As we continue our study of faith, we readily acknowledge that the role of faith in healing is profound. It is one key ingredient to activating the power of God to heal. If God’s power is present but remains dormant, it cannot heal. In a similar manner, if the Word of God is present in a Bible that is never read nor understood, it cannot produce what it was sent to produce. In Romans 1:16-17 Paul says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” The powerful role of faith as the necessary component of relating to God is succinctly captured in this scripture. Faith plays the same critical role in healing as it does in all areas of relating to God.

One serious problem people face in their faith walk concerning healing is their personal inconsistency. A great war rages between our natural mind and our human spirit. Romans 8:5-6 points to this when it records, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” Paul continues in verses 6-8 with this explanation, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.”

In this Scripture passage, Paul is pointing out that the natural mind comes into conflict with the spirit. This tends to happen because these two aspects of our being drawn information and power from two completely different sources. When a person becomes ill, or when a doctor tells them that they have a such and such disease, round one of the battle begins. Pain, nausea, weakness and other symptoms emanating out of our flesh are very compelling and powerfully influence our natural mind. They are experienced by our natural mind as real, actual and controlling, which indeed they are. Our natural mind evaluates the symptoms and tends to agree with them and begins seeking relief or healing along naturally discerned lines.

Divine healing, on the other hand, does not misrepresent or lie about the reality of sickness, with its pain and misery, but it does demand, if that person is seeking healing from God, that the individual obtain a spiritual perspective. Obtaining a spiritual perspective requires that the person moves away from a preoccupation with the natural perspective to a spirit-controlled one based on the Word of God. The natural mind tends to focus on the problem and natural ways to relate to it. It seeks solutions based on the natural world we live in. The spirit, on the other hand, takes a stand based on the truth of God’s Word. It focuses on the solution as coming from God and not on the things of the flesh that are physically discerned through the five senses. Taking a faith perspective can be difficult when a person is seriously ill; however, it is a necessary ingredient to receiving from God by faith. We will expand on this further in our next devotional teaching as we build an understanding concerning faith and healing.