The Healing Presence Of The Lord

Faith is the title deed to what you have not seen. We must believe we have what we ask for according to Gods word and will. The Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (NKJV). The Moffat's translation of the NT reads like this: "Faith means we are convinced that we have what we do not see." Jesus said, in Mark 11:24, "Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them" (NKJV).

Faith for healing is the same as faith for salvation. In other words, you must believe on the authority of God's Word. When you ask for forgiveness you receive it. You may not have "felt" it right away, but you were forgiven. Salvation was there -- you had it by the grace of God. Faith is the evidence of things not seen. It is not faith any more when we actually receive it, it is faith while we are looking forward to God keeping His promise to us. As soon as we receive the blessing that was manifested; faith for that blessing is not needed any more because we already have it.

Again, faith for healing is like faith for salvation. Once the healing has come, the body is restored. We need to continue to thank God for the healing and give Him all the glory. We must believe have faith that we received when we pray. Just as we receive salvation, we prayed we believed we had salvation. Don't throw away your confidence; Hebrews 10:35-36 says, "Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise" (NKJV).

The bible assures us that we can have confidence and endurance; confidence that we are going to see the manifestation of the healing, faith in God that He is doing it. 1 John 5:14-15 says, "Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him" (NKJV).

I looked up the word study notes from my Spirit Filled Life Bible, page 1884. Here is what it said:

"Endurance, hupomone (hoop-om-on-ay); Strong's #5281: Constancy, perseverance, continuance, bearing up, steadfastness, holding out, patient endurance. The word combines hupo, "under," and mone "to remain." It describes the capacity to continue to bear up under difficult circumstances, not with a passive complacency, but with a hopeful fortitude that actively resist weariness and defeat."

We must have endurance until God brings forth the manifested appearance of the thing hope for. 2 Corinthians 5:7 said this; "for we walk by faith, not by sight" NASU. The TLB translation phrases it this way: "We know these things are true by believing, not by seeing."

Our walk in this life must be a faith walk; it is how we live our life. Are you walking in faith? Only you can answer that question. We as Christians need to search our hearts and ask Holy Spirit to reveal where we are in our walk of faith.

Jesus when He spoke to the fig tree spoke in faith. Let us look at this scripture. We find the story in Mark 11:13-15, 19-24 (NKJV):

And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. And when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. In response Jesus said to it, "Let no one eat fruit from you ever again." And His disciples heard it. So they came to Jerusalem.

When evening had come, He went out of the city. Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter, remembering, said to Him, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away." So Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will come to pass, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

You see, the fig tree Jesus cursed dried up not from the leaves down, which they could of seen before they went into the city, but from the roots up which were out of sight. The death of the tree could not be detected right away by look at the leaves. As verse 22 said, have faith in God. In other words, through the faith of God, speak to the problem and don't doubt in your heart believe what you say and God will bring it to pass in due time.

Jesus was teaching his disciples that they need faith to believe even if they did not see it right a way. We walk by faith not by sight. Our faith needs to be tenacious; this is a faith that is single-minded one that is holding fast characterized by a firm grip. Don't let go of it. Hebrews 11:6 said: "And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him" (NASU).

I want to please God. Do you? We walk in and by faith so our confession must be one of faith also. "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit" (Prov 18:21). Speak life and live, eat the fruit of life. There are people that fail to receive what they pray for because they lack to comprehend confession. Confession is affirmation of scriptural truth that we have embraced, taken to heart. It is down in our spirit and repeat it with our mouth, God's own declaration. 1 Peter 2:24 says that Jesus "bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed" (NASU). We are to believe and speak the same word. Say it out loud.

Some wonder if God will really back up our confession of faith. The bible tells us that He will, if we are confessing things God has promised in His word, the Bible. Jeremiah 1:12 says, "I am watching over My word to perform it" NASU. Who watches? Jesus! Let us look at another scripture. Hebrews 3:1 says, "Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus" (NKJV).

Jesus Christ, as our High Priest, acts in our behalf by that which we confess when it is in agreement with God's Word. Romans 10:8-10 says, "But what does it say? 'THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, in your mouth and in your heart' -- that is, the word of faith which we are preaching. That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation" NASU.

So let us talk about confession. Confession is saying something by faith. It is believing and confessing something before we experience the result. So how does this fit together? Let's look at the example of Salvation.

• First, we confess Jesus with our mouth
• Second, Our High Priest Jesus Christ gives salvation; we are born again!

What about healing? That works the same way. We confess our healing while we are still waiting for the magnification of it. We are confessing God's Word. God has promised both Salvation and Healing. The word salvation (so-tay-ree'-ah) has this meaning: deliver, health, save, safety, help, victory. The Lord is our strength and our life and He will up hold His Word and bring it to pass because:

1. Jesus sacrifice provided healing, by His strips we were healed.
2. Jesus Christ is our High Priest of our confession.
3. Our confession includes the whole of the Scripture truth, and the whole of God's revealed will.

We are to not to say our healing is fully manifested when it is not. The Lord is not asking us to do that. If anyone ask's you, just say, "I am standing on God's Word." This is biblical, we see it in Rev 12:11. In this passage, they over came the devil by:

• By the blood of Jesus.
• By speaking their testimony
• By not loving their lives even when faced with death.

Put God first speak the word with faith knowing that He will do it. Many hear the good news of the saving, healing, and delivering message of God. He wants all to receive it. Unfortunately, some don't (Heb 4:2).

Faith and confession go hand in hand. We walk by faith with a confession on our lips and our eyes fixed on Jesus. We move forward in the power of Holy Spirit knowing in our hearts that the answer is forth coming. The testimony we give to the world around us is one of victory because Jesus has taken the keys of death and of Hades, He has over come the devil, the victory is His and He gives it to us who walk in faith and not by sight and mix it with the Word of God.

Let your testimony be one of faith and confession of the Word, and then the healing presence of the Lord will come in power. Let me share an example of faith and confession in my own experience. The devil tried to bring arthritis in to my hands. I had pain and stiffness in the fingers. I quoted the Word of God and I commanded the spirit of arthritis to bound and cast out and I commanded all pain to go in the name of Jesus. I keep saying "I will not receive this arthritis pain; I will not have it." I have believed in my heart and confessed it with my mouth. I keep saying it, I will not have it, and you have no right here be gone. By the healing power of the Lord it goes. I moved my fingers and hands to check them out. Then I thanked Jesus for the healing. The devil may try to come back and attack again, but if He does, I will just stand in faith and confesses and speak I am healed in Jesus name, and he will be forced to leave. I praise God and give Him all the glory.