Being sure of something you can't see

Hebrews 11:1

Faith is being certain of something you don't see. It is evidence in your heart that you have something when there is no natural evidence that you have it.

Faith always refers to the present; never to the future. Faith is the certainty that you have something now. It is not the certainty that you will get something in the future. Thinking that you will get something in the future is called hope. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. Thus, faith goes beyond hope. There is uncertainty associated with hope. Faith removes the uncertainty and brings what was a future hope into the present.

You have faith if you are a believer. You believe that you have something you cannot see -- salvation from eternal judgment and from the wrath of God on sinners. You cannot find a legal document on earth that guarantees you such a thing (other than the Bible, of course). You cannot prove to anyone that you are saved without using Scripture. You may be a nice person, but many nice sinners are going to hell without Jesus. You may even do signs and wonders, but according to Jesus' words in Matthew 7:21-23, you could still be unsaved. There is no proof other than what God said.


You are not hoping to be saved; you are saved now. You are not hoping to get eternal life; you have eternal life now. You have the assurance of it. You have evidence in your heart of something you cannot see.

Faith for healing is no different. You are convinced that you have something you can't see right now. You accept God's word that you were healed by Jesus' stripes before you see any physical evidence of it.

Just as you must believe and confess unto salvation before your life changes and your sinful habits stop, you must believe and confess unto healing before your body changes and your physical problems stop.

Thomas had a problem with faith, as do many people today. He would not believe in Jesus' resurrection until he felt his wounds in person. He would not believe anything until he saw it physically first. That is not faith! It can't be, because Jesus told Thomas that he was faithless (John 20:27). If you say, "I won't believe I am healed until I see something change in my body," you are faithless, not in faith.


Jesus commanded Thomas to be believing instead of faithless (John 20:27). Faith therefore must involve your will; you can choose to believe or choose not to believe. God could not command you to do something if you could not make a conscious choice to do it.


Faith is based on the Bible

Thank God, we are not just commanded to "have faith!" Real faith always has a basis in the Bible. You can point to Scripture that says that you have something you cannot see.

If you cannot quote one or more Bible verses to substantiate what you are believing for, you are not in real faith. You may be in strong hope, but you are not in faith. When the devil tempts you to stop believing, your only effective weapon is the Word of God. Ephesians 6:10-18 makes this clear. If you can't fight with the Word, you have nothing to fight with.


It is always good to have specific promises in mind, not just general ones about nothing being impossible with God, having whatsoever you say, and so on.

If you say that you believe you receive your healing, and suddenly your body gets worse, what are you going to do? If you have no assurance from Scripture that you had the right to pray and receive something you can't see, you will cave in and say, "Well, I guess it didn't work after all."


God is able vs. God is willing vs. God will vs. God did

There is a ladder you can climb on the way to real faith. First, you must believe that God is able to do what you need done. Like Abraham, you must be fully persuaded that what God has promised, he is able also to perform (Romans 4:21). If you don't believe that God is able to heal your disease, you can't receive healing from him. Of course, you would be a fool to think that God can't heal your disease. When Jesus returns, every Christian on the earth will be instantly healed of every physical problem at once. Since God is able to do that then, it is no big deal for him to fix one of your physical problems now! God is almighty.


The next thing you must realize is that God is willing to do for you what he is able to do. The leper who came to Jesus and worshipped knew that Jesus could heal him, but he did not know if he would be willing. To this only person who ever asked, Jesus said, "I will." Jesus let the leper know that he was willing to do it as well as able to do it. God does not play favorites. His answer to the leper is his answer to you. He is willing to heal you as well as able to heal you.

But knowing that God is able and willing to heal you still does not get you healed. You can know that he is able and willing and stay sick. Now you must go on to the next step and believe that if you were to ask God for your healing, he would definitely give it to you. No maybes about it. Contrary to the popular delusion, God does not sometimes say, "Yes," sometimes say, "No," and sometimes say, "Wait." God always answers faith with "Yes!" You must believe that God would really do that for you. Because he is not only able but also willing, you have the right to receive something from him. You must be convinced that there is no possibility that God will turn down your prayer.


Here is where sin can enter the picture. If you are in known sin and you refuse to repent, your conscience will convict you. You will not feel able to receive from God because of this area in your life where you have not judged yourself. Hence, you will not have any assurance that you will receive anything from God when you pray. You will have to deal with the sin before you get that assurance.

Finally, once you are convinced that God is able to answer your prayer, willing to answer your prayer, and that he will answer your prayer, the only step left is to pray and receive from him! This takes your healing from the "God will" realm into the "God did" realm. Only now are you exercising what the Bible calls faith because you have an assurance that you have something you cannot see right now. You did not have this assurance before you prayed, but now you do. You have received something by faith.



How do you know if you're in faith?

If you have to ask, you aren't. If you are in faith, you know it. You have an assurance, not a 90% probability, that you have received something from God. If you aren't sure if you received anything, it is probably safe to say you didn't. (It is possible to pray in faith and then get into doubt, waver, and lose what you prayed for. Peter's water-walking experience is an example.) By definition, if you are not assured of something, you are not in faith. See How to tell if you're in faith or not for a more thorough discussion.

You do not look at your body to determine if you are in faith. Think about it for a minute and you will see how silly that is. Would you look at your body or look to your feelings to determine if you are saved today? Of course not! Does a sickness in your body persuade you to believe that you are going to hell after all? No! Why not? Because your faith is not based on your body or your feelings; it is based on the Bible. Salvation is not a feeling. It is a fact. Whether or not you feel saved when you roll out of bed in the morning, you still are. You know that because of what the Bible says. If you would not trust your body for information about your faith in this area, why trust it for information about your faith in any other area, including healing?


I understand that because your healing involves your body, it is tempting to let your body tell you what is going on. Remember, faith is the evidence that you have something you cannot see (or otherwise perceive with your body). If your body felt healed instantly, you would not need faith; you would simply know that your body was healed. No faith would be involved at that point.

Faith is like a deed. If you don't own a house, perhaps you have played Monopoly. The only proof that someone has to pay you $50 to take a walk on the Boardwalk (assuming you haven't got Park Place, and you haven't mortgaged Boardwalk) is your Boardwalk deed sitting in front of you. Your ownership of Boardwalk is intangible. The Boardwalk deed is proof of something intangible. If you own a house in real life, you have a real deed that proves the otherwise invisible fact that it is yours. (If you have a mortgage on it, you probably look forward to paying it off so that you can turn your deed rightside up.) You don't wonder if you own Boardwalk or your house. You know you do because you have the proof. When you possess something by faith, you don't wonder whether you own it, either. You have the proof.


The proof is not natural. Never look to your body for proof that you have received healing by faith. Faith is the proof.


Faith is not enough!

You cannot inherit God's promises through faith alone. Hebrews 6:12 says that you inherit God's promises through faith and patience. Why do you need patience? Because once you believe God for something, patience will keep you on track until it manifests. It is possible to pray in faith, believe you receive something, and then let go of it through impatience. "Well, I guess I never got anything after all -- I haven't seen anything yet!" At that point, you are expressing faith -- faith that you don't have anything. According to your (lack of) faith it will be (not) done unto you.


Examples of faith


God told Noah that a flood was coming when there was no physical evidence of it. Noah believed God and acted on what God had said, thus saving his life and mankind in the process.

God told Abraham that he had made him the father of many nations (Genesis 17:5) before Sarah had conceived Isaac. Abraham believed this even though he had no physical evidence to support this fact. He continually called himself Abraham, meaning "Father of a multitude," although nothing seemed to have changed. Abraham "called those things that be not as though they were" and said he was the father of a multitude. He received exactly what he said. He spoke God's promise and God made good on it. He believed that he had something before there was any sensory evidence of it.

God told Joshua, "See, I have given into thine hand Jericho," when Jericho was just as fortified as ever and there was no physical evidence that the Israelites could possibly take that fortress city. Joshua believed God and spoke what God had said. He told his army, "Shout, for the Lord hath given you the city," when there was still no physical evidence of this. He spoke God's promise and God made good on it. He believed that he had something before there was any sensory evidence of it.


David took on Goliath, telling him ahead of time exactly what he would do to his head and carcass. He then proceeded to do it. David spoke ahead of time before there was a physical manifestation, but it was as good as done already as far as he was concerned.

Jesus cursed the fig tree, but there was no immediate evidence that the tree would die. It started to shrivel up from the inside out, where no one could see it until the next day. Jesus spoke faith-filled words and changed the natural circumstances. He believed that it was done and did not pray again, despite appearances.

Jesus told his disciples, "Let us go over unto the other side of the lake." A storm came up that looked like it would kill them all, but Jesus was asleep. When they woke him up, he spoke to the storm while it was still raging just as badly as before. After Jesus spoke faith-filled words, the storm stopped. You cannot say, "Oh, but that was Jesus," because he rebuked the disciples for their lack of faith!


You can see some examples of those who received healing by faith in the discussion, According to YOUR FAITH be it done unto you.

No matter what faith is for, it works the same way. You believe that you have something before you can see any physical evidence. You speak what you believe, and it comes to pass. To apply this to your healing, you must believe that you receive the healing that God says is yours before you see any physical evidence. You speak what you believe, and it comes to pass.

See also:

What faith isn't