The integrity of the Bible, the written Word of God is at stake when doubt is present. The question of its truth must be settled in your mind and heart if you are to be born again and progress in the Kingdom of God. The decision to believe is the key. It is a decision that is made within the heart, and never visited again. Just like you decided that you wanted a career in the field that you are working in. Or, you believe that you can get up out of a chair and walk, or you can breathe but don’t actually don’t know how oxygen is processed in the body, or cars use gasoline for power. This is something that you don’t think about every moment of the day, but you trust and have confidence in and work within it, and use it without question. You know that you know that you know. You don’t question it, it works and that’s that. So should one’s faith in the Word of God be, by believing it and working within it.
One must recognize that God’s word is supernatural truth and is far superior to human reasoning and able to render human circumstance inferior to God’s solutions. The question to you is quite simple: Is the Word of God true or false? If the answer you give is “true”, then your journey to truth and eternal life begins. The Word of God becomes the ultimate authority in your life. All the promises of God become yours, and you are redeemed from “the curse of the law”:
Galatians 3:13 (NKJV)
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”. If the answer is “false”, then you are destined to live the human experience without God, living under the curse of the law:
(Deuteronomy 28)
Since the moment Adam & Eve sinned, every person born into the world inherits “sin nature” from Adam. That nature is subject to sinning against God, but also subject to the curse of the law, which means sickness and disease, poverty, and separation from God. That is the reality of mankind today.
Jesus arrived on the scene, sent by God to redeem us from that curse. He contrasted His coming in:
John 10:10 (NKJV)
The thief (satan) does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
John 10:10 Amplified Bible (AMP)
The thief comes only in order to steal, and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it [a]overflows).
1 John 3:8 Amplified Bible (AMP)
[But] he who commits sin [who practices evildoing] is of the devil [takes his character from the evil one], for the devil has sinned (violated the divine law) from the beginning. The reason the Son of God was made manifest (visible) was to undo (destroy, loosen, and dissolve) the works the devil [has done].
Without God, you cannot help but sin, it is your nature. You may never steal, nor murder someone, or commit adultery, yet the nature is still ever present. However, with God through Jesus Christ, you have power over sin, the adversary and all his works.
He gave us, (all believers) through His word, power over this enemy.
Are you a disciple? Then Jesus did this for you and all disciples.
Luke 10:19 Amplified Bible (AMP)
Behold! I have given you authority and power to trample upon serpents and scorpions, and [physical and mental strength and ability] over all the power that the enemy [possesses]; and nothing shall in any way harm you.
Matthew 10:1 Amplified Bible (AMP)
AND JESUS summoned to Him His twelve disciples and gave them power and authority over unclean spirits, to drive them out, and to cure all kinds of disease and all kinds of weakness and infirmity.
While most of us are riding the fence of “wanting to believe”, but really are not committed, we live in the land of hope, but never experiencing the reality of the certainty of God’s Word. We want to believe, but for a myriad of reasons (that only each of us knows), we hold back and never make the decision to believe. Others believe in the head, by that I mean that we make the decision that yes we believe there is a God (believe in God), head knowledge or intellectually, but really don’t “believe” God or what He says in His Word.
When it comes to the “things of God”, many of us are in the camp of “if it is His will”. This actually means that we do not “know” what His will is regarding things pertaining to His children. It sounds humble, pious, and even religious, however it demonstrates a lack of knowledge of His will, His desire, His Covenant with, and His promises to, His chosen people (all believers). I often wonder to whom does it sound religious? We unknowingly place ourselves in the position of victims, defenseless against the world, and in some cases against God because we accuse Him of all sorts of atrocities against us, when satan is the author of it all. We even defend that position by saying that God uses these trials, tribulations, attacks, diseases, death, and the list goes on, to teach us lessons or bring us to and through some spiritual awakening. God says “there will be trials in this world”, not that He will put them on you. He says He will bring you through them if you trust in Him.
We understand that God is able to do all things since we readily acknowledge that He created all things. Yet, when it comes to believing Him, we are not sure if He will do what He has promised in His Word. Actually, as it says in Ecclesiastes, “there is nothing new under the sun.” In other words, everything already exists; it is either visible or in visible.
To find out what His ultimate will is, we must study His Word, NOT religious teaching, but His Word. It is a decision to learn what His Word says, and “look not unto our own understanding”, but to seek and gain Godly Wisdom and Understanding.
Romans 3:4 (Amplified Bible)
By no means! Let God be found true though every human being is false and a liar, as it is written, That You may be justified and shown to be upright in what You say, and prevail when You are judged [by sinful men].
Romans 3:4 (NKJV)
Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written:
“ That You may be justified in Your words,
And may overcome when You are judged.
Isaiah 55:11 (Amplified Bible)
So shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth: it shall not return to Me void [without producing any effect, useless], but it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
Jeremiah 1:12 (Amplified Bible)
Then said the Lord to me, You have seen well, for I am alert and active, watching over My word to perform it.
So, if one reads and understand these scripture verses correctly, the truth is that God has made sure that every word written in the Bible is truth, and has been fulfilled, and once we believe it is truth, it will be fulfilled in our lives as well. You see, everything was done by Jesus through His death, burial, and resurrection.
According to the Gospel of John, Jesus was the “Word made flesh”; He was the Word, was with God, and dwelt among us (men). Therefore, He (The Word) came to earth, accomplished what God intended (God watching over Him), and then He returned to Father God. The Word was sent, it performed as God desired, and did not return to the Father until His work was done… then He sat done at the right hand of God.
Hosea 4:6 (Amplified Bible)
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you [the priestly nation] have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you that you shall be no priest to Me; seeing you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.
Hosea 4:6 (Good News Translation)
My people are doomed because they do not acknowledge me. You priests have refused to acknowledge me and have rejected my teaching, and so I reject you and will not acknowledge your sons as my priests.
You can read the other translations if you like, however they all have the same meaning.
In America and the western world today, we are inundated with information. We constantly hear that our world is in the “information age”. Everything must be done quickly or else we’ll be left behind, or so the “world” tells us. From fast food to the fastest download speeds to faster messaging, we are supposed to catch up to technology or be eternally outside the so called “real world”. So much time is spent on trying to get all the information or see or hear it all, that we wind up with a head full of worldly thoughts and emotions that have very little human value. Indeed, the brain can hold millions and maybe billions of bits of information, yet it can all be for naught, or utterly worthless if it is not of the truth of God, or better yet knowledge but no wisdom.
If you have watched television and movies over the last 40 years, you have watched over and over again, situations and circumstances where only doctors, lawyers, policemen, and government officials have all the answers for every human problem. You have seen and experienced your Godly beliefs systematically attacked and ridiculed, to the point that you are almost embarrassed to say in public that you believe in God. You have seen prayer taken out of our public schools, and any mention of God prohibited in parks and public buildings. And to the dismay of many, at the mere saying of the name Jesus, one is almost violently attacked by society. Some are trying to remove prayer from Military funerals; especially when referring to God or Jesus! So, what do we do, we use the same legal system that promotes this type of attack, and try to remove the restrictions legally.
If we only believed that God answers prayer!!!
Okay! Okay! I know I am covering many issues, but I am leading to a very serious point, or a series of points. Please bear with me.
Please see the excerpt from a book written in the mid 19th century by Warren Felt Evans. It gives some insight into “faith” and “fear”, in relationship to sickness and disease. The author is very clear in stating is views on the subject, and finds proof in the works of Jesus. Take a look below.
FAITH AND FEAR AND THEIR RELATION TO HEALTH AND DISEASE.
Originally by Warren Felt Evans
Republished by Amy Biddle
“All diseases appertaining to man have correspondence with the spiritual world, for whatever in the whole of nature has not correspondence with the spiritual world has no existence, having no cause from which it can exist.”— (Arcana Celestia, 5711.)
“Whate'er we hope, by faith we have,
Future and past, subsisting now.”
THE Christian idea of salvation includes in it something more than the pardon of sin, and the releasing of the offender from an arbitrary punishment. It is the restoration of the soul to union and harmony with God, and of the body to correspondence with the redeemed spirit. Jesus, the Christ, in the office of the Great Physician, undertook the divine task of carrying a healing influence, in the highest sense of the terms, to every department of our disordered human nature. It was his aim to cure the body through the restored soul. But what was the fundamental idea in his method of cure? It stands out prominently in the Gospels, and on almost every page.
There are two opposite mental states, which, more than any others, are the body's health or malady. The inmost principle of health, according to his system, is faith. “Thy faith hath made thee whole,” and “Be it unto thee according to thy faith,” express a general law of the relation of the body to the sovereign mind.
The principle of fear, which is allied to doubt, to unbelief and to melancholy, and without which those states could, not exist, is the spiritual essence of disease. ln its acute form, such as is experienced in a sudden fright, it affects every organ and fibre of the body. It creates everywhere a morbid action. In the form of anxiety and doubt, it gains in chronicity what it loses in intensity. So the effects of faith, when it is energetic, and according to the degree in which it is exercised, are felt everywhere throughout the organism. It sends a thrill of life and health through every particle and tissue of the bodily structure. Its effects are both immediate and lasting, which can be predicated of no other remedy.
We are saved by faith, soul and body, and this is the fundamental idea of the Christian system. This law of faith is fully illustrated in the Gospel narratives, and in the beneficent career of Christ. The influence of a genuine faith is the divine secret that he revealed to an unbelieving and darkened world. The relation of faith to health, of soul and body, and of fear and unbelief to disease and misery, are the fundamental principles of his spiritual science of healing.
In perusing the Gospel history, we find that no cures were ever wrought by him except through the faith of the patient, or of someone else. Where there was a lack of this essential condition, he performed no cures. (Mat. xiii. 58.) His whole life is an exhibition of the triumphs of faith over disease, misery and death. It was in him a living power that united him to God the Central Life. We are told by Paul that it was an element in God's omnipotence, and that by it he created the worlds. (Heb. xi. 3.)
Of course, there is a plethora of books, opinions, and stories about divine healing, either for it or against it. If you would like to know more about it, I can recommend at least two books written by:
T.L. Osborn, titled “Healing the Sick”. Another is F. F. Bosworth, “Christ the Healer.
In summary, when it comes to Christianity, when it comes to Jesus of the Bible, when it comes to God, when it comes to healing, it all works by faith. It is a decision to believe God, and stand firmly in His Word.
When I didn’t see God healing me and others, my thought was, “but I DO have faith”. Yet, it seemed as if God was ignoring my prayers or declarations. (He tells us (believers) “to declare and decree”. I had to find understanding from the word. I wanted to blame God for my situations and circumstances, and for not doing what I asked Him to do. By His grace and mercy and patience, I found out that He has already done everything there was for Him to do. My part was to believe; to “have faith in God”, and believe without wavering; and to receive all that He has given me; love, health, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Hebrews 11:6 (NIV)
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Hebrews 11:6 Amplified Bible (AMP)
But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him [out].
Hebrews 11:6 The Message (MSG)
It's impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him.
Psalm 107: 19-22 (NKJV)
19 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
And He saved them out of their distresses.
20 He sent His word and healed them,
And delivered them from their destructions.
21 Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men!
22 Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving,
And declare His works with rejoicing.
