Hope for Healing, Faith for Living Podcast

Acts 14:5-10

5 When an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to mistreat them (Paul and Barnabas) and to stone them 6 they became aware of it and fled to the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra, Derbe, and the surrounding region. 7 There they preached the Good News. 8 At Lystra a certain man sat, impotent in his feet, a cripple from his mother’s womb, who never had walked. 9 He was listening to Paul speaking, who, fastening eyes on him, and seeing that he had faith to be made whole, 10 said with a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet!” He leaped up and walked. 

The man had faith to be well but he wasn’t. My question is, did the man have what he needed?

Yes and no. He had faith to be made well but he didn’t know he needed to act on it. Or, if he did, he just hadn’t done it yet so Paul told him to act, to stand up which according to what he believed, he could.

Let me ask this question; When did God it become God’s will for this man to be healed? It was always God’s will to heal. Remember, he is the Lord who heals! (Exodus 15:26)

God just didn’t decide to heal him. Jesus had already paid the price for his healing. This man just needed to know that and by faith take hold of it for himself.

It took listening to the Gospel being preached for this man who was a cripple to receive faith to be made whole. And then with that faith, he needed to act to take hold of that healing for himself. He needed to take hold of what God had for him.

Let’s look at a verse that talks about this.

1 Timothy 6:12 ESV

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

This eternal life here is the Greek word Zoe, which is the same Greek word for life used in John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

Zoe means the life of God.  Not just eternal life that we will spend in heaven but the life of the eternal one residing in us. The life of God.

This is what Jesus came that we may have and what by faith we are to take hold of, the life of God impacting every area of our lives including our mortal bodies.

Romans 8:11 says, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

We connect to or you could say access the life of God and the life God has for us through faith. It’s his promises found in his Word that reveal his will, imparting faith to us, to believe and by faith take hold of his will, his life, his promises, including healing.

Now lets look at another point. The Bible says the man had faith to be healed while he was still a cripple. What if he had quit listening to Paul and didn’t hear that he was to act in faith to receive God’s will for him. What if he had never acted and just believed that maybe it wasn’t God’s will for him to be healed because if it was, he would have been.

You see that’s where people get in trouble. They come up with their belief based on experience or circumstance instead of going to the Word to find the truth and renewing their minds to what the truth is! 

We have missed so much of God’s perfect will simply because we didn’t know what it was or how to walk in it.

Let’s study the Word. Let’s need it just as much as we need food and water. Let’s be hungry

Tim Dumas

www.hopeforhealingfaithforliving.com