In the previous lessons, we learned that faith is not something we have as much as it is something we do. We have seen that faith is not hoping we will see the answer in the future; faith is believing we have the answer now. The eyes of faith see the answer as having already happened.

PROVERBS 4:20–22
20 My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.
21 Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.
22 For they [my words] are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.

Notice this scripture says, “Let them [my words] not depart from thine eyes.” Many people fail because they see themselves as failing. If they are sick, they think of themselves as dying.

God’s Word says, “Himself [Jesus] took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses” (Matt. 8:17). If that Word does not depart from before our eyes, we are bound to see ourselves without sickness and without disease. We will see ourselves well.

If, however, we do not see ourselves as without sickness, then that Word has departed from before our eyes. And even though God wants to make health a reality in our lives, He cannot, because we are not acting on His Word.

Notice also the 22nd verse: “For they [my words] are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.” The Hebrew word translated “health” here is also the word for medicine. In other words, “My words are medicine to all their flesh.”

Medicine has to be taken according to directions in order to work. The first two verses of this passage tell us the directions for taking God’s medicine. What are these directions? First, we must “attend to,” or study God’s Word (obey it). Second, we must keep that Word in our heart. We must keep looking at it.

Many people pray and pray, but they never see themselves with the answer. They just see everything getting worse. They keep looking at the wrong things—at the symptoms, conditions, or themselves—and so they walk in unbelief and destroy the effects of their praying.

Get your mind on the answer. See yourself as having received. Constantly affirm, even in the face of contradictory evidence, that God has heard your prayer because the Word says so. That’s when you’ll get results.

There are those who say, “I’m not going to believe anything I can’t see.” But we believe a lot of things we can’t see. For example, people become alarmed when radioactive material is released into the atmosphere. We can’t see it or feel it, but it is a destructive power nevertheless.

In the same way, we have to believe we’ve got the answer before we can receive it. “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (Mark 11:24). The believing comes before the receiving.

Faith Contradicts Circumstances

HEBREWS 13:5–6
5 . . . for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
6 So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

Are we boldly saying that the Lord is our Helper? That is what we should be saying.

“Well, you all pray for me, I feel as if the Lord has forsaken me,” cried one poor sister. “I don’t know if I can make it or not. I hope I can. Pray for me that I’ll hold out faithful to the end.” This is a familiar request in prayer and testimony meetings. But that is not what God told us to say!

Nowhere in the Bible do we find where God said to boldly say, “I’m whipped, I’m defeated. The devil’s got me bound.” God said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” So we may boldly say, “The Lord is my helper.”

Quit saying the wrong thing and start saying the right thing. Say the Lord is your Helper. Say the Lord is your Healer. Say the Lord took your infirmities and bore your sicknesses. Keep talking about the right thing. Keep believing the right thing.

Wrong thinking, wrong believing, and wrong talking will defeat you. The devil can’t defeat you, because Jesus has already defeated the devil for you. You defeat yourself. Or if Satan does defeat you, you permit him to do so. It is a consent of ignorance.

God has given us His Word to direct us so our believing will be right. If our thinking is right and our believing is right, our talking will be right. “The Lord is my helper.” “The Lord is my strength.”

Faith ‘Says’ the Answer

Real faith in the Word says that if God says it is so, it’s so. If He says, “by whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Peter 2:24), we are healed. If He says, “My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19), He does it. If the Word says, “the Lord is the strength of my life” (Ps. 27:1), He is.

In other words, real faith in God simply says about one’s self what the Word says. We have what the Word says we have. We are what the Word says we are. If God says we are strong, we are. If He says we are healed, we are. If He says He cares for us, He does.

HEBREWS 4:14
14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.

After looking up the Greek word translated “profession,” I learned that it should read, “Let us hold fast to saying the same things.”

You see, Jesus is in Heaven, representing us at the Throne of God—making intercession for us. He is saying “I took their place, I died for them as their substitute.” Jesus didn’t die for Himself. He didn’t need to redeem Himself, because He wasn’t lost.

He became our Substitute. He took our sins. He bore our sicknesses and carried our diseases. He died for us, arose from the dead for us, and ascended on high for us. He is up there now as our High Priest saying, “I did that for them.” That means we can have the answers to our petitions now. But we are to hold fast to saying the same things down here.

MARK 11:23
23 Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

It isn’t just a matter of faith going out of your heart toward God without your saying anything. That won’t work. Nowhere in the Bible do we read we should do that.

Faith kept only in your heart will never bring healing to your body, the infilling of the Holy Spirit, or an answer to prayer. But faith in your heart released through your lips will bring results.