Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom . . . — COLOSSIANS 3:16

I knew a Baptist woman who was only thirty-six years old and had cancer. She was bedfast and wasn’t supposed to live very long. A Baptist pastor who had seen the light on divine healing visited her each day and read scriptures to her and prayed. However, she remained bedfast. This pastor would walk to her house because she didn’t live far from the parsonage where he lived.

As he was walking home one day, he said, “Lord, I don’t understand. I mean, we’re believing You for healing. This woman says that she believes the scriptures I’m reading to her.”

As soon as he said that, the Spirit of God spoke to him and said, “No, she doesn’t believe them. She’s just mentally agreeing to them. If she believed them, she would be out of bed and doing her housework.”

The next day he went back to her house and began reading scriptures to her. She said, “Yes, I believe that.” And he said, “No, you don’t. If you believed it, you’d be out of bed doing your housework.”

Well, she looked at him sort of startled, as if he had slapped her! But she got it. She said to him, “You go in the next room, and I’ll get up.” She got up, put her housecoat on, and he left. And when her husband came home, he found her up well, cooking the evening meal.

That Baptist pastor said to me, “Nineteen years have come and gone, and she’s still well and healed. She’s still doing her housework.”

Someone might say, “Well, I believe I’ll try that.” It won’t work by trying it. She didn’t try it; she did it. She got the Word down into her spirit. She didn’t just mentally act on what God said. There is a difference. Don’t act presumptuously or foolishly. Let the Word get down on the inside of you— then you can act in faith. And when you do, results will be forthcoming.

Confession: I am not just a hearer of the Word. I am a doer of the Word. I act on what God’s Word says. I let His Word get down on the inside of me, and then I act in faith.