How Long Does It Take to Build Faith for Healing That Works?
If you’re even asking this question, it’s possible that you have the wrong focus and need to read Faith in Your Faith vs. Faith in God. Don’t see life as a quest to build gigantic faith. Instead, make it your quest to find out what God says and then act like it’s so. That makes sense because it IS so!
Different people take different amounts of time to “get it” when it comes to healing, just as different people take different amounts of time to “get it” when it comes to the new birth. The important things are: (1) Keep building your faith by meditating on what the Scriptures say about healing until you are able to reach out and receive your healing from God, no matter how long it takes you, and (2) You can do it, just as many others have done! Don’t give up because you aren’t a faith giant by the day after tomorrow!
How long it takes obviously has something to do with how diligently you work at getting the Scriptures about healing inside you. It must get to the point where they become part of you and become real to you. If you read a healing verse once every other week, you’ll probably never walk in effective faith. You HAVE faith (everyone does) but you will probably have to study and work at it until you are ready to ACT on the Word concerning healing. If you are not willing to invest a considerable amount of time doing this, you may end up just staying sick. If you are unwilling to hear the Word of God on a continual basis, you will not develop your faith and you won’t be able to receive healing from God. It isn’t just going to happen overnight. There is no quick formula or shortcut for it. If you aren’t willing to pay the price, just accept your sickness and live with it. That’s not God’s best for you, but it’s the best you’ll get without effort on your part. Too many Christians have the idea, “I’ll try this faith stuff but if I don’t get results by next Tuesday, forget the whole thing.” It’s like the person who told me, “I tried tithing for three weeks and it didn’t work!” Walking in the light of Scripture is something you keep doing for your entire life, not something you “try” for a short while to see if it works.
Some people were blessed to be born into families that already believe and act on the Word. It is easier for such people to walk in faith because it’s what they’re used to doing. If you’re from a family of drunks who only use Jesus’ name as a curse, it will be harder for you. I was not raised in a faith-filled Christian home, but I managed to build my faith in healing, and so can you even if you weren’t raised in a faith-filled Christian home either.
Think of the amount of effort you might spend going to specialists, getting tests, and so on. Isn’t it worth some of your time to take God’s medicine? I knew a man (now deceased at an untimely age) who would not bother coming to many healing services we did when he literally lived a block away and could have walked to them. Yet he was willing to be out of commission for weeks having surgery after surgery even though he mentally assented that divine healing is for all. It is amazing what people think they have time for and what they don’t make time for. What if all that time had been spent building his faith instead so that he could have been ready to receive his healing that Jesus paid for?
To the readers who think this sounds like a works gospel – it isn’t. Jesus did the works. Through Him, you already have all things pertaining to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3-4). Your work is to believe the gospel, and that can take work! This apparent paradox is stated in Hebrews, where we are exhorted to “labor to enter into God’s rest” (Hebrews 4:11). God’s rest is free and does not depend on your works. Your labor is to believe so that you can tap into it. “For we which do believe have entered into rest” (Hebrews 4:3). God gave the land of Canaan, which is symbolic of our blessings, to Israel freely. However, those who did not believe could not enter it, while those who did believe were able to enjoy it. God made the provision, but faith was required to enjoy that provision.
Will you invest more effort in getting help from man than in getting help from God? Doctors are fine, but you need to make study of the Word on healing a high priority while you’re getting natural medical care, or the natural care will be the only thing that helps you. Then you’re limited to what man can do for you, whereas with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26).