within our reach and thus wants us to take medicine to get healed. God will not be displeased if we go to a doctor as Jesus Himself said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick." (Luke 5:31). By saying that a sick needs a doctor, Jesus has revealed that God has appointed doctor's to supply medicine through the knowledge He has given to them in order to supply healing to the sick humanity like as He is primarily appointed to give healing to the sick souls of men who are dying because of sin and make them healed through His righteousness (Mark 2:17; Matt 9:12-13).
There is a story of a man who has been caught in a great storm. He is a very devout man in his village and every one knew about it. But the bad thing about him was that he was a fanatic when it comes to exercising faith. He would move easily from faith to presumption because of lack of his imtimate knowledge of God (Hos 4:6). One day a storm came to his village and it started to rain cats and dogs. It did not stop for more than a day and it started to flood. The villagers who were all moving out of the place started to plead this devout man to come with them as they were all blessed by God through him in the past. As this man was full of faith or atleast as he thought so, he did not want to leave the place when one by one after pleading with him for a while started moving out of the village to safe places with a heavy heart. But this man believed that God will stop the rain. Then as the flood started to increase to knee level, his family pleaded with him greatly and as they could not convince him, they submitted his life in to the hands of God and moved out of the village in much difficulty with all the animals and livestock they had. Finally as this man realized that flood is filling his home, he started to go up in to his open terrace and there stayed with faith so that the flood might stop. As the flood kept rising up heavily, he started to pray to God to stop the rain and also supernaturally save him from death. Just then a rescue helicopter which flew over the place in its last ditch effort to save any people who have got stranded in their places, spotted him and lowered their rope to rescue him. But he said to the rescuers that because he was believing God's supernatural way of rescue, which he has experienced many times in his life preiviously by faith, he is sure of God acting on his behalf again. So the rescue helicopter left because of his stubborness to be rescued. The flood them rose up and completely drowned him a little bit later. Then this man who died and appeared in the Presence of God, asked God angrily, "Why have you failed me when I had faith and was trusting you to rescue me like you have done for me manytimes previously?" Then God said to him, "My loving son, I wanted you to first go along with your family when the villagers left for safe place, but you did not. Then when your family pleaded with you, again I wanted you to go with your family atleast, but then you did not heed me again. Finally when you prayed to me to supernaturally rescue you and save you from death, I sent a rescue helicopter and they spotted you as I wanted you to hold the rope and go to a safe place, but you finally did not want to go with them too. So I thought that because you did not want to get rescued at all, you might have been hard-pressed between living in the flesh or to depart the earth because of a great desire to be with me in heaven like Apostle Paul (Php 1:22-23). So I let the flood drown you and here you are..." What can we learn from this story, we should recognize God's voice and should not presumptiously assume that because God has done something for us previously in a particular way, He is indebted to act towards us in the same way. This is stubborness of the flesh and is not real faith. We should humbly acknowledge our mistake to God when we have failed in our so called faith which is actually an assumed one and not based on the knowledge of God's word within, immediately we should change our way to recognize God's will and alter out foot step to again walk in His way. Follow God's voice in humility and your faith will never fail!
Smith Wigglesworth, often referred to as ‘the Apostle of Faith,’ was one of the pioneers of the Pentecostal revival that occurred a century ago. He was a great healing technician of God who got almost all people healed through his authoritative command and actions of faith and prayer. But such a great man whom God has used so greatly has humbly shared some pragmatic wisdom of God in the following real life events which he has narrated.
Smith Wigglesworth said,
"A woman came up to me one day and I noticed she had no teeth.
“Why,” I said, “your mouth is very uneven. Your gums have dropped in some places and the old gums are very uneven.”
“Yes,” she said, “I am trusting the Lord for a new set of teeth.”
“That is very good,” I said. “How long have you been trusting Him for them?”
“Three years.”
“Look here,” I said, “I would be like Gideon: I would put the fleece out and I would tell the Lord that I would trust Him to send me teeth in ten days or money to buy a set in ten days, and whichever came first I would believe it was He.”
In eight days, fifty dollars came to her from a person whom she had never been acquainted with in any way, and it bought her a beautiful set of teeth — and she looked well in them.
A person is prayed for eyesight and as soon as he is prayed for, he believes, and God stimulates his faith, but his eyesight is about the same. “What shall I do?” he asks. “Shall I go away without my glasses?”
“Can you see perfectly?” I ask. “Do you require any help?”
“Yes. If I should go as I go now, I would stumble.”
“Put your glasses on,” I say. “For when your faith is perfected you will not require any glasses, and when God perfects your faith your glasses will drop off. But as long as you have need, use them.”
You can take that for what you like, but I believe in common sense." [1]
What a heavenly wisdom we need to walk practically in faith to believe for healing supernaturally some times and also through guidance from doctors at other times. Whatever may be the way, perfect healing, health and all good things can come only from the Father of light in whom there is no shadow of turning (Jam 1:17-18). No matter what kind of trials that come our way, God is in control of our life as we are the child of God. If we ask for wisdom to walk practically in faith, God has promised to give it liberally without rebuke when we ask God without doubting His promises (Jam 1:2, 5-8). Ask for wisdom and receive it to walk with the wisdom of God in faith and glorify Him in all things through your life lived out fully for Him and Him alone.
Much Blessings.....
Foot-note :
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment