When a minister came to our church in Spring of 2007 and asked the question: Does it take special faith to get healed? He instantly explained that if you have enough faith to be saved then you have enough faith to be healed. I had to chew on that. I knew that I was saved through grace but what did faith have to do with it? I just asked Jesus to be my Savior. So I had to find out what the word salvation really means.
From the Strong Concordance the meaning of the word SOZO from the Greek:
Saved--sozo
to save, keep safe and sound, to rescue from danger or destruction one (from injury or peril)
to save a suffering one (from perishing), i.e. one suffering from disease, to make well, heal, restore to health
1) to preserve one who is in danger of destruction, to save or rescue
b) to save in the technical biblical sense
1) negatively
a) to deliver from the penalties of the Messianic judgment
b) to save from the evils which obstruct the reception of the Messianic deliverance
Romans 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (sozo).
So asking Jesus to save me means more now. Notice the definition includes healing. Therefore my understanding of what it means to be saved changed. In my mind it used to mean saved from eternal damnation and saved to go to heaven. My understanding of what salvation includes had to expand before I could receive healing.
I marveled for years when I read in the gospels how Jesus acknowledged certain individuals for their faith and Jesus told them that their faith made them well. I hungered and longed to have that type of faith. I wanted to be like the woman with the issue of blood and just know that if I reached out and touched Jesus that I would be made whole. I reached and reached and never seemed to achieve that level of faith.
But do we need special faith? I don't think so now. Faith is faith.
Hebrews 12:1 says that NOW faith is the substance of things hoped for (I was sure hoping )and the evidence of things not yet seen. To me that seemed like "special" faith. But it's the same for salvation. I believed in a moment in time that Jesus paid the price for my sin (I didn't know back then that he paid for my healing ) I had hope that I was saved. I knew in my heart that when I died that I would be saved from hell. I knew also that the Holy Spirit came to dwell on the inside of me although at age eleven I had no idea what that meant. But I had faith with a 100% certainty that I was saved.
So now I'm convinced that this measure of faith is what allows us to receive our healing. I just know or believe that Jesus took all the wrath of all my sin --past, present and future sin-- and he became the curse so I would not have to endure or put up with any of the curse. It seems pretty simple now that I don't have to have a special faith. Faith is faith. I believe that Jesus paid it all so I could have all the benefits of heaven. If He paid it all, I don't have to pay anything. I just believe.
Now if sickness does try to attack, I just tell sickness that Jesus paid the price for that. It's simple. I don't work it up. I don't pray harder or fast or do anything to achieve a special feeling of faith for healing.
About a year ago I awoke and walked out to the kitchen to start my morning routine. And from down deep inside of me I heard this from my spirit. "I just don't expect to get sick..." That was an odd thought from first thing in the morning. But I agreed with myself and said aloud.. "Yeah, I really don't expect to get sick." Wow! It really is that simple. Just like I don't expect to sin (since I know that Jesus took care of that on Calvary) I don't expect to get sick.
Now I did get sick once since then. I burned the inside of my mouth and throat with really hot food. Because of this burn, I must have allowed bacteria into my body via this open wound. I was in a great deal of pain in my lymph nodes and on top of that my mouth and throat were raging with pain. Rather than just telling my body to line up with God's Word, I reached for the telephone and called the doctor. I didn't feel even a little bit guilty since I knew that I would be healed either by God instantly or by antibiotics. I was in serious pain from the burn and the swollen glands.
So four days go by and the antibiotics are NOT helping. I'm up almost around the clock in serious pain from the burn and the glands alternating ibuprofen and Tylenol. I hear in my head that I probably caused myself some nerve damage and that is why the pain is so severe. I'm starting to doubt faith for healing. At 2am after many days of pain from the burn and glands that I am holding and putting heat on I feel something on the inside of my spirit rise up.
"Jesus paid for this! Jesus accomplished everything I need for life and godliness." I just whispered, that I receive by faith in Jesus' Name my complete healing. Instantly I had relief from pain and for the first time in a week I could rest. I didn't need the pain meds in the morning. I was healed!
I told the Lord that it was silly that I didn't just do that from the day I got burned. But the Holy Spirit said the wisdom I gained and the understanding that it is not "special" faith that healed me just plain ol' faith in what Jesus did that healed me.
