One sure way to frustrate yourself and tie yourself up in knots is to attempt to pray the prayer of faith when you are not really in faith. It is not enough to know that some preacher believes in healing. You have to believe it before it will work for you.

This is one cause of the whiny "I tried it and it didn't work" testimonies that some people have. There is no such thing as "trying" to be in faith, anyway. You either are in faith or you aren't. If you're "trying" to be in faith, you are not in faith. Did you ever notice that Jesus did not teach that faith was a struggle? We who believe have entered into rest. If you're struggling, you haven't entered into rest, and therefore, you don't believe. I'm not saying that to be ornery; I'm trying to help you.


You will not get more faith by praying more. You will just get more frustrated. You get faith by reading and hearing God's Word, not by praying. As one preacher said, prayer does not make faith work; faith makes prayer work. If you are not ready to believe that you receive, it is not time to pray! It is time to read and hear the Word as much as you can. That is the only way that you will build your faith. Even hearing testimonies of how others received their healings won't build your faith; although it will give you hope.

I am convinced that we do ourselves a disservice when we major on miraculous, instantaneous healings that are frankly a result of special manifestations of the Spirit in operation. Sure, we want everyone to know what drastic conditions got healed when we ministered because that makes us look good. But there is something far more important than looking good as a preacher. The main objective of any healing preacher is (or should be) how to teach people to receive their healing for themselves. Some unbeliever or backslider might get a great healing through the gifts of healings in a service, and that's exciting. However, that won't necessarily help you receive your healing. You can't do what the other person did, because sometimes the other person didn't do a thing. God just had mercy on him.


To some extent, it depends on our purpose. If the purpose of the meetings is to get unbelievers saved, it is right to trumpet God's goodness through testimonies of amazing miracles done by the Spirit. God can and does use this method to get sinners to come and be saved. However, if the purpose is to see believers get healed, this should not be the primary emphasis. It is my personal opinion that we should share more testimonies of people who believed they received, saw absolutely no results for a while or even had things get worse, and then had what they had received manifest in the natural. This might not please the crowds as much, but it would give the serious Christians in attendance a lot more help by showing them examples to follow in receiving their own healing. I would rather see more people get healed than try to convince you that I am really hot stuff.


Jesus was rather direct about it. He said to believe that you receive when you pray and whatever it is that you ask shall be yours. If you are not prepared to believe that you receive when you pray, you are not ready to pray! That's not a sin; we've all been there. This isn't a put-down. You will ultimately do much better if you wait until you are in faith before you pray. There is no point in praying until you are there. Or if you pray, pray that God will make the Scriptures about healing come alive to you as you read them. Even if your situation seems desperate, it will not help you one bit to try to receive something that you are not really convinced you are receiving when you pray. It will hurt you rather than help you. It will make it harder for you to pray the prayer of faith later.

You can't be "half in faith" and "half receive" something. If you are not in faith, you won't receive anything. James warned about how the double-minded man receives nothing from the Lord (James 1:5-8). The double-minded man is part in faith, part in doubt, but he receives nothing, not some pro-rata portion equal to the ratio of his faith to his faith plus his unbelief.


Build your faith in the Word before you pray. This is why having multi-day healing meetings is effective. Some people are just not ready to receive on the first day of the crusade, and it might hurt them more than help them to lay hands on them right away. But if they take the time to hear the Word, they will have a basis for faith. Then when they come up for prayer, they are prepared to believe that they receive healing when they pray.