Healing

I used to get bronchitis twice every winter. I'd have to go on antibiotics, and then near the end of winter it would return and I'd have to go on antibiotics again—twice, each winter. More than one doctor was shocked or said it was the worst they'd seen.

At that time a visiting Evangelist wanted to pray for me on a prayer-line at church, and I sort of went along with it. But to tell you the truth, I wasn't really determined to be instantly, miraculously healed. Being sick and having a temperature wasn't nice, but I could carry on stoically. Oddly, the demand to choose faith to receive healing somehow felt like a bit of a chore, to my weakened mind, will and body. Maybe when I was younger being crook was a bit of a novelty, I don't know—but it seemed easier putting up with it, and almost comforting, just going along with the course of things. So I wasn't really expecting very much to happen, honestly.

(Do you know, it's possible for a sick person to accept prayer for healing, and yet not really be engaging. It's possible as believers to desire to pray for a person, yet the person himself mightn’t be ready to receive. That’s how I was, at first.)

But then one year, I had bronchitis again. I'd accompanied a friend driving from Queensland to a pastors' intensive at the Commonwealth Bible College (now called Alphacrucis) at Katoomba, NSW. It was cold, and I coughed all night. It must have really annoyed everyone else trying to sleep in the retreat dormitory. I reached the point where I said to myself, I've had enough of this, I’ve got to get healed.

I hadn't started a course of antibiotics that winter. But the very next night during the meeting, the speaker at the front said spontaneously to everyone, "There is a healing anointing here. Put your hands on wherever you are sick..." and he said he would pray. I eagerly placed my hand on my chest, and he prayed a single prayer from the front for everyone at our seats. This time I was determined—or, I knew—I was going to receive healing. Instantly, all the congestion in my chest was gone. I was healed. I never coughed again, much to the relief of everyone else in the dorm I'm sure.

Sometimes I still marvel: where did all that congestion in my chest go? How could it have just disappeared into thin air? One moment my chest was full of it: next moment the congestion just didn't exist anymore.

And I've never had bronchitis like that again, after all these years!

(Only, after climbing Mt Warning in the dark one night in winter, and after many years a small number of times, I had a bit of phlegm.)

That's how easy receiving healing was, this time. No-one even laid hands on me.

Looking back, I know that right before I got healed, what I had said in my heart was different to what I was saying in my heart the time before, when I wasn’t healed.

Notice according to the Scripture: we won't have what we believe only—it says we shall have what we believe and SAY:

"For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall SAY unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall BELIEVE that those things which he SAITH shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he SAITH.

Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (MARK 11:23,24).

It mentions ‘believing’ twice, but ‘saying’ three times.

Like the woman with the issue of blood:

"For she SAID within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole" (Matthew 9:21).

She got what she said she’d get: she wasn't just ‘believing’ generically, broadly, passively.

When you think about it, believing in the heart and confessing with the mouth had the same role in our getting saved:

"But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy MOUTH, and in thy HEART: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Romans 10:8-10).

Heart and mouth—believing and confessing Christ—results in salvation.

Like the prodigal son:

"And when he came to himself, he SAID, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

I will arise and go to my father, and will SAY unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee..." (Luke 15:17,18).

He said, and he acted—and the father welcomed him back with great joy. He wasn’t just passively believing good things about his dad and his dad’s house.

As with salvation, so with healing—sometimes a person may yet need to ‘come to himself’, to have had enough, and to say within himself that he's going to be healed. Then receiving and ministering healing might be relatively easy.

(This isn't the only criteria in what can happen to believers though. And God can make all that beautiful too, in its time. All in-keeping with His Divine nature and His Word.)

Believing, speaking, and acting also have the same role in receiving the Holy Spirit. You can nearly tell when someone is ready to receive the Holy Spirit, just like when someone is ready to receive salvation, and it can be the same with receiving healing—and in receiving anything else we desire and ask. Readiness to receive is almost observable.

"We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I BELIEVED, and therefore have I SPOKEN; we also believe, and therefore speak" (I Corinthians 4:13).

Believing, and speaking. You have that same spirit of faith. It’s very near you—in your heart and in your mouth. And you shall have it.

Sometimes with some things, though not always, we’re not waiting for God: He might be waiting for us. Our hearts might need preparing.

Others’ hearts might need to be made ready too. Just like you might need to work with a person a bit, sharing the Word with them, before their heart is ready to receive salvation, similarly we sometimes might need to work with a sick person a bit ‘til their own heart says within himself, “I shall be made whole”.

It is God Who works in our hearts by His gracious Word to make us willing and able. If in anything we aren’t quite ready yet to say in our hearts that something shall be so, may God the author of our faith faithfully bring our hearts to that place.

“So then, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”.

“But God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith”.

“To another [is given] faith by the same Spirit…” (I Corinthians 12:9).

Then shall “…the name of the God of Jacob defend thee; Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion…” and “…Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel” (Psalm 20:1,2,4).

Another time I was surprised when someone received the Holy Spirit. I had no idea she was anywhere near ready, yet she was filled with the Spirit and started speaking in tongues, her face full of joy and glory.

What do you desire? What are you imagining? All things, whatsoever you desire, think, ask, pray, believe, SAY (in your heart, or out loud) and act on—you shall have.