How To Receive Healing!

Today's Lesson:

THE ABCs of FAITH 26


HOW FAITH COMES - Faith Comes by Hearing Words part 3

So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
Romans 10: 17

Today I want share a special lesson that I think will help you. It is a part of Kenneth E. Hagin's great storytelling/teaching about the subject of faith. We need to continue in the faith that we have learned from those who taught us the Word of God. Kenneth E. Hagin Sr. is certainly my "faith mentor", and I am privileged to carry the torch he has handed to our generation and go teach God's people faith.
Enjoy the lesson today as we feed upon the faith of our spiritual father. This will bless your socks of!

Faith in Action
P.C. Nelson, who was for many years a noted Baptist minister, said, "Healing is part and parcel of the gospel." While he was pastoring a church in Detroit, Michigan, in 1921, he was run over by an automobile. The doctors said that his right leg would probably have to be taken off at the knee. Even if they didn't have to take it off, it would be stiff. As he lay in his hospital bed the verses of scripture in James 5:14,15 came to him. "Is any sick among you? 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 shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him."
He tried to excuse himself to the Lord by saying that they didn't practice this in his church. The Lord reminded him of a certain man and his wife who believed in it and told him to call them to come pray for him. He did so and they came, anointed him with oil, and prayed the prayer of faith. He was healed and his leg didn't have to be removed, neither was his knee stiff. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

KENNETH E. HAGIN'S TESTIMONY
Many years ago, as a young denominational boy I lay on the bed of affliction. As I lay there reading Grandma's Bible, the more I read the more I learned. I soon realized that I had never heard the full gospel, but just part of it. The more I read the more I saw that I didn't have to die. The more I studied the Word the more I realized that I could be healed.
The devil was right there, of course, bringing to my remembrance all the doubt and unbelief I had ever heard. He told me that healing had been done away with. (Fortunately, I couldn't remember ever hearing that faith had been done away with.) Also, I had been taught that God would heal if He wanted to do so. This, however, was an even bigger insult than saying that He couldn't.
I read in Mark 5:34 where Jesus spoke to the woman with the issue of blood, saying, "Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague." Jesus didn't say that His power had made her whole. He said, "Daughter, thy faith ..." When I saw this I knew then that if her faith had made her whole, my faith could make me whole. And, thank God, it did. My paralysis disappeared, my heart condition became normal, and I've been going at a hop, skip, and a jump ever since then, preaching the gospel in its fullness. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

Many times when I ask folks who come for prayer in my meetings if they believe that they will be healed they answer, "Well, I sure hope I will." I simply tell them that they won't for we receive from God by faith, not through hope. Still others will answer my question by saying, "Well, I want to." But I tell them, "You might want a new Cadillac, but that doesn't mean you'll get one. You see, just wanting to won't get the job done.


It is not hoping or wanting, it's faith that gets the job done. You will not receive from God because you hope. Nowhere does the Bible say that when we pray, we shall receive what we hope for. God's Word does say, however, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mark 11:24). Jesus also said, "And all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive" (Matthew 21:22). Not hoping, but believing.

BACK TO THE BEGINNING
In the beginning of this series I taught you what faith is. Notice in the definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1 - "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" - that the verb used is present tense. Remember, if it's not now, it's not faith. Faith is present tense, hope is future tense. Even though you might say that you believe, if you are putting it into the future, then you are not believing, you're hoping. In order for it to work, it must be in the right tense - the present tense. Some people are always believing that God is going to do something for them, but faith believes that He has done, and is doing.

KENNETH E. HAGIN SHARES HEALING
Several years ago while preaching in the state of Oklahoma, a lady who hadn't taken a step in four years was brought to the service one night for prayer. She was an older woman in her seventies, and the doctors had said that she would never walk again. At the close of the service when we were ready to have prayer for the sick, her friends brought her forward and sat her down on the altar. I knelt in front of her, laid my hands on her and prayed. Then I said, "Now arise and walk in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ."
She did her best to get up, but all the time she was crying and praying, "Oh, dear Jesus, please heal me, please let me walk, oh, please ... please!" She continued in this vein for some time until finally I was able to quiet her enough to talk to her. I asked her, "Sister, did you know that you are healed?"
Astonished, she looked up at me and said, "Oh, am I?"
"Yes," I said, "you are healed, and I will prove it to you from the Bible." Then I opened my Bible to I Peter 2:24, handed it to her and asked her to read the verse aloud. She read, "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed." I asked her to repeat the last phrase, and she read, "... by whose stripes ye were healed."
Then I asked her the question, "Is 'were' past tense, future tense, or present tense?"
"It is past tense," she answered.
"If you were healed by Jesus' stripes, then you are healed now, aren't you?" I said. A smile spread across her face and her eyes lit up with new understanding. Then I told her, "Just lift your hands and look up to Him. Begin to praise Him because you are healed, present tense. Because you are healed - not going to be, you are ... now."


CHILD-LIKE FAITH
With child-like faith she looked up and said, "Dear Lord Jesus, I'm so glad I'm healed." She hadn't walked a step and therefore had no physical evidence of healing whatsoever. Yet she said, "I'm so glad I'm healed."
I turned to her and said, "Now my sister, arise and walk in Jesus' Name." Immediately she jumped off that altar like a sixteen-year-old, and walked, leaped, ran, and praised God.
You see, we had to help her to get it in the right tense - for faith is present tense. As long as we are struggling to receive, hoping to see the answer sometime, it won't work. That is just hope. Faith says, "It's mine, I have it now."
Hope, of course, used properly is most blessed and beautiful. We have a Blessed Hope in the soon return of our Lord Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the righteous dead, the rapture of the living saints, the hope of heaven, and the hope of seeing our loved ones and friends. We thank God for that hope. But this is all future tense. Jesus is coming, whether we believe it or not. He is coming because the Word says so. The Resurrection will take place whether we have faith or not. The dead in Christ will rise to meet Him in the air, whether we believe or not. Our faith, or lack of faith, will not affect these events. Jesus is coming back again, for the Word says that He will. This is the Blessed Hope that all Christians look forward to.
But it is faith, not hope, that can change the impossible to the possible. It is faith, not hope, that brings healing and victory.
Hope is a good waiter, but a poor receiver. Too many times I've heard folks say, "I'm hoping and praying ..." or "All we can do now is hope and pray." If that is all you are doing, you're defeated. It takes a positive faith - a now faith - to get positive results.

Live well, Live blessed,

Bernard


Author's note:
These lessons are written "daily" like as the fresh manna fell daily in Israel. No left-overs for God's people! What an honor to be able to share with God's people. PLEASE, excuse me if there is an occasional typo. The fresh nature of the newsletter does not allow time for me to have them proof-read. The time is short!
Bernard