after faith prayer-(2)
We must be ready to DEFEND our Position of Faith and the Beliefs that undergird it, so that the doubts will not succeed in causing us to abandon this Position. When doubts arise which question if we have received (perhaps from symptoms of sickness or pain), they must be responded to immediately and dealt with decisively, or else we will start entertaining thoughts that will eventually cause us to drift away from believing we have received when we prayed, even to the point of denouncing that belief, causing God’s Power in us to be shut down.
We attained our Position of Faith upon the basis of the four Beliefs we have studied in this Book. Knowing and maintaining these four Beliefs about God (His Will, Nature, Gift and Method) will enable us to CONTINUE to believe we have received, so that God’s Power will CONTINUE to work Healing in us, until we are fully satisfied with the fruit produced. On the other hand, the doubts that come to move us off our Position of Faith, will attack one or more of these 4 Beliefs.
Thoughts will come like: “Maybe it’s not God’s will to heal you now. You can’t presume God gave you anything when you prayed. You don’t feel any different, so you can not have received Healing. Nothing happened when hands were laid on you.”
Therefore, in order to DEFEND our Position of Faith from attack, we must be ready to defend these essential Beliefs that undergird it.
Firstly, this requires us KNOWING these Beliefs well, and knowing the scriptures that these Beliefs are based upon, so that we will not only be strong enough in faith to believe we receive our Healing, but also able to maintain our Position of faith when attacked by doubts.
Secondly, in order to successfully defend these Beliefs, we must DECLARE out loud what we believe (rather than just thinking it). CONFESSING our Beliefs helps us to defend them effectively and thus to maintain our Position of Faith. When doubts arise to question whether the Laying on of Hands was beneficial, we should confess:
“God’s will is my Healing, and He is a Liberal Giver of Healing Power, so when hands were laid on me in Jesus Name, God gave me Healing-Power, and I believed I received it right then, so now His Healing Power is continually working mightily in my body driving out all sickness and making me whole. Thank you Lord.”
We must not abandon our Belief that Healing Power was given and administered to our bodies the instant that hands were laid upon us.
We should also use the scriptures that support these Beliefs, for we overcome by our WORDS agreeing with God’s WORD (Rev 12:11). This is how Jesus consistently dealt with thoughts sent by satan to attack and undermine His Position of Faith (Luke 4:1-13). He SAID in response to every thought of satan: “It is written!” (Matt 4:4,7,10).This is His definitive example to us of how to stand and overcome in spiritual warfare. We must follow His example and SPEAK OUT what we believe (along with the scriptures that support those Beliefs), when faced with thoughts that question if we received when we prayed. We must resist natural doubts and the devil’s lies by declaring out loud God’s Word concerning Healing (James 4:7).
When we speak the Word against the doubts, they will dissipate and disappear, and we will find it easy to remain loyal to our Beliefs. Thus we must defend our Position of Faith, by speaking God’s Word, declaring out loud what we know about our Father, using the scriptures that support these Beliefs and that formed them within us. Thus, we must not only know and affirm the Beliefs themselves, but also meditate, know and affirm the scriptures that undergird them. Our response to any doubts should be immediate (so that they have no time to play upon our mind and enter our heart) and full of these scriptures (for it is the Word that has power). These scriptures are to become a sword in our mouth which we use to defend our Position: “take (and use) the Sword of the Spirit, which is the (spoken) word of God” (Ephesians 6:17). This will cause all the doubts to retreat.
Conclusion. From the moment we believe we receive, our confession must be the result of what we believe. We must now identify more with our Healing, than with the sickness. We are now to walk by faith (what we believe), not by sight (what we physically see or feel).
After we have received Healing Power by faith, we must patiently STAND by faith, maintaining our position in this realm of faith, by continuing to believe that we have received God’s Healing Power, until we are satisfied with the fruit (the manifestation of Healing) produced by it. We help to keep the Switch of Faith turned on (continue to believe we have received), by giving voice to our faith. We GIVE THANKS to God for His Healing Power, CONFESSING our faith that we have received it and that it is now working mightily in us, for this will keep the Healing Power active and working in us!