Month: February 2003

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:2, KJV, emphasis added.)

Why do we need to “renew” our mind? Well, why does one “renew” a house? Because it is a worn-out mess! Once a house is used-up, expired, and out-of-date, we “renew” it by tearing down parts, rebuilding others, and generally renovating the structure.

OK, a strange example, to be sure… but bear with me! Your mind has probably become like concrete, it is thoroughly mixed up and well set! You need to break it up, and start over! This requires restructuring the mind, pouring a new foundation, as it were!

Dr. Kenneth E. Hagin says in his book, Man on Three Dimensions, “One of the greatest needs of the church today is that God’s people renew their minds with the Word of God. Just because a person is a Christian, and even filled with the Holy Spirit, doesn’t mean that he has a renewed mind. The mind becomes renewed with the Word of God.”¹ We need to renew our minds by reading, studying, and meditating on the Word of God. In this way, we can develop our minds until we are no longer simply assenting to the truths of God’s Word, we are actually living them!

Dr. Hagin goes on to say, “First of all, we must understand the difference between real faith and mental assent. Mental assent agrees that the Bible is true but doesn’t act on it. Real faith is acting on God’s Word. Mental assent says, ‘I know God’s Word is true all right. I know God promised me certain things and that I ought to have them.’ Faith sees the object of prayer as already having been attained. Faith says, ‘The Word of God says it, I believe it, and I have it now,’ even though it may not be seen in the natural. Faith says, ‘I have it now not because I can see it, not because I actually possess it, but because God promised it.’ ‘Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen’ (Heb. 11:1). Another translation of this verse reads, ‘faith is giving substance to things hoped for.’ Our faith gives substance to it and so we can say, ‘It is mine.'”¹ This process of renewing the mind takes time, as does development in God’s Word.

Dr. T.L. Osborn reminds us, “Since it is written, Faith comes by hearing the word of God, then the best way to build faith in your heart that God is willing to heal you is for you to hear that part of God’s word which promises you healing. Faith for spiritual healing comes by hearing the gospel: He bore our sins. Faith for physical healing comes by hearing the gospel: He bore our sicknesses.”² Therefore, if you have need of physical healing, you need to renew your mind to the truths of God’s Word concerning healing.

We saw in the article, “How to Receive Healing,” that we must “do” the Word, and when we “do” the Word, our spirit man dominates us. “Those who are living in the flesh are living in unbelief, and always are engaged in warfare. Life is a battle for them. Their minds never have been renewed with the Word of God, and they don’t know that Jesus already has won the battle. They don’t know the devil is a defeated foe. They still are trying to fight him in their own power, and some have fought until they are totally exhausted and depleted. But when the mind has been renewed with the Word of God, the spirit through the renewed mind can control the body. The soul (mind) will then take sides with the spirit, because it knows the Word. It is renewed with the Word. It will allow the spirit to dominate. Then God’s Spirit will dominate through man’s spirit.”³ And if the Spirit of God dominates our human spirit, then we will be successful in life!

¹ Dr. Kenneth E. Hagin, Man On Three Dimensions, Kenneth Hagin Ministries, pages 12 and 13.
² Dr. T.L. Osborn, One Hundred Divine Healing Facts, Harrison House Publishers, pages 20 and 21.
³ Dr. Kenneth E. Hagin, The Human Spirit, Kenneth Hagin Ministries, page 7.

“And having called together the twelve, he gave them power and authority over all demons, and to heal diseases, and sent them to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” (Luke 9:1, 2, KJV, emphasis added.)

In the article, “Jesus, the Healer” we saw that Jesus still heals today, as He did in His earthly ministry. This, then, brings us to the question, “How do I receive healing for my body?” Well, let me first state that no matter how you receive healing; no matter what manner, or pathway, that you take, healing is good!

The Bible says in Acts 10:38, “How 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.” Note several truths here… Jesus did good, and healed. Therefore, healing is good! And notice that the devil is credited with oppressing with sickness, and Jesus is credited with healing. The devil is bad, Jesus is good. That seems like a real simple truth, doesn’t it? But, it seems that many “theologians” haven’t understood this basic principle! Jesus is the healer, healing is good, Jesus does good, and heals! Satan is evil, sickness is bad, satan does evil and makes people sick. Simple direct truth, yet heavy revelation for many! In James Chapter One, it seems that James, Jesus’ half-brother, and pastor of the church in Jerusalem, was concerned that many would fall into error. He states, “Do not err, my beloved brethren: every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” (James 1:17) Simply put, good things come from God, and He does NOT change His mind. He does good, and will always do good. He heals, and will always heal!

In his book, “One Hundred Divine Healing Facts,” Dr. T.L. Osborn says, “We are told: ‘The Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.’ Sickness is part of Satan’s works. Christ, in His earthly ministry, always treated sin, diseases and devils the same. They were all hateful in His sight. He rebuked them all. He was manifested to destroy them all.”¹ Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, as it says in 1 John 3:8. And He did! When He bore our sin on the cross, He bore our sicknesses as well! “Surely Surely he hath borne our griefs (Hebrew: “sicknesses”), and carried our sorrows (Hebrew: “diseases”): yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” (Isaiah 53:4) And, lest you take issue with the translation of “grief” and “sorrow” from the original Hebrew, let’s read the Bible’s own commentary on that verse… “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.” (Matthew 8:17) Now, ask yourself this question: “If Jesus bore my sickness and disease, why should I have to?” And further, “If God placed my sicknesses and diseases on Jesus (as we have seen He did,) then for me to bear them as well, would be a miscarriage of justice!” God is a just God! He does not require you to bear what he had Jesus bear for you! Healing is for you!

How then, do you partake of this healing? You study to show yourself approved, a workman that needs not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth! (2 Timothy 2:15) Be as those in Berea, of whom it was said, “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11, emphasis mine.) You must study the Word of God with regard to healing, and then act upon what you learn! As James says in Chapter One, Verse Twenty-two, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” To hear the Word, and not do the Word, leads to self-deception!

It is imperative, then, to “do” the Word of God with regard to healing. The simplest way to “do” the Word, is to speak it; applying it to your life. When you find a scripture that says, “By His stripes we were healed,” as in 1 Peter 2:24, you would then say with your mouth, “Father God, I thank You that Jesus bore my sickness, and by His stripes I was healed, therefore, I am healed!” If “we were,” then “I am!” Remember, as I mentioned in the article “Jesus, the Healer,” we are not denying sicknesses exist… rather we deny their right to exist in our bodies! We confess what we desire to be manifest, not what simply exists in this present moment. For instance, it is a completely different thing for me to say, when symptoms exist in my body, “I am not sick,” than to say, “I am the healed of the Lord!” In the first case, it can be argued that I am denying the state of sickness erroneously, while in the latter case, I am simply affirming a higher truth, the truth of God’s own powerful Word, which He has exalted even above His own Name! (Psalms 138:2) We must confess that we are the healed of the Lord, in the face of contradictory physical evidence; confident that God watches over His Word to perform it! (Jeremiah 1:12) He will supernaturally manifest His healing power when we speak the truth of His Word, and hold to our covenant. This is what the “woman with the issue of blood” did in the Bible. She knew that she had a covenant of healing with her God. She SAID, “If I may but touch His garment, I shall be whole.” First she said it, then she acted on on it! And, what happened?” Virtue (Greek: “Dynamic Power”) flowed out of Jesus and into her to effect a healing and a cure in her body! (Mark 5:30) And what did Jesus say of her? “Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole.” (Matthew 9:20-22)

Applying your faith in God’s Word is as simple as confessing God’s Word with your mouth! That is how you receive the promises of God’s Word… confess and act on them! In other articles, we will expand of these truths in greater detail.

¹ Dr. T.L. Osborn, One Hundred Divine Healing Facts, Harrison House Publishers, pages 11 and 12.

“And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.” (Matthew 4:23, KJV, emphasis added.)

The words I have highlighted in the verse above summarize Jesus’ earthly ministry: teaching, preaching and healing. Most people are quite aware that Jesus ministered supernaturally while He was fulfilling His earthly ministry. Some call it “the time of miracles,” as though it were a one-time happenstance which has passed away.

No, Jesus healed during His earthly ministry, but He also heals today! In fact, we have record in the Old Testament that God has always been a God of healing. One of God’s seven redemptive names is “Jehovah-Rapha,” God, the Healer. He introduced His covenant personality of healing back then by saying, “I AM the God that healeth thee…” (Exodus 15:26) “So,” you may say, “God healed in the Old Testament, and His Son, Jesus, healed in the New Testament… what has that to do with me, today?” Ah, my friend, it has EVERYTHING to do with you TODAY! For in Hebrews Chapter 13, verse 8, it says, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever!” He has not changed His Nature, He is still the God that heals!

F.F. Bosworth wrote one of the truly classic works on the healing ministry of Jesus, called “Christ the Healer” back in 1924. In this excellent book he says, “We have seen, in the great Redemption Chapter, the 53rd of Isaiah, that it is our sicknesses, as well as our sins that Jesus bore, making one privilege as universal as the other. What Jesus did for individuals who came to Him for blessings was for them, but what He did on Calvary was for all. It is clear that in all of these instances cited from the Old Testament it was God’s will to heal all who met the conditions. Wherever forgiveness was offered, healing was also offered. Let those who teach the people that God’s will in the matter of healing is not the same today answer the question, ‘Why would God withdraw this Old Testament mercy from this better dispensation?’ Is it not to be expected that He, Who ‘hath reserved better things for us’ and Who is ‘the same yesterday, today, and forever’ should continue these same mercies throughout this better dispensation?”¹ Dr. Bosworth is referring to the scripture in Hebrews 8:6, “But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.” If the New Covenant is a “better covenant, established on better promises,” why would healing of the body no longer be a part of it? The fact is, healing IS still part of our covenant. One simply has to, as Dr. Bosworth says, “meet the conditions.”

“What is the condition one needs to meet?,” you may ask. Simple. God is a God of faith. When He created the worlds, He did so Himself using His faith. We are told, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” (Hebrews 11:1-3) When God spoke in Genesis and said (as the Hebrew literally reads), “Light be… and light was,” He was calling things that were not in existence yet, as though they already existed. This is the underlying principle of how faith works. It is the way God used His faith to create the universe, and it is the way that Abraham used his faith to receive the fulfillment of the promise of God in his life. We are told, “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed: not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.” (Romans 4:16, 17) Abraham did as God did, he “called those things that be not (yet), as though they were.” In other words, he spoke what he wanted to exist as true in the natural realm, as though it already existed. Keep in mind that speaking these words of faith is not “denying the existence” of disease! There are cults and false religions that teach that sickness does not REALLY exist, and that matter is not real. They teach that we can simply shape “reality” in any way we see fit by merely thinking something is so, or not so, and it will “conform” to that thought, since matter does not exist. We are not referring to that false teaching. What we are speaking of here is the fact that FAITH is a force that can CHANGE the matter and reality of this world. God used His faith to create the worlds, is it then so strange that we can use His Word, and the application of faith in His Word to change it? That is, in fact, what Abraham did. He took the promise made to him… God’s Word… and he spoke of it as though it were already manifested in his life… and it came to pass! He did not deny reality, he superseded it with a higher law! When a plane flies though the air, it does not “defy” gravity… it supersedes the law of gravity with a “higher law,” the law of lift! This chapter in Romans goes on to say that these things were not written for his (Abraham’s) sake alone, but for us also! Abraham is the father of our faith, but we are children of faith! We, too, can find the promise of healing in the scriptures, and confess with our mouth that we are the healed of the Lord, that healing is our covenant right, and see healing manifested in our lives!

I have seen many notable supernatural healings in my life, and in the lives of friends and family members, and I am sure many of you know of those that have been supernaturally healed as well! No, my friend, healing has not “passed away,” no more than the God of healing, Jehovah-Rapha, has passed away! Jesus was, is, and ever will be, the Great Physician! I trust that you will study the scriptures diligently and see that healing is for today, and that speaking of things that God has promised us, as though they are manifest already in our lives, is the methodology we need to employ to see His power applied to correct physical issues in our lives, just as we can confess Him as Lord, and receive salvation spiritually! (Romans 10:9, 10)

¹ F.F. Bosworth, Christ the Healer, Fleming H. Revell Publishing Company, pages 45 and 46.