Interferences To Healing

There are four things that are particularly good at tearing down faith instead of building it up. The first faith killer is a "prove it to me" attitude. We already looked at that in our previous lesson. So let's move on to examine the other three.

LOOKING AT THE PROBLEM INSTEAD OF AT THE SOLUTION

A second faith killer is when we keep our eyes on the symptoms rather than on the healer, especially in regard to healing. Some say, "God told me, spoke to me about healing, but I am looking at the symptoms. The symptoms are still here, so obviously I am not healed." It could be that God has healed you and now your job is to contend for this -- to pursue this, and move ahead into this.

A lot of times, we fix our eyes on the symptoms and we say, "Man, look at this. I still have them. It must not have worked. It must not have taken." I just think of Heidi Baker's testimony. As she was about to leave for Africa, the doctors told her that she would die if she went. But she said, "God gave me a word that I would be alive, that I would be used for revival." They told her that she would die because she had multiple sclerosis and there were not adequate facilities in Mozambique to treat her. But Heidi focused on God's word of life instead of on the doctors' words of death. She was so frail and weak that she would fall down when she walked around her missions compound. And those orphan children would go over to her and lay their hands on her and pray for hours over her. Heidi did not operate based on what she felt. She did not operate based upon the symptoms. She continued and continued to persevere and she pursued and pursued the word that God had given her. And she was eventually totally and completely healed.

God gave Heidi the word. If she had lived by her symptoms, she would have died. You see that? She did not live according to the symptoms. She lived according to the rhema word of God and not according to the symptoms.

Likewise, when God speaks into our spirits and tells us that He has healed us, we have to take His word over our symptoms. We have to believe that God has given us that word and then we have to move ahead based upon God's promise to us. The flesh will crawl up and shout, "You're not healed, look at those symptoms. You still have them. God didn't heal you. He didn't touch you." And the accuser will come in and hit you with those words left and right. It becomes very tempting to agree with those voices, to say, "You're right. I'm not healed. Oh, God, it didn't work. Why didn't you heal me?" And God says, "I did. I did. Claim it. Walk in it."

We can't live according to what we see. We have to live according to the word that was given to us. We need to proceed according to that word and contend for it and fight for it. If it doesn't happen immediately, don't settle for that. Don't settle for anything short of God's promise. Don't settle for, "Oh, it didn't work." If you can't see it, go after it. Fight for it, based upon the word, not upon what you see.

FEAR

The third faith killer is when we live by fear. Living in fear is a great killer of faith. Faith and fear are similar in their dimensions. Both of these project into the future. Faith is an assurance of things to come. Fear is a dread of things to come. They are similar in their dimension. When fear is present, it kills faith.

Faith is trust. Faith is submission to what was spoken to our spirit. Fear kills that. Job said this about fear, "What I have feared has come upon me. What I have dreaded has happened to me" (Job 3:25). And that is so true because fear opens the door for what we fear to happen. Where there is fear, there is no faith. There is no trust in God. You are walking out from under the protective hand of God. When you walk in fear, you walk out of the will of God for God did not give you a spirit of fear. God has given you a gift of faith.

GOD DOESN'T HEAL TODAY

The fourth faith killer is when we reject the availability of God's grace for healing, when we say that God doesn't do that stuff today. Or you may believe in healing for others, but don't believe that God will heal you. "God doesn't do that stuff with me. He will do it with anyone else but me." When we think this way, we reject His grace.

I am always amazed when I hang out with some people who believe God doesn't heal any more. Obviously, we don't get along very well. I am always amazed, how when it is time for prayer, they have these prayer requests: "I want you to pray for the people who are sick." I mean, why are they bringing their names up for healing if they don't believe in those things any more? Why are they requesting prayer for this?

Some people reject God's willingness to move in their own lives for good. That kills faith. They may say, "Well I'm not worthy." But healing is not an issue of being worthy. Nobody is worthy. It is an issue of God's choice. God chooses. He wants to. It is not an issue of earning it or disserving it. It is an issue of His choice. And if you don't think God wants to touch you, you can't receive a thing, because you are killing it before it even gets to your heart. You are killing it before it even gets to your spirit.

Growing In Faith

Let's look at Luke 17.5 "The apostles said to the Lord, 'Increase our faith.' " Have you ever prayed that prayer, Lord, increase my faith? I want to have great faith. The disciples knew the significance of faith so their cry to Jesus was, "God, increase our faith."

And this was His response to them. He said, "If you have faith as small as a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'be uprooted and planted in the sea' and it will obey you" (Luke 17:6). Now they might have been thinking, "We ask you to increase and you tell us about a tree?!" But He is really talking about a seed -- the mustard seed. It is so small. So in other words Jesus is saying that it doesn't take a whole lot to get a lot done. And I believe that He was telling His disciples, "You already have it. It is already there. It is already planted in your spirit. It doesn't have to be very big to get a lot of results."

And I think the Lord would say to us today, "It is in you. The mustard seed faith is already there." We are asking for a walnut sized seed, or maybe a coconut sized seed of faith. I believe God says, "I have given you enough to take care of whatever you need. You have the seed."

Why are you trying to get something that is already there? God has given you what you need. You simply have to get in tune with your spirit. Now, this doesn't mean that you throw out your brain. But it means that your brain needs to submit to your spirit. You need to let the voice of your spirit rise up when the Spirit of God speaks to you. Remove the hindrances that keep you from hearing His voice and let the spirit of God rise up. It is there. And then act it out, walk it out.

For some of you, God has given you enough stuff that you already know. You are just afraid to do it. That fear comes in and you go, "What if He doesn't come through?" You act and you'll see.

A Prayer For Faith

Let's pray....

God, we ask You to take what You have planted within us as we say, Lord, increase our faith. Lord, that we will begin to direct our eyes to the things that You have planted into our spirits. Lord, there is already so much that You have told us that we haven't even acted upon. So much that You have given us. So Lord we ask You now, just let us get in tune with You, more in tune with Your spirit.

Lord, we pray that You will just begin to break off of us every assignment that the enemy has to keep us from focusing our attention upon You. Oh Lord Jesus, begin to break it all off; that "prove it to me" attitude and that misery mindset. We ask You to break it off and take if off of us in Jesus name.

Lord, allow us to act according to our spirit. And Father, please help us to get free from sickness by recognizing that our symptoms are not where the focus needs to be. Help us focus on You and on Your healing. Help turn our eyes away from those symptoms and turn our eyes to You, regardless of what we feel or what we sense or what we see. Empower us to stand upon that, contend for that, to fight the devil for that. Lord, we are going to fight our flesh for that. We are going to bring our bodies under submission to the spirit and we are going to continue to hang in there and contend for what Your word has spoken to our spirit.

Lord gives us the patience and the endurance. Just like Heidi talked about how she contended for her healing for two years and then You came through. Father we just pray that You will refocus our eyes.

Lord, I know that in the midst of pain and anguish it is hard to keep our eyes focused. Lord Jesus, You also said that You would not allow us to go through anything that You would not give us the grace to endure, go through, and overcome. Lord, I just pray that You will keep our eyes and our focus upon You. Lord I pray that You will break off every spirit of fear, being afraid of what others might say, afraid of the future, afraid of things out there that haven't even happened yet. Oh Lord, replace that with trust. You are greater than anything that is out there, and You are the only security in our future.

Lord, speak into our spirit the foundation, the passion, to heal. Make Your desire to heal real to us so that we can claim it for our lives.