Hosanna Restoration Church

What is faith to be healed? What does it look like? What was it about the man that was so obvious that Paul was inspired to command the man to stand up? What was it that caused the man to respond and start walking? I keep reading this scripture with the same questions. I want it to be too complicated to understand and yet I am certain that it is just as simple as all things are if we will only believe.

I believe that faith to be healed stems from desire so deep that it over-rides all doubt and fear. Just like everything else where faith is involved we must overcome everything that rises up against the fulfillment of it. Faith for salvation requires that we cast down fears of what people might think or say as well as the lies of the devil telling us that God would not want us or that it is not necessary to be that close to Jesus. There are of course thousands of other lies intended to keep us from salvation. If you have experienced it you have your own list of tricks the enemy used on you.

Faith to be healed is the same thing only in another category. The depth of our faith is very much related to how desperate we are to receive. Sometimes we really are not all that desperate. We may feel bad enough to ask for healing, but not so desperate that we will feel we can’t live without it. We may have a financial need that we want prayed for, but we may not be desperate enough to press in and sow a seed for that need. Often times when we ask for prayer for things, we have already resigned ourselves to loving God whether we get an answer or not. This is nice, but of course means that we really do not expect an answer. Remember, it was this man’s faith and not Paul’s.

In the case of this man, Paul probably noticed him when he entered the meeting. Paul may have even suggested to God that it would be really good for the meeting if God healed this guy. Hey, we all want to see miracles, but we do not all have the faith to go for them. Paul must have watched this man for some time and as he preached about the Kingdom of God He saw the man lean in, and from something Paul saw he concluded that this man was ready to receive. Notice, that Paul did not stop the meeting and announce that he felt a miracle coming on. He did not even do a standard prayer. He simply looked at the man and shouted “Stand up!” The man jumped up before he could even consider what he was doing. His desire was greater than his fear. His desire was greater than natural thinking could counteract. His desire was stronger than all that he had known or previously experienced.

This is the victory that overcomes the world and natural thinking, even our faith! We all have places where we are more needy than we realize, but we just lean back instead of pressing in. God is watching to see when we have faith to be made whole.