About two months ago, on one of my daily morning walks, I suffered a pretty serious injury. I often walk in the vicinity of my neighbourhood where there’s a small park with several exercise machines. That morning, I foolishly tried one of those machines, without any warmup or supervision and ended up badly tearing the ligament on my left shoulder. The pain over the next few days was almost unbearable. I had difficulty sleeping and it got to a point where I had trouble putting on a shirt. On the advice of my brother, who’s a doctor, I went to see an orthopedic surgeon. He examined me and diagnosed that I had a torn ligament. He wanted me to go for an MRI and I said no. He went on to say that if the tear was severe, an operation was deemed necessary.
The Lord then spoke to me from Mark 11: 22-24. “So Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea’, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, ‘Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.’” There are several powerful keys in this passage. Number one, God has to drop His faith into our hearts. Jesus said, “Have the faith of God” which I personally think is the best rendition of this verse, or have the “God-kind of faith”. This faith comes by hearing the voice of the Spirit.
Then the Lord taught about the importance of speaking the language of faith. I’m learning this right now. Each morning, when I pray, I quote Mark 11:22-24 and I’m learning to speak the faith language. It’s not positive thinking, but I sure am positive about my language. I speak healing which has already been provided for in the Atonement, and I declare my healing over my arm. The only thing I’m waiting for now is the manifestation of that healing, which I anticipate is coming soon.
Each day, faith in me is being refined and developed and doubt is being removed. I’m learning how to speak the faith language of healing and I share this in advance because I’m certain the Lord’s going to heal me. I’m not on any pain killers to try and numb the pain. I don’t want any outside source or advice. I’m totally trusting in my Great Physician to heal me. I’ve experienced on one occasion, instantaneous healing. But having to battle over a period of time to see healing released is a challenge. In spite of the pain, you’ve to have the fortitude to believe and to keep on making the right confession. I’m totally convinced of this.
I share this because at the time of this writing, we’re just 25 days away from Kingdom Invasion. I don’t have to wait for the conference to be healed. I’m believing God that from now to then, I’d receive the manifestation of my healing. I’m also trying to change my default mode behavior. I’ll give you an example of this. When I get symptoms of a cold, what’s the first thing I do? I go to the medicine cabinet and pop a pill. That’s my default mode. And I do it often without even thinking. Whenever I feel a cold coming, that behaviour is almost automatic. So one day, I had all the symptoms of a cold and as I was heading to the medicine cabinet, I felt this check in my spirit and it was as if the Lord said, “How would you ever get a breakthrough if you keep falling into your default mode all the time?”
What’s your default mode when you fall ill? Do you go to God first or do you do what I’ve just described? As believers, James 5 should be our new default mode. Is there anyone sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and they will pray with him and God will heal. In fact, if you go over to James 5, you’ll find three biblically-set default modes, which we might need to re-programme into our subconscious. If we don’t ever change our behavior to start believing God, then when will we ever?
