Are you standing on God’s promises or just simply praying, waiting for your situation to change?
In today’s post I’d like to emphasise why we still need to meditate on Scripture whilst believing God for our health to change and not fall into the trap of praying and just hoping.
It’s easy to pray and pray, passively waiting for healing, but Andrew Wommack says praying without the Word is watering barron ground. It’s impossible to pray with faith and expectancy outside of the Word.
We know that ‘faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God’.
The story of admiral Jim Stockdale will help you understand the importance of a healthy belief system.
Jim Collins’ book ‘Good to Great’ tells of something called the Stockdale paradox.
Admiral Jim Stockdale was in the US Navy during the Vietnam War. He was shot down and held captive for 8 years in the Hanoi Hilton, the infamous POW prison where he was tortured over 20 times.
In a public interview after his release he was asked why he survived and others didn’t.
He responded by saying, ‘the way I survived was this; I realised I had to retain a fundamental belief that I would prevail in the end. But I also had to confront daily the brutal facts of my current reality.’
This belief caused admiral Jim Stockdale to persevere in the midst of his long term torture. It is the same no matter what prison you are in, a physical prison or a prison of sickness.
STANDING ON GOD’S PROMISES
I wonder if the leper that approached Jesus in Matt 8 held a similar belief system in his heart; dreaming of the miracle whilst coping with the horror of his situation.
Are you dreaming of a better tomorrow that looks a million miles away?
But my righteous one will live by faith. Heb 10:38
If you’ve been ill for many years, I understand if you think your life will never change. Maybe you’re scared to get your hopes up once again in case you’re disappointed. Perhaps you don’t trust in God’s promises any more.
The leper may have thought and felt the same but placed his hope in the goodness of God. I picture this man following Jesus from a distance, watching Him perform His miracles.
He knew Jesus was his only hope.
For us, standing on God’s promises refers to reading, meditating, declaring and applying God’s Word into our lives. So when it comes to healing:
“I am healed by the stripes of Jesus…..no sickness formed against me will prosper…..the Lord is restoring me to health and healing my wounds…..I will not die but live and declare the works of the Lord….”
Write them out, post them on your walls and cupboards, meditate on them, pray them and personalise them.
Here are a few reasons why standing on God’s promises is vital for those on a healing journey.
1. WE GET TO KNOW HIS CHARACTER
Without the Bible, we will forget that God is our perfect Heavenly Father who had already given us His best (how can he surely not give us all the rest?)
The Bible reminds us that God is a good God, perfect in fact. His dream for your life is abundant and far above any dream you could have for your own life.
He fights your battles, has a plan and will never leave you.
Whilst you probably know this already, you’d be surprised how easy it is to forget with an unrenewed mind. When we’re believing God for healing, we must know and believe in the goodness of God. “Faith works by love”.
I believe the leper we read of in Matt 8 knew God was a good God which encouraged him in approaching Jesus.
2. WE SEE GOD’S TRACK RECORD
Just how many times do we read of Jesus healing in Scripture? Not just Jesus, the disiples and the apostle Paul too. There are even verses in the Old Testament that teach that God is a healer.
It’s not enough to know these healing miracles in your head, but knowing them in your heart will help you walk this healing journey with confidence and assurance.
Whever we’re feeling discouraged, reminding ourselves of not just His goodness but also His willingness to heal will encourage and motivate us on our healing journey.
I picture the leper watching Jesus heal and performing miracles. He knew his track record.
3. GOD’S PROMISES RENEW OUR MINDS
We live in a world that is decaying and dying. People are sick and suffering in every church and in communities. Non of us are immune.
How can we continue to be hopeful?
No matter what our situation, when our minds are renewed each day by the washing of the water of the Word, we will persevere and weather the storm.
This means, we continue to believe even though the odds are against us. We continue to believe, even though everything in this world will tell us healing isn’t for us.
We receive peace, rest and even joy.
In John 13, we read the passage where Jesus washes the disciples feet. As we walk as a Christian in this world, our feet get ‘dirty’.
We walk through traumas, dissapointments, set-backs and hurts which all leave a residue on our lives which can hinder and dilute our faith in God.
Without the Word we can start believing lies which hinder our walk; the washing of the water of the Word cleanses us from the ‘dusty’ world as we believe God for breakthrough.
When the enemy attacked Jesus, He responded with the Word of God. It’s a tool, a weapon.
How much more you and I need to know God’s promises so we can take a stand against the evil one and His firely darts.
4. GOD’S WORD IS SEED
As I said at the start of this post, if all we’re doing is praying but we’re not planting seeds, we’re watering barron ground. Praying alone will not bring victory.
There has to be a harvest which all begins with sowing the seed.
Imagine a farmer who waters his land expecting a harvest but he never planted any seeds. There will be no harvest!
In the same way, we expect God to come through for us because of our prayers, but the prerequisite to this is that we must read, meditate and declare His promises!
No-one can do this for us; it’s how God operates. Healing will not fall through the sky!
This is especially true when it comes to a supernatural healing. If you’re having an operation or expecting God to heal by way of medicine, I know plenty of people that ‘are healed’ medically and they’re not sowing seeds.
But if an illness is chronic or if doctors are unable to treat it successfully, then God will need faith on our part.
See THE 2 STEP FORMULA FOR HEALING IN THE WORD OF GOD
5. IT’S HOW WE HEAR GOD
If we’re not reading our Bible’s then how do we hear God?
God by his Spirit teaches us the next step. He gives discernment in making choices and wisdom for the journey. Perhaps God wants to direct you in the foods to eat, the friendship to end or the root of your illness.
God’s Word tells us the next step in our journey.
Without the Word of God, we won’t hear what God is trying to say.
Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.
Ps 119:105
We are less likely to commit to making a mistake like engaging in new age healing modalities or listening to someone who is a false teacher.
Maybe you’re in a situation that requires forgiveness, which in our own strength can be a mountain climb in and of itself.
HINDRANCES TO STANDING ON GOD’S PROMISES
1. CONDITIONING
The fact the leper was full of leprosy meant he had been that way for many years. Imagine the conditioning and the strong holds.
There were no doctors, operations or medications to help. Standing on God’s promises for that length of time isn’t easy.
We can get so used to our situations, accepting them as they become the norm. Eventually, we don’t expect them to change. Conditioning is kind of inevitable in the sense that it’s how our minds operate.
We have neuropathways in the brain that are reinforced with familiarity.
I love how the leper kept on believing despite the odds, just like admiral Stockdale. He didn’t let the unsightly state of his body contain him.
He didn’t allow the physical and emotional pain hinder him in his dreaming.
Are you living with a condition in your body where there is no worldly hope? Are there no operations, medications or doctors to help you?
I know exactly what this feels like. It feels like life has stopped and now all that’s left is a shell-like existence, spectating everyone else, desperate for life to hurry up and be over.
Have you suffered for so long, you think that death is a blessing. I imagine the leper felt this way also. This is the impact of the “ brutal facts of your current reality”
Our challenge, like that of the leper and admiral Jim Stockdale, is whilst confronting this on a moment to moment basis, to retain the truth that we will prevail in the end.
Standing on God’s healing promises helps us to overcome conditioning.
If you relate to this, read ARE YOU CLOTHED IN CHRIST OR CLOTHED IN SICKNESS? as it will help you decondition yourself when you’ve been ill for many years.
2. WEARINESS
Perhaps you feel that healing is for everyone else. You’ve seen other people receive a healing and now think that these promises just don’t apply to you.
In my experience, I can get like this when I’m tired and weary. I’m sure Admiral Stockdale and the leper felt weary as well.
The danger of weariness, is that I can start to believe things which are untrue which just reinforce that I’m in a hopeless situation.
Incidentally, the In 2 Cor 1:20, it says “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.”
Joel Osteen calls this weariness ‘battle fatigue’.
This is where I need good friends to speak life over me and to encourage me on my healing journey.
Whilst standing on God’s promises for personal healing is something that only I can do, I find it beneficial to call upon others from time to time.
Being surrounded by the faith of the church can also be a good environment for me as second-hand faith is sometimes enough to motivate me in believing once again.
I feel for the leper and for admiral Stockdale because they were all alone in their suffering.
No matter how bad or lengthy your situation, battle fatigue is likely. I guess that is one reason I’m writing this blog, I hope it gives you some encouragement when you need it.
Even if you can’t believe for a supernatural miracle anymore, can you believe that life will improve somehow?
The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day. Prov 4:18.
If you have a bad spell, where you stumble and get disheartened, that’s okay. You don’t need to do this perfectly. God will see to it that you get your fire back. Mountain climbs are not meant to be easy.
When you fall, you don’t fall back down to the bottom of the mountain, you just fall where you are.
3. THE CARNAL MIND
Whilst I believe the enemy doesn’t want me well, nor does he want me to spend time with God, oftentimes, I can be my own worst enemy
I can focus on the doubts and negativity in my head and tell myself it’s a waste of time. Or, I’ll get caught up in the minor things that steal my attention away from God.
You know, the ‘he said, she said’ type conversations which I can have on repeat, or the internal chatter which takes me down a rabbit hole.
For me to commit to standing on God’s promises, means to elevate His word above my internal dialogue. If you’re familiar with the parable of the sower, even when we plant the Word, our own thoughts can dilute or even steal the Word away from our hearts.
When we read of the woman with the issue of blood, we see that her internal chatter was in alignment with the Word of God.
She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”
Matt 9:21
I wonder if the same was true of the leper?
Becoming self aware of my internal dialgue is key, it’s always good to take a stocktake of thoughts throughout the day to see what my mind is doing, then choose whether I am going to indulge in my thoughts, or if I am going to make a deliberate and conscious choice to change them.
I have to admit, this is an area where I am certainly still growing. How about you?
I wonder if any of these hindrances speaks to you?
Can you imagine a world where you position yourself to overcoming every obstacle that stands in your way of believing God for breakthrough?
DREAMING OF A BETTER TOMORROW
In Ephesians 3:20 we’re told that ‘God is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask, think or imagine, due to the power within us.’
We have to do the thinking, the imagining and the dreaming even if it looks unlikely or impossible.
Picture yourself running a marathon, even though the doctors say it’s not possible. Imagine yourself on that family holiday, even though you’re not well enough to earn an income.
Picture your life in the future, what will it be like? Can you dream of a brighter future because God has a plan for your life which is far greater than your dreams?
Bill Johnson says ‘Hope is the soil in which faith grows’. We need to have hope for a better future before we have the faith for it. This isn’t about thinking positively but is based on God’s promises in His Word.
Part of the journey is to not allow our thinking to limit God. The enemy seeks to contain and limit us by keeping us thinking in terms of the natural realm.
When we don’t stand on God’s promises, we will likely stand still. But when standing on God’s promises becomes our priority, then we are more likely to see the manifestation of what we’re believing Him for.
God is supernatural and has limitless resources at his fingertips.
May the Lord, the God of your ancestors, increase you a thousand times and bless you as he has promised! Deut 1:11
It’s God’s heart to bless you more than you can imagine. His dreams are far bigger than your own. God is a good God. Expect His favour, trust God’s promises and expect your healing miracle.
Have a great day
Lorna
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