Believing is Seeing

Jesus tell us exactly how to pray and receive the answer. Having provided all that we need, He says: All things whatsoever you desire, when you pray (not after you pray but before any answer is manifested-when you pray), believe that you receive them, and you shall have them. -Mark 11:24. This is a significant promise in the Bible concerning prayer and faith. Notice: When you pray, believe that you receive.

We must understand the sequence of prayer and faith. Most people reverse the order. They think it should be this way: Whatever you desire, pray for it, and when you see and feel it, then believe that you have received it.

This is the way of the natural person who says: "Seeing is believing."

But God reverses the natural order and says:

"Believing is seeing."

David said, I believed to see. -Psa 27:13 He did not say, I had to see before I believed. And God said of him, I have found David a man after my own heart, which shall fulfill all my will, -Acts 13:22 proving that without faith it is impossible to please (God), Heb 11:6 but by faith we can obtain a good report before Him. -Heb 11:2

Human logic asserts: If I cannot feel it or see it, I will not believe it. This is not God's way, and nowhere can this attitude be supported by the scriptures. Thomas said, "Except I shall see..I will not believe," -John 20:25 and this attitude displeased Christ. -John 20:29

God's way is, Believe that we receive it when we pray, and we shall have it. His condition is to believe that He answers our prayers when we pray.

In praying for Biblical Healing, God authorizes us to consider our prayer answered. This is true when we pray for any blessing that He has promised and that Christ has provided in His sacrificial death.  

When God's word is the only reason for believing that our prayer is answered, that is faith.

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Facts About Biblical Healing

by Dr. T.L. Osborn
Many people believe that God sometimes heals sick people, but they have not known that physical healing is part of God's salvation for everyone.

They see other people healed through faith and prayer, but they question whether healing is God's will for them. Meanwhile they may do all that they can to get well through medical science or natural means, whether they think it is God's will for them to be healed or not.

If it is not God's will for us to be well, it would be wrong to seek recovery through any means.

If it is God's will for us to be well, then the biblical way of recovery through prayer and trust in His promises is the good way for a believer.

The Bible makes the will of God about physical healing as clear as it does about spiritual salvation. When He promises to do a thing, it is His will to do that thing.

The biblical scriptures conclusively promulgate the fact that God is both The Savior and The Healer of His people; that it is always His will to save and to heal those who desire to trust Him.

Walk by Faith - Not by the Senses

Our senses often repudiate God's word. They argue and contradict the Bible insisting that the blessing is not real because we cannot feel or see its manifestation.

But the biblical faith calmly declares: It is written. God's word declares it, so it is true. I accept it.

To walk by faith means to give God's word the preeminence over our physical senses and human logistics. -2Cor 5:7

To walk by sight means to give our senses and our human logistics the preeminence over God's word.

Faith is God's way. It is contrary to the natural way. God says, My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are you ways my ways. -Isa 55:8

God's way is for us to keep our mind, our ears, our eyes and our heart occupied with His word while He brings to pass its manifestation.

The human way is to keep our mind on the disease, our ears tuned to human logic, our eyes on physical symptoms and our heart filled with fear and apprehension.

But God's order for making His words health to all our flesh is to give all of our attention to His word ONLY; to believe it and to confess it, even if physical symptoms may contradict what He says.

God's first call to you and to me, if we want to follow Him, is to forsake our ways and our thoughts -Isa 55:7 because, as He says, My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are you ways my ways. -Isa 55:8

God calls those things which be not as though they were. -Romans 4:17 He pronounced the blind man healed while he was still blind, and he received his sight. -Luke 18:42 He declared the lepers cleansed while the disease was still apparent, and as they went away, they were healed. -Luke 17:12-19 At the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus prayed: Father, I thank you that you have heard me. -John 11:41 He said that while Lazarus was still dead. He knew that God had heard His prayer for Lazarus to be raised from the dead. That was faith.

Faith means that we believe God has already done what we asked Him to do, even before we see the results manifested. We believe this because we know we have asked for a blessing that is provided for us in the death of Jesus Christ. We believe that God has answered our prayer, not because we see than answer manifested, but because God's word declares that we will receive what we ask for in faith. In this way, we also call those things which not be as though they were. -Romans 4:17

Four Confessions

1) Some say, "I'll have the blessing some day."
2) Others ponder, "It's wonderful. I should have it, but I can't seem to receive it. I don't understand."
3) The realist says, "When I feel it and see it, I'll know that I have it."
4) But the believer with the positive faith says, "I have it now. It is written. It is mine."

Biblical faith rests entirely on what the word of God says. It is independent of our natural senses. Faith is the reality of what the senses may register as non-existent. There is a continual conflict between our senses and our faith. -Gal 5:1-17

Gal 5:16-17
I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. NKJV

Three Attitudes

There are three attitudes with which people regard God's written word:

1. They AGREE that the word of God is true. They see the word. They admire it and read it. They may memorize whole chapters of it and recite them. They love the Bible and respect its contents.

They say: "The biblical promises are true - but not in my case. I don't understand why I cannot receive the blessings promised, but I know the word is true. It is a wonderful book. I believe it."

But that is as far as they go; they never act on what the Bible says. Biblical promises are to them a dogma, a creed, a doctrine to be venerated.

2. They BELIEVE the word of God when they SEE or FEEL its effects. We hear them say: "I never received healing when they prayed for me, but I believe I was blessed." Others say: "I FELT something when I prayed, so I believe God heard me." Still others may say, "Oh, I have prayed so often, but I never FEEL anything." They will believe only if they see or feel. This is never faith.

3. They BELIEVE God's word and ACT upon His promises. These are the people who have biblical faith. You hear them say:

If God says it, then it is true. -Num 23:19, Jos 23:14, 1Ki 8:56, Isa 38:7;55:11, Eze 12:25, Mat 24:35, 1Pe 1:25

If God' word says, By His stripes I am healed, then I am healed. -Isa 53:5, 1Pe 2:24

If God promises to supply all my needs, -Phil 4:19 then He is doing it.

If God says that he is the strength of my life, -Psa 27:1 then He is.

They always act accordingly. You will hear them say:
"God is what He says He is."
"I am what God's word says I am."
"I have what God says I have."
"I can do what God says I can do."
"God will do what His word says He will do."

They act on the premise, depending on the integrity of God's word. For them, He watches over His word to perform it, -Jer 1:12 to see that, as Solomon said, There hath no failed one word of all of His good promise, which He has promised. -1Kings 8:56.

God's Promise - The Sure Foundation

The Bible says: Attend to my words; incline your ears to my saying. Let them not depart from your eyes; keep them in the minds of your heart. For they are life to those that find them, and health to all their flesh. -Pro 4:20-22

In this bible passage, Solomon instructs us to keep our mind, our ears, our eyes and our heart occupied with God's promise alone. this allows no place for fear, unbelief or discouragement. When we do this, the Bible says that God's word will produce health in all our flesh. -Pro 4:22 He sends His word and heals us. Psa 107:20

God has equipped every person with five natural senses: hearing, tasting, smelling, felling and seeing. These are physical senses that equip us for functioning in this natural world.

But God has also dealt to every person a measure of faith. -Romans 12:3

Our five senses are natural and physical, but our faith is spiritual.

It is through our five senses that we gain knowledge in our world, but it is not through our senses that we know God. We know Him through our faith. We walk by faith, not by sight. -2Cor 5:7

Many who pray for blessings from God do not believe they have received the answer until they feel or see the results manifested. They have not yet learned what faith is.

Receive Your Healing

Many people pray for years for blessings which God has promised, but they will not believe that they have received the answer until they can feel and see it. This is not faith.

Faith means that you are convinced that what God has promised, and what you asked for, is yours; that you have received it even before you can see or feel it.  

Biblical faith is based on God's promises alone.

It is here in our natural mind (our human logistics) and our spiritual faith engage their greatest conflicts. It is the struggle of our reason against what God's word says.

We pray for healing, but sometimes the answer is not manifested at once. We may still feel the pain or the fever. God' word declares that by His stripes we are healed. -Isa 53:5, 1 Pe 2:24. Our reason argues that the disease is still present, but we refuse human logistics and we look only to the word of God. We do not give attention to what we see or feel, but only what God says in His word-and we act according. This is biblical faith.