May, 2007
How to Keep Your Healing
I Timothy 6:12-21
INTRODUCTION: Many times people are prayed for over and over for the same need and do not seem to be able to come into complete healing. What is happening? Symptoms will often come back, and we need to know what to do about this counterattack of the enemy. After you have been prayed for, now what?
Scripture teaches we must “fight the good fight of faith.” Some people in all honesty say, “I’m fighting the devil,” but this is not what scriptures require us to do. We are to “fight the good fight of faith.” This is not as easy as it sounds, for if we are not wise to the devil’s tactics, we can give in to defeat. “Fighting the good fight of faith” is a phrase taken from the field of athletics to describe the struggles of the Christian life and the effort it takes to win. Sometimes it takes every ounce of energy to win. This applies to maintaining our healing as well, because Satan does not want us to win at anything. We must deliberately and consistently maintain this fight of faith in order to receive what we need.
Here are some thoughts on how to keep your healing after you have been prayed for:
1. Close the Case for Victory: You have come to God and your faith has received healing when you were prayed for. Do not say, “I wonder have I been healed or not?” This indicates doubt and keeps a door open for the enemy to enter. Remember you have received by faith whether or not the symptoms are still there. Symptoms may not disappear immediately in a gradual healing. You may still have pain after prayer. You may still be taking medication, but God has entered your situation through the prayer of faith. Can you believe that? God is working. Close the case for victory.
Proverbs 23:23 says it in a little different way. “Buy the truth and sell it not.” This verse speaks of a steadfastness. You buy the truth and you hang on to it. You put up a “Not for Sale” sign. What this means in relationship to your healing is that you have received the truth--I am healed. Case closed. You don’t discuss it by saying, “I wonder if…” You are holding on steadfastly to the truth, “I am healed. I have received my healing by faith.”
Story: An evangelist went to pray for a man who was sick in bed. After he prayed he asked, “Sam, what are you going to do tomorrow?”
The man seemed surprised at the question and replied, “I’m going to be right here sick in this bed!”
Make plans to do something you couldn’t do before,
If you can’t walk--try to walk
If you can’t talk, try to say something
If you can’t get out of bed, try to get out of bed.
How would you know you were healed? Try to do something you couldn’t do before.
Story: One time I didn’t have any grip in my hands. The kids in my Sunday school class prayed for my hands. I tried to make a tight fist but couldn’t. They prayed again the next week, and I would keep trying to make a tight fist. One day I could. I still have grip in my hands today. How would I have known I was healed? I could do something I couldn’t do before.
Story: One of the girls who was shot at a school was in a wheelchair. Doctors told her she would never walk again. She said, “I will walk again. Refused to believe she wouldn’t. Determination to try to get out of the wheelchair. She tried a little every day. Consistently. Refusing to believe she can’t. She has so far made more progress than the doctors thought she would.
There is a scripture that says, “Forever, O Lord, thy Word is settled in heaven” (Psalm 119:89).
We must quit being so unstable in our beliefs when unsettling circumstances try to sway us. James 1:6-8 talks about being unsettled wavering back and forth in our faith. He says, “But let him ask in faith nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a way of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”
Story: We had a friend several years ago who got her faith up to believing for healing. She would say, “Yes, I’m going to get well. I am healed. I’m doing better.”
We would go back to visit her and she would say, “I’m depressed. I’m worse, I’m not being healed. Things are terrible.”
We would pray for her and visit with her and her faith would shoot up again.
We would come back the next time and she would be at rock bottom.
Up and down in her belief about whether or not she was going to get well or not. She could never get her faith stabilized.
What a contrast this is compared with the girl in the wheelchair who had been shot. Sometimes you will notice that people who have lived a more disciplined life and who have had an illness or accident will often make a better comeback to health because of the determination within them to get well, to walk again. They just seem to be blind to overwhelming odds against them.
Doctors say, “You’ll never walk again. You’re terminal.” It doesn’t matter. It just rolls off of them like water off a duck’s back. “What’s chu mean man!!!” They just don’t hear it. They have made up their mind. They say, “I’m going to walk again or I’m going to dance again.’ Their consistency and determination to believe something other than a statement of doom gives them the courage to go on in spite of pain, in spite of setbacks. “I can do it. It is settled in my mind. No “what ifs.” I already KNOW I am recovering.”
Can we have this same type of determination concerning healing when we are prayed for? Can we close the case for victory? Can we fight the good fight of faith?
Yes, no, maybe? If not, why not? Does there need to be a more thorough preparation made in advance for our healing in order that we have a greater certainty that God wants to heal ME personally? Do we need to find a better scriptural foundation on which to stand when the symptoms come back and the pain intensifies? It is often difficult to close the case for victory because of our lack of understanding, our humanness, our lack of really knowing how much God loves us. Sometimes we are more inclined to think that God is “out to get us” the first time we doubt.
Jesus said to a man, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believes” (Mark 9:23). The father said, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” This man was saying, “I DO believe but help me to believe a little bit stronger, a little bit more consistently.” Maybe he was saying, “I DO believe, but help me to close the case for Victory!” I think the only way we can do this is through a daily walk with the Lord. That we do like the scripture in John 15:7, “If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you.” I don’t think we abide in Christ like we should most of the time. His words of faith do not abide in us like they should in order to close the case for victory and stand firmly no matter what comes our way.
We could say, “Lord, I believe but help me where I come up short.”
2. Don’t Talk About Your Sickness All the Time: Don’t refer to it as MY diabetes or MY heart trouble. The Lord is in the process of healing you. Don’t RECLAIM it. You don’t want it. You’ve been prayed for and your situation is changing. Believe it.
We may have fallen into the habit of saying how bad we feel. “I’m so tired, I ache all over, I’m getting old, I’m so depressed.” Sometimes we do talk about it, but it doesn’t do us any good to make a career out of it.
ILLUSTRATION: When people ask Walter how he is he usually says, “Better than yesterday” and people are a little taken back and say, “Oh, did you have a bad day yesterday?” He replies, “No, yesterday was a great day.”
Walter says: Some people don’t care about it when they ask how do you feel. Some people are glad to see you’re getting what you deserve. And you might be in that latter half.
If we tell everyone what a lousy day we are having, it only serves to reinforce that in our thinking. Pretty soon we really believe what our self talk is. We begin to act like we’re having a lousy day. How do we know this?
Proverbs 23:7 says, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” We begin to meditate on how bad we feel, how depressed we are, how old we’ve become…it serves to tear us down, not lift us up. God is healing me. Praise God. Mary Kay Ash says, “Fake it till you make it.” Is that being dishonest? Sometimes we must say something over and over until it sinks in--until we believe it. “I am the Lord that healeth THEE.” You say, “I wonder if that means ME? Do you suppose that is REALLY for ME?”
“Lord, I believe but help thou mine unbelief…” Help me to really believe it. To do this we’ve got to watch our self talk. Get rid of the damaging self talk--the MY diabetes, my… Do not take all of this back into your spirit. You are looking for healing. You are receiving healing and health. Don’t reclaim what you are trying to get id of. You may still have pain, but don’t advertise it to everyone you meet so that it becomes a chronic thing. You are fighting the fight of faith. Give it all you’ve got.
3. Be Determined to Live a Christian Life No Matter What: Don’t just serve God for the healing or whatever else you want. Make the commitment to serve Him with all your heart and follow up this commitment. Serve the Lord with all your heart--not just the “loaves and fishes” He gives you. If you are not going to church regularly, start. If you are not reading your Bible, begin. If you are sinning, quit. Begin to walk in the light that you have.
An example of this consistency to live for God day or night, rain or shine was Enoch. In Genesis 5:24 Enoch made a statement with his life. “And Enoch WALKED with God.” Not just once in awhile. You WALK signifies your LIFESTYLE.
There were others that Jesus fed and healed that only traveled on the fringe of his ministry. They probably never knew what it was to WALK and TALK with Him as did His disciples who were there to ask questions, get His counsel, and His healing touch.
There were those people whose lives were so enriched by being around Him that when the crises came, they had inner resources to draw upon. They were not impoverished because they had stored up the words of faith that He taught day after day.
4. Have Authority to Back You Up: It is difficult to fight the good fight of faith when you don’t have something solid to stand on. To many people who are prayed for are weak in faith because they are weak in knowing what the Word of God says about healing. Have you searched the scriptures for solid foundational scriptures on healing? If not, Satan can cause you to doubt. Believe in the truth of the Bible. Apply it to you personally. Find a scripture that applies to you and write your name on it. When God says it is true, it is true.
Right now we have the victory no matter if there are setbacks and delays. Find some scriptures that apply to your need and write them down on a file card. Memorize them. Learn to drive back the enemy with the Word of God. When doubts come to you, speak the word you have memorized. Scripture says to “Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).
Story of Llamas: Colorado sheep farmers were losing their flocks to coyotes until they brought in the “aggressive, funny-looking, afraid-of-nothing llama.” The llamas seemingly believe the words of James. “Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). Sheep losses were cut drastically because the llamas were unafraid of the cowardly coyote. God’s Word is our llama. Let it shield you. The net result will be that you will discover llamas were not afraid of the cowardly coyotes. The llamas could look at them and say, “Hey, buddy. Get out of here. I know where I stand.”
5. Associate with People who are Faith builders: Not with complainers and people who tell you their Aunt Maude died of the same thing. Surround yourself with people who speak faith and hope. You will be built up rather than torn down. You may have to search for faith building people. Don’t listen to “doubting Thomas’s.”
Story: Some church members went to see a friend in the hospital. The patient was hurting. “I’m really hurting today.”
The friends replied, “Sure you’re hurting. You’ve been run over by a bus. You’ll hurt for a long time!”
The patient says, “I don’t know if I will ever walk again.”
The friends replied, “You probably won’t be able to walk again. My uncle was hit by a truck and he’s still in a wheel chair. That’s been over 10 years ago.”
The patient groans and pretends to fall asleep.
You might know people like this who always have a bad news story to add to your pain. These people you DON’T need when you are trying to fight the good fight of faith.
Ask yourself, “Who am I surrounding myself with? Who are the people you know who seem to always lift you up? Who are the people who seem to always discourage you? Who tears you down? What is the difference in these people?
We need to cultivate more of the type of people who lift us up and encourage us as we go through our fight of faith.
CONCLUSION: You have heard five things that will help you keep your healing. Which ones do you need to work on this week as you fight the good fight of faith?
1. Closing the case for victory
2. Don’t Talk about your sickness all the time
3. Be determined to live a Christian life no matter what.
4. Have authority to back you up.
5. Associate with people who are faith builders.
