have a knowledge of God's Word and have accepted healing as an established fact.
I have been in the ministry fourteen years, and I have taught healing all that time. Yet there have been times in my own life that I have not been able to receive my healing immediately. I knew one thing: It wasn't a lack of knowledge. I could quote almost every Scripture in the Bible on healing! I believe it. I believe in healing, yet I was sick. I came to this conclusion: My inability to receive healing was no reflection on what was done in Jesus Christ.
Not one time that I was sick did I ever say, "Maybe healing is not for me. Maybe healing doesn't work. Maybe it is not true. Maybe Jesus didn't bear our sicknesses." Not one time did I say that, because I knew the Word said the opposite. My personal experience did not make the word of God untrue. Healing was accomplished by Jesus on Calvary and no matter who gets healed or who does not get healed, it is an established fact. If I have not received my healing, it is because of some roadblock Satan
has sent to hinder my acceptance of it. I'm not talking about a lack of faith. I believe in the Word. I had faith, but there was an inability to receive— there was a roadblock.
Don't ever think that the path to healing and divine health is going to be easy! It is strewn with roadblocks to trip you. There I stood, a minister of the Word of God, teaching on divine healing, yet for some reason there was a roadblock in my path—an inability to receive healing.
So what did I do—cry? I was tempted to call every spiritual person I knew and ask them to pray for me. Instead, I went to God. He knows all the answers. I said, "God, there is some reason why I have not been able to receive this healing." I didn't put the blame on myself. Too many people turn on themselves and say, "Well, I'm just not strong enough spiritually. I don't have enough faith. I guess I'm just one of those people with little faith."
Someone is always so ready to come along, join with your self-condemnation, and say, "Well, if you just had enough faith, your child wouldn't have died. If you had enough faith, your husband would not have gotten sick. If you had enough faith, you
would not be sick now. You must not be reading the Word enough."
Instead of spending so much time on introspection, spend more time inspecting the Word of God!
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Romans 8:1 God is not condemning you. Satan is the one who condemns.
After digging out from under self- condemnation, I began to discuss my problem with God, because He is the one who knows what the problem is.
I said, "God, You know there is a roadblock here. There is something that is hindering. I do not know what it is. Please show me."
The first thing many people have told me is, "Well, there is sin in your life. That is the reason you are sick." It could be true that when a person walks in sin, he walks away from the protection of God, but that is not always the case.
I prayed, "God, is there sin in my life?" He didn't say anything about it, and the Holy Spirit will always tell you if you are in sin.
The Sin of Omission
Then the Holy Spirit brought a sin of omission to my mind; something that God had wanted me to do, but I had procrastinated and did not do. I had put it off. So I immediately took care of it. I continued to pray. And my condition got worse!
Don't think that the devil is going to stand back once you make headway toward anything in God's Word. It is possible you could receive a miracle healing and never have another problem. But most people who become mature in the Word are going to have to stand on the Word of God and fight the good fight of faith. That's just a fact. If you are looking for something easy, you'll not find it. But receiving your healing through the fight of faith is still better than being sick.
One morning as I woke up, I said, without even thinking of the Scripture in Acts 16:30, "What must I do to be healed?" As I said that, the Spirit of God spoke to me and said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ."
That is what Paul and Silas said to the philippian jailer:
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
Acts 16:31 We should be able to accept healing and salvation as a complete package. The word "saved" is the Greek word sozo, which also means "to heal and make whole." Again and again it came to me, "Believe, believe, believe." What must I do? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ."
Believe on what? The Spirit of God spoke, "Believe Jesus is Lord. Believe Jesus is Lord, Master, and Ruler over sickness, and it must depart at His Name! Believe that your sickness was placed upon Him. The symptoms that afflict your body, place over on Him. Believe that He bore your sickness and disease."
I can only speak of what has happened to me and how I received healing. I can't tell you how you are going to receive your healing. Every individual is different. There are no pat formulas; only principles. When we try to put everyone in one group and say, "This is all you have to do. Just take
these three steps, and you will be healed," it will not always work.
You can never put any five people into one category and expect them to be healed the same way, because they will not respond in the same manner. Only the Spirit of God knows what it will take for you to release your faith for healing, and He is very capable of transmitting that understanding to you.
When I began to ask God about my healing, to meditate on His Word, and to act on what He told me to do, the roadblocks started being removed. I believed that regardless of what was happening in my physical body, the Word of God was true—and I refused to be moved.
Discouragement
I became discouraged. I'll be honest with you. At one point I became really discouraged. It is easy to believe you are healed when you feel good. It is harder to believe you are healed when you can't even get up out of bed or move, and you're in such pain that you wish you could die. It is much easier to receive from God and believe when you are not in the middle of a crisis. That's why it's so important to
listen closely to the Word and stand on the Scriptures concerning healing before you are attacked with sickness.
Every Sunday, I dragged myself out of bed and went to church, because I needed to hear the Word of God. I made myself sit and listen to it, regardless of how I felt.
One Sunday morning as I woke up, a song about healing was playing over my clock radio, and I began to worship God. I felt the healing power of God manifest in that room. The anointing of God was all over my room! The healing process had begun, although I did not receive my total healing at that time.
Often, the answer comes in stages. Occasionally, it takes several stages from the beginning of healing to the total manifestation. There is nothing wrong with that. Do not be discouraged if you have not experienced a total manifestation of healing in your body. Keep following the stages to the very end. God will do everything He can to get that healing to you when you are believing Him.
I went to church with the anointing of God still on me. At the end of the service, my pastor said,
"Annette, this is your day. Get up here." He laid hands on me, and immediately the symptoms that I'd been having left my body. It took a little longer for me to regain the strength that I'd had before, but the symptoms left.
I followed the stages that the Holy Spirit led me through to healing. He always leads you in line with God's Word, and He will always lead you down the path to healing and divine health.
Often, we talk about faith, trying to have faith, and trying to work up faith to be healed. I want you to lay hold on this one truth: Believing is a choice you make.