Biblical Faith for Healing

This paper is a loosely-edited transcript of a public teaching that examines some biblical truths about healing and focuses on biblical faith for healing: what it is, what it looks like, and what the Bible says about biblical faith for healing.

And it will compare what the Bible says with what certain Christian groups have said and perhaps in the process the paper will correct and refine what you believe about healing, and about faith. My purpose is to clarify what the Bible says and not to criticize any other group. We must clarify and refine our understanding of the truth.

There are three basic points to consider.

1. It is God’s will to heal.

In a general sense, it is God’s will to heal. That is what the Scriptures reveal. God is a healing God. The covenant that He had made with mankind - His covenant of redemption - is a healing covenant. From Genesis to Revelation we find a consistent expression of the willingness and desire of God to physically heal His people of sickness and disease.

The first one is in Exodus 15:26 where God said to his people:

God says, If you will obey me, worship me and walk with me that I will deliver you from sickness and disease. Because I am the Lord your Healer. That’s who He is: the Lord who heals us.

Later on, in Exodus 23:25-26 we have a similar revelation where God says:

Again, God promises to his people that if you will worship me and serve me, then I will take sickness out of your midst. Awesome promises! This is repeated in Deuteronomy 7:12-15.

This is not only a promise of healing, but this is a promise of health: that He’ll keep you free from sickness. He won’t just heal you if you get sick. But He’ll keep you free from sickness in the first place. What a spectacular powerful promise of God to His covenant people.

Ps. 103:2-3:

In this verse we see the connection between the forgiveness of sins and the healing of diseases. Sickness was a part of the punishment of God upon the sin of man and so when the Lord Jesus paid the penalty for our sins and He made us right again with God, in addition to the door for forgiveness of sin, He opened the door for the healing of the nations.

Because our sins have been forgiven, our sicknesses could also be healed and this is the truth of the atonement that is revealed by the prophet Isaiah in 53:4-5:

Surely on the cross the Lord Jesus has borne away our sicknesses and carried away our pains. Those are the literal Hebrew words there: physical sickness and pain. Yet we esteemed Him stricken and smitten by God and afflicted. The people looked at the Lord Jesus upon the cross as He was rejected and suffered the terrible death of the cross, and they thought that He was suffering for His own sins. It looked like God was punishing Him because He had blasphemed. But in reality He was wounded for our transgressions. He suffered but it was for our sins. He was suffering in our place. He was bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him which means that the chastisement, or the punishment that brought us peace - peace with God - was upon Him. We should have suffered, but He suffered. He suffered our punishment. Therefore, we have peace with God and therefore by His stripes or by His punishment or by His death we are healed. This is a beautiful revelation that physical healing is in the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because Jesus has paid the penalty for our sins we can be healed of every sickness and disease by the power of His blood through the work of His Spirit.

And then John gives us a wonderful expression of the heart of God in 3 John 2:

God heals His people. This is His intention. His purpose is healing. We could multiply those Scriptures. Again and again, we see in the bible - in both testaments - the positive affirmation of the general intention of God to physically heal His people.

Nevertheless, we also see in the Scriptures that God can and does use infirmity - physical conditions - to chastise His people when they need it.

2. God can and does use infirmities, physical infirmities, to chastise his people.

The same Scriptures teach this. Obviously, God sees no contradiction here, so we shouldn’t either. The Psalmist spoke about this in Psalm 119:

Can you relate to that? Have you ever done that? Before I was afflicted I went astray, I was doing my own thing, going my own way, I knew better, but I sinned. God in His love as a loving Father who cares for me, chastised me. He afflicted me and because of His affliction I turned my heart back to God. Now I’m obeying Your Word.

Many times this kind of idea is repeated in the Scriptures and I can personally testify that this is a living reality. God does this kind of thing. He does. And if you don’t know He does, you’ve only been saved for 15 minutes! If you walk with the Lord, you will discover that He is not a permissive parent. He is a loving, wise Father and if He needs to, He will spank you. And sometimes He can spank hard! But praise God for it. Because I’d rather have Him spank me now than the flames of hell later. Whom He loves, He chastises. It’s an expression and proof of His love for you: the fact that He does allow you, at times, to be afflicted to bring you back to obedience.

In the New Testament there is a dramatic instance of this in the Corinthian church.

The man was living in gross sin and Paul gave instructions to the people at Corinth, and he said: "Hand this man over to Satan, put him out of your midst, put him out of the protection of being in the covenant, redemptive community and then he will be afflicted by the devil (presumably in some kind of physical affliction or suffering)." But the purpose is that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord. The purpose of this handing over to the devil that he would be afflicted was so that the man would repent and get his life right with God and be saved in the end. So there we see a very clear statement that God uses infirmity - physical conditions - to chastise His people. There are many other Scriptures in both testaments that confirm this.

3. God can also use infirmities to mature and perfect his people.

God can and does use physical infirmities to mature and perfect His people: good people. Good people can suffer bad things in the purposes of God to refine and perfect their character.

This man delights in God’s law (v. 70). He is righteous. Yet he suffers (v. 71)! He experienced affliction in spite of his righteousness. He loved the word of God (v. 72). He has integrity. He trusts God’s Word (v. 74). This man has a strong walk with God. Yet, in the midst of his righteousness, in the midst of his integrity and character, God still allowed him to be afflicted for his profit (v. 75). This man was righteous and yet God allowed him to suffer. Certainly he was not righteous in the sense of some state of absolute, sinless perfection. Of course he had some problems in his life. And those were the things that God was dealing with him about. God was refining him and perfecting him and maturing him.

Verse 76 says, "May your unfailing love be my comfort." In the midst of his affliction he calls the love of God "unfailing." He doesn’t say, "Well Lord, you used to love me but now you’ve let me get sick so you failed." He doesn’t see it as a contradiction. He doesn’t say, "Well God no longer loves me, because He’s allowed me to suffer." But he affirms that’s God’s love is unfailing. God’s love is always upon him even in the midst of the affliction.

Throughout this passage there are two elements. We see his righteousness in the sense that he was not involved in any big sin. He was not perfect. No one is perfect. But he was essentially righteous. He was not involved in any major sin or unbelief. He was righteous and yet God allowed him to be sick, to suffer affliction for the sake of his maturity. God dealt with him through affliction to perfect and refine his character (cf. Rom. 5:3-4; 1 Pet. 1:6-7).

Point 2 is that God allows his people, sometimes, to suffer affliction to chastise them for their sin. Point 3 is that God allows affliction to happen to His people to refine and perfect them. These two points are different but they are somewhat related. If we were perfect and mature, then there would be no need of any discipline from God. And so, while it may not be some big, gross, fleshly sin that God is correcting you for in His maturing and perfecting of your life, it may be an inward issue of the heart that He is dealing with you about. And so both chastisement and perfection are related to our imperfections. God’s chastening of His children as well as God’s perfecting and maturing of His children are both related to our imperfections.

Chastisement is God’s dealing with our gross sin. But God also deals with our hearts, perfecting and maturing use. That relates to the rest of the stuff that God is doing in our lives. The "little" sins. The inward stuff. What we think is the minor stuff, but before God it is not the minor stuff. And so the two are very closely related. God is working in us to perfect us and change us and He does it sometimes through affliction.

Psalm 41 teaches this too:

This man is righteous (v. 1). He has regard for the weak. The Lord delivers him in times of trouble. He is a righteous man. He is walking in righteousness and compassion for the poor and God will deliver him in times of trouble. The Lord will protect him and preserve his life (v. 2). This sounds exciting doesn’t it? The Lord will deliver him. The Lord will protect him and the Lord will preserve him. And God will bless him in the land and not surrender him to the desire of his foes. This sounds awesome. This sounds like a message that I want to believe. That God is going to protect me. For if I walk in righteousness He’s going to protect me, preserve me, deliver me, bless me. Wonderful! But the next verse says, "The Lord is also going to sustain me on my sick bed and restore me from my bed of illness." Huh? I thought he was going to bless me and protect me and deliver me? Well, He’s also going to sustain you on your sick bed which He obviously is going to allow at times. There’s no contradiction here. The Lord will sustain him on his sick bed. This is a righteous man. This is a man that God loves. This is a man that God says He’s delivering and blessing and prospering. And yet here he is sick. Here he is in affliction. Here he is in the midst of his affliction.

Verse 4: I said oh Lord have mercy on me, heal me for I have sinned against you.

God is dealing with him. This man is essentially righteous but he’s not perfect. There’s stuff in his life that God is dealing with and so he realizes that on the bed of affliction. God’s dealing with his motives and his heart and all this deep stuff and he says, "God, I have sinned." He’s not talking about some sort of outward gross sin. He’s talking about the dealings of God in the inner places of his heart. God is using affliction to refine and perfect his character.

Verse 5: My enemies say, When will he die and his name perish? All my enemies whisper together against me but then they imagine the worse for me saying a vile disease has beset him. He will never get up from the place where he lies. This righteous man. Look, he’s sick. It says this vile disease. God’s dealing with him. Even my close friend. He’s rejected me.

Verse 10: But you oh Lord have mercy on me, raise me up that I may repay them. I know that you are pleased with me. He’s righteous. God is pleased with this man in the midst of his sickness he’s able to say that with a strong faith that God you are pleased with me. My enemy does not triumph over me. In my integrity you uphold me and you set me in your presence forever. This was a man of integrity. A man of righteousness. A man who walked with God. But a man nevertheless who needed the dealings of God in his heart and life just as you and I do all the time. And God at this point in his life allowed him to experience affliction - physical sickness - in order to bring him to a stronger state of maturity in his character. He’s got a sense of his own imperfections. But it’s not some major sin that’s happening here. This is not chastisement in the classical sense. God is pleased with this man. God approves of this man’s life. He’s delivering him right when he’s sick. He’s affirming the deliverance of God. Nevertheless, God is dealing with him because he’s imperfect and God is using affliction to refine his character (cf. Ps. 71).

The same thing is taught in the New Testament:

That’s the purpose of God. Not only in the severe chastisement for our gross, outward sin, but also the dealings of God: the heart issues and the deep things that God is dealing with and changing in our lives. God disciplines us and He sometimes uses physical affliction.

Again, in the book of Hebrews Paul speaks about the Lord Jesus (Heb. 5:8). And he says that although Jesus was a Son, he learned obedience from what he suffered. And in the same way, even more so, we must learn obedience and at times that will involve suffering.

Someone might say that you can’t apply this verse to sickness because Jesus was never sick. It is true that Jesus never had any sickness or disease. But Jesus did experience pain at the cross. This was the most painful way to die. So Paul is not just talking about some sort of spiritual suffering here. He’s talking about actual suffering . Jesus experienced pain. He experienced intense physical pain as well as the inward emotional rejection and so forth. Furthermore, in applying this Scripture relating the Lord Jesus to your experience: you have a much wider range of imperfections than the Lord Jesus did. Therefore God uses a much wider range of perfecting instruments on your behalf. He does it because he loves you. He does it because He has eternal purposes for your life and He wants to make you absolutely mature in Christ. Absolutely glorious. Transformed by the power of His spirit. And sometimes He uses physical affliction to do it.

So, these are our three truths regarding healing: God’s essential purpose is to heal his people. Nevertheless, God does use physical affliction to chastise his people. And God also uses physical affliction, at times, to perfect us and to refine our characters. Those are our three basic points regarding healing.

They are summed up in this table.

 

Biblical View

Traditional View

Extreme Faith

God’s Will to Heal?

Yes

Not Often

Yes

God Can Use Infirmity to Chastise Us?

Yes

Yes

No

God Can Use Infirmity to Mature Us?

Yes

Yes

No

 

As you can see, the traditional view embraces a fatalistic attitude that expects nothing, whereas the extreme faith view embraces a spoiled-child attitude that demands everything!

The traditional, denominational Christian view does affirm that God can use infirmities to chastise us or mature us, but it’s pretty wimpy on the healing power and intention of God. This is your classic view that you’ll find in most denominational, traditional churches. It’s a very fatalistic approach to circumstances and to healing. The idea is that God usually does not heal. Of course you’ve got a huge variety of views on this depending on what church you pick. But essentially, in this view, it is a the rare exception when God actually does heal somebody. It’s virtually unknown. And some traditional churches, even go so far as to say that healing has passed away. That it was only for the first century Christian and so today God uses the doctor to heal and that’s the only expression of His healing intention. God does not heal anybody supernaturally anymore. So, this is the traditional view. It is not often God’s will to heal. It’s a very fatalistic, passive manner in which we submit ourselves to our circumstances. Whatever happens, we just assume that that’s the intention of God. We don’t fight sickness. We don’t aggressively seek to obtain the promises of God. We just, in a fatalistic manner, submit ourselves to whatever will be, will be. "Que sera sera." That sort of attitude. That’s the traditional view.

The third view is the extreme, faith view. The extreme faith view is very affirmative of the fact that it is God’s will to heal. But there is a divergence between the extreme faith view and the biblical view. An extreme faith teacher will deny that God can use infirmity to chastise us or to mature and perfect us.

This view is still popular today in many circles around this country and around the world. When I speak about the extreme faith position, please understand that there are many different aspects of this. There are many different faith groups. There are little differences here and there. But we’re going to look at the overall position and draw some defining features from it that we will be able to assess in light of the Word of God.

The extreme faith view essentially says it is always and absolutely God’s will to heal, whatever the circumstances, wherever you are. It’s always God’s will to heal. There is never a time where He would allow sickness for chastisement or for His maturing purposes. It is always God’s will to heal. Therefore, if you are sick, you are either in sin or you are in unbelief. There’s either some sort of sin in your life that’s brought this thing upon you or you’re just not standing in faith. It’s one or the other. If you’re sick there’s a problem, because it is always absolutely and unconditionally God’s will to heal. Therefore, if you are sick, you are out of God’s will. There’s a problem with you.

Now, I believe that God has used the faith message in the beginning to attack the passive, unbelieving fatalistic approach that had characterized the Christian church for centuries. I want to affirm that there is a aggressiveness about this approach that is good. There is present an aggressive approach to the promises of God. We need to aggressively go after the promises of God to seek to obtain those promises. We need to seek healing. God has given us healing and we need to fight the affliction of the devil and to receive what God has for us. I believe that there has been this positive aspect of this extreme faith movement over the last number of decades in this regard. Nevertheless, as so often happens, when you have a movement that is bringing a general truth without a strong theological background it ends up with a lot of problems. And many of these problems have been seen down through the years. As well as bringing an aggressiveness back to the idea of faith and to the believer, on the other hand, this doctrine (the extreme faith view) has also weakened many people’s relationships with God. This position has weakened many people’s trust in God through deep discouragement and disillusionment when it simply didn’t work.

And this doctrine doesn’t always work, because it is wrong. It is inadequate to explain the full scope of what God has to say in the Bible both about healing and about faith in general. And several ways in which it is inadequate is that it doesn’t allow for God to use infirmity to chastise or to mature and refine His people. The doctrine doesn’t allow that. Of course, God does it anyway whether your doctrine allows it or not! The doctrine doesn’t allow a conceptual embracing of chastisement or of the refining and maturing of God through affliction and the Bible plainly teaches that as we have already seen.

Also, another major problem with this doctrine is that it places the emphasis on us to a very unbiblical extent. I believe that there was a profitable bringing of a sense of responsibility and aggression and the fact that you need to fight and so forth, but in the end it ended up placing a sense of final responsibility on the individual believer saying that if you will follow the faith formula it will always happen. Here’s our little faith formula, our simple approach and if you will follow this formula it will always work.

This is at the heart of most of the faith movements. The particular formula that a group will have may differ a little bit from group to group but the essential elements of the faith formula are these: that you believe the Word of God. That you speak - the positive confession aspect. And then you act according to the Word of God. These are the elements of the faith formula. The idea is that if you’ll do this and this and this, then it will happen. It will work. This is the formula approach to faith and to God and this formula is a very simple formula. It never fails. These principles never fail. If you follow the formula, you will be healed. The faith formula always works. Therefore, if you’re not healed, the problem is with you. The faith formula works. These principles always work. Therefore, if they don’t work, the problem is not with God. The problem is with you. The responsibility is on you. Either you are in sin - that’s why God’s not healing you - or you simply don’t have enough faith. You’ve not been exercising enough faith and that’s why it hasn’t worked for you. But either way, healing becomes dependent on you and the idea is that God has already done the full amount that He’s ever going to do regarding your healing. It’s up to you now. So whether or not you get healed is totally up to you. It stands or falls on you. This is the extreme faith doctrine. You become the central issue. You and your faith become the deciding factor as to whether or not you will be healed.

Here are 2 models. These are very simple. One is a model of the faith message and the other is the model of the biblical message. This is a model of the faith message:

 

 

The faith message starts with God. That’s good. These lines are lines of causation. This causes this which causes this, etc. God gives us his Word. The Word of God comes from God. The Word of God produces faith in our heart. This is according to the faith message model. As we believe and receive the Word of God, that produces faith in our heart. Faith comes by hearing and receiving the word of God (Rom. 10:17). If we have faith, that faith then produces words of faith, actions of faith and endurance. Faith produces words (positive confession). Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks and so forth. If you have faith in your heart that will be expressed by words of faith. You will be making positive confessions. You will be speaking words of faith. You will also be acting according to the Word of God and regarding your words and your actions you will endure.

God gives us His Word, the Word of God produces faith in our hearts, our faith produces words of faith, actions of faith and endurance in faith and then if we do all this, that produces the answer. That, in a nutshell, is a model of the faith message. This is what produces the answer.

This model uses verses such as Prov. 18:21 - "Death and life are in the power of the tongue." Also James 3 speaks about the power of the tongue. Matt. 12:37 - "by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." And so forth. But these verses are pulled completely out of context and used in a way that God never ever intended that they would. According to this doctrine, these things are what produces the answer. Our words of faith and our actions of faith are what actually produce the answer.

This becomes a problem because if my words of faith, and actions of faith and enduring faith is what is going to produce my answer then I’m going to be watching over the words of my mouth and I’m going to make sure that I don’t say anything negative. I’m going to be paranoid that if I say something negative that I will release some sort of power to keep me sick. Everything I say has got to be, "by Jesus stripes I was healed." It’s got to be positive. It’s got to be faith. It can’t be something negative because if it’s negative I’ll get the negative thing. If what I say is positive that’s what I’ll get. So I have to say positive things, By the way I don’t want you to say anything negative about me either! So don’t you dare come to me and say, "Man, you look tired!" I’m going to say, "The blood of Jesus against your words. I must neutralize that curse. This doctrine really has some interesting consequences for our relationships - how we relate to each other.

Of course there is not a single instance of this kind of behavior in the Bible.

There is not one instance where someone said something negative and then said, "Oh my goodness, the blood of Jesus against that!" Furthermore, Prov. 18:21 and James 3 - where he speaks about the power of the tongue - do not teach that the tongue has some sort of supernatural power in itself. Those passages are talking about relationships. James, for example, is talking about cursing men, and division and strife. It’s not as if we’re releasing some sort of spiritual energy that’s going to ally do the words. But it’s creating trouble and strife and so forth. Read James 3. Read the whole book of James while you’re at it. It’s all about relationships. It’s the same in Proverbs. We take these verses and pull them out and we have this absolute proof - thus saith the Scripture - that your words create things. The idea of the creative power of the word that is in your mouth is not Bible.

In Matthew 5:36, Jesus said you do not have the power to change one hair on your head, and that was in a context of speaking!

The next model is the biblical model.

 

 

This starts with God. God gives us His Word. The Word of God, when received in our hearts, produces faith in our hearts. God gives us His Word. The Word of God gives us faith. Our faith is then expressed toward God and in response to our faith God produces the answer. Now, as a by-product, real faith will produce statements of faith and actions of faith. If you really believe that God’s going to do something, you’ll act that way won’t you? And you will endure. But these are by-products of faith. These are not the things that cause the answer. God causes the answer. And this is a totally different model.

 

God gives you His Word. Through His Word He gives you faith. Your faith is then expressed toward God who gives you the answer to your prayer. As a by-product genuine faith is expressed in words, actions and endurance. But it is God who causes the answer; not your faith. Thus, God is at the center of this model. Not you. Not your faith. And the answer is dependent upon Him, not you. Not your faith. This is the biblical picture.

Under the faith message, what is the focus of your faith? What is your faith focusing on? The answer. Your faith is focusing on the answer. In the biblical model, what is your faith focusing on? God. That’s a huge difference.

In the faith message model, what is the answer dependent upon? It’s dependent upon you, upon your faith, upon your words or actions. That’s why we worry about our words. Because if we don’t neutralize the power of negative confessions, then we’re sunk. The answer is dependent on your actions, words, etc. But, in the biblical model, what is the answer dependent upon? God. The answer is dependent upon God. Now, which would you rather have the answer dependent upon? You or God? Which is the more biblical picture? That the answer depends on you or God? In the Bible, it’s God from cover to cover.

But if you think that the answer depends upon you maintaining this positive confession you’re going to paranoid about making a negative confession.

Let’s say Michael has a broken leg. And I come to him and say, How do you feel Michael? Michael’s reply to me, "Bless God, I’m healed!" Really? Your leg looks broken. "That’s just a negative, lying circumstance!" Actually that’s not just a negative, lying circumstance. That’s a reality. But Michael is going to be very upset with me if I keep pressing him any further, because he doesn’t want any negative words going out because he sees the answer to his prayer for healing as directly dependent upon him maintaining his positive confession.

According to the biblical model, what could Michael say? He’s got faith for his healing so he’s going to make a faith-filled statement such as. "I broke my leg, but I’m looking to God to heal me!" Where is his faith directed now? At God. Not at his own ability to keep it going.

Some people think that if they repeat the formula - "by the blood of Jesus I’m healed; by His stripes I’m healed" - enough times, then that somehow will make it happen. But Michael is now looking to God to heal him. God is the source of healing.

Incidentally, if you really think that faith works according to the extreme faith message and that everything you say has got to be positive, and that you can never say anything negative or else you’re going to shoot yourself in the foot, then you’re going to have a really difficult times with a lot of what is said in the Bible by some very strong men and women of God. Many times in the Bible, people said what actually are very negative confessions, but nevertheless they said them in the context of faith in God. They were statements of reality. But in the midst of those realities, they would look to God. For example: "We’re overwhelmed. We’re cast down. But we’re not forsaken, because God is faithful!" That is real faith, and it moves you out of the al, weird realm where everything is depending on you following a formula. But it brings you back to an actual living breathing confidence in God. A biblical faith where you are trusting God in the midst of the circumstances.

So the biblical truths about healing are:

In a general sense, it is God’s will to heal. We saw that in repeated Scriptures that God’s intention is to heal. But, nevertheless, God can and does use infirmities to chastise His people, and also God can and does use infirmities to mature and to perfect His people. So now let’s look at what a balanced faith in God for healing looks like.

According to a biblical faith, at the heart of the matter: believe God for healing. It is His will essentially to heal. Fight the devil. Focus on the positive promises of God. I’m not promoting the traditional, Christian churchy wimpy attitude toward spiritual warfare or healing or faith. Not at all. I’m not promoting fatalism. I’m not saying just throw up your hands and say, in despair, "Well, if it’s God’s will to heal me, then He’ll heal me. And if it’s not God’s will to heal me, then He won’t heal me. And there’s nothing I can do about it either way. It’s all just up to God and so I’ll just hope for the best and prepare for the worst." I’m not promoting that attitude at all. My purpose is to encourage your faith in God. Not to undermine it. But in having real faith, it’s got to be based upon the Word of God and not some half truth. Real faith encompasses the full spectrum of the Word of God. So I’m not promoting fatalism. I’m saying fight: fight the devil. Fight for what God has given you. In faith, fight. Press in for healing because it is God’s will, essentially, to heal you. Aggressively pursue the receiving of the promises of God. Press in for God to heal you. Don’t just give up. Don’t be fatalistic. Be aggressive. Be vigorous. Go for it.

At the same time, as you are doing that: submit the outcome to God. Submit yourself, your life and the outcome of your faith; submit it all to God. When you submit the outcome to God, even though you are aggressively looking for your healing, you will accomplish a number of things. Firstly, your further walk with God won’t stand or fall on whether you get healed. Have you ever met anybody who embraced the extreme faith message, and it didn’t work and then they forsook God? I have. So when you aggressively pursue God for healing, at the same time surrender your heart. Submit to His lordship, to His sovereign dealings. Then your further walk with God is not dependent upon you getting healed. You’re going to walk with Him anyway. You need to do that. Because there will be many things that will happen to you that won’t fit into little simplistic theologies. And you’ve got to just walk with God anyway. Whether it seems like it works or not, you have to keep walking with God. Even if nothing works. Settle it right at the outset that you’ll submit the outcome to Him, at the same time that you are aggressively pursuing Him. Then you’ll continue to walk with God anyway.

Also, when you submit the outcome to God, then you’ll be looking to Him and not to yourself for your healing. The ultimate responsibility for your healing lies with Him and not yourself. So, be free from that condemnation. Be free. Submit the outcome to God and be free from that condemnation that has been dogging some of you for years. That you just don’t have enough faith, or maybe there’s some sin in your life or maybe you let out some negative confession...and it all revolves around you. And the enemy has brought condemnation upon you. Be free from that in the name of Jesus. Submit the outcome to God. And be loosed from that condemnation. The responsibility for healing is not on you. It’s on God. The responsibility for healing is not on your faith or on your words or on your actions, or on your endurance. It’s on God. God is responsible for your healing. Be free from condemnation.

Also, if you will submit the outcome to God, then God can show you deeper issues that may be in the situation that He wants to show you. But if you’re walking through with this formula mentality then you won’t be seeking God. You’re not directed at God. And you don’t want to deal with anything "negative." Your ears will be deaf to God convicting you and showing you things in your life that He wants to deal with.

You need to submit to God because God’s highest purposes are His own glory and your transformation. Those are His highest purposes. And I know that I’m totally flying in the face of everything that so much of the church stands for in this culture, but God’s highest purpose is not for you to live a prosperous life in this world: always feeling good and never suffering any inconvenience or pain. That’s not His highest purpose. His highest purposes are His glory and your transformation: the image of the Lord Jesus Christ being formed in your life. Not you feeling good. Now I’m speaking about biblical Christianity when I say that. Not the "feel good, bless me" consumer substitute that is found in this land. And if you think that God’s highest purpose is to give you a new sports car every year and a big vacation home and pretty clothes, then you’re going to have a hard time believing what we’re saying. And that very simplistic, very selfish materialism is at the heart of much of the modern American faith message.

So don’t embrace that error. Submit to God. As you submit to God, continue to believe the positive promises of God. That God will heal you. Believe God. Be aggressive. Fight the devil who is the source of that sickness. That’s the biblical model. Aggressively believe the positive promises of God which do represent His essential will, but at the same time submit to God who may well be working in the situation for purposes other than what are immediately apparent to you. Then you’ll make it. As you do that, you will see His power revealed and you’ll also hold to Him.

Here are two biblical examples of faith. And to some of you this may be so hard. Particularly, if you’ve really been saturated in the modern American faith message. It will really be hard for you to put this together. But if you’ll be honest you’ll admit that you could never make sense of a bunch of verses in the Bible that you could never fit in your pretty little formula. Some little quick little formula won’t cut it. You need a broad faith in an awesome God. And somehow that biblical faith will balance those two aspects: an aggressive faith in God seeking to receive and possess His promises, while at the same time from your heart surrendering your life to Him, submitting the outcome to Him and to His sovereign purposes. Then you’ll make it. Then you’ll walk in victory. You won’t be looking to yourself as a source of your healing. You’ll be looking to God.

These are biblical models where these two thoughts are put together. We could multiply these. The first biblical models is Job. This is the biblical model of faith.

Job is saying, "I’m trusting God. I’m aggressively believing God. Yet, I’m submitting myself to His outcome." That’s what he said. Just in one sentence he summed it all up. It took me an hour. Took him eight words.

And "I will defend my own ways before him." Job was perfect. He was not sinlessly perfect. Obviously not. No one ever has or ever will be. Just the Lord Jesus. But Job was righteous. He was a righteous man. God said he was. He had faith in God, but he was not perfect. Although he was not involved in some great unbelief or sin. But there were things in his life, there were things in his heart that God was dealing with. And God did a wonderful work in Job through the whole process. God was dealing with him for God’s glory, firstly and the transformation of his servant Job. Those were God’s purposes. All this suffering is happening to him. On every hand, he’s lost everything. Sitting on the garbage dump, scratching his boils. Why? There’s no reason. It doesn’t fit the formula. And so Job says I don’t know what is happening here. I do know that I don’t deserve this suffering because of any great sin or unbelief. But I’m going to hold onto God anyway. That’s faith. Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. I’m going to aggressively believe God. I’m going to aggressively believe the promises of God. But at the same time I’m not going to be offended at God if he doesn’t work it according to my little formula. I’m going to submit the outcome to God.

The second example is the three Hebrew boys

Nebuchadnezzar says. "All right boys, you’re going to bow down to my image or it’s into the fire. We’re going to cook you." And their response (Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego). They said, Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. You talk about an aggressive faith! These boys are surrounded by guards that are about to throw them in the fire at the command of the most powerful king upon the earth. How are they going to get out of that? They’re not. But in the midst of that, they say, "God is not only able to deliver us, but He’s going to." That is faith.

But look at all of what they said, "God is going to deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if He doesn’t, we’re going to serve Him anyway. We have committed and submitted and surrendered the outcome to Him!"

God is able to deliver us and he will deliver us, but if he doesn’t let it be known to you O king that we will not serve your gods nor will we worship the golden image in which you have set up.

Aggressive faith and submitting the outcome to God. These boys didn’t see a contradiction, because they hadn’t heard the formula. That’s why. They just knew the Word - and God. There is no contradiction. I know for some of you because you’re so saturated in that stuff it will take you some time of just letting the Word of God wash that out of you and it will do it. I’m not trying to undermine your faith. I’m trying to encourage you to a real faith. Give up that phony substitute and have a real faith in God which at its heart is based upon absolute utter surrender of your life to God and to His purposes. But a faith that sees the clear promises of the Word and grabs onto those promises like a bulldog on a bone and says, "Our God is able and He’s going to do it. I’m going to see this healing happen in my body by the power of God in the name of Jesus. I’m going to see my marriage restored. I’m going to see my child restored to the Lord. I’m going to see my family saved by the power of the blood of Jesus, because God has given me promises and they’re true and I’m going to hold onto them." That is a biblical faith.

And it will release you and give you peace. It will take away the condemnation. It will take away the responsibility. Put it back where it belongs. On Him. All He’s asking you to do is to love Him and serve Him with all your heart and to approach Him with a simple, child-like faith. Not this complicated faith that ends up setting up all of these hoops that you’ve got to jump through. And if you happen to miss one hoop, you’re sunk. It’s not like that with God. Have biblical faith. The Hebrew boys said God will deliver us, but if He doesn’t we’re going to love Him and serve Him anyway. That’s faith. Absolute surrender to God. That is the biblical model of faith for healing.