Lesson 14
Testimonies of Healing with the Faith of God Is it Wrong to Go to Doctors?
AMBASSADOR CHRISTIAN COLLEGE‐ Dr. Keith Slough
INTRODUCTION IS IT WRONG TO GO TO DOCTORS?
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S IT A SIN TO GO TO A DOCTOR? Is this a demonstration of a lack of faith in God? Are you guilty of having another god before the Lord if you go to physicians to help you get well? These are questions that Christians have been divided over for many years. We hear of numerous cases where sincere but neglectful parents allow their own children to die before they will take them to the hospital, in order to obey the dictates of their church. But what does the Bible say? Jesus said the sick need a physician! (Luke 5:31). If you have grown in your faith you simply can get your healing from the "Great Physician" every time then that is wonderful. But if you are still somewhat a "babe in Christ" and are still growing in your faith, it is not a sin to get any help you need! If you desire to seek out a physician, and need so require, by all means take advantage of every help that is available to you. Some would argue that this demonstrates a lack of spiritual maturity or faith. But when you first begin learning about faith and the power of God you will not be a mature spiritual adult over night! This is where certain sects have gone awry! We cannot expect those who are first learning to have the same spiritual maturity as someone who has studied and practiced faith for many years! No! It is NOT a sin to go to a doctor. But it could certainly be a sin not to go and allow a beloved family member to die. That is rank stupidity. We have all heard of children dying needlessly because of this lack of understanding by well meaning parents who refused to help their child. I knew of a well known church leader who had started a worldwide church organization headquartered in California. His wife of nearly 50 years was sick of an intestinal blockage. Simple surgery would have saved her life. But instead he asked the whole church to fast and pray ‐which was good ‐but at the same time he neglected doing for her what he could do himself. Remember, God helps those who help themselves! This poor Christian wife was allowed to die after much suffering because her minister/husband refused to take her to the hospital where she could have received the needed treatment that would have saved her life. Yes, if they had had the proper understanding of faith perhaps God would have healed her immediately. But obviously they did not have a correct understanding of the Faith of God and were not spiritually mature enough to receive. In this case they should have humbly repented and taken her to the hospital. We should avail ourselves of every help we need until we grow into the faith of God to such maturity that we no longer need other help. Until then, God expects us to use wisdom in all the affairs of life and trust Him to guide us into maturity.
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Testimonies of Healings and Miracles Using the Faith of God Does God still heal today? Are most churches right who say that the day of miracles "passed away with the apostles"? Is the Bible for today and is God's POWER available to true Believers today as it was in the New Testament? Read here of true life accounts of miraculous answers to prayer using the Faith of God.
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ou have read Jesus’ words about having the faith of God. You have seen the amazing scriptures dealing with miraculous answers to prayer. But does God still heal today? Are there Christians today who have experienced miraculous healings and other answers to prayer using the “Faith of God”? Yes! Read here true life examples of putting the faith of God to work. And remember, you can have the same results in your life! Applying Mark 11:23 I want to start this series of testimonies by sharing a testimony that shows how you can apply Mark 11:23 to things other than healing. It will work in to supply other needs as well. My boss required me to work late one Wednesday night and I wanted to attend Bible Study in Charlotte. I always rode with a certain member of the church as I had no car (I was about 18 or 19 at the time). My parents did not attend and were not in favor of my attending this particular church such a great distance away. But I remember thinking as I left work that night that somehow I would find a way to get to church! I prayed about it and just believed that somehow I would get to go. There was no person I could think of who could possibly give me a ride as all the members in the Kannapolis area had already left. But I kept my faith up. I "knew" I was going. I had prayed. I had believed God would answer. I simply did not allow my mind to "worry" about how God would answer the prayer. I just rested in faith. There was no anxiety but a quiet, assured resting in faith. As soon as I walked in the door, my father looked up at the clock and said, "You had better get dressed in a hurry if you want to go to Bible Study tonight. Hurry and I will take you!" I had not even thought to ask him as it never occurred that he would have even considered the request.
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Yet God moved upon him to "stir up his spirit" (to use the Biblical expression) and it was his idea to take me. I only needed to find my usual ride to give me a lift home! Do you see? God can move other people to take care of your needs. He can stir them up to help you when you need it. How do these things work? Faith! Remember, anxiety, worry, and fretting is a manifestation of fear ‐the opposite of faith. But real faith is a quiet assurance. You just know. I knew. And God answered the prayer and provided for my need to go to church. How I Got to College Remember that Jesus said we can have what we say! (Mark 11:23). When I was 18 years of age in high school, I decided on a certain college to attend in which admission was extremely difficult due to the large number of applicants and very limited space. To be admitted to this college, I was told that I needed a better than "C" grade‐point average. I needed an "A‐" to be admitted. Plus it was a private college (like Davidson University in NC for example) and therefore very expensive to attend. I neither had the right grade average nor a college fund as my parents had never saved up a fund for me. And it was a thousand miles from home! It looked impossible. Most people would have looked at the odds and said, "You are a fool to even consider going to college there." But I had already been studying the Bible. I knew that nothing was impossible with God (Matthew 19:26) and I said "That is the college I will attend and graduate from"! And I did! A number of strange never‐before things occurred, which seemingly coincidentally worked together for my good to get me admitted. And I was admitted on probation but I was admitted. Four years later I was graduated with high honors (magna cum laude). It works! Mark 11:23 is true! The Word of God works! There are also times when God will simply have mercy on us when we have a problem that we cannot solve. In my second year of college in Texas I was a member of the "Texas Ambassador Singers" a college touring chorale. We toured different major cities of the United States and performed in concerts before many thou sands. We performed in Dallas, Chicago, Washington, D.C., St. Petersburg, Florida (before 8000 people) and even at New York's Lincoln Center. Not only were many class days spent on the road away from school, but such concerts required many, many hours of constant practice. I also had to work my way through college, having spent all my savings after my first year. The college chorale consumed a lot of time. The chorale came first, my job came second and what time I had left over was given to my college studies. A mid‐term exam was scheduled in geology ‐a subject I did not find particularly easy. I had not even had time to begin studying for the exam. I said a simple prayer. I prayed, "O
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God, you know I haven't been lazy. I just haven't had the time to spend to study due to this singing Ministry where I have the opportunity to minister to thousands of Your people around the country. So I beg you to give me a "D" on this exam. Just let me pass it!" I have never in my life been "lucky" at guessing the answers to a test but that day I tied with one other person for second highest grade in a class of about 65 people! One of the professors had to comment on the high grade I had made on the exam knowing that previous test scores had not been that good. Somehow I "knew" the answers to nearly every question. And it was a lengthy exam. Can God help us when we have a need? Yes, and He will. When your ways please God and you are walking in the faith of God in every area you can, God can also give you a little added help from time to time.
Faith for Deliverance Sometimes the devil will throw you a "curve ball" ‐ some terrible unexpected crisis over which you have no control. This happened to me soon after I had just entered the Ministry. Though I did not feel I had any culpability in the matter, nevertheless this was a major attack from Satan. The devil will always try to destroy the Work of God. I prayed and asked God for deliverance. It was a very stressful thing but I obeyed God's Word in First Peter 5:7 and cast all this care (worry) over on Him and said, "That's it! It's taken care of, I now have my deliverance." I felt my stomach all in knots from the stress, the anxiety, and the worry. I closed my eyes, reached down deep, as it were, into my knotted up stomach and pulled out all that worry and anxiety and literally threw it over on God. And then I breathed a deep sigh of relief. I knew it was solved. That night I slept soundly. I "knew" it by faith in God's Word, in His promises. Every time the devil would try to remind me of the problem I would remind myself of the answer. I had the victory. I couldn’t see the problem ‐solved but in faith I knew it was taken care of, for God was able to deliver me and I believed He would. He did. Ten days later I received a call saying the problem had worked itself out and was no longer a factor. The distressing situation passed. Did I shout for joy? No. I had had my victory 10 days earlier! That was when my deliverance came! ‐the day I received it by faith! When a financial crisis seems to hit you out of nowhere and suddenly you find yourself in an untenable situation for which you are not responsible, go to God in faith! The next time you know you have done nothing wrong in a situation and yet things will be told on you to destroy you, cast that care over on God and go to sleep! "Be careful [filled with worry] for nothing." (Philippians 4:6). Don't worry! Worry is not faith, and without faith you cannot please God! It will give you peace of mind.
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Praying in, Faith for Others When Ronald Reagan and others that fateful day were shot in an assassination attempt, I left work early and went home and prayed a prayer of faith. I refused in faith to let any of those men die. I prayed and reminded God of His promises. Jim Brady was given up for dead and was even prematurely announced on TV that he had died. Yet at this writing over 20 years later not one of those men has died! I told God He had promised to answer our prayers and He could keep them alive despite what the doctors said. And He did! I am convinced God heard my faithful prayers that day and the prayers of many millions of Americans! But I prayed in faith as if I was the only one who was! We never know if anyone else is praying in faith. So we must do it! Boldly Speak by Faith Jesus said we can have what we say if we speak in faith (Mark 11:23). In Job 22:28 we read, "Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee." A few years ago I was attending a seminar in Hershey, Pennsylvania. I had determined to get up at 6:30 the next morning and set the clock for 6:33 AM. I remember saying just before going to sleep, "I will wake up at 6:33 tomorrow morning." I closed my eyes and had a good night's sleep. The next morning a car door slammed just outside the motel room where I was staying. I remember awaking out of a deep sleep and a bit irritated. I glanced at the clock. It was exactly 6:33 AM! Somehow I had incorrectly set the alarm and it did not go off. Yet I had "said" I would awake at 6:33 AM. No one can say it was simply the power of suggestion. What caused a person totally outside of my influence to awake at a certain time, decide to go to his car and precisely the right moment to loudly slam his car door at exactly 6:33 AM? To say that it was mere coincidence is asking one to believe the incredible. No, Jesus said we can have what we say if we believe and do not doubt in our heart. Claiming Your Healing On the way to our inaugural church service on January 7, 1984 in the first congregation I started, I was struck with an acute asthmatic attack. Satan was trying to keep me from preaching that day. I began quoting I Peter 2:24 and other scriptures and I did this loudly, defying the devil. The asthma went away. I preached the sermon without the slightest difficulty! God's Word is true! I have proved it over and over.
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In July 1974 I decided to call for the Elders of the church for anointing and prayer for a diagnosed birth defect that was medically incurable. I had been put on medication which had serious side effects. While the medication did not cure the problem it did mitigate it. But by late spring of that year it appeared the dosage would have to be increased. I was getting worse. Up to that time I had never in my life called for and been anointed by the Elders, but I knew I could no longer live with this very debilitating condition. But before I followed James 5:14‐15 I went to the Word and looked up Psalm 103:2‐3 and quoted them in prayer to God. I then read First John 3:22 and 5:14‐15 and quoted these also to God reminding Him that He had promised. And then I quoted Mark 11:23‐24 to God and "said" something about it (verse 23). I said that the next day when the Elder prayed for me that I would immediately receive my healing when he ended his prayer with the word "Amen." I did not know if the manifestation would come then or later, I just knew that was the moment I would receive my healing. The next morning I went to church, was anointed after the service and though I felt nothing, I knew in my spirit that God’s Word is true and that I was healed. I have taken no medication for the problem from that very day to the present. I'm 100 percent healed! The teachings you are receiving in these Bible lessons are really true. They really are the Word of God! And they can save your life. While a student at college I was stricken with a contagious flu‐like bug which had caused half of all the students to become sick and miss classes. I was unable to lift my head for a week. As the fever became suddenly worse and the pain unendurable my roommate volunteered to find a minister. We had no telephone so he rode his bicycle to a minister's house that simply provided him with an anointed cloth. I was a bit disappointed but had done my part. I had called for the Elders in faith. I looked at my watch, asked God to heal me and confessed that I received my healing right then. I promptly went to sleep. Ninety minutes later I woke up and the fever was completely gone. So I sat up to pull the curtain back to see my watch to see what time it was. It was then that I noticed for the first time I could sit up in bed with no headache pain whatsoever. I was completely healed! Faith is not hard to have. It is simply resting in the promises of God that what God says is true. A little child can do it. We can too. Don't assume this works only for ministers. I was only a sophomore in college when this healing occurred and a freshman when the other healing occurred! God is no respecter of persons (Romans 2:11) but He is a respecter of faith. Real Faith is Quiet Assurance I once dated a lady who some years before, was told she had cancer and only had three months to live. They decided to send her to a special hospital in San Antonio but she told me she simply smiled and told the doctors that she would be alright because she would get prayer the following week at church.
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Notice: She had simple faith belief ‐that she would be healed and said as much. She was anointed at church and then promptly forgot about it, believing for her total healing. Three months later she decided to go see her doctor just to let him take a look at her. He was sure she had died by then. Shocked to see her walk in the door, healthy and smiling, he did a biopsy immediately and determined that all the terminal cancer she had had simply disappeared! She was healed, by the power of Christ! I had a very dear personal friend who had more faith than any person I have ever met. A man called on him in the "eleventh hour" of his need. His young daughter had slipped into a coma at the hospital due to spinal meningitis and was not expected to live until morning. My friend was called on to pray for her. He decided to consult a book he had on diseases to see specifically what he was praying for so as to pray intelligently and then called the distraught father back and immediately prayed the prayer of faith while on the telephone. He told the father, "Go on to bed now. She's healed. " The next morning the father went to the hospital, in faith. His little girl was sitting up in bed eating breakfast with no sign of the disease that was to have taken her life during the night! Are all these stories mere coincidences? Why then do they happen to people of faith? This same gentleman offered to pray for an abscessed tooth I had when I dropped by to see him on my way to a specialist. He offered to pray for the tooth and asked God to let this healing be for a testimony. (I had hoped he would have asked God keep me from suffering from it!). I went to the doctor who also x‐rayed the painful tooth and he told me the tooth was perfect! No abscess, no need for a root canal, and the tooth had stopped hurting! Can God heal teeth? God can heal anything!! ‐and anyone! Unusual Miracles! I knew a salesman who went with his wife to a certain meeting where the sick were to be prayed for. For years he had to wear a special pair of shoes with one heel built up as one leg was shorter than the other. In the meeting God healed the shorter leg. He walked into my office one day and threw his old worn pair of shoes on my desk! I said, "What's this all about?" He answered, "Look at the shoes! See how one heel is much larger than the other?" I examined the shoes and there was a very noticeable difference. He was elated that he was now wearing a brand new pair of shoes that he could now wear without pain! Can God make a leg grow out? I once heard Jimmy Swaggart scornfully ridicule such an idea. He said that such a miracle has never happened to anybody. But I saw the results in the office that day sitting at my desk examining a very well‐worn pair of old shoes that this poor gentleman had had to wear for years! But God healed him!
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Believers Shall Lay Hands on the Sick (Mark 16:18) During a sermon one morning at the first church I pastored I spoke for at least an hour on Mark 16:18 as my text. In this scripture Jesus said that believers ‐not just ordained ministers ‐ will lay hands on the sick and they will recover! During that whole hour one of the members was visibly upset during the entire service. Afterwards I went immediately to her to inquire as to the problem. She and her husband in‐ formed me that her I8‐year old nephew had been given just weeks to live with terminal cancer. He was completely bedfast and unable to even turn himself over. The nurses had to periodically go in and turn him from side to side. After the message I preached on how believers, not just ministers, can lay hands on the sick, they asked me if I would go and pray for him. I answered yes if they wanted me to, but it would have to be the next day before I could get there. But they were leaving after church to visit their nephew. So I reminded them of what they had just heard in that sermon and asked them to obey Jesus and go and "lay hands" on their nephew and raise him up out of that death bed. I told them that I believed God would answer their prayer and that if I didn't hear from them again by phone that I would not plan to go to the hospital. All week they never called but the following weekend at church they both bounced into the church with the joy of the Lord. I gave her the microphone and she stood up and testified how they had prayed for their nephew according to Mark 16:18 and Jesus Christ had healed the boy! He not only turned over in bed, but stood up beside the bed proclaiming he was healed! I learned in her testimony that they had visited the boy that day and told him they were going to fast and spend some time in prayer and that on the third day they would come and lay hands on him and that he would be healed. This young man had three days to see himself healed and to believe for his healing. They spoke the word and believed in their heart. He had faith and no one was telling him to give up and die. He was dramatically healed! This occurred in the month of May and by that August the same year he was in college running track! totally healed by the power of God! So yes, God can and does heal cancer when people believe and take Him at His Word! We Must Have Faith A woman I know in Ohio where I had gone to teach on the "faith of God" took this teaching to heart and one day when she was having a possible appendicitis attack apparently laid hands on herself and believed for her healing and the pain went away! She also told me she had had headaches for some time and one day while driving in the car she rebuked the headache, told it to leave in Jesus name and said that she received complete relief from pain in about three seconds. A friend of this woman had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Taking these principles to
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heart this woman was healed of breast cancer. God honors faith! They told me of another one who had a lump in her breast though not diagnosed. After prayer and the laying on of hands the lump simply went away. Some years ago I met a lady with genital herpes simplex 2. There is no known cure for this sexually transmitted disease. I told her that God could heal her of this incurable disease (which she had caught from her soon to‐be ex‐husband) but she had no faith whatsoever, having grown up in a church that did not believe God would still heal the sick. She had grown up in a large church denomination, had gone to parochial schools but had never read the Bible and had little teaching on anything truly Biblical in the church of which she had been a life‐long member. How tragic! She had not chosen this church organization herself. Rather she had simply remained in the church her parents had brought her up in. With no faith, I knew she could not be healed. This is a very serious problem for the Christian. Don't just attend any "church of your choice"!! Find one that teaches you the faith of God and the true Biblical teaching on faith and healing. Listen carefully! Being in the wrong church could cost you your health and your life!!! This is why God COMMANDS us to "TURN AWAY" from those who do live in the power of God (ll Timothy 3:5). It could be a matter of life and death some day for you or a member of your family! Faith Comes Through Hearing the Word But back to the story. Though this young lady had no background in true Biblical faith, she did agree to have Bible Studies with me for a period of time. I worked with her for three solid months without offering to pray for her healing at any time during these three months. Finally after studying faith and healing and the promises of God she came to me expectantly and said, "Keith if you lay hands on me right now I will be healed!” She now had faith. Faith comes by "hearing and hearing" the Word of God. It was "running out of her ears" by now and she knew ‐knew ‐she would be healed. I asked her to wait until the weekend and then I would lay hands on her. So then she began confessing, "When I go to church this weekend I will be healed!" It gave her some time to begin confessing and believing when she would receive her healing. This is not always necessary. But sometimes it helps a person to believe. On the day she expected to receive her healing she had awakened with a severe attack and could hardly walk from the pain. In the service I simply laid one hand on her and the power of God hit her instantly and drove off every single herpes fever blister from her body. She immediately said, "I'm healed!" and then excused herself to the restroom. It was then she told me that these horrid blisters had simply DISAPPEARED! God honors our faith!
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Will God Heal the Flu? At least twice I have been healed instantly of the flu! Recently I was listening to a sermon from a certain television faith teacher whom I consider a wonderful teacher on the subject. He explained his method of receiving his healing and told of a time when he had caught the flu. He started quoting the scriptures on healing and continued doing this, he estimated over 800 times! It took him a while, he admitted, but he got his healing! My method is a little different from his. By no means am I judging his method. Because his method works! But the method I use is this: One night I awoke with a severe sore throat and with that terrible body ache all over that most of us know so well. For many times over the years I have taken the flu and knew that I knew I had "taken it" again. Suddenly awake with body aches and a most severe sore throat that came on me quickly I could no longer sleep so I got up and walked the floor in the dark quoting I Peter 2:24 and other scriptures. I then promptly said, "That's it! God says I'm healed. So I am. I'm going to bed." This may have taken five or ten minutes. I only quoted the scriptures once or twice but confessed to God I BELIEVED them and then asked for my healing in faith and also confessed that I was receiving my healing when I prayed. And then I thanked Him for the healing just as if all the symptoms had already left. Suddenly I was able to go to sleep and the next morning there was no fever and absolutely not the slightest feeling of a sore throat! My method takes less work and works better for me. Before I was ordained, I was in a church service one day where a young wife had called for the Elders of the church to come and pray for her husband who was experiencing severe strep throat and had not eaten or slept well for the past four days. Since this Elder apparently couldn't come to minister to this man, he asked her to talk to me for I was in charge of having the prayer cloths in the church. But she was so determined to see him healed that she felt that somebody needed to lay hands on him and pray for him in person. So when I gave her a prayer cloth, she asked me if I would come and lay hands on her husband for healing. She told me that she could not get his fever down the past four days and was getting very concerned. Up to that time I had never laid hands on anyone for their healing that I can remember. But I agreed to go and had planned to read him some scriptures to build up his faith. However he was too sick to pay attention for long. So I just quoted them from memory and then told him how he would be healed. Remember Jesus said we can have what we say. There was indeed faith present so I said, "After I pray for you I want you to go immediately to bed and when you wake up your fever will be completely gone!" He went straight to bed and I went home. He slept nine straight hours and when he woke up the fever was broken and the sore throat was totally healed! Rather than eat apple sauce he made himself a hamburger and enjoyed his restored health! These are by no means all the testimonies I could tell. But they will suffice to show that God still heals the sick and answers prayer today as He did when He was here 1900 years ago ‐if we
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will exercise faith in God. Remember. It is not hearing the Word, but doing the Word that matters to God (James 1:22). May God help you to obey.
HOW TO LIVE IN THE “JOY OF THE LORD” WE HAVE HEARD THIS EXPRESSION MOST OF our lives if we grew up in church. But how many Christians have really experienced the "joy of the Lord"? Most of us haven't. Probably you haven't. But that can change. The people of God ‐ truly converted born again Christians should begin to exercise the "faith of God" in their lives so that all their needs can be supplied! Think of what you have learned. You have learned what the "faith of God" is and how to acquire it. You have learned the power and authority in the Name of Jesus. You have learned that you can lay hands on the sick and see them healed. You can walk in the power of God!! Jesus has even told us that we can speak to things and cause them to change ‐ even if it is a literal MOUNTAIN! We have learned that we receive the "harvest" of blessings from "sowing" and have learned a three step formula from the Word of God on the proper method of sowing and reaping that will guarantee us a harvest. The only thing remaining is for us to do something about the truth we are learning. The Bible teaches that it is better not to have known the Truth than to know it and turn from it in disobedience (II Peter 2:21). If you do nothing about the Truth you are learning in these Bible lessons or neglect to put these powerful new truths into effect in your life then you are rejecting them! Read the awful warning from God to those who reject His Truth in Hosea 4:6! It is a sin to reject knowledge that God wants to reveal to you. If you do, God says, "I also will reject thee." Now is the time to begin really obeying these new truths. If you do not, then you will suffer for it. But if you do begin really obeying the truth of God found in His Word, you will begin to enter a new dimension of joy and happiness that the world can only dream about but never attain. God may be calling you to a higher level of Truth. Are you ready to obey it?
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