What comes to mind with this objection is a person hoarsely croaking to his colleagues at work between coughs and wheezes, "I am healed. Kachhh. I am not sick anymore. Achooo. I do not have a cold." Because people are trained (at decent churches anyway) to speak God's Word, the objection is that such people are being trained to lie and look ridiculous in front of the world. The world surely does not understand the spiritual principle of speaking truth that is not yet outwardly apparent. Yes, if you are not careful, you will look silly and the world will laugh at you.

First, it is never a lie to speak God's Word. God does declare that you were healed (past tense), so if you were healed, you are healed by Jesus' stripes. You are simply agreeing with God. That is completely proper. Jesus gave Peter his name when he was still flaky; he was hardly a rock at the time. God called Gideon a mighty man of valor when he was still hiding in fear. This should be no surprise, since Romans 4:17 says that God calls those things which be not as though they were. If God can call those things which be not as though they were, so can his children, who are being changed into his image.


You can be between the point that you believe that you have received your healing and the point that it has manifested itself in your body. In other words, you are in the condition the fig tree was in between the time that Jesus cursed it and it began to wither away from the roots and the time that the disciples could see outwardly that the tree was dead.

However, it actually is lying to say, "I am fine. Nothing is wrong with me. I am not coughing or acchhh-chhh-chhh stuffed up." In other words, it is not a lie to say that you are healed by the stripes of Jesus or that you have received your healing from the Lord. It is a lie to say that you don't have symptoms left in your body when in fact you do.

Given that you are healed by the stripes of Jesus, but unbelievers don't understand how faith works, what DO you say? How can you avoid looking silly or lying without denying with your mouth that God's healing power is already at work in your body?


You are not denying the reality of the symptoms. What you are denying is their right to continue in your body. There is no point in trying to make distinctions between having an illness and having the symptoms of an illness. As far as your body is concerned, you have the illness. However, you recognize that the illness is subject to the Word of God and the name of Jesus and must leave.

It is always true that you are legally healed by Jesus' sacrifice. To say this is to agree with God. You can receive your healing by faith, and you would not be lying to say that you have received your healing.

I generally wouldn't get involved in deep theological conversations with unbelievers over this. You have no obligation to tell all your co-workers that you are healed by the stripes of Jesus while you are still coughing. Wait until the healing manifests, and then you can tell them how you got it. Saying, "I am healed" may be true theologically, but unless you are prepared to share your theology with others, you would indeed look like you are just denying your sickness if all you say is, "I am healed." You could say instead, "I am standing on God's Word for my healing." Then again, you have no real obligation to say anything.


One more thing: Don't just say something because it is the "faith" thing to say. If you aren't in faith and you go around telling people you've received your healing by faith, and then you stay sick, you will only sour the people on faith.