FAITH SEES, FAITH SAYS
1. It is an important area of study because:
a. Physical health is a tremendous blessing, and if God wants us to have it — and He does — we should find out about it.
b. There is a lot of controversy about this subject which can be cleared up as we study God’s word.
c. As we study the NT, we see there is a definite connection between faith and healing.
d. The things we learn about faith in connection with healing can be applied to other areas as well. Rom 1:17; II Cor 5:7
2. There are two vital categories of information about healing (two keys) which you must have.
a. You must know that God has already provided healing for you through the Cross of Christ. He has already said yes to healing you. It is His will. Isa 53:4-6; I Pet 2:24
b. You must know how to take or receive what God has already provided.
3. Lack of knowledge and understanding in either of these areas can keep you from being healed.
a. If you do not know God’s will, if you do not know that God has already said yes to healing you, has provided healing for you, you will not, cannot, have the faith needed to be healed. You can’t believe what you don’t know.
b. If you do not know how to take what God has provided, even though it is available, it will not benefit you.
1. God works in our lives by grace (His part) through faith (our part).
a. Eph 2:8–For it is by free grace (God’s unmerited favor) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation) through [your] faith. (Amp)
b. Everything that Christ’s work on the Cross purchased for us, including healing, comes to us by His grace through our faith.
c. Rom 4:16–Therefore [inheriting] the promise is the outcome of faith and depends [entirely] on faith, in order that it might be given as an act of grace (unmerited favor). (Amp)
2. Faith, in the NT, is defined very specifically. It does not mean sincerity or depth of commitment to Christ. The disciples left all to follow Jesus, yet on numerous occasions He rebuked them for little or no faith. Mark 10:28; Matt 8:26; 14:31; 16:8; 17:14-20 a. Faith in the NT means believing what God says despite what you see or feel.
b. Faith involves knowing God’s will, choosing to agree with it, believe it, and expressing your agreement and belief by the way you talk and act. Then, God brings His will to pass in your life.
c. If any one of these elements is missing, you do not have the kind of faith which receives God’s grace.
3. Faith comes to us through God’s word because it tells us what God has done and will do for us. Rom 10:17
4. We are now part of an unseen kingdom. That is why we must live and walk by
faith.
a. Faith deals with unseen things, things that are not visible to the eye or perceptible through the physical senses.
1. We can’t see this kingdom with our eyes or perceive it with our senses.
2. God must tell us about it and we must believe what He says even though we can’t see it. That’s faith.
b. Heb 11:1b–Faith perceiving as real fact what is not yet revealed to the senses. (Amp)
5. All the blessings which God has provided for us are spiritual. Eph 1:3
a. Spiritual doesn’t mean not real — it means invisible, unseen.
b. Since spiritual things are invisible and cannot be seen with our eyes, they must be taken by faith.
c. You have to believe they are yours without any physical evidence, because God has already provided them through Jesus and the Cross, and has told you about them in the Bible.
6. In Mark 11:24 Jesus tells us about the faith that takes or receives invisible (spiritual) things. It works like this: You believe you’ve got it before you see it, then you see it.
a. You have to believe you are healed before you see it, before you feel it. Then God causes you to feel or experience it — changes it from invisible to visible.
b. Because God has healed you at the Cross (invisible), He will heal you (visible) — cause the disease to leave you, if you will believe it first.
7. God has made provision for us and promise to us in every area of our lives.
a. God has already provided, said yes, to every blessing you need through Christ.
1. II Pet 1:3–His divine power has given us everything we need for our physical and spiritual life. (Norlie)
2. II Cor 1:20–He (Jesus) is the yes pronounced on God’s promises, every one of them. (NEB)
b. And, He has promised us that if we believe we’ve got it before we see or feel it, we’ll get it, see it, feel it. Mark 11:24
c. He’ll make the invisible visible if you believe you have it before you see it.
1. We do it all the time with natural things — direct deposit.
2. You’ve already done it with spiritual things. Do you believe you are saved?
a. Is there any physical evidence? Are you just humoring God by saying you are saved or are you really saved?
b. God has told you about a legal act through which your sins were removed (the Cross of Christ), and you believed it.
c. You are now as saved as you’re ever going to be — you have been since you believed it. You just can’t see all the results yet. But, you will.
d. And, your entire life is now structured around, based on, facts and events you can’t see.
e. Well, healing is part of that deal, one facet of our salvation — and so is every other blessing of God.
3. Faith sees what can’t be seen with the physical eyes by looking at God’s word. II Cor 4:18
a. Heb 11:27–Moses endured by seeing Him who is invisible. What did the invisible God do for Moses?
b. Faith is so convinced of the unseen, it can rejoice over what it cannot see. I Pet 1:8
4. We see an example of this in II Kings 6:13-17 when the King of Syria came after Elisha.
a. Notice Elisha saw what couldn’t be seen and talked about what couldn’t be seen. He could do it because God told him about the unseen realm. Ps 91:11; 34:7
b. Knowing what had been provided for him, believing it, and living in the light of it gave Elisha confidence and victory in a difficult, dangerous situation. I John 5:14,15
5. At the edge of the promised land, Joshua and Caleb said about themselves and the land what they couldn’t see — that they could take it, it was theirs — because God had told them about it. Num 13:30; 14:8,9
a. Out of the entire generation that God delivered from Egypt, they were the only ones who took what God had already provided. They were the only ones to enter the land. Num 14:28-30
b. All the others failed to enter the land because of unbelief. Heb 3:19; 4:2
c. They saw only what they could see and they said only what they could see. Num 13:28, 29; 31-33
1. There’s one little problem with this system. There is often contradictory evidence. What we see and feel contradicts what God says.
a. Faith then becomes an action we take in the face of contradictory evidence.
b. The faith that takes and receives what God offers must have actions with it.
c. We don’t feel faith, we do it. We act it.
2. Faith without actions does not see the invisible become visible. Acts 14:9,10
a. When we speak of actions, we are talking about actions which demonstrate what you believe = corresponding actions. James 2:17-26
b. James 2:22–In (Abraham’s) case, you see, faith cooperated with deeds, faith was completed by deeds. (Moffatt)
3. The number one way we act our faith, express our faith, is with our mouths.
a. We believed and confessed unto salvation. Rom 10:9,10
b. God has said some things so that we may say some things. Heb 13:5,6
c. Faith has a confession or profession. Heb 10:23; 4:14; 3:1
4. It is not weird to talk about what you can’t see as though you can see it — that
is what you are supposed to be doing.
a. You aren’t lying, you are imitating your Father and Jesus. Eph 5:1
b. God calls what is not as though it were = speaks of the invisible as though you could see it. Rom 4:17
c. Rom 4:17–And speaks of non-existent things that [He has foretold and promised] as if they [already] existed. Rev 13:8; Gen 17:5
d. Jesus spoke of a dead girl as sleeping. Mark 5:39
5. In order to possess or take what God has provided we must say it before we see it, say we have it before we feel it. WE DO HAVE IT!! IT’S JUST INVISIBLE!!
6. In Christ we have been given an inheritance. Eph 1:11; Col 1:12
a. Our inheritance includes everything we need to live this life and the next.
1. When someone receives an inheritance, a legal act makes them wealthy the moment the one who left them the inheritance dies.
2. But, the heir must possess it — go to the bank, open the letter, sign the forms, etc.
b. A legal act — the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus — provided me with an inheritance which includes physical healing.
c. But, I must now possess or take it by faith. I must believe I have it before I feel
it. I must believe I am healed before I see it.
7. We’d all know exactly how to do this if we won the lottery.
a. We’d believe it before we saw the money because we had the winning numbers.
b. We’d call ourselves rich before we saw a penny of the cash.
c. We’d live, talk, and act, not on the basis of what we could see in our check book, but on the basis of what the state of Missouri and Channel 5 said.
1. We take it by believing God gives it now, and it is so much mine I can speak of it in the past tense as done even though I can’t see it yet. And Jesus promised me I will see it.
2. How do you do this? You just start doing it — developing the habit of faith in every area.
a. Start saying what God says = meditate on His word. Josh 1:8
b. It will feed your faith, build your faith, help you become fully persuaded.
3. Faith sees the unseen by looking at God’s word.
a. Faith talks about the unseen by saying what God says even though it can’t be seen as yet.
b. By doing that — seeing and saying the unseen — faith opens the door to God’s power to bring the unseen into the seen realm.
4. Hold fast to your confession of faith. Say it until you see it.
a. What if I don’t see it? If that is your question, you don’t understand faith yet. God said you would see it.
b. Saying is your part. Seeing is His part. You do your part. The Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Jesus Christ, will do His part. Heb 3:1