We have been doing devotional teachings on healing. Let’s anchor this a little further by expanding into some of the specifics of what the Word of God teaches. We’ve already discussed how important it is that God let us know through His Word that His plan for our lives includes healing from sickness and disease and that God is not only able to heal but desires and wills to heal people. All of this is crucial information because if we do not know that God is able and willing to use His power on our behalf to heal us, how could we ever even begin to appeal to God for healing? How could we ever believe God would heal us, if we don’t know that He wants to do that? Knowing that healing is God’s will, His desire, His intention, His plan allows us to trust Him for our healing. We can then step out in faith to ask Him to heal us and believe that He will do it.

The Bible makes it clear that taking God at His Word and trusting Him to fulfill His Word is crucial to receiving from Him. Actually, the Bible is powerfully clear that faith is vital in appropriating anything from God. Hebrews 11:6 emphatically states that, “… without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Faith is our spiritual appropriating agent. It is the means by which we receive from God. In a very simple form, we could say that faith is believing that God is who He says He is and that He will do what He says He will do. In essence faith is relying with steadfast trust upon what God has revealed about Himself and how He intends to relate to people as recorded in His written Word.

Romans 12:3 says that, “…God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.” And the Bible directive on how to receive an increase in faith links right back into God’s Word as Romans 10:17 points out that, “…faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” As we hear and receive God’s Word, faith comes or we could say, as we assimilate God’s Word we grow in faith. Trusting God’s Word through abiding faith is critical in relating to God. The Word of God is supreme in our relationship with Him and faith developed through the Word of God is extremely important concerning healing.

If a person is sick and needs to receive healing from God, they need to understand the faith requirements involved. In addition to that, they must learn how to develop an active faith relationship with God and apply themselves to live as governed by that faith. When sickness strikes, it has the ability to seriously challenge our faith; therefore, it is critical that we develop a strong stand of faith throughout all the days of our life and not wait until a crisis hits. Sometimes under crisis conditions the pain and suffering of sickness is so great that it becomes difficult to start cultivating a faith relationship with God. Many people miss receiving fully from God’s healing promises because they did not apply themselves to develop a strong trusting relationship with Him prior to the faith-challenging process that so often accompanies sickness and disease.