What Faith Isn’t
Wishful Thinking or an Abstract Belief That God Exists
People today misuse the word faith to indicate hope or mere wishful thinking. For example, “I’m really sick and I don’t know if I’m going to die or not, but I have faith.” No, if you were in faith, you would speak God’s word instead of defeat (2 Corinthians 4:13). What you are really saying is, “I don’t really have any faith at all that God will do anything for me, but I assent to the fact that He exists.”
James said that demons believe there is one God – and tremble. If you simply assent to the fact that God exists, you and demons are on the same level of faith. You cannot get saved by simply believing that God exists. This is obvious, because demons are not saved.
Your Christianity in General
Sometimes people use “faith” to indicate “religious persuasion,” as in, “That man is of the Buddhist faith, and his sister-in-law is of the Hindu faith.” Actually, it would be correct to say, “That man is of the Buddhist ignorance, and his sister-in-law is of the Hindu ignorance.” (This is theologically correct, not “politically correct.”) If any service involves religions other than Christianity, it is by definition not an “interfaith service” – the term “interignorance service” would be more appropriate. While Christianity is referred to even in the Bible as “the faith,” this is not the same thing that Hebrews 11:1 is talking about. You can be in “the faith” as far as being a Christian, but not be “in faith” for your healing.
Denial
Faith for healing does not involve denying physical problems. It denies their right to continue in your body. It is not faith to pretend that symptoms in your body don’t exist. That is denial, which can be dangerous or even fatal. You cannot just ignore the symptoms and think that they have to go away by themselves. Simply trying to make yourself stop thinking about your body is not faith, either. You must consider God’s Word to be more powerful than anything going on in your body. Simply not thinking about your problems is denial, not faith. Wishing will not make your problem go away. Some people talk about blind faith, but faith is not blind. Faith faces and acknowledges whatever challenge comes before it, but it declares the victory to be already won. There is a difference between claiming victory in a fight and refusing to believe that a fight is going on.
Denial can be dangerous. If you need medical help, get it. If you are really in faith, the doctor will vouch for your healing. If you’re not, he may well save your life.
Resignation
"I won’t pray about it anymore. I’ve just put this matter into God’s hands.” What this may really mean is, “I am going to let God decide whether or not to heal me. I am not actively believing for anything. If nothing happens, I will not be at all surprised. Whatever happens, happens. I’ve done the best that I can.” That’s resignation, not faith. Faith does not put anything into God’s hands, it takes something from God’s hands!
Even those who know the Word can drift from faith into resignation if they do not keep their faith active. You can stop praying about something because you know you have received your answer on the inside. However, you can also stop praying about something because you have simply given up! Make sure that you know which applies to you.
Expecting Something to Happen in the Future
You cannot “believe” for a healing in the future. To say “I have faith that God will heal me” is an error. This actually means, “I hope that God will heal me, but I am not in faith for it.” Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the assurance of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). If you do not have the assurance that you have something that you cannot see now, you are not in faith. If you think you will get something in the future, you do not have the assurance that you have the unseen thing right now.
There is nothing wrong with hope. Faith, hope and love abide, but none is a substitute for the others. You cannot get saved by hoping that you will go to heaven. Likewise, you cannot get healed by hoping that God will heal you in the future. You could fool most Christians today into thinking that you’re in faith by saying that you believe that God is going to heal you, but you won’t fool God or your sick body!
Struggling to Believe Something
“For we which have believed have entered into rest” (Hebrews 4:3). If you haven’t entered into rest, you haven’t entered into faith. If you are struggling to make yourself believe something, you are not ready to pray in faith. Hear the Word on a continual basis on the topic of your prayer. If you need healing, go over Scriptures about healing. Instead of straining to believe, keep finding out what the Word says and faith will rise up. Even if you aren’t successful at first, it’s worth developing the discipline of being in the Word so that down the road you can succeed at receiving from God. The best time to put the Word into your heart is before you need it, not during a trial! Many people are in no position to believe for anything during a trial because they never “exercised themselves unto godliness” before the trial started, and now they feel so rotten or are so disoriented that they aren’t in a position to start looking into what the Bible teaches about healing.
Will Power
Faith is not a matter of trying to will something away. Again, we who believe have entered into rest. You are trusting in God’s power and His faithfulness to use it to back His Word, not your own will power. You are not trying to make your healing happen! People who have entered into rest have ceased from their own works (Hebrews 4:10).
Mind over Matter
You receive healing from God through your spirit, not through your mind. You are not attempting to “psyche” yourself into anything or control your body with your mind.
Throwing Away Your Medicine
Just throwing away your medicine could be harmful or fatal. It neither proves your faith nor compels God to heal you supernaturally. Your healing is only guaranteed when you receive it by faith. It is possible to put God to a foolish test by throwing out your medicine. If you are not in faith, you have not met God’s condition for healing, and you will need that medicine that you just threw out. You will upset your doctor and look like a fool in front of unbelievers. Objectors to divine healing might make you another object lesson of a presumptuous fool in their books and messages. Whether or not you are in faith has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not there is medicine in your cabinet. It is not necessary to throw out your medicine or stomp on your glasses to receive healing by faith. Get healed first, and then once you have physical proof of it, do what you want with your medicine or your glasses.
Mimicking the Words of Someone Else Who Is in Faith
You cannot get the same results as someone else simply by saying the same words that he does. For example, you cannot just parrot the words, “I believe I receive my healing. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus!” just because someone else did so and received his healing. It worked for the other person because he believed something in his heart and spoke it with his mouth. If you just speak with your mouth but don’t believe it in your heart, nothing will happen. I prayed a “sinner’s prayer” with someone once just to make him happy and remained just as unsaved when he was done because I didn’t mean it. (I did pray it and mean it later.)
There is the confession of faith and there is the confession unto faith. The first speaks what you already believe. The second is simply speaking God’s Word to yourself to build faith, which is a valuable practice that every Christian should do (see Joshua 1:7-8). Just don’t confuse the two or kid yourself about which you are doing.
Paul cast out demons in the name of Jesus. When the sons of Sceva mimicked Paul’s words and ordered a demon to leave in the name of Jesus whom Paul preached, they were the ones who ended up leaving the house, not the demon. They used the same name, but Paul was in faith while the sons of Sceva weren’t. (See Acts 19:13-17.)
Being Pretty Sure of Something
There is a difference between being pretty sure of something and really believing something. If you have hands laid on you for healing, and you answer someone who asks if you got your healing, “I think so,” you are not in faith. If you are in faith, you know it. If you don’t know if you’re in faith, you aren’t. Being in faith is like being pregnant – you either are or you aren’t. You can’t be “sort of” in faith any more than you can be “sort of” pregnant.
Trying to Feel Better
Real faith does not consider your body, just as Abraham did not consider his body. See Romans 4:16-21. You do not have to “psyche” yourself into thinking that you feel better. Don’t even try. It doesn’t matter if you feel worse just after you pray. If you are in faith, your healing will manifest itself. Sometimes a healing minister who has laid hands on people asks for a show of hands of people who feel physically better already, and it is tempting to try to convince yourself that you feel at least a little better so that you can raise your hand. Don’t bother. It should not hurt the minister’s feelings if you don’t see any change yet! Some people do not notice a change right away. That is normal and it’s nothing to worry about.
Likewise, you don’t have to keep checking your body every five minutes for the next day trying to convince yourself that you feel at least a little improvement. That is counterproductive; it will get you focused on the problem instead of the solution. If you are really in faith, you have entered into rest (Hebrews 4:3) and you are confident that God’s power is working in you. Continue to thank God for your healing and make that your focus.
Having Faith in Your Faith
Jesus never said, “Have faith in your faith.” Always remember that your basis for believing that you have received your healing is God’s Word on the matter. God’s Word cannot change. The devil will try to challenge you with the thought that you aren’t really in faith. He will try to make you question whether you could really believe God like that. The way to conquer such thoughts is to remind the devil and yourself that God says you are healed, and you are simply agreeing with God’s present statements concerning you. Don’t make your faith the issue. God’s Word concerning healing is the issue. You have the right to speak it continually, not just when you first pray, because it is always true.
Quoting Lots of Scripture
You could fool people even in most “faith churches” with the following answer to the question, “Are you healed?” “According to 1 Peter 2:24, I was healed by the stripes of Jesus. God’s Word says that I was healed, therefore I am healed. God is the Lord that healeth me. Jesus bore my sickness, and I am redeemed from the curse of the Law, which includes sickness.”
This seems like a good answer, but a person who is really in faith would more likely respond, “Yes!” He would not try to defend his answer or talk himself into it. The Scriptures are nice and they are true, but they do not prove that you have actually believed that you have received anything at all. They simply prove that you know the Bible’s teaching on the subject of healing, which is a different matter from appropriating that for yourself. You can mentally assent that the Bible is true without acting on it, but acting on the Word is the only way to get results.
Take as an example your eternal salvation. If someone asked you if you are saved, you would say, “Yes.” You would not get theological and say, “According to 1 Peter 2:24, my sins were borne by Jesus in His own body on the tree. By grace I am saved through faith. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” In other words, you would not sound like you are still trying to talk yourself into believing something, which is what you would be doing, when you get right down to it.
You can and you should quote Scripture about yourself. But the quoting of Scripture is distinct from the actual prayer of faith that receives something that God has provided for you in Christ.
See also: