In the previous four podcasts, we have endeavored to hone the point that you need faith in order to receive healing from heaven. We have tried to get you to see you need to go the Word route first before you go the prayer route, the medical route or any other route. Putting God first in all things is good Bible order. This is a striving for the highest kind of faith. The highest kind of faith takes God at His Word. You will find this is the best way to receive. Why? Because it’s one thing to receive from God. It’s another thing to hold on to what you have. It takes faith to receive anything from God but it also takes to hold on to the blessing you’ve received. We will see how all this works together in this week’s edition of Light on Life.

Listen to the Audio

Click to Listen | Right Click to Download | Subscribe in iTunes

Many Ways to Receive Healing

• There is what Jesus called ‘the highest kind of faith.’ Which is just taking God at His Word.
• The highest kind of faith knows God said healing is ours and believes it and acts on it.
• On the other end of the spectrum, there are manifestations of the Spirit like the working of miracles, gifts of healings, and special faith. We learn about these in 1 Corinthians 12.
• These require little faith in the recipient. They are manifested as the Spirit wills.
• You just have to have enough faith to show up to a meeting where the Spirit of God is moving.
• No matter what level of faith you are on, God has a way to get healing to you.

The Highest Kind of Faith

Matthew 8:5–10 (KJV)
5 And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, 6 And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. 7 And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. 8 The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. 9 For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. 10 When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.

• In the area of healing, what does the highest kind of faith sound like?
• It sounds like this statement. ‘Just say the Word and I’ll be healed.”
• As we have seen in these podcasts, this is exactly what God did.
• He spoke the Word of healing for your life and had it recorded in the pages of the Bible.
• Reading it. Believing it. And acting on it is the highest kind of faith.
• This is the level we should all strive for.
• We should learn to grow to such an extent that we don’t need anyone to lay hands on us.
• We don’t need to have anyone to pray for us.
• We can just go to the Word, read it, receive it, and act like it’s so.
• Everyone can’t receive on this level and so that’s the reason why prayer, anointing with oil, laying on of hands and other methods are employed by the Lord.
• God has a way to get you well no matter what level you may be on.

[Tweet “No matter what level of faith you are on, God has a way to get healing to you.”]

Levels of Faith

James 2:5 (KJV)
5 Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?

• The words ‘rich in faith’ suggests there are levels to the faith walk.
• Faith increases as you feed on God’s Word.
• It decreases with neglect.
• Just because you received an answer to prayer today doesn’t mean you have arrived.
• Faith can’t be put into cruise control.
• At any given moment, faith draws on the light of the Word in your heart.
• The scriptures show these stages of faith development.
  • The centurion possessed great faith (Matthew 8:10). He didn’t need the physical presence of Jesus to heal his servant. All he needed was a Word from His lips.
  • The Syrophoenician woman’s demand for healing crumbs garnered her the same badge (Matthew 15:28).
  • The Thessalonian church had exceedingly growing faith (2 Thessalonians 1:3).
  • Some have mustard seed faith (Luke 17:6).
  • Still others have weak faith (Romans 4:19).
  • The disciples? They exhibited little faith on many occasions (Matthew 8:26, 14:31, 16:8, 17:20).
  • Finally, others are inductees into the Hall of ‘No Faith’ (Matthew 17:17 and Mark 4:40).
• Since faith comes by hearing the Word (Romans 10:17), you can advance between stages by continual attending on God’s Word.
• God meets people on the level they are.

Manifestations of the Spirit

• Gifts of the Spirit are another way people have received healing.
• One day Jesus ministered to a man who hadn’t walked in thirty-eight years.

John 5:1–6 (KJV)
1 After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. 3 In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. 4 For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. 5 And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?

• Jesus found this man in the temple after he had already been healed of a condition which paralyzed him for 38 years.
• The only faith this man had was ‘angel jumping in the water faith’.
• An angel from heaven came once in a while to trouble the waters at this pool.
• Whoever jumped in first received their healing.
• The second person in the pool didn’t healed, only the first one.
• Why didn’t God just heal everybody at the pool when the angel appeared?
• I don’t know. I’m not God.

John 5:7–9 (KJV)
7 The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. 8 Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. 9 And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.

• This paralyzed man did not have the highest kind of faith.
• He had ‘angel faith’. He had ‘moving of the water faith’.
• But on this day, he received his healing because Jesus had a special manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit for him.
• What a glorious day it must have been for him when he heard those words come from the immaculate lips of the Son of God, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.”
• Deliverance day had come to this man as that power surged through his body repairing and undoing and unraveling what Satan had done 38 years before.
• Deliverance day is a beautiful day.
• This man walked and leaped and ran and did things that he had not been able to do all that time he was afflicted.
• But notice he was the only one who was healed by Jesus that day.
• Jesus ministered to this one man and walked off leaving five porches full of sick people.
• Why? 1 Corinthians 12:11 clues us in.

1 Corinthians 12:11 (KJV)
11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

• The Spirit of God gave Jesus a manifestation for this one man.
• He didn’t have a manifestation for any of the other five porches full of people.
• To get healing to people apart from a special manifestation of the Spirit, Jesus would have had to teach them the Word. Get them to believe and act on it. Then they would be able to receive in that way.

John 5:14 (KJV)
14 Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.

• Read these words again. “Afterwards Jesus findeth him in the temple.”
• It was no accident that he found him.
• Jesus went looking for this man and when He found that man, He told that man how to hold on to what he got.
• In his particular case, sin had originally compromised him and gave an open door for Satan to attack him.
• So, Jesus told him how to avoid this invalid condition coming back into his life again.
• The compassion of Jesus is seen not only in ministering healing to this man but also showing this man how to hold on to his healing.
• Jesus is interested in you getting healed and in you staying healed.

The level you receive on may not be the level you need to hold on what you got.

[Tweet “The level you received from God on may not be the level you need to hold on what you got.”]

Use It or Lose It

Matthew 13:12 (KJV)
12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

• Jesus reiterates a kingdom of God principle in this passage.
• You have to continually use what you have.
• Once you receive your miracle from God…
  • If you remain static in your faith,
  • If you don’t develop spiritually in the area you received,
  • If you don’t grow in your walk in the Word…
• If you just simply exist, you run the risk of losing what you received.
• Have you ever seen anyone receive a miraculous healing and then with the passage of time, lose it?
• They were legitimate recipients of a miracle from heaven.
  • A cancer they were diagnosed with went away.
  • A back issue they were limping along with just vanished.
  • The heart which didn’t beat right is now rhythmically ticking away.
  • The doctors verified it.
  • The MRI showed it.
  • The tests confirmed it.
  • Then all of a sudden, the conditions return.
• In some cases, the symptoms are worse than before.
• Why? What happened?
• It’s one thing to receive from God. It’s another thing to hold on to it.
• It’s one thing to get healed. It’s another thing to stay that way.

Return Attacks of the Enemy Are Part of Reality

• Return attacks are part of the reality of spiritual life.
• Spiritual life is a war.
• And in war you have to fight to maintain your ground.

Luke 19:13 (KJV)
13 And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.

• Jesus said, ‘Occupy until I come.’
• Occupy doesn’t mean ‘be busy at life.’
• It means engage at the business at hand.
• Get involved in the business of the kingdom.
• ‘Get involved in the business of holding on to the blessings of health, healing and wholeness.’
• Why do you need to fight to maintain it? Your motive should be to minister for God.
• Ask yourself this question. ‘What more could I do for God and with God if I had a well body?”

Matthew 12:43–45 (KJV)
43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. 44 Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. 45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.

• Matthew 12:43-45 sums up what happens if you don’t develop.
• You need a game plan to grow your faith, so you can hold on to what you received.
• This is how Satan operates.
• Once Satan is cast out, once his works are put out, he tries to return.
• This element of conflict was seen in the life of Jesus when the devil came to tempt Him.

Luke 4:12–13 (KJV)
12 And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. 13 And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.

• What does ‘depart from Him for a season’ mean?
• It means he was coming back to try and test Jesus again.
• What we must come to understand is that ‘I will return’ is part of the healing scenario.
• This is one reason why people who receive their healing on other people’s faith, on other people’s prayers, or by manifestations of the Spirit lose their healing.
• They don’t realize there is more to the game.
• They don’t understand they have to develop in order to get ready for the ‘I will return’ scenario.

1 Peter 5:8–9 (ESV)
8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

• You resist the devil with faith, not with manifestations of the Spirit.
• It is not power displays that makes you a victor over Satan, it is faith in God’s Word. It is faith in Jesus Name.
• Manifestations of the Spirit, other people’s prayers, give you a ‘break’, a healing window as it were, a space of time to develop your own faith in God’s Word.
• We clamor for manifestations of the Spirit because they are so spectacular but you have to understand their purpose.
• You must develop faith because ‘I will return’ is part of this conflict.
• The level you receive on today is not the level you need tomorrow to hold on to what you.

Call to Action:

It’s a temptation to try and live on yesterday’s results. Romans 10:17 says ‘faith comes by hearing.’ It doesn’t say faith comes by having heard. You don’t have faith today because you had faith yesterday. You can’t live on the memory of yesterday’s Bible verse no more than you can live on the memory of the steak you had for dinner last Sunday. No matter how memorable the meal was in your mouth, two hours and it’s digested and processed by your body. The Word of God is spirit food for the spirit of man. You can’t just eat or read a Bible verse one time and have that verse sustain you spiritually for the rest of your life. You can’t live on yesterday’s faith or yesterday’s miracle.

Episode Resources

For more resources on the subject of healing please see the following:

1. Healing Scripture List
2. How to Get Faith for Healing [Podcast]
3. How to Put Yourself in the Word for Healing [Podcast]
4. Why Calvary is the Home of the Double Cure [Podcast]
5. Why Hearing is the Most Necessary Healing Component [Podcast]

Subscription Links

If you have enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe.

Subscribe in iTunes – click this link

 Subscribe in Stitcher Radio – click this link

Your Feedback

If you have a suggestion for a Bible topic you would like to see taught, or if you have a question, please e-mail me at energized1@outlook.com.

Also, if you enjoyed the message, please rate it on iTunes and leave a review.

Question: What did you do specifically to overcome Satan’s rebound attack? Please share your experience in the comments section below.