Drive Established Habits Out of Your Personal Life With the Word!

But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall be that those whom you let remain shall be irritants in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land where you dwell (Numbers 33:55).

  

Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come (1 Corinthians 10:11).

  

God’s dealings with Israel in the Old Testament are filled with truths that help us in our walk with God today. Israel being led out of Egyptian bondage by way of the Red Sea is a type of our being delivered from the bondage of sin and being born again!

 

The land of Canaan, the land God promised to Abraham and his offspring, is a type of the born again, Spirit-filled, abundant life of the child of God today!   When I was a boy we sang about Canaan’s land in church and the song referred to Canaan’s land as a type of heaven for believers. But that’s just not true! There are no inhabitants that oppose us that we must run out of heaven! Heaven is a place of rest from our labors. But here, we must fight the good fight of faith every day!

 

These inhabitants of Canaan were to be destroyed by Israel. They were gross idolaters whose habits were vile and repulsive. Israel was to run them out of every city as they conquered Canaan. In the above verse, God told Israel that if these inhabitants remained, they would be irritants in their eyes and thorns in their sides. God told them that these inhabitants of their land would harass them and make their life miserable!

 

These inhabitants of the land point to the habits of the flesh in our lives as believers! When we come out of the bondage of sin through the New Birth, there is a residue of the old man that is left in our souls. Our minds and emotions have inhabitants embedded in them from our old life before Christ! It’s our job to run them out!

 

These inhabitants include selfishness, envy, greed, pride, stubbornness, rebellion, anger, lust, bitterness, malice, gossip, self-pity, and a host of other things. Our responsibility as New Creations in Christ  is to run these inhabitants out with the sword of the spirit, the Word of God! If we don’t confront these inhabitants, they become irritants in our eyes and thorns in our sides. They hinder our growth in God, and quench our joy! Don’t tolerate them in your land!

 

Israel did not conqueror these inhabitants all at once, and neither will you. Israel inhabited their promised land city by city. And it’s line upon line, precept upon precept that we grow in God and run these habits from the past out of our lives.

 

Be diligent to stay in the Word and keep your sword sharp. And when you come upon some inhabitants of your promised land from your old life, don’t put up with them. Run them out! Ask the Father to help you deal with lingering habits and responses based on your life before you knew the Lord. Find scripture that deals with the area that you're challenged in and meditate on it. 

I've personally had to run the irritants and thorns of selfishness, envy, pride stubbornness, rebellion, anger, lust, bitterness malice, self-pity, and lots of others out of my life. With each one, I've found scripture that refutes that behavior and taken time to meditate on it and speak it out loud. As my mind was renewed in a new way of thinking and acting, my behavior changed. And when these irritating thorns try to come back into my promised land, I use the sword of the spirit, the Word of God by speaking out loud what God says about that area of life. They run off every time!

Conquer your promised land little by little by meditating in and speaking God's Word out loud as old habits and ways of living try to invade your life. If you do, you’ll walk in the peace of God and experience the best God has for you!

Walking In Faith Means Believing You Have Something Before You Can See It!

Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them (Mark 11:24 - NKJV)

 

So then I tell you, whenever you pray and ask for anything, have faith that it has been granted to you, and you will get it (Mark 11:24 – Williams NT).

For this reason I am telling you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe (trust and be confident) that it is granted to you, and you will get it (Mark 11:24- Amplified).

That's why I tell you to have faith that you have already received whatever you pray for, and it will be yours (Mark 11:24-God’s Word).

Believe that you receive. That’s God’s method of giving us what we need. Faith (believing that you receive) is the way God provides to us what He has promised!

Believing you receive means that the moment you pray, you believe that God has answered your prayer. If you believe He has answered then you will act as though He has answered. Faith does not believe that one day He will answer in the future, but it is believing that God has answered or is answering right now.

Faith is never future tense. It’s either past tense or present tense. Anything that puts my receiving off into the future is hope and not faith. And hope is just not strong enough to receive from the Lord!

Our responsibility is to believe that we receive. God’s responsibility is to see that we have it. There is a period of time between the time that you believe you receive the answer to your prayer, and the actually physical manifestation of the answer. And what happens in this in between time is crucial!

 

When I believe that I receive an answer to prayer, I usually spend a lot of time praising and thanking the Father for meeting the need. Every time the issue that I’ve prayed about comes to mind, I verbally acknowledge that I believe the Lord heard and answered my prayer. This adds action to my faith!

Doubt thoughts may come to mind and tell you that God hasn’t answered the prayer. When they come, don’t speak them! When doubt thoughts come, say out loud that you believe you receive the answer to your prayer, and then spend some time praising the Lord. Praise Him and thank Him for the answer to your prayer the way you would if you actually had the manifestation of the answer! This drives the enemy nuts and boosts your confidence in the Father. Faith must be expressed in words to be most effective!

Faith expects. We say that a pregnant woman is expecting. She’s expecting a child to be born at a certain time. Likewise, when I’m standing in faith, I’m expecting the manifestation of the answer at any time. Faith is a confident expectation that what you’ve asked the Father for has been granted. And this expectation produces joy!

Stand in faith today and believe that you receive. The day will come that what you believe is manifested! Faith works!

God's Perfect Will Is Healing And Health For You

When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean." Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be cleansed." Immediately his leprosy was cleansed (Matthew 8:1-3).

 

Faith begins where the will of God is known. If you are uncertain as to the will of God for your healing, you will not be able to exercise the faith necessary to receive the healing that belongs to you.

 

As a young boy in a denominational church, I always heard the sick prayed for with the faith destroying prayer, Lord if it be Thy will. If a person was healed, then it was the will of God. If a person was not healed, then it must not have been the will of God to heal that particular person.

This kind of behavior takes all responsibility off of the individual, and makes God totally responsible for everything that happens in life. And this type of believing is a dangerous fallacy! When the will of God is determined on a case by case basis, there can be no faith on the part of the individual to be healed by the power of God.

But we can know the will of God through the Word. God’s Word is His will! If you want to my will about a matter in my life, then simply listen to what I say or write! If you want to know God’s will in a matter, go to His Word! His Word is His will.

 

Jesus Words to this leper in the above verse clearly show the will of God to every person in need of healing. I am willing, be cleansed is God’s will for every person touched by sickness and disease. How do we know this?

The character of God never changes. For I am the Lord, I do not change (Malachi 3:6). Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). If it was Jesus’ will to heal this man in Matthew 8, then it is still His will to heal today.

God has no favorite children. He loves us all the same! What He will do for one, He will do for all! For there is no partiality with God (Romans 2:11). Jesus healing this leper is proof positive that it is His will to heal all!

Never pray if it be your will when praying for healing. If it be your will cancels faith! I never put an if in my prayer when praying the prayer of faith! In fact, the only time I put an if in any prayer I pray is when praying the prayer of consecration to do the will of God.

Jesus prayed if it be Your will in the garden of Gethsemane when facing His hour of greatest trial. And it’s ok to pray this way where we’re seeking to find God’s will for our lives. But this is not necessary in matters where His will is clearly stated!

Faith begins where the will of God is known. Let Jesus’ Word to this leper be His Word to you concerning your life. Here Jesus say to you today, I am willing, be healed! And exercise your faith in Him to heal you by believing you receive your healing the moment that you pray. It’s the prayer of faith that heals the sick! God’s wills you to be healed!

Exercising Faith Will Manifest God's Healing Power In You

Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. For she said, "If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well." Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, "Who touched My clothes?" But His disciples said to Him, "You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, 'Who touched Me?'" And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. And He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction” (Mark 5:25-34).

 

Faith releases God’s healing power into our bodies! There were crowds of people touching Jesus the day this woman was healed. The multitudes were thronging Him. They were pressing upon Him. Their touch released no power from Jesus into their bodies. But the moment this woman touched Jesus with faith in her touch, healing power went out of Him and into her. She was completely healed.

Now Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father. He promised that when He left and went to heaven, the Holy Spirit would take His place and be to us everything He was to the disciples. That same healing power that was in Jesus is available to us as believers by the Holy Spirit! But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you (Romans 8:11).

 

Remember that it was faith that activated the healing power to flow out of Jesus into this woman who was ill and it healed her. And it takes faith now to activate the healing power resident in you in the person of the Holy Spirit. If you’ll act your faith, you’ll activate the healing power of God that is in your spirit.

Mediate on the scriptures that promise healing, then act your faith. Pray in the name of Jesus and command the sickness to go! Then, believe that you receive the answer to your prayer of faith! Say it out loud, Lord I believe that I receive healing for my body in the name of Jesus. According to God’s Word, I believe I’m well and healed. Thank you so much Lord for healing me. Remind the Lord all day long of what you believe. Look past the symptoms to the promise of God’s Word!

 

Remember that faith takes the place of what God promises until it shows up in physical manifestation. Act your faith and give the Holy Spirit what He needs to manifest God’s healing power in you today!

Healing Is Clearly Revealed In The Atonement Of Christ

Healing is provided for us in the atonement of Christ! When Jesus paid our sin penalty for us, He likewise made available to us freedom from sickness and disease.  Let me show you the evidence.

The Passover sacrifice offered by the Israelites the night that the firstborn of Egypt died is a type of Christ. Notice 1 Corinthians 5:7: Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. 

In Exodus 12 you find that the Israelites were instructed to eat the flesh of the Passover lamb to give them strength for their journey out of Egypt. This is a type of Jesus being the life and health of our physical bodies!

In 2 Chronicles 30, the Israelites were healed while partaking of the Passover sacrifice!

But King Hezekiah prayed for them, and they were allowed to eat the Passover meal anyway, even though this was contrary to the requirements of the Law. For Hezekiah said, "May the Lord, who is good, pardon those (19) who decide to follow the Lord, the God of their ancestors, even though they are not properly cleansed for the ceremony." (20) And the Lord listened to Hezekiah's prayer and healed the people (2 Chronicles 30:18-20- NLT).

In Numbers 21: 8-9, the Israelites were healed while they looked at a serpent that God had Moses put on a pole and hold up for all to see. Then the Lord said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live." So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

Jesus referred to this serpent on a pole as Himself being made our sin in John 3: 14: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. If the type, the serpent on the pole, brought healing to every Israelite that gazed upon it, how much more will Jesus, the anti-type (the fulfillment of the serpent on the pole), minister healing and life to those who come to Him!

Then in Isaiah 53, the great redemptive chapter, we find healing clearly shown in the sacrifice of the Messiah! He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows (pains) and acquainted with grief (sickness). And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses) and carried our sorrows (pains); yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:3-5).

 The words sorrows and griefs should be translated respectively pains and sicknesses in these verses! Any concordance will bear this truth. When Jesus bore our sins, he also bore our sicknesses. He dealt with both the sin and sickness problem with the same sacrifice at Calvary!

Some folk tell us that Isaiah 53: 3-5 is speaking figuratively of our spiritual sins and our spiritual sickness. And that the healing mentioned in Isaiah 53:5 is really spiritual healing. But we don’t need spiritual healing, we need spiritual transformation! We don’t get healed spiritually; we become new creatures in Christ Jesus!

 

The Father obviously knew that some people would try to spiritualize the healing mentioned in Isaiah 53 and He left us a Divine commentary. Notice Matthew 8: 16-17. It refers directly to Isaiah 53:4! When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: "He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses."

Exercise your faith in the Father to heal you today. Believe you receive the healing that Jesus provided in His sacrifice for you. Healing is a part of your spiritual inheritance in Christ, so take advantage of it. With His stripes you are healed!

How You Can Know That It's God's Will To Heal You

Most people know that God can heal them. But they are not sure that it is God’s will to heal them. And it’s not what we know God can do, but what we know He will do that inspires faith. Faith rests in knowing the will of God, not in the ability of God alone.  Faith begins where the will of God is known.

Many people have religious roadblocks in the way of receiving their healing from the Lord. They quote the scripture taken out of context, “Whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives” (Hebrews 12:6).  And the religious roadblock tells them that God sometimes uses sickness to chasten the believer. But God does not make people sick. And He is not a child abuser! We would be accused of child abuse if we harmed our children physically, but people refer to God as a child abuser when they say that He puts sickness on us to teach us a lesson. God chastens us in our spirits through His word!

Other people say that God puts sickness on us to teach us to trust Him.  Still others tell us that God lets us get sick so that we can glorify Him in the sickness. And I’ve heard others say that “I’m in God’s hands, and nothing can come into my life except it come through Him first.”

But what does the Word of God teach? It teaches that “…God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38). It teaches that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:17) It DOES NOT teach that God puts sickness on His people!

Jesus prayed in Matthew 6:10, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” There is no sickness in heaven, and it is His will that there be no sickness on the earth! Moses admonished the Israelites to keep the Word of God in their hearts “that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth” (Deuteronomy 11:21).

Sickness came with the fall of man, and its’ cure is found in God’s remedy for the fall, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ! To listen to some people, it sounds as though God and the devil have changed jobs over the last two thousand years. To them, God is the one who makes us sick, and the devil is the one who heals us! But “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

For me, the will of God concerning my healing is settled by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 8. Jesus came down from the mountain where He was ministering the Sermon on the Mount to His disciples, and there was a man stricken by leprosy waiting for Him at the base of the mountain. The leper said to Jesus, “…If you are willing, you can make me clean. Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him saying, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.’”

If Jesus could tell this leper that it was His will to heal him, then He must also tell me that it is His will to heal me, or He is partial and treats some people better than He does others. Romans 2:11 reads, “For there is no partiality with God!” Again, if it’s the will of God to heal the leper, then it must be the will of God to heal me!

If it is the will of God to heal some and not all, then there is no basis for faith in God to heal except through some special revelation. That’s the reason we sometimes hear the faith destroying prayer for healing, “Lord if it be thy will…” Folk that pray that way for healing simply do not understand the Word of God on the subject. We as Christians know the will of God through His Word. His Word is His will for us!

Faith For Forgiveness And For Healing Works The Same Way

Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases (Psalm 103:1-3).

  

Jesus sacrifice on the cross provided both forgiveness of sin and healing of sickness and disease for us. The same kind of faith that brings the new birth to us also provides healing for our physical bodies. The same faith we exercise to be forgiveness when we sin is the same faith we exercise for healing. Let me explain.

 

When you’re born again, the confession of your mouth that comes from the faith in your heart brings salvation into your life! That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Romans 10:10).

 

Faith is released with words. Be careful with what you say. Words carry what you believe! And words bring your salvation into a real experience in your life. It works the same way with healing. If fact the Greek word for salvation includes everything that salvation brings us, including healing!

 

So you could read this verse in Romans this way: That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be healed. For with the heart one believes unto health, and with the mouth confession is made unto healing!

 

The same faith that saves from sin also heals disease. Here’s how it works. When you sin, you go to 1 John 1:9, where the Word says If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. After you act on that scripture, you probably don’t feel forgiven initially. You’ve confessed your sin. You’ve asked for forgiveness, but the emotions retain the remorse of failure.

  

And that’s where faith comes in focus. You then say out loud, Lord, I thank you that I’m forgiven and cleansed by the blood of Jesus. And you stand your ground on the word where God says He is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse confessed sin. It may take a while, but eventually the feelings of failure subside, and the peace of God returns. The bottom line here is that you must believe you’re forgiven before you feel forgiven.

  

Faith for healing works exactly the same way. You go to the Father with the symptoms that are attacking your body. You remind Him of what His Word says about you, that Jesus took your infirmities and bare your sicknesses the same time that he took your sins. You command the sickness to leave your body. You resist it in the Name of Jesus! Then, you ask the Father for complete healing and according to Mark 11:24, you believe you receive your healing.

 

Then, just as you do for forgiveness of sin, you stand against thoughts and feelings that tell you that you’re still sick. Your faith in the Word declares that you’re healed while the symptoms are still raging. You continue to voice aloud the promises of God for health! And healing eventually manifests in your body! Your faith in the Father through the Word for healing will make you whole! Act on the Word for healing today!