The Real Faith

By Kenneth E. Hagin

Contents

1. Two Kinds of Truth

2. Two Kinds of Faith

3. Two Kinds of Unbelief

4. Enemies of Faith

Chapter 1

Two Kinds of Truth

... Thy word is truth.

— John 17:17

Praying to the Father, Jesus said, ".. .thy word is truth. "

There are two kinds of truth: truth based on what God's Word says and sense-knowledge truth based on what our physical senses tell us.

It is all right to walk by sense-knowledge truth as long as it does not contradict Bible truth. But living in the natural as we do, we get so accustomed to believing what the outward man tells us that it is difficult to switch over and walk by the truth given in God's Word.

Years ago I prayed for an elderly man who had suffered from rheumatism for many years. After I laid hands on him and prayed, the Lord healed him. About eight months later, as I was walking to town, I happened to see him as he was staking his cow out on a vacant lot.

When he started to straighten up, he grabbed his back and could scarcely move. Finally he straightened up and said, "Oh, my, my, that rheumatism has come back on me."

I said, "Brother, I thought God had healed you."

He replied, "Well, I thought He had, too, but I guess He didn't. The day before yesterday, while I was milking the cow, a pain hit me in my hand. Then it went up my arm, into my shoulder, and down my back. Since then, my arm has been stiff.

It hurts. My back hurts, too. I get down and can't get back up.

Until then, I hadn't had a symptom or pain since you prayed for me last January."

I asked him how long he had had rheumatism before that and he said, "Nearly 30 years."

"At any time during those 30 years was there ever an eight-month period when you didn't have any pain or symptoms?" I asked.

"No," he said. "I had to take something every day for the pain. I went to doctors in the different cities around here, but no one could really cure it. I could only take something for the pain, to help me get by a little."

"Isn't it strange, then," I said, "that these symptoms and pains disappeared when hands were laid on you in the Name of Jesus, and for eight months you had no more pain. You see, the Lord really did heal you. I'll tell you exactly what happened. The minute the first pain struck your body, you said, 'I thought I was healed, but I guess I'm not,' and you opened the door for the devil to come right back in again."

I talked with him a while, teaching him that if the pain came back he was to resist it because it was of the devil. The Bible says, "... Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7).

I prayed for him again, and all of his symptoms left.

During the remaining four years that I pastored there, he never had any more rheumatism.

It was the teaching of the Word that helped this man regain and keep his healing. I had prayed for him and had gotten him delivered, but he had lost his healing. The teaching of the Word instilled faith in him and showed him the difference between Thomas' faith and Abraham's faith—between the faith that is based on physical evidence and the faith that is based upon what God has said.

Most people who are untaught in the Word are seeking someone who can pray the prayer of faith for them. The prayer of faith may deliver them temporarily, but unbelief eventually will annul the effects of that prayer. This is what happened to the man with rheumatism. The prayer of faith temporarily delivered him from rheumatism, but unbelief eventually nullified the effects of that prayer.

Notice I couldn't get him healed the second time on the same basis I did the first time. I got him healed the first time without doing any teaching at all. (He had just gotten back to God after having been backslidden many years.) I just laid hands on him and prayed. But the second time I prayed, I had to teach him first before I could get him delivered. That time, when his faith started functioning, he took hold of the healing that was his all the time, and that time it lasted.

There has been criticism of mass healing meetings because, in many cases, the healings do not last. This is true because where a mass faith is present, people can be helped temporarily.

However, to maintain their healing, these people should continue to feed on God's Word.

Once there was a Full Gospel woman preacher in Texas who had a condition in her body that caused her head to be pulled to one side. Specialists told her it was a deterioration of the nerves and nothing could be done for it. They warned her that the condition would grow worse and she should prepare to be an invalid within six months.

She and her husband got on a train and went to a divine healing meeting. She was instantly delivered and for eight or ten months she was all right. Then this condition returned.

I went to her area of the state to hold a meeting, and she was in the services. As she sat and listened, she understood why she had lost her healing. She adjusted her believing and came for prayer. We laid hands on her and she was instantly delivered.

She was still healed nearly 20 years later. How important it is that people be properly taught.

Someone once said to me, "Brother Hagin, I appreciate your tapes so much. I received healing last year through the prayers of an evangelist, but then I lost it. Since listening to your tapes and the teaching of the Word of God, I've received my healing again and I've maintained it."

Many people are like the man who said to me, "I thought the Lord healed me, but I guess He didn't. I believe if God ever does anything, it's done. If God heals you, you are always healed and you won't lose it."

However, in the book of Revelation, we read that Jesus appeared in a vision to John on the Isle of Patmos, giving him a message to one of the churches. It was "Hold that fast which thou hast" (Rev. 3:11).

In this case, He would be saying, "Hold fast to your healing." You have your part to play, for there is a man-ward side and a God-ward side to every battle and every victory. God promised the children of Israel the land of Canaan, but He also said, "Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours ..." (Deut. 11:24). In essence, He said, "I'm going to give it to you, but you will have to take possession of it."

The word "believe" is a verb—an action word. To believe in a Biblical sense means "to take" or "to grasp." To believe Jesus means to take Him for all that the Scriptures declare Him to be: To believe on Jesus as Savior means to take Him as your Savior; to believe in Jesus as Healer means to take Him as your Healer.

A man can say, "I believe in salvation," yet never be saved.

He can say, "I believe that Jesus is the Son of God," yet die and go to hell. He can say, "I believe that the New Birth is scriptural," yet never really possess the New Birth.

By the same token, you can say, "I believe in divine healing"

because you saw someone healed or because you read about it in the Bible. But that doesn't mean you have received your healing.

You, too, must take Jesus as your Healer.

Believing is an act of the will. Joshua said, "Choose you this day whom ye will serve... but as for me and my house, we WILL

serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:15). In Revelation 22:17 we read, "...And whosoever WILL, let him take the water of life freely. "

To believe, then, is to act on the Word of God. So faith is acting on the Word, and doubt is refusing to act on the Word.

As we discussed earlier, there are two kinds of truth we can believe in: natural, human truth, or truth that is revealed in God's Word. We could call the latter Bible truth, revelation truth, or spiritual truth.

Spiritual things are just as real as physical things, because God, who is a Spirit, created all physical things. When the physical body is dead and in the grave, it returns to dust, yet the spiritual man lives on.

Through the senses—through natural, human truth—a person realizes he is sick and has pain or disease. But God's Word reveals that "Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses " (Matt. 8:17), and by His stripes we were healed (1 Peter 2:24).

Isn't God's Word just as true one time as it is another? Isn't it just as true when you have sickness and suffering as it is when you are well?

By believing what your physical senses tell you, you would say, "I don't have healing; I am sick." But by believing the truth of God's Word, you can say, "I am healed by His stripes!"

Chapter 2

Two Kinds of Faith

The Bible contrasts two kinds of faith: a "Thomas faith" and an "Abraham faith." Abraham had a spiritual faith—a heart faith—which was based on what God said. Thomas had a natural, human faith. Everybody—saved and unsaved alike—has this natural, human kind of faith.

Thomas' faith was based solely on physical evidence. He believed only what he could see, not what God said: JOHN 20:24-29

24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.

25 The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, EXCEPT I SHALL SEE in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.

26 And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.

27 Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.

28 And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.

29 Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

If Abraham, on the other hand, had gone by what he could see and what his physical senses told him, he never would have received God's promise.

Common sense tells us that a 99-year-old man and a 90-year-old woman are not going to be able to have children. Yet Abraham had God's promise that he was to be "the father of many nations," and he believed God's promise:

ROMANS 4:17-21

17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.

19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb: 20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was STRONG IN FAITH, giving glory to God;

21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

Abraham believed according to what God said, not according to how he felt. He didn't believe his feelings; he didn't believe based on what he saw; he didn't believe his physical senses. His faith was based on God's promise.

In modern-day vernacular we might say, "When God told Abraham he would become the father of many nations, even though Abraham and his wife were well past their child-bearing years, Abraham didn't even bat an eyelash. He knew there was nothing too hard for God: God could do anything. Therefore, Abraham was convinced that God could and would accomplish what He said He would."

Abraham's blessing is ours as followers of Christ, we are told in Galatians 3:14: "That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. "

Abraham's blessing was threefold: spiritual, physical, and material. God said to the descendants of Abraham—and this was the covenant He had made with Abraham—that they could have either the blessing or the curse.

The blessing included spiritual blessing, physical blessing (health or healing), and material blessing (financial prosperity).

The curse included sickness, poverty, and so on. But believers are not under the curse, because Galatians 3:13 says, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. "

The 29th verse says, "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. "

Because we are Abraham's seed, Abraham's blessing ought to be ours! And because we belong to Christ, "Then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. "

That means we are heirs of the blessing. Here is that word

"promise" again. That is what Abraham was believing: the promise. Therefore, if we are Christ's, we are Abraham's seed; and if we are Abraham's seed, we are heirs according to the promise.

We receive the blessings the same way Abraham received part of his blessing—through faith. But you don't get it with Thomas' faith; you get it with Abraham's faith!

Too many try to get Abraham's blessing with Thomas' sense-knowledge faith. If they can't see it, they won't believe it. They believe only what they can hear or feel from the natural standpoint. Their faith is based on their feelings. If they feel they have something, then they believe they have it. But if they don't feel like they have it, they don't believe they have it.

When some people feel like they are saved, then they believe they are saved. The same is true concerning answers to prayers.

Often people fail to get answers to their prayers or fail to receive healing because their faith is based on physical evidence, or sense knowledge.

Some say, "I just feel like God heard me." They thought that because they felt better and were uplifted in spirit, it was an indication God had heard them. God, however, doesn't hear us just because we feel like He did; God hears us because we believe what He says in His Word about the matter: "... That whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you" (John 15:16).

Of course, we can't pray and communicate with God without feeling better. But just because we feel better or receive a spiritual blessing is no sign that that particular prayer is answered.

I've felt better many times after prayer and thought God heard me. But He didn't. However, when I based my faith on what He said in His Word—in spite of how I might have felt at the time—and held fast to His promises, the answer came.

Man's nature is twofold: There is an inward man and an outward man. The inward man is the spirit. The outward man is the body. To believe with the heart means to believe on the inside—to believe with the inward man. To base one's faith on physical evidence is to believe only from the natural human standpoint—to believe with the outward man.

Real faith in God—heart faith—believes the Word of God regardless of what the physical evidence may be. It's believing with the inward man that causes faith to be manifested in the outward man.

The trouble with a lot of people is that they want the manifestation on the outside before they will believe on the inside. But it doesn't work that way. These people are letting their bodies—their physical senses—dominate them. They believe what the outward man—their physical body—tells them rather than what God's Word says.

A person seeking healing should look to God's Word, not to his symptoms. He should say, "I know I am healed because the Word of God says that by His stripes I am healed."

It won't do you any good to say that unless you believe it in your heart. If you do believe it in your heart and say it with your mouth, it will work: "Whosoever shall say... and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith" (Mark 11:23).

Smith Wigglesworth made the statement, "I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved by what I believe." This is the way Abraham was. Thomas, on the other hand, said, "Unless I see and I feel, I'm not going to believe."

Too many people give the Word of God second place in their lives, and they give their body, the home of the physical senses, first place. We cannot walk by faith and do that.

Paul said, "For we walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Cor. 5:7).

Sight is one of the physical senses. Paul also said, "But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway" (1 Cor. 9:27).

Notice that Paul said, "I keep under my body." "I" is the man on the inside—the real Paul—the inward man who is born of God. Paul said, "I bring it." Your body is not the real you; it is just the house you live in.

If your body were you, Paul would have said, "I bring myself into subjection." Instead, he said, "I bring it into subjection." In other words, he didn't let his body rule him; he didn't allow his physical senses to dominate him. Paul was saying the same thing Smith Wigglesworth said many centuries later, using different terminology.

Our bodies can dominate us in more ways than we think.

Some people think they are holy and separated unto God because they are following strict rules and regulations. Yet they often are the most carnal of all: Their bodies are always dominating them, and usually they have the least faith of anyone.

They live in the realm of the senses rather than in the realm of the spirit and faith. As far as their outward appearance is concerned, they meet all the regulations. Yet they have a mean, ugly spirit—and a long tongue.

I've met other people who don't meet too many of the rules and regulations, but they have the most wonderful spirit, and it is blessed to sit down and fellowship with them.

If you put your feelings first, then you are putting the body first, because feeling is the voice of the body. If you doubt this, wait until the phone rings about 1 o'clock some morning and you stub your toe as you get up to answer it! Then you'll know that feeling is the voice of the body!

Many people put their feelings first, their faith in their feelings second, and the Word of God, if it has any place at all, last. Reverse the order! Put the Word of God first, your faith in God's Word second, and your feelings last.

Remember, feeling is the voice of the body; reasoning is the voice of the mind; but conscience is the voice of the spirit.

Acting on reason instead of relying on God's Word means to trust in the arm of man instead of God's Word. Naturally, there are many instances when we must act on reason, but I'm referring to circumstances when reason contradicts God's Word.

We saw the same thing with Abraham. Reason would say that a 99-year-old man and a 90-year-old woman were not going to have any children. Yet God said, "So shall thy seed be." He told Abraham, "I have changed your name from Abram to Abraham," which means " the father of many nations."

It is all right to act on reason as long as it doesn't contradict the Word. But when it contradicts the Word, act on the Word instead of reason.

To act on reason rather than the Word means to trust in man rather than in God. The Bible says, "Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm" (Jer. 17:5). We should trust in the Word of God for ourselves.

The same thing is true concerning salvation. A woman testified in one of my meetings, "I know I'm saved because I've repented of my sins and I've given up all my bad habits." That is no more evidence that she was saved than it was evidence that she had landed on the moon! Why? Because that woman based her salvation on what she did, not on what Jesus did. She didn't say a word about Jesus.

The question, then, might be asked, "Can a person repent and still not be saved?" Certainly, if that is as far as he goes.

One of my biggest surprises while pastoring my first church happened the night one of the finest men in the church came to the altar to accept Christ as his Savior. I had been in this man's home many times. I knew he prayed, read the Bible, and prayed at every meal.

His teenage sons (who were only a few years younger than I) had told me, "Never in our lifetime have we heard our Daddy say a bad word. We've never heard him tell a bad joke. We've never heard him and Momma fuss." Yet, in spite of all his fine traits, he was not a Christian.

After his conversion, I told him I had assumed he was saved.

"No," he said, "I've never been saved. My mother was old-time holiness, and I've always lived by her teachings. She was very strict. I've never been to a ball-game or a movie in my life. If I ever violated any of Momma's teachings, I immediately repented and said, 'God forgive me.' But until now I had not actually invited Jesus into my heart. I had not accepted Him in faith."

His repentance for wrong acts did not save him. It was just as if you had a quarrel with a neighbor, friend, or spouse and said, "I'm sorry. I repent. Forgive me." That wouldn't mean you got saved; it would just mean you repented of the quarrel.

The woman who testified that she was saved because she had repented and had given up all her bad habits gave no scriptural evidence of salvation. She depended on physical evidence rather than the Word of God.

Our testimony of conversion should be based on Romans 10:9, "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. "

Salvation comes as a result of an Abraham-type of faith—a heart faith, a spiritual faith—a faith based not on physical evidence but on the Word of God.

Chapter 3

Two Kinds of Unbelief

There are two kinds of unbelief. First, there is the kind of unbelief that is based on a lack of knowledge.

The Bible says, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:17). Those who have not heard cannot have knowledge; therefore, they can't believe.

Many don't believe in spiritual things because they don't know what the Word of God teaches on the subject. For example, a great number are totally ignorant about the infilling with the Holy Spirit simply because they don't know the Word. The cure for this kind of unbelief, of course, is knowledge of God's Word.

The other kind of unbelief is mentioned in Hebrews 4:6, "...they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief. " This refers to the children of Israel. They could not plead innocence due to ignorance, because God had told them to go in and possess the land of Canaan. In addition, they had sent spies into Canaan, and the spies had returned with the report that it was a land flowing with milk and honey, just as God had said it was.

Another translation of this Scripture reads, "They entered not in because of disobedience." Still another translation says, "They entered not in because of unpersuadableness."

Hebrews 4:11 warns, "Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. "

The children of Israel knew what God said, but they couldn't be persuaded to act upon it. They were guilty of unpersuadableness," which is also called unbelief in the Bible.

They had the knowledge of God's Word, but they couldn't be persuaded to act upon it; they were unwilling to allow the Word to govern them.

There is much of this kind of unbelief among Christians today: an unwillingness to allow the Word of God to govern their lives; a refusal to act upon knowledge. Many know what the Word teaches but refuse to act upon it.

Believing is an act of the will. We can act on the Word if we will. Disobedience is an unpersuadable attitude toward the Word.

Thus, unbelief is either: (1) ignorance of the Word, or (2) unpersuadableness to act upon the Word. The cure for the first is knowledge, and the cure for the second is obedience.

In dealing with the subject of unbelief, we also should take a look at something quite similar to it: mental agreement. The mental agreer believes only what he sees or feels.

In my opinion, mental agreement is one of the most subtle enemies there is to faith. It sounds so "religious." The mental agreer will go so far as to say, "I believe in the verbal inspiration of the Bible." He will say, "I am contending for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints," yet he refuses to act on the Word.

How can you tell whether a person is really believing from his heart or is just mentally agreeing? The mental agreer will say the Bible is true, but he will not act upon it.

Faith is acting upon God's Word.

To declare that God's Word is true—to say that God cannot and will not fail to help us in the time of crisis—and then to turn to the world for help is a serious matter. It opens the door to deception and defeat by the enemy, for the Bible says Satan is the god of this world.

The mental agreer is in the gravest danger. He is where God cannot reach him, but Satan can enter into his inner counsel, and he therefore can fail to benefit from his rights and privileges in Christ.

It is easy to declare that God's Word is true when everything is running smoothly. But what about when the crisis comes?

What about when the storms of life rage? Isn't God's Word just as true then as it was when the sun was shining brightly and everything was running smoothly? The mental agreer may say, "God cannot fail; His Word is true" when things are going well.

But he is just agreeing; he doesn't truly believe it. He thinks he does, but he doesn't.

If we really believe God's Word, we will be just as steady when the clouds have overcast our lives as we were when the sun was breaking through. In fact, we can laugh about it.

If the cupboard is bare, we can laugh about it. When our pocketbook is empty, we can laugh about it. We are not disturbed, because we know the Word.

When you have $100 in your billfold and a good bank account it is easy to say, "Praise the Lord, He meets every need.

I feel as if I could believe Him for anything." But when the bank account is wiped out, the billfold is empty, and the bills are facing you, it's a different matter.

At such times, the mental agreer drops back into this Thomas kind of faith, going by what he can see. He can see that needs exist, and he walks by what he sees.

I learned a long time ago to say right in the face of want and dire need, "I'm not walking by sight." Second Corinthians 5:7 says, "We walk by faith, not by sight. " I say as Smith Wigglesworth said, "I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe. I believe God's Word."

God's Word says, "But my God shall supply all your need ..." (Phil. 4:19).

God's Word says, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want" (Ps. 23:1).

I like to read it, "I do not want." I believe God.

The same thing is true when it comes to healing. You can get by easily with some symptoms, but it isn't so easy when you're in pain. But isn't God's Word just as true one time as it is another?

Isn't it just as true when you have distress in your body as when you are well?

If I walk by sight—by what my physical senses tell me—I would have to say, "I'm not well. I'm not healed." But walking by faith, I know I am healed in Jesus' Name.

So we see that the kind of faith Thomas had and mental agreement are twins.

I like to use something Paul said as a confession. I use it all the time in my own life. I like to confess it to the devil, the Lord, and me.

When Paul was shipwrecked on the way to Rome and all hope was gone that the men on that ship would be saved, in the midst of those seemingly hopeless circumstances Paul said, "There stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve" (Acts 27:23).

He went on to tell what the angel had said to him—that every man's life would be saved if they would listen to him. He concluded by saying, "Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me" (v. 25). That was a word the angel brought from God. Our Bible is just as sure as that word. So I use the same statement, referring to what has been told me in the Bible. I say, "Wherefore, sirs, I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me."

That is exactly what Abraham did: He believed according to that which was spoken. In other words, he could have echoed Paul, saying, "Wherefore, sirs, I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me."

Thomas, on the other hand, didn't believe what was told him.

The disciples said, "We have seen the Lord." Thomas said, in effect, "I don't believe it." He said, "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe" (John 20:25).

Our faith is like the faith of Abraham, because we are the seed of Abraham: "That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith" (Gal. 3:14). The Bible also states, "Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham" (Gal. 3:7). Our faith is based on what God says.

Often our lives seem to resemble the shipwreck experienced by Paul. In the midst of the storms of life that come our way, if we are walking by feelings, it might seem as if the Lord has forsaken us and all hope is gone. But we know He hasn't, because He said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee'''' (Heb. 13:5).

In the midst of the storms of life, we can say, "Wherefore, sirs, I believe God!"

Chapter 4

Enemies of Faith

Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

— 1 Tim. 6:12

In this chapter we are going to deal with some hindrances to faith. There wouldn't be a fight of faith if there were no enemies of faith. But the enemies of faith are not what most people think they are. Most people look for enemies in the natural realm, and that's not where they are at all.

The Bible says in Romans 10:17, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. " The greatest hindrance to faith is a lack of knowledge of God's Word.

Because faith comes by hearing the Word of God, all the enemies of faith will be connected in some way with our lack of knowledge of God's Word.

If you have a knowledge of God's Word, nothing can keep it from working, because it comes by hearing. If you have heard the Word, you have faith.

People pray to get faith, yet faith only comes by hearing the Word of God. If you could get it by praying for it, then Romans 10:17 would be untrue. People who pray for faith are attempting to get what the Word alone can give.

One of the most prominent enemies of faith is a sense of unworthiness. All of us have had a battle with that. A sense of unworthiness and a sense of lack of faith go hand in hand. These two are perhaps the most subtle, dangerous weapons of the devil.

We can find the answer to these feelings in God's Word. The answer is this: Your worthiness is Jesus Christ!

God does not heal your body or baptize you in the Holy Spirit on the basis of your individual worthiness. If He did, no one would ever receive these blessings from God, because no one could be worthy in his or her own right.

Not knowing the Word, many Christians allow feelings of unworthiness to defeat them. People have told me they were sure they wouldn't be filled with the Holy Spirit because they weren't good enough—they were unworthy. Praying with people for healing, I have run into the same situation many times.

The trouble is that the individual looks at himself from the natural standpoint. He is acquainted with all of his shortcomings, mistakes, faults, and failures, and he looks at himself from this natural standpoint rather than looking at himself from the Biblical standpoint—the way God looks at him.

I struggled with this problem while I was a teenage invalid 50 years ago. I thought I was being humble. I didn't know I was just being stupid. I' m weak and unworthy, I thought. From the natural standpoint that may have been true, but it wasn't from the Biblical standpoint.

The Bible says, "The entrance of thy words giveth light" (Ps. 119:130), and once the light is in your spirit, it can't be removed, even though the devil will do his best to confuse you. He'll try to keep you from walking in the light, and he'll even go as far as saying, "That's true, all right. The prayer of faith works. But you can't pray the prayer of faith because you aren't good enough.

You are too unworthy." He did that with me while I was bedfast.

Not knowing any better, I agreed with him and remained an invalid several months longer.

I came to a different conclusion, however, as I read Second Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

Paul said, writing to the church at Ephesus, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus ..." (Eph. 2:10). We did not make ourselves new creatures; He made us new creatures.

The 24th verse of Ephesians 4 continues, "And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. "

I asked myself the question, "Did He make an unworthy new creature? Would He make a new creature that wasn't good enough to stand in His presence?"

Then I saw where I was making my mistake. Instead of believing what the Bible said about me—the real me, the man on the inside—I was looking at the outward man and my physical shortcomings. I was passing my judgment on the case when I should have been accepting God's estimation of it. I knew God did not make any unworthy new creature. If He did, that would be belittling His work.

He made us a new creature in Christ Jesus. Our worthiness is Christ Jesus. I look a lot better in Him than I do any other way!

And that is the way God sees me: in Him. He doesn't really see me; He looks at Jesus and sees me in Jesus, as we just read:

"Therefore if any man be IN CHRIST, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

When I learned this truth, it was a giant step toward releasing my faith and having faith to receive physical healing.

Your worthiness is Jesus Christ the righteous! He is the righteous One, and you are the righteousness of God in Him.

"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" {2 Cor. 5:21).

Because we are in Him, we have become the righteousness of God. Therefore, a sense of unworthiness on our part is a denial of the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ, of our standing in Christ, and of Christ's righteousness before God the Father which has been granted to us.

The Word of God will help you rid yourself of this sense of unworthiness; and when you are rid of it, the sense of a lack of faith also will leave. They are tormenting twins of the enemy that have come to rob you of the blessings Christ secured for you.

Another enemy of faith—the reason so many are defeated in their faith life—is that they accept a substitute for faith. They try to substitute either hope or mental agreement for faith.

People constantly say, "Well, I'm hoping and praying ..."

One man remarked as a friend started a trip, "I hope and pray you will have a safe journey." His prayer was in vain because it was in hope. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that God hears the prayer of hope. The Bible speaks of the prayer of faith: "And the prayer of faith shall save the sick ..." (James 5:15). (If James had said the prayer of hope would do it, we would all automatically have results, because hope is the natural human thing to do.) Jesus taught, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, BELIEVE that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mark 11:24). Believe—not hope—that you receive.

We must remind people constantly of these things, because it's so easy to slip back into the natural. Peter wrote, "... I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance" (2 Peter 3:1). He was calling to their remembrance things he already had told them, knowing that people need to be stirred up, because we are living in this world, and hope is the natural human reaction. You may call it believing, but that doesn't make it so, any more than calling a Model T Ford an airplane would make it an airplane.

You may say, "I believe God is going to do something for me. I believe He is going to heal me. I believe God is going to hear and answer my prayer someday." That is hope; that isn't believing. You may call it believing, but it is still hope, because you are postponing it to the future.

Faith is present tense. The Bible tells us that God has done something for us now: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" (Eph. 1:3). Blessings already are provided for us in Christ Jesus. God doesn't have to do one thing more; it is already done.

Although healing is manifested in the physical realm, it actually is a spiritual blessing, because it is spiritual healing.

God is not going to heal your body. He is not going to do one thing about healing you. He's already done all He is ever going to do about healing you, because He laid your sickness and disease on Jesus. Jesus already has borne them for you, and by His stripes " ye were healed."

Get your believing in line with what the Word of God says.

Quit hoping. Start believing that by His stripes you are healed—not because you feel like it or see it, but because His Word says it. Start saying, "According to His Word, I am healed."

If someone asks you how you feel, answer according to the Word, not according to the natural. We walk by faith, not by sight.

This is the way I defeated the devil and received my healing as a teenage invalid. I said, "According to God's Word, I am healed." I never said a word about how I felt. People would say, "You look as if you can hardly put one foot in front of the other." They didn't know it, but I felt that way, too! However, healing did become a reality in my body, and it was manifested because of my faith.

I like the translation of Hebrews 11:1 that reads, "Now faith is giving substance to things hoped for." Hope doesn't have any substance, but faith gives substance to what you hope for. In other words, it is your faith that gives substance to the healing in your life. It is there in the spirit realm, but you want it here in this substance realm where it can be seen and felt. Your faith gives substance to that.

A marvelous example of this kind of faith that stands on God's Word in the face of all apparent contradictions was the healing of a certain 9-year-old boy. Three doctors—two were specialists—had given him up to die. They said, "We've done all we can. There isn't a thing that can be done medically. The boy's kidneys have stopped functioning. It is just a matter of time and he will be gone."

When neither of the child's parents spoke or showed any sign of emotion, the doctor, thinking they were too shocked to speak, repeated what he had just said and concluded with the statement "Your child will be dead shortly."

"No, doctor," they said calmly. "He will not die. The Word of God says in Matthew 8:17, 'Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses. ' Our child will live."

The child was in intensive care. His mother could go in to see him for ten minutes in the morning and his father could see him briefly at night.

The father told the boy, "Now, son, if you don't sleep, quote the Scripture in Matthew 8:17 all night long and say, 'Himself took my infirmities and bare my sicknesses. Himself took my infirmities and bare my sicknesses. Himself took my infirmities and bare my sicknesses. By His stripes I am healed.' " After three nights of repeating that, the boy was healed and went home.

His parents testified later, "Brother Hagin, if it hadn't been for the teaching of the Word in your meetings, we wouldn't have made it. We would have lost him. But, thank God, we knew how to stand on His Word in our darkest hour."

When the crisis came, these parents were prepared for it.

They were well fortified with the Word. Their believing was in the right place: not in what their physical senses told them—not in the circumstances surrounding them—but in what God's Word said.

Another enemy of faith is wavering. James 1:6,7 warns, "But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man [the one who wavers] think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. "

A wavering faith won't work. Once you take your stand, don't waver. I learned at an early age to take my stand, say, "I believe I receive," and never move from that position. I hold fast to that confession.

The greatest battles that have ever been fought have not been fought in the air, on the sea, or on the battlefields of the world.

They have been fought in the human mind (See 2 Cor. 10:3-5).

After I received my healing, some alarming heart symptoms tried to come back on me. The devil would bring to my mind everything my doctors had ever said about my heart condition. I knew those symptoms could mean death, but I never budged an inch. I didn't discuss the problem with anyone. The devil kept telling me, "You are not going to make it. You're going to die.

Remember what the doctor said!"

I went off by myself, put my Bible on the floor, and stood on it. Then I said, "Lord, I know that standing on the Bible physically isn't going to do one bit of good, but I'm illustrating something: I'm standing on your Word, and I'm not going to waver. I'm not going to move off of it. I'm standing here literally, physically, to demonstrate the fact that spiritually, on the inside of me, I'm standing on the Word.

"The Word says, '. . . What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. ' I believe I receive. I say it today. I said it yesterday. I'll say it tomorrow. I say it in the presence of the devil and all the imps of hell. I believe I receive. I say it in the presence of God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and all the holy angels. I believe I receive. It is written, 'Forever thy word is settled in heaven.' God cannot fail."

Then I picked up my Bible, tucked it under my arm—and every symptom I had in my body disappeared. I had refused to waver. Wavering faith is an enemy that will defeat you in the battles of life.

We often wonder why it is so hard to believe God and "fight the good fight of faith" Paul wrote about in First Timothy 6:12.

The reason is because we are surrounded by an antagonistic atmosphere in this world. The world is presided over by Satan, the enemy of all righteousness. Paul calls him the god of this world, the prince of the powers of the air. We live in Satan's unreal world, surrounded by currents of unbelief that are so subtle they can dominate us before we realize what's happening.

These currents of unbelief are so persistent that only a few ever rise above them. For example, to believe God for finances is a continual struggle against the materialistic currents that buffet us. To believe in Christ for victory over sin can be a never-ending battle with the spiritual hosts of darkness. To believe in God for healing for the physical body is to put up a battle against centuries of trust in medicine alone.

Therefore, living in this world as we do, it is easy to base our faith on physical evidence instead of on the Word of God. That, however, is an enemy of faith. That is to be like Thomas.

Bible faith is like the faith of Abraham, as we see in Galatians 3:7, ". . . they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham."

Faith believes in things it does not see. Jesus said to Thomas, ". . . because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed" (John 20:29).

Faith gives substance to things not seen. One translation of Hebrews 11:1 says, "Faith is the conviction of the reality of things when they are not seen. " The Amplified Bible says, "...faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses."

Faith changes hope into reality. Faith acts in the face of contrary evidence. The physical senses, the outward man, the natural mind (if unrenewed in the Word of God) will declare that it cannot be; it is not so.

But faith will shout above the turmoil, "It is!" Faith counts the thing done before God has acted.

The Bible says concerning Abraham, ". . . he . . . believed, even God who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were" (Rom. 4:17). Counting something done before God has acted compels God's action.

God is a faith God, and He operates on the principle of faith. We are faith children because we are begotten of God, and we are to live by faith. We receive from God by faith.

Jesus said in Mark 11:24—that great classic text on faith—"... what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. "

Table of Contents

1 - Two Kinds of Truth

2 - Two Kinds of Faith

3 - Two Kinds of Unbelief

4 - Enemies of Faith

Table of Contents

1 - Two Kinds of Truth

2 - Two Kinds of Faith

3 - Two Kinds of Unbelief

4 - Enemies of Faith