According to Your Faith be it unto You Divine healing belongs to us as believers. Even though it's one of the New Covenant benefits of being a child of God, it's an extremely controversial subject in the body of Christ. There seem to be many views, beliefs, and opinions regarding divine healing. I suppose with as many churches as there are throughout the world, there are just as many viewpoints regarding divine healing. It has a lot to do with what you've been taught and what you choose to believe. There are many people who don't receive healing, in spite of having a genuine desire to be healed. So, one must ask the question: If God does heal, and if healing is for us today, and if God is no respecter of persons, why do some get healed and others do not? Other questions to consider include: Why do some people seemingly get partially healed and not totally healed? Why would a person get healed of something like high blood pressure, yet still suffer with arthritis? The opponents of divine healing are quick to bring up these questions. I believe I can answer all these questions from the Word of God. To help you to maintain the utmost confidence that it is God's will that you be healed and walk in divine health, let's start here with Mark 6:1-6: And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him. And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. AND HE MARVELLED BECAUSE OF THEIR UNBELIEF. Now, pertaining to Jesus' ministry and why some got healed and some didn't, and according to the Word of God, let's read Hebrews 13:8: Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. A few people were healed, but not all of them, simply because a few believed and received. Others did not believe, and consequently, they did not receive. According to
the scriptures, the reason God couldn't heal them was because of their unbelief. Unless the Lord would tell us through revelation, we wouldn't know if a person has unbelief in their heart, other than by the way they talk or act. Luke 4:18-28: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph s son? And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, According to verse 23, Jesus said that these people were not going to believe until they saw him perform a miracle. It is like Thomas in John 20:26-31, who wasn't going to believe, unless he saw: And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. There was a great contrast between Thomas and the Centurion, whose servant was sick at home, as we read in Matthew 8:5-10, 13: And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard it, he
marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour. The Centurion didn't require a sign to believe; all he wanted was the Word of God concerning healing. He was going to believe what Jesus said more than anything else, for he knew the power and authority of words spoken with authority. And then, there's the person who hears the Word concerning divine healing and acts on the healing Word of God. This is one way to release your faith to receive divine healing, as we read in John 4:46-54: So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judaea into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death. Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die. Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way. And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth. Then enquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house. This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judaea into Galilee. The nobleman believed the Word that Jesus spoke and acted on that Word, and before he arrived home, word was sent to him that his son was healed. His faith in action brought God's healing power to his son. One reason why people do not receive their healing once they have heard the Word of divine healing is because they fail to act on the Word of God. They make the mistake James described in James 1:22: But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. They are hearers of the Word and not doers of the Word, as we read in Matthew 7: 24-27: Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which
built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. Hebrews 4:2: For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. It can be very detrimental to one's faith to fail to act on the Word of God once you have heard the Word, because when you quit acting on God's Word, you quit building on the solid foundation of the Rock of the Word of God. Consequently, you can hear faith and healing being taught for years, but if you have not been applying it and exercising your faith by using it to believe God for minor ailments, or if you have neglected speaking the Word and meditating on the promises of God, and instead you wait until you get hit with a real storm, Satan can take you out. In that case, there would be nothing really that God could do about it, because neglecting your spiritual life causes faith to become weak. Weak faith is not going to move mountains. Just as in the natural, the longer you lie in bed and don't exercise, the weaker you become physically due to lack of exercise. Did you ever notice, if you or your loved one had surgery, that after about the second day, the doctors and nurses want to get you out of bed and walking around? You can't believe they're expecting that out of you; you think they're being cold hearted and mean to ask the patient to do that. But they try to assure the patient that it's the best thing for them. Doctors are always telling us to exercise, whether it's a child in preschool, or whether it's an elderly person in a convalescent home. Well, I don't know anything about medical science. I leave that to the doctors. But I do know this about faith: if a person doesn't use and develop their faith, they will be at a great disadvantage when a trial comes. Many dear people wait to develop their faith until it's too late. While it's never too late for God to heal anyone (Mark 10:27), a believer is going to receive according to their faith. Matthew 9:27-31: And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us. And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you. And their eyes were opened; and Jesus straitly charged them, saying, See that no man know it. But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country.
Matthew 15:21-28: Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children s bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. Matthew 9:27-34: And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us. And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you. And their eyes were opened; and Jesus straitly charged them, saying, See that no man know it. But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country. As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake: and the multitudes marvelled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel. But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils. Acts 14:7-10: And there they preached the gospel. And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother s womb, who never had walked: The same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked. In cases concerning divine healing in the New Testament, we don't have statements that Jesus spoke, such as: 'According to My faith be it unto you', nor do we have any statement that said, 'The apostle Peter's faith as made you well', or, 'The apostle Paul's faith has made you well'. Yet, Jesus had faith; Peter had faith, and Paul had faith. And your faith can assist in getting people healed by faith in the Word of God, and by faith in the Name of Jesus; by faith in the gifts of healing; and by special manifestations of the Holy Spirit, but your faith cannot override a believer's unbelief. If that could happen, God would do it Himself. But we do read: Believe ye that I am able to do this?... O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt.... According to your faith be it unto you... Paul...stedfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed.
This helps us see a couple of important points about receiving divine healing: It's not enough just to have faith in order to receive divine healing; one has to release that faith through action. For in Acts Chapter 14, the man had faith to be healed, but he still wasn't healed until Paul challenged him to release that faith through action. Sometimes, you've heard people cynically say when referring to divine healing, "Oh, I suppose that you're going to say the reason I'm not healed is because I don't have faith." This may or may not be true, because each individual is different. And each individual case would be different, as well. But with divine healing and receiving from God as a believer, we've got to be really careful with our attitude. If the devil can get you offended, he can keep you from receiving. The offense can be a blockage, so we must guard our heart. One of the best things to do when you're not receiving from God is to go to God personally (in your prayer time) and ask Him. And if there is anything you need to know, He will let you know. For when the disciples in Matthew 17:14-21 failed to get the little boy delivered, they privately went to the Lord and asked Him why they couldn't. He told them that it was because of their unbelief, and He essentially told them that they needed to fast and pray. So, if there's anything in our lives that is keeping us from receiving from God, if we earnestly seek Him through prayer and reading the Word, He will get it across to us. This may take some time and may mean that we need to fast some of the things of the world, such as fellowshipping with others, the radio, television, and things that are carnal. Then we need to spend that time and diligently seek the Lord. But it usually doesn't happen with the individual this way. Many times, they inquire of others and open themselves up to more confusion. If you're attempting to believe God for divine healing, I want to encourage you to start reading your New Testament every day, and especially before you could bed night. Mark all the scriptures in New Testament with a highlighter that pertain to faith and healing. Then, when you get that done (which will take some time), take the time every day to read the scriptures that you highlighted about faith and healing and reread those to yourself out loud. This will help feed your spirit man on God's Word and help you stay focused on the promises of God. I'll share with you more in the days ahead pertaining to divine healing. Meanwhile, keeps saying to yourself, "By His stripes I was healed," and continually thank God that you are, according to His Word, in Jesus' Name.
I look forward to sharing with you tomorrow. Remember, God wishes above all things that you prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers (3 John 2). Your Word of faith pastor, Pastor Jesse Rich Jesse Rich Ministries P.O. Box 237170 New York, NY 10023 Email: www.jesserichministries.com/contact.htm PHONE: (212) 501-7999 Website: www.jesserichministries.com