He [the Lord] therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of [the message of] faith (Galatians 3:5)? Paul was trying to teach the Galatians how a miracle comes about and that the Holy Spirit is the miracle worker.

We are living in the Holy Ghost age, and He is moving to perform mighty miracles in the midst of the Lord’s people. The Bible tells us, Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness (Galatians 6:3). God promised Abraham he would have a son by his wife, Sarah, and he believed what God told him.

Abraham had faith in what the Lord said. And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform (Romans 4:21). You too must have faith in what God says, but you have to go to the Word and learn what God is saying. Then you have to accept it and believe God will do it. You will receive much from the Lord.

It’s wonderful to be fully persuaded about what God says just as Abraham was. Then you won’t put on any brakes or hold any of yourself in reserve. You will have made up your mind with no doubt. When Abraham accepted the promise of God, it was all over with. Instead of fighting with the devil about it, he could tell him, “I’m going to have a son, and I don’t care what you have to say about it.” Abraham staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God (Romans 4:20).

Believe the Promises

Abraham looked at the promise of God instead of looking at his circumstances, but too many of you look at your circumstances; and that’s why you don’t receive any more from the Lord than you do. If I can get you to look at the promises of God and not at your circumstances, you will get the miracle you need from the Lord.

When you keep your eyes on the promises of God, it will draw you closer to the Lord; and you will come to that place in the Spirit where you know without a shadow of a doubt that God cannot lie. But you say, “Preacher, I already know that.” Yes, you say that, yet your actions don’t show it. Some of you just give mental ascent to the promises of God.

The Bible says, God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good (Numbers 23:19)?

You need to sit down and tell yourself, “God cannot lie, so He will stand by every promise He has made.” What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them (Mark 11:24). If ye abide in me [Jesus], and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done [granted] unto you (John 15:7). You have to let God’s Word and all its promises abide in you.

Meet the Conditions

You have to hide the Word in your heart just as the Psalmist did. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee (Psalm 119:11). The Word of God is alive, and it will stand because God has spoken it and not man. Did the Lord not say, I will hasten my word to perform it (Jeremiah 1:12)? God also said, So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it (Isaiah 55:11). God will see to it that His promises are fulfilled.

You have to realize that every promise God made is conditional. The Lord made many promises to Israel, but they were all conditional. That means God will do this, if you will do that. But if you don’t do this, He won’t do that. If you are not receiving an answer from God, you must make sure you are meeting the condition of His promise. If you are not, then you are holding the Lord back from moving for you. You may be asking God why He is not moving, but He wants to know why you are not in the place you should be for Him to move. God is always ready to move, but we are not always ready to receive.

If you do all you know to do, then hold on. Paul said, And having done all, to stand (Ephesians 6:13). So many people say, “I’ve done all I know to do.” And that may be true; but then instead of holding on and standing, they just sit down on God. They quit doing anything, and that’s bad. You say you believe God, but you don’t really believe in your heart enough to receive.

Set Your Time to Receive

When you came to the Lord for salvation, you believed He could save you; but that is not what saved you. You had to believe with your whole heart that God would save you right then. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved (Romans 10:9). You didn’t receive it until you believed it. How could you shout and be happy that your sins were gone if you didn’t really believe they were gone?

Now let’s consider healing. You may say, “Lord, I know you are able to heal me.” And the Lord appreciates your knowing that, but even the devil knows that. You may say, “Lord, I believe you will heal me.” If that is true, then when do you expect Him to heal you? You have to set your time to receive. If a friend asks you what time they can meet you at a certain restaurant, do you answer, “Anytime will be fine”? Of course not because your chances of actually meeting that person would not be very good. If you really intend to meet up with someone, you will give them a specific time and place.

When you are looking to receive from the Lord, you need to make a time and place to meet Him. That’s what the woman with the issue of blood did. She said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole (Mark 5:28). She set her time and it worked. The centurion wanted a miracle for his servant. He went to Jesus, and Jesus said He would go and heal him; but the centurion believed the miracle could take place without Jesus even going to his house. He said to Jesus, Speak the word only (Matthew 8:8). Jesus spoke the Word, and the servant was healed.

You must decide when a miracle is going to be done, accept it and then don’t worry about it. You can’t just say you hope you are healed, and you can’t base believing for the miracle on how you feel. When you receive prayer, it doesn’t mean you did not receive a miracle just because you don’t feel good the next day or the next week. You can’t let feelings take the place of God’s Word. If you talk about how you feel more than what the Word says, that means you have more faith in your feelings than you have in the Word.

Decide You Will Receive

You have to put your faith in the living Word of God and praise the Lord until all the symptoms leave and your miracle manifests itself. If someone asks you about it, you can tell them you are healed because the Word says so. If you received prayer from a man of God, the Bible says, They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover (Mark 16:18). The Bible also says, The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up (James 5:15).

Doubters may come along and say, “What if you don’t get well? What if you die?” You can’t listen to them. I say again that you have to put your faith in the Word. When people get saved, do they always feel saved? No. The Bible says, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (I John 1:9). If you know you are truly born again, no one can convince you otherwise; so why do you let people or feelings convince you that you are not healed?

It is an impossibility to confess the Word of God, carry it out, believe it in your heart and not be healed. You may say, “Preacher, I believed the Lord, and it didn’t happen.” Then you didn’t believe God like you needed to. Perhaps you had some doubt or were afraid the miracle wouldn’t happen. If so, that is not perfect faith, and the devil is shaking your foundation.

When you have faith that God has heard you and full assurance that He has moved, all fear and stress will go. You won’t go home and walk the floors pleading, “Oh, God, please do this. Lord, you know I need this.” Either you believe it is done or you don’t. You have to make up your mind once and for all. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed (James 1:6). Your heart has to be fully persuaded. Then no person or thing can keep you from receiving.

Wait on God

Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise (Hebrews 10:35,36). Never cast away your confidence in God; hold on to it. Many people do the will of the Lord; but when the devil comes around to shake them up a bit, they give up and decide, “If God doesn’t care, I don’t care either.”

I already mentioned that Abraham was promised a son, and he had to wait 25 years for that promise to be fulfilled. That’s a long time to wait for a son. Sarah was beyond child-bearing age, and Abraham was over 100 years old, but he didn’t let that bother him because God had promised.

When God makes a promise, He will keep that promise as long as you meet its conditions. You have to obey Him, wait on Him and do His will concerning your situation. Abraham probably thought his promised son would be born within that next year, but there was no Isaac in that year. Five years, 10 years and even 20 years went by; and there was still no Isaac. If God made some of you a promise 20 years ago, you would have already forgotten it or given up on it by now.

When God makes you a promise, you must hide it in your heart and protect it more than you would gold or silver. God gives you a promise on purpose, and it is there to help you. When God gave Abraham the promise of a son, he had to walk by faith. I’m sure he didn’t talk to his friends or neighbors about it because they would have just laughed at him. He kept his eyes on God.

Walk by Faith

Isaac finally arrived, and Abraham was so happy as he watched little Isaac grow. Then the Lord presented Abraham with a test of his faith that he never expected. And he [God] said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of (Genesis 22:2). God knew it would be very hard for Abraham, but He knew it would force him to walk by faith more than ever before.

Thankfully, Abraham remembered the promise God had given him concerning his son: I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God (Genesis 17:6,8). Abraham was still focusing on that promise of God; so he knew that if he slayed his son, God would raise him from the dead. Then Abraham obeyed God and took Isaac to Mt. Moriah.

Abraham meant business. He laid Isaac on the altar, and he had the knife raised over him when the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me (Genesis 22:11-12). The Lord saw that Abraham had gone through with the sacrifice in his heart.

Neighbor, you had better keep your faith strong because there will be unexpected tests of your faith in your future as well. The Bible says, The just shall live by faith (Galatians 3:11). Abraham decided that God was going to stand by His promise no matter what, and you have to decide the same thing with the promises God has given to you. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end (Hebrews 3:14). Being steadfast means not letting go.

You Can Be Free

If you want the Lord to deliver you, believe His Word, believe His promises and don’t look at your symptoms. Look to Jesus because there is life for a look, yet so many people are always looking at their pain and talking about their sickness. Who wants to hear about all of that and what good does it do them? If there is anything drearier than a rainy day, it’s a Christian sitting around talking about all their aches and pains, their operations, their trips to the hospital and the list goes on.

As long as you talk about sickness, you’re going to be sick; and as long as you talk about worldly things all the time, you’re going to become like the world. The Bible says, A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh (Luke 6:45). When you really get saved, you will be ashamed of what you used to do, but some people love to boast about the things they used to do; and that’s awful!

The Israelites marched around the walls of Jericho, and those walls came tumbling down. It’s your business to believe God and march, and it’s God’s business to tear down the walls for you. Will you believe the Lord for your deliverance today? Will you close your case and believe in your heart that a miracle will take place no matter how you feel?

Who made your eyes and ears? Who made your legs and feet? Who made your heart? God, of course; so He can certainly heal that which He made, and He has promised to do just that. Why be sick when you can be well? Why be burdened down when you can be free? God has made you more promises than you could ever use in your lifetime, and they can be yours today if you believe.

Turn to the salvation and healing prayers on page 6 of this magazine and receive today.