OFTEN, BEFORE YOU can receive anything from God, you must find answers to the questions that keep you from receiving. As long as questions crowd your mind, you’ll have doubts. And as long as you have doubts, your faith will be hindered.
I know from my own experience on a bed of sickness that I had questions in my mind that had to be settled before my faith could be effective. I had to find the answers myself. That’s why I was bedfast for 16 months from ages 15 to 17.
Sometimes it would take me weeks and months to find the answer to a question. And just about the time I found one answer, the devil would bring up something else.
For a long time, the devil tried to tell me God had afflicted me and was punishing me for some wrongdoing in my life. I listened to that for a while. But finally I said, “Devil, I was born this way. I was born with a deformed heart and serious internal trouble. What would be the use of God punishing me for something I don’t even know about? That must not be true.”
Sometimes the devil would say, “You’re sick because of something your parents did.” That’s what the disciples thought about the man who was blind from birth. They asked Jesus, “Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2).
Some people misquote Jesus’ reply in verse 3 as “Neither the man nor his parents sinned. He was sick so God could heal him.” Wouldn’t that be a terrible thing to accuse God of? Here is a grown man, blind from birth, and God made him blind just so He could heal him? If that were true, God would not be much of a God, would He?
But that is not what this scripture says. It says, “but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me” (vv. 3–4). Notice that Jesus said, “I must work the works of him that sent me.” He immediately did the works of God by healing the man.
When the devil saw I was going to believe in healing anyway, he tried to convince me it was not God’s will to heal me. He said, “Healing is real, but it is not God’s will to heal everybody. You’re one of those it is not His will to heal.”
Many people believe the lie that it is not God’s will to heal them. YET, IT IS ILLOGICAL TO BELIEVE GOD HEALS, AND AT THE SAME TIME, BELIEVE HE WON’T HEAL YOU.
I rejected this argument too. I kept searching for answers.
All I knew was what I had heard preachers and other people say. Some said, “Your sickness is God’s work. God is doing all of it.” I could not accept that explanation. Others said, “Well, maybe God didn’t commission it, but He permits it for a purpose.” That is about the same thing.
"We can believe God’s Word and be delivered, or we can doubt His Word and remain bound."
I Needed Answers
I was born again while bedfast, but even after that, questions arose in my mind: Why was I born this way? Is God the author of the sufferings in the world today? Who is responsible for all of this?
“Why me?” I asked God.
“Why did I have to be born as a premature baby who weighed less than two pounds? Did You cause me to be born prematurely?
“Why did I have to be afflicted? Why couldn’t I have had a normal childhood? Did You rob me of my childhood?
“Why couldn’t I have known happiness? Are You the One Who caused me to sit and watch as others ran, jumped, and played?
“I am bedfast, and five doctors say I have to die. I didn’t have anything to do with it. God, did You?
“I had hopes of growing up, marrying, and having a family, but I will never know what it is if I die now. Do I have to die?”
Such questions demand an answer, but nobody really gives you an answer. They will give you some theological concept that does not amount to anything. But thank God, the Bible has the answer. We can believe God’s Word and be delivered, or we can doubt His Word and remain bound.
I’m so glad I found the answer. I found it in Acts 10:38: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.”
This verse told me that Satan is the oppressor. Satan is the one who caused me to be born prematurely with a deformed heart. Satan is the one who caused my body to be almost totally paralyzed and gave me an incurable blood disease. Satan is the one who kept me bound for 16 months on a bed of sickness.
But Jesus is the Deliverer! Jesus is the Lifegiver! Jesus is the Savior—God manifested in the flesh!
I never was so thrilled with anything in my life as when I discovered this truth! Yes, God’s Word is truth.
After I saw what the Bible said and received my healing, I crawled out of bed and said, “I am not going to die! I am going to live, and someday I am going to have a wife and children.”
I was 17 years old then—just a boy. I had never heard healing preached in my life, but the Bible said it, I believed it, and that settled it. I told everyone I met what I was going to do.
Today I am the result of what I said in those days. I have enjoyed perfect health, and God gave me a lovely wife and family. Faith works! That is the reason I get happy preaching about it. I know what He has done for me.
Speak the Word!
Say the following confession. Get it into your spirit. It will help you get and keep your healing.
Healing belongs to me. It belongs to me because sickness is from the enemy. It belongs to me because sickness is a curse, and Jesus redeemed me from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13). [Specify sickness] can’t stay in my body. By Jesus’ stripes, I am healed and whole (1 Peter 2:24)!
Author
Kenneth E. Hagin
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