"But WITHOUT faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please him: for he that cometh to God MUST BELIEVE that he is and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

          You must believe. You must have faith. You must be diligent in your faith without wavering.

    Remember that in the book of James we are told that a double minded man is unstable in all his ways. You must come to God WITHOUT wavering in faith. The Bible tells us in the book James 1:5-8 that if a man wavers in his faith that this man is to think not that he will receive anything of the Lord. Even those things which the Lord God has already clearly provided for you through the shed blood of his Son Jesus cannot and will not be manifested in your life without faith. Take a look at these verses for yourself,

        Now remember my brothers and sisters in Christ these are not my words, this is God himself speaking to you. God desparately wants you to fully understand that if you desire to RECEIVE anything from his hand, then you must come to him in FAITH, WITHOUT WAVERING. Don't think otherwise, because this is the ONLY way to RECEIVE God's blessings. The just shall live by FAITH.

You may know in your MIND, that is have "head knowledge" that it is God’s will to heal you and agree that it is the truth, but simply having knowledge of the truth is not enough. You must believe in your heart and use your faith. One way we use our faith is to ACT as through we already have what we are yet believing God to manifest in our lives. And one way to ACT out our faith is to have a heart of thanksgiving and give God our highest praise with a thankful heart as through we have already received our request of him. Bottom line is YOU must have FAITH to receive from God.

    If you take a closer look at the ministry of Jesus, you will quickly see that he inevitably responded to those who received their healing with the words

    “YOUR FAITH has made you whole”.

Let me explain what I mean by this. Jesus said in the gospel of John 5:30...then John 14:10

        "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge:and my judgment is just; because I seek not my own will, but the will of my Father which sent me.... Believe you not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwells in me, he (the Holy spirit) does the works.”

        The Bible says in Acts 10:38

                " How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.”

        But if you only look at the part that says, “…Jesus went about doing good, and healing…” it appears on the surface that Jesus healed the people that were oppressed of the devil through his faith ALONE. When in reality it was God the Father, through the Holy Spirit, that did the healing, as Jesus simply OBEYED and followed the leading of the Holy Spirit.

However, we must not just look at this ONE part alone by itself and forget the words of Jesus we just read. We must remember that it took the FAITH of the ones who heard God’s word before their healing was manifested in them, because WITHOUT FAITH it is impossible to please God. YOU yourself must use YOUR faith, because the faith of others will only go so far. No matter how much I or others believe, IF your faith is not activated, then my faith or the faith of others will not override what YOU believe. In other words MY faith cannot save you, it must be YOUR own faith the produces salvation in you.

Romans 10:17 says,

"So then FAITH COMES by hearing and hearing (or more precisely UNDERSTANDING comes) by the word of God.”

        The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 1:21 that it pleased God by the foolishness of PREACHING to save [sozo] them that believe.

        "... It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them the BELIEVE.”

        If you don't BELIEVE then all the preaching and teaching in the world will NOT benefit you. Look at Hebrews chapter 3 beginning with verse 12 and ending in chapter 4, verse 2. Please read this on your own, I will only quote Hebrews 4:2 which says,

        "For unto us was the gospel preached, AS WELL AS unto them: BUT the word PREACHED did NOT profit them, (why?) not being mixed with FAITH in them that HEARD it.”

Jesus preached to the people. Jesus talked to the people. Jesus taught the word of God to the people. Then after hearing God’s word being preached the people only those people who BELIEVED were healed [sozo].

Then if you were to focus only on the part of this verse in Acts 10:38 that says,

            "…Jesus went about doing good and healing ALL that were oppressed of the devil…”

        You again might misconceive that Jesus had the ability to heal everyone using his faith alone. This is one of the reasons why some Christians struggle with receiving their healing so much, and often end up blaming God, when they do not receive their healing. They have ONLY looked at one part of the WHOLE picture. Some Christians only look at what they want to see, or what they have heard from others without ever going to the Bible for themselves to see whether or not what they have been told is the WHOLE truth of God's word.

In others words they hear only what they want to hear or give the energy to hear. One can hear without truly LISTENING to truly UNDERSTAND what is being said. Those, who are doing this, are being deceived by the enemy, and are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Either the word of God has not been preached to them in order that they may come to the knowledge of truth, or they have heard the word, and have chosen not to believe.

The truth of the whole picture is that Jesus did not heal ALL that were oppressed of the devil. In fact we are told in Matthew 13:58 that Jesus could NOT do any mighty works (of healing) in Capernaum, (WHY?), because of THEIR UNBELIEF.

        "And he did NOT many mighty works there (why?) because of THEIR UNBELIEF”.

Remember sozo is the Greek word that is sometimes translated as saved, but this word also means to be healed, to be made whole, to be protected, to be rescued, and to be in right relationship with God. Get it fixed in your mind once and for all that the word “saved” also means healed. If you are saved, then you are healed.

If you are saved then you are no longer a sinner. You are a new creature in Christ Jesus. Sin has no more dominion over you. If sin is in your life, then it is because you have ALLOWED sin into your life, because you did not RESIST the temptation to sin. The word of God declares that if you resist the devil he will flee from you. If you resist the temptation to sin and don’t give in to sin, then it will leave your presence. Sin will flee from you as long as you resist and BELIEVE that it has NO RIGTH in your life.

Likewise if you are saved then you are no longer the sick, that is to say sickness and disease no longer have a right or place in you. You are the healed merely resisting the symptoms (temptation) of sickness or disease that the enemy is trying to put upon you. The word of God declares that you are the healed by the stripes of Jesus. Sickness has no more dominion over you, just as sin has no more dominion over you. And if sickness or disease is in your body, then it is because you ALLOWED the enemy to deceive and overcome you, because you did not RESIST the symptoms of sickness or disease and BELIEVE with all your heart that they no longer have a right or place in your life for your are now a child of the Most High Almighty God.

You are the righteousness of God, because the word of God declares this about you through the blood of Jesus. Now to remain in this right relationship with God you must obey his word to resist sin, and the temptation to sin then flees from you. In the same way you are the healed. Therefore resist sickness and disease just as you resist sin, and the sickness WILL FLEE from you.

Some Christians do not want to accept the reality that it might be THEIR unbelief that is keeping them from receiving their healing. Notice that I said, “might be”. The reason being is that there are many obstacles that keep us from receiving healing, and unbelief is only ONE hindrance. However, unbelief seems to be the hindrance that Jesus dealt with the most, and is the primary one that I am addressing at the moment.

It is not my intention to offend you, but merely to help you discern the attitude of God. It is impossible for God to lie, and break his word. Therefore if unwavering faith is not present, then God cannot go against his word and heal you when there is unbelief in your heart no matter how much God desires too see you receive your healing. God is only being faithful to his word.

However many Christians seem to get offended when they THINK that they are being blamed for not having enough faith to be healed, when in fact they are not being blamed at all, but rather instructed in the truth. I am sure you have heard the saying, “The truth hurts” at one point in your life. The word of God is sharper than any two edged sword and cuts deeply sometimes. Facing the truth is not always easy, but it is something that must be done in order to receive from God.

You may be saying to yourself “I know I have faith. My faith is not the problem.” Well perhaps you are right. Maybe it is not your faith that is hindering you from receiving your healing, but neither is it God withholding healing from you in order to teach you something. It might be that there is sin in your life that may be what is keeping you from receiving your healing. I do not know. I will deal with some of these other hindrances that keep us from receiving healing later on in this study, but for now let’s continue with the hindrance of unbelief.

When the disciples of Jesus could not cure a man’s son who was a lunatic, and they asked Jesus the reason why they could not cure him, Jesus responded to them by saying,

 

“BECAUSE OF YOUR UNBELIEF”

 

Unbelief is a serious issue that needs to be dealt with without fail. You cannot just ignore it, and pretend that there is no way that unbelief could be the reason you have not received your healing.

When I was a child, playing hide and seek, I would hide in a place where I could see the one who was seeking. After observing the places that he or she had already searched I would change my hiding place for one of those that had already been eliminated by the seeker, and therefore would never be found. Perhaps the enemy has hid something from you. It might be that you need to take another look at unbelief, a CLOSER look, because you may not have considered every aspect of what it means to have unwavering faith.

Jesus rebuked and upbraided his disciples for their unbelief. In Matthew 16:14 Jesus told Thomas to be not faithless, but believing. All I am tying to do is to instruct you in God;s word to get you to BELIEVE. Then in Revelation 21:8 we read,

        "But the fearful, and UNBELIEVING, and the abominable, and murderers, and whore mongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

        And in Romans 14:23 we are told that whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Now does this mean that if your do not use your faith to receive your healing that you are going to be thrown into the lake of fire? No, not at all, it simply means that you will not receive your healing or whatever God has ALREADY provided for you to enjoy now in this life which God desires greatly for you to receive.

I know I have used this example before from Hebrews chapter 3, verse 12 through verse 2 of the next chapter, but it bears repeating more in depth. We are told in these verses that the children of Israel could not enter into the land that was (already) PROMISED to them, (WHY?) because of their UNBELIEF. Even though the land was already promised to them, just as healing is promised to you, and all they had to do was believe God and enter into the land, they did not choose to believe, but rather chose to focus on the circumstances that they could see. Therefore they could not enter because of THEIR unbelief.

Joshua and Caleb, on the other hand did believe God, and because of their FAITH they were able to enter the land that was promised to ALL of God’s people. We are taught to take heed for fear that an EVIL heart of UNBELIEF may creep into our life in Hebrews 3:12,

        "Take heed, brethren, lest (for fear that) there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.”

        Doubt, fear and unbelief are all tools that Satan uses to steal your faith, but the Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 2:10,11 that we are not ignorant of his devices. And one of Satan's devices in these verses is UNFORGIVENESS. Satan uses unforgiveness to get an advantage over us. Don't be deceived, don't let unforgiveness reside in your heart.

Now I want you to take time to read the parable of the sower in all three accounts, Matthew 13:3-23, Mark 4:3-20,and in Luke 8:5-15. because there is a lot to learn from this parable, but for now I only want focus in on what Jesus said in Mark 4:13,

           "Know you not THIS parable? And how then will you know all parables?”

        It is vital that you learn the lessons of this parrable in order to be able to understand other teachings in God's word. This parable is one of the keys to understanding why some Christians seem to never have a problem receiving their healing, while other Christians seem to continually struggle and almost never receive their healing. Just briefly I would like to highlight a few things from the parable of the sower.

• The seed that is sown is the word of God. The soil is the hearts of men where the word of God is sown.

• The seed by the wayside is the word of God that Satan steals immediately. This seed never reaches the heart. It is rejected by unbelief.

• The seed that is sown in the rocky place is an unstable heart. People say they believe that God’s word is true, but when the trial comes they waver in what they say they believe, and cast away their faith.

• The seed sown among the thorns are unguarded hearts that believe and experience what they believe by holding fast to the confession of their faith. Then after awhile they are distracted and influenced by the world. Thereby, not guarding their heart, they allow Satan to deceive them and steal their faith.

• The seed sown in good ground are enduring hearts of men that hold fast and endure unto the end, and are saved.

• Now in NONE of these instances was the seed ever bad. The seed is ALWAYS good. God's word is always the truth. It is the SOIL that is the problem. We are the soil. Our hearts is the soil. If the soil of our heart is not prepared properly then it will not allow the seed, that is the word of God to grow to maturity and bear fruit that it is designed by God to do. It is our faith that keeps us from receiving from God. We should not be ashamed to admit this, because it is the truth.

            You will always be faced with circumstances that will require you to act upon what you  

Getting back on course. First you hear the word of God and you believe, then along come the devil to steal the word because he does not want it to mature and bear fruit. So he brings a trial in your life to test and see if you truly believe what you heard and say you believe. Here is where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. If you say you believe and do not receive your healing, then either one of two things is likely to be what is hindering you from receiving your healing. One is obviously unbelief, or misguided belief, which I will explain later. The other possibility is that the seed of God’s word has not matured enough. Some seeds take longer than others to sprout. In other words you have need of patience. God is always faithful to perform his word. He is not a man that he should lie. Hold fast! The manifestation of you healing is on the way. Don’t doubt by saying something like, “God will heal me in his time, if it is his will for me to be healed.” That is not faith, but misguided belief. This is only one example of how some Christians have been deceived by misguided belief.

In nearly every instance where Jesus ministered healing, the one being ministered to was required to act upon his or her faith. Jesus said things like, “stretch forth your hand, arise, take up your bed and walk, go show yourself to the priest, go your way, go and wash in the pool of Siloam,” for the purpose of getting them to act upon their faith by obeying what he told them to do. This obedience was the point at which they released their faith.

Satan will always try to steal the word of God that is sown in your heart, that is to say, your faith, by sowing his own evil seeds of fear, doubt and unbelief. For example a thought may come to you like, “You don’t think this is really going to work do you” or “If you do that people will laugh at you and think you are crazy.” These kind of thoughts are the fiery darts of the wicked one who is only after on thing, and that is your faith, the word of God sown in your heart. Here is one of Satan’s all time favorites, “Why if you say that you are healed and you don’t get healed, then your will look like a fool and make God out to be a liar”. Don’t be deceived by Satan’s lies. The Bible says that he is a liar from the beginning and that there is no truth in him.

Before you can act upon faith you need to know what faith is. Christians who struggle in this area of receiving healing are often set free when they come to understand what faith is, and how to release their faith.

Hebrews 11:1 says,

        "Now FAITH is the substance of things hoped for the EVIDENCE of things not seen.”

        The word “substance” here means confidence, trust, being sure, being, and essence. The American Heritage dictionary defines confidence as a certainty, or an assurance. It is an INTIMATE and trusting relationship.

Now let’s look at the word “confide” which means to tell in confidence, to put in another’s keeping. When I read this I immediately thought of the scripture that instructs us to cast our care upon the Lord, for he cares for us. When you exercise your faith you are trusting in an intimate relationship with the Lord. You are taking the care of that sickness out of your hands, and placing it into the care of another (God) who loves and cares for you more than you do for yourself.

One definition of the word “essence” is the most important or effectual ingredient. It is a crucial element. Effectual means producing. It is sufficient to produce a desired effect. It is fully adequate.

Faith is what produces the thing you are hoping for. If you are hoping to be healed, then faith is fully adequate and sufficient to produce your desired effect of being healed. Hope alone cannot produce your healing. Hope is very closely related to faith, but hope is not faith. Hope is an expectant desire, a looking forward to what is good with confidence, but again hope is NOT faith.

Let me give you an example to show you what I mean. Let’s say you are sick and your desire is to be healed. Then a friend tells you about some doctors who could help you. This good news now elevates your desire to hope. Then you act upon this hope because you trust and believe your friend and you go to this doctor that you are told about. Now your hope has turn into faith. You have not received your healing yet, but the process has begun.

In the same way I am telling you about God's word and the healing that is provided for us if we go to his word. Now in the natural if you go to this doctor and he gives you a prescription to take and assures you that if you are faithful to take this prescription then you will get better. But it is up to YOU to be consistently faithful to take the prescription that he prescribed to you or you won't see any results. Do you agree with this?.

In much the same way I am giving you a PRESCRIPTION to follow and if you do not trust that this prescription will work, then you will not be faithful to follow the directions and daily partake of this prescription of God's word which I am giving to you. And if you are not faithful and consistent, then you will not get the results that you desire and say within yourself that it did not work. Of course not, because you failed to follow the prescription. None the less you are again left without hope. Plus you are less likely to trust your friend again, at least in this area.

Now with the absence of hope, you are again left only with your desire to be healed. You see a desire only becomes hope when you are given a direction to take in order to produce your desire to be healed. However, the knowledge of this direction, or course of action to take, which is your hope is not enough to produce your healing. You must now act upon your hope, which is the knowledge of the direction that you must take. You see it took your trust in your friend that he or she was telling you the truth to give you hope. But now you must act upon this hope. This action is called FAITH. You stepped out in faith on the hope that what your friend told you was going to get you healed. Remember faith without works (action) is dead.

Hope tends to always put the expectant desire in the future. Whereas faith says, “I have it NOW”. There is no more need to yearn for it. There is no more anxiety or fear. The total care of the situation has been placed in the hands of another. This is one of the ways that you can positively tell that you have moved from hope to FAITH, because you will have perfect peace within you that passes all understanding of the human mind. You just know that you know that you know deep within your heart. You are positively and absolutely sure without a doubt.

Now if you say, “I will be healed IF IT IS GOD’S WILL”, then you are still in the realm of hope, and NOT faith. There is still doubt in your heart. You are not absolutely certain that God will heal you. You may know positively that God is able, but you have no full assurance that God will without a doubt heal you. There is no absolute confidence. All you have is hope. You do indeed believe that God is able to heal you, but you do not know for sure, without a doubt that he will heal you. Do you see what I am saying. Only the least little bit of wavering will cause you not to receive from God. Sorry, but that is just the way it is.

Now if you SAY I am healed, not because of what I see, or how I feel, but because I BELIEVE the word of God, which says, “With his stripes you are healed,” therefore I have my healing now, then you have moved from hope to FAITH. The process of faith has begun. Faith is working in you to produce what you are yet believing for, but have not yet manifested in your life. You then move on to having confidence and EVIDENCE becomes apparent within you regardless of the circumstances.

You now have the essence, the most important or effectual ingredient, to produce healing in you. Faith has begun its work in you to bring about healing. Faith brings a knowing on the inside of you that gives you a peace and a rest. You are assured. You become freed from all your anxiety and fear in spite of the fact that healing still has not as yet manifested in you. Patiences is no longer an issue, because you are fully persuaded that God has heard your petition and the answer is on the way.

Now here is where some Christians cast away their confidence. The enemy begins getting their focus off of God's word and brings fear and anxiety to their face.. Now if fear and worry begins to come back you have a choice to make. You have to choose what you are going to let your thoughts focus upon. What man says or what God's says. If you make the right choice and choose God's word then fear ill begin to fade away. The more the fear and anxiety fades the higher faith rises within you. Faith comes by hearing. But guess what? Fear and worry also come by hearing. Example: “Well I know someone who said they were trusting and believing God for their healing and they died.” But the truth is you nor any one else truly knows they heart of this person and whether or not that they where just on the brink of receiving their healing and the enemy whispered in their ear and fear came and stole that seed of faith that was ever so close to bringing forth the fruit of healing in them.

Here is where most Christians cast away their faith, or confidence as Hebrews 10:35,36 warns us not to:

        "Cast NOT AWAY therefore your confidence (faith), which has great recompense of reward. For you have need of PATIENCE, that, after you have done the will of God, you might RECEIVE the promise.”

Don't give up, your faith may be just on the brink of bearing that fruit of healing in your body. Hold fast to your faith. Keep your eyes on the Lord and he will keep you in peace.

You see you cast away your confidence when you begin to focus on the circumstance or symptoms that are still present. Don’t take your eyes off God’s word. Don't worry about the circumstances. Be patient! Your FAITH is fully adequate to produce your healing.

Faith works like a seed! Before I go into explaining how faith works, or more precisely how to work your faith. I would like to address the misconception that we as Christians often have concerning faith, such as, “If only I had faith like that person”, or “If I only had more faith”. Some Christians have even been deceived into believing that they do not possess any faith at all. Let me assure you that every man, woman, and child on the earth possesses faith whether they are Christians or not.

You already have all the faith you need to produce your healing. That’s right God has given every man ALL the faith that he or she may need to receive all that God has freely provided for us to have. Romans 12:3 tells us that God has dealt to every man THE MEASURE of faith. Notice that God’s word says THE measure of faith, and not merely A measure of faith.

Remember also that God is no respecter of persons. God does not give this person more faith than that person. Every man has been given the SAME measure of faith. This includes non-Christians as well, because a person cannot be saved without faith.

In Ephesians 3:8,9 we read,

        "For by grace you are saved THROUGH FAITH; and THAT (faith) not of yourselves: IT (faith) is a gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.”

        Faith is a gift of God right along with grace and salvation. Without faith it is impossible to please God. Nothing pleases God more than for mankind to come to the knowledge of truth and be saved. Man cannot save himself, and it is impossible for man to be saved without faith. Therefore man cannot produce his own faith lest there be boasting. We don’t “create our own faith” so to speak. Faith does not come of our selves. FAITH is a gift of God, or otherwise there would be boasting. You have the SAME faith I have. We all have the same faith.

Let me explain it another way. It is not a matter of how much faith we have, but what we DO with our faith that really counts. You simply need only to use what you already have. So how do we use our faith?

The disciples asked Jesus one day to increase their faith. In Luke 17:6 Jesus responded by saying,

        "If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might say unto this sycamine tree. Be you plucked up by the root, and be you planted in the sea; and it should obey you.”

        Jesus was trying to show us that it is not the size of our faith that matters, but that we just exercise our faith by PLANTING God;s word in our hearts.

You see faith works like a seed. In the same manner as a seed is placed in the ground, kept watered and left alone to grow and increase is exactly how faith works. First our desire becomes hope, then our hope (the knowledge that we received that God's word is TRUTH) is placed into God’s hand. This is how the first seed of faith is planted in our hearts, which is the soil. Now the more we believe and trust in God's word the better the soil becomes. Now this word must be watered by staying focused on his word. Then we need to give of thanks and praise to God. Next comes patience to give the seed time to grow and mature so it can bear fruit. All the time we are still yet tanking and praising God for the fruit, even through the seed hasn't even spouted yet and we cannot see any evidence of it's growth. But we know that if left alone faith will sprout forth and grow, eventually bringing forth the desired fruit (that which we hoped for).

In Mark 11:22-24 we read,

        "And Jesus answering said unto them, Have faith in God (or have the God kind of faith).”

        In other words the kind of faith that God possesses.

        "For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall SAY unto this mountain, Be you removed, and be you cast into the sea; and shall NOT DOUBT in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he SAYS shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he SAYS.”

        Now look at Mark 4:26-28,31,32.

            "And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the