Andrew Wommack - God Wants You Well - Part 15

Welcome to our Friday’s broadcast of The Gospel Truth. Today is the end of my third week of teaching on the subject, God wants you well, and I tell you, I’ve got a lot more to share so we’re going to continue on this on our programs next week. Let me also mention that we have a lot of materials available. One of the things that we’re offering is this little mp3 card, and there’s 43 hours' worth of my teaching, not only on the subject of healing, but on you’ve already got it, and if you’ve watched my teaching, like the testimony of Mike Hoesch when he was healed of this big cancer that was on his chest, it was the teaching on, you’ve already got it, that set him free and caused his healing to come.

There’s other people that it’s my teaching on the power of your words and what you say and how you use that. There’s other people that it’s the authority of the believer and showing about how we take our authority that causes people to be healed. There could be other people that the thing that’s going to set you free is understanding about the love of God because Galatians, chapter 5, verse 6 says, faith works by love, so healing is a complicated issue because there’s so many things. Sometimes sicknesses are emotionally related. Sometimes they’re related to unforgiveness, sometimes they’re related to bitterness that’s in your life, and there’s just a multitude of things that are involved, but this week what I’ve been talking about is that faith has to be like the foundation.

It’s not the only thing that’s required, you can be believing God and still not see the manifestation of your healing and I’m going to talk about that later, but you have to at least be believing God, and there’s people that don’t believe that. I’ve used examples of my own pastor: I’ve used examples of a fellow minister who believes that the person receiving has to have no faith whatsoever and I’ve already dealt with some of those things about the son that was raised from the dead at the city of Nain in Luke, chapter 7 and other places. So, we’ve already covered a lot of materials. I encourage you to please get these products that we’re offering because it will answer your questions and it’ll really, really help you.

Let me take a passage here out of Mark, chapter 9. Yesterday I used Matthew 17 about when Jesus came down to the multitude off of the Mount of Transfiguration that a father of a boy had brought his son to Jesus and Jesus was up on this mountain, so he asked his disciples if they could cure him of these seizures and the disciples tried and they couldn’t do it and Jesus wasn’t pleased with their inability to meet the needs of people. He said, o you faithless and perverse generation, how long am I going to be with you? How long do I have to suffer you, or carry you on my own. He was trying to teach his disciples to do this, and before I get to my main point today, let me just point out that Jesus wasn’t pleased with their inability to heal people.

Likewise, I don’t believe that Jesus is pleased with his church’s inability to heal people today. He gave us power to heal. I’ve already used these verses in the very beginning three weeks ago. In Matthew, chapter 10 he gave them power over all sickness, over all disease, over all devils to cast them out, and he gave us a command to go preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, and raise the dead, all that out of Matthew, chapter 10. He gave that power to us and we are supposed to be operating in this. Mark 16 says, if we’re believers, these are the signs that will follow us and one of those is lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

James, chapter 5 if you’re sick, call the elders of the church and let them pray over you, and the prayer of faith will save the sick. We’ve already talked about all of these things. The Lord is not pleased with our inability to represent him, and let me say this, I’m not trying to condemn anybody by those statements because you know what? I don’t see every single person healed. I see a lot of people healed, I’ve seen tens of thousands of people healed, but I still don’t see every person healed. I’ve seen some people who were very close to me, people that I love and who as far as I could tell were believing God and I’ve seen them die and I don’t think I’ve accurately or adequately represented the Lord. I’m seeking, I want to be stronger in this. I’m learning. I’m still green and growing, I haven’t stopped.

So, I’m not condemned, I’m not condemned by my inability to minister to people. I look at the ones who are receiving, but I’m also not complacent, I’m still wanting to learn more. So, the reason I’m saying this is to say, I’m not condemned by what I’m saying, I don’t want you to be condemned, but at the same time, I don’t want you to be complacent. Our religious culture today does not place an emphasis on healing. There are many people that believe that it’s actually wrong to administer healing and to encourage people and to get their hopes up for healing. I’m telling you, you need to get your hopes up because faith provides the substance of things hoped for, and yet the church just doesn’t want to get people’s hopes up. They don’t want anybody to go to believing in healing and then be disappointed.

Man, I tell you, you need to get your hopes up: you need to go to believing God. So anyway, Jesus was disappointed with their inability to minister healing and I believe he’s disappointed with the church today, their inability, our inability to minister healing. We need to be stronger in this area for the individual’s sake and also for the testimony of the gospel. I tell you, we need to be strong in this. So, this same story that I read from yesterday is also recorded in Mark’s gospel, chapter 9, and there’s some added information in Mark’s gospel.

So, let me read this to you out of Mark. In Mark, chapter 9, in verse 19, he answered him and said, o, faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither unto me. And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him, talking about the boy who had this demon, saw him, straightway the spirit tare him: and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming. And he asked the father, how long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, of a child. And oftentimes it hath cast him into the fire, and oft into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us.

Now, this is really an amazing statement. Jesus asked the father, how long has he had this? And he said, a long time, since he was a child, and sometimes it’ll cast him into the water, sometimes into the fire, but if you can do anything, have compassion on us, and heal him. The father had brought this boy to Jesus because he believed that Jesus could heal him, but after the disciples tried to minister healing to him and nothing happened and now here the boy was brought to Jesus and here it looks like it’s getting worse, he’s having a seizure right in front of Jesus, this father began to waiver in his faith.

I’ve already used these verses out of James, chapter 1, verse 5, that if anybody lacks wisdom, all they have to do is ask of God and he’ll give wisdom without upbraiding, but you’ve got to ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that waivers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. Let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all of his ways, and it’s saying there that when you believe, you’ve got to believe only and not waiver, you’ve got to be strong with it, and this man was beginning to waiver in his faith. «If you can do anything».

See, that’s not a statement of faith, that’s a statement of desperation. I’m not condemning this man for it. Man, if I had a son that, you know, his entire life he had been in this, I could understand this happening, but it doesn’t matter, it’s still not faith. And look how Jesus responded unto him. Jesus didn’t respond by saying, well, don’t worry, I understand exactly. You’re just fine, stay right where you are, I’ll take care of this. I’ll heal this boy, you don’t have to believe. See, that’s the way that it would be approached today. We would go out of our way to keep any person from feeling like there was any responsibility on their part, we wouldn’t want them to be condemned if something doesn’t work. I’m telling you, that’s the mindset of our day, but it’s wrong. Jesus didn’t follow that.

Look at how Jesus responded to this man. Jesus said unto him, if you can believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. Jesus wasn’t about to accept this man’s doubt and just throw it all over on Jesus. If you can believe, would you please do something? He said, no, he turned around to this man and he says, you have to believe. If you can believe, all things are possible to you, so again, Jesus is underscoring the fact that there had to be faith on this man’s part. He says, you have to believe. If you will believe, all things are possible, and this man responded by saying, he says, «Lord», he said with tears, «Lord, I believe: help thou my unbelief». In other words, there was faith there, but he was wavering, he was having unbelief pull at him and he cried out to Jesus to help me and Jesus did help him.

Here’s another point. It says in verse 25, when Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead: insomuch that many said, he is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up: and he arose. And when he was come unto the house, his disciples asked him privately, why could not we cast him out? So, Jesus went ahead and ministered healing. Here’s another point. It says specifically that when he saw the multitudes running together he spoke and went ahead and cast this demon out.

Did you know, this is exactly opposite the mindset of most people? If most people have sickness attack them, the first thing they do is start contacting everybody that they can think of to pray for them. They will call the church prayer chain, they will let everybody know. This one guy that I know, he put it on the internet about his son and they asked for people and they had thousands of people all over the world praying for his son and most people think that’s the way to go. Well, if they were praying in faith that would be okay, but the truth is that most people do not have faith in this area of healing. They might believe it can happen, but they don’t have faith that it will happen and they’re going to express their unbelief and one of the worst things that you can do when you get sick is to tell everybody and ask them to pray for you because they’re going to be praying doubt and unbelief and it’ll become a hindrance to you instead of a help.

This verse specifically says that when he saw the multitudes come running together, then he spoke to this demon and got him out. It’s emphasizing that he did not want all of their unbelief. You can turn over to the 5th chapter of the book of Mark and you can find where Jesus went to heal Jairus’s daughter and when he got there, there were all of these mourners that were, you know, paid mourners, wailing and travailing and crying, and he says, don’t weep, the daughter, damsel isn’t dead, she’s just asleep, and man, they mocked him, they laughed at him. Their wailing turned to laughter in just a moment and they ridiculed him and you know what he did? He put them all out, he separated the unbelief and got apart from the unbelief and then he raised Jairus’s daughter from the dead.

You can see the same thing happen with Peter. When he raised Dorcas from the dead, he put everybody out and he went in by himself. You can see when Elijah raised the widow’s son from the dead, he went in by himself. When Elisha raised the Shunammite’s son from the dead, he put everybody else out and he went in by himself. There are eight separate instances of people raising others from the dead in the New Testament scripture, individual instances, and in each one of them they sought seclusion because the unbelief of other people. People just don’t believe in this and one of the worst things you could do is to get everybody praying for you because I can guarantee you that a bunch of them are not going to be in faith.

You need to be selective, you need to pick and choose the people that you need or that you ask to pray for you, and you can see that in Jesus dealing with them. But he spoke to this father and he says, if you can believe, all things are possible. Jesus did not accept total responsibility for this miracle. He had to have somebody stand in faith, and this man said, I believe, with tears, which means he was giving it all he had. I believe: but help my unbelief. You don’t have to be a faith giant. As we go on and talk about this, I’m going to show you how that all you need is just a little mustard seed amount of faith. You don’t need to be a faith giant, but it needs to be pure. It needs to be void of unbelief that hinders it and counter balances your faith and you do have to have faith.

I think that it’s really important to make this point. I’m nearly belaboring it, but the reason is because when I teach on healing and say that it’s God’s will, and man, faith comes by hearing, every time I do this, I will have somebody who gets absolutely convinced that healing is a part of the atonement and that God wants people well and they believe it so strong, they are so excited, they go out and they don’t even take into account the other person that they’re going to be praying for. They just think, I believe, and so they’re going to minister this healing and you are setting yourself up for failure.

I can guarantee you, if you don’t acknowledge that the person you are ministering to has to have some degree of faith, you are going to fail and you’re going to make some bold proclamation that, you’re healed, and this person’s not going to manifest a healing and then you’ll have egg on your face and the gospel will look like, well, you’re just proclaiming something but it can’t work, and the reason that it happened that way is because you didn’t take into account the other person’s faith.

I’ve already used Mark, chapter 6, Matthew 13:58, where Jesus couldn’t do many mighty works because of their unbelief. I’ve used this example, where this father, he had to have some faith. Jesus said, if you believe, it’s not all about what I believe, it’s what you believe, and there’s just many, many, many instances. You need to understand this as you not only receive healing for yourself, but as you go out and start sharing these truths with other people. You know, when I first got turned onto the Lord, I didn’t understand this and I just started praying for anything that would move and I did see some miraculous manifestations of healing, but as often as not, I would see people not manifest healing and it confused me.

If you aren’t careful, it will hinder your faith, it’ll wound you and it confused people that I ministered to, and as I started studying the word, I found these things out and found out there are reasons why people aren’t healed. There’s many of them, but one simple, basic foundational thing is there needs to be some faith on their part. This is why you can’t go into a hospital and just empty a hospital. Some of you are thinking, well, everybody in a hospital wants to be well, that’s why they’re in the hospital. They may desire to be well, but they don’t believe God can do it and I know some of you struggle with this because you haven’t been in the hospitals and prayed for people.

I’ve been in, I don’t know, dozens, hundreds of hospitals, prayed for many, many people, and I’m telling you, most of the people in there want to be well, not all of them, most of them, but very few of them will believe that God can just heal them miraculously. They’re looking for it to come in some natural way, they’re praying that God will guide the doctor’s hand, will give him wisdom to give them the right medicine. I’m not against doctors, I’m not against medicine, but if you just go in and try and minister healing to a person, most people are not ready and do not want to receive a supernatural healing, and I know that there’s some of you watching this program say, I just don’t believe that. Well, you just haven’t gone into a hospital and prayed for many people.

I remember an instance, I was in a hospital and there was a guy that was in a wheelchair, had his crutches on his bed and he was in the wheelchair and I got to telling him that God wanted him well and he said, well, if it’s God’s will, and I said, no, it is God’s will. He said, oh, God’s getting glory out of all of this, and I said, no, God gets glory when you get well. God wants to just heal you, and he says, the doctors can’t do anything, and I said, but God can, and I just pressed him and was trying to get him to receive a supernatural healing from God, this guy got so mad that he started yelling at me and here he is in a wheelchair, he grabbed one of his crutches off of the bed and started swinging at me and chased me down the hall of the hospital yelling at me and swinging his crutch at me because I was telling him God could heal him supernaturally and he wouldn’t receive it.

I know some of you think I’m making this up, but you can’t make up stuff like that. I was in a hospital room one time with a guy who was dying. He was on life support and the guy looked like he was already dead. He had tubes in him and there must have been five or six doctors standing around him. He was in intensive care and his family brought me in and the doctors said, no, we can’t have him in. This guy’s dying, we’ve got to work on him, and the family said, no, you will let him talk to him, so I started talking to this guy. He was an African, I think he was Nigerian, I’m not certain, but anyway, I started talking to him and I said, brother, God wants you well, God wants to heal you, and he says, I know God can heal, we just don’t know if it’s his will, and I said, no, it is his will. God wants you well, and he said, no, God’s getting glory out of this, and we started through this same thing and I said, God gets glory when you’re healed.

I was trying to get him to believe. Now, he wanted to be healed, but he wasn’t believing for healing because he was just, whatever God’s will is, «Que sera, sera, whatever will be, will be», and anyway, here this guy was with all these doctors, the heart monitor and everything, on his death bed, he could hardly move, and I started saying, no, God wants you well, and he got so mad at me, he got up on one elbow. His little heart monitor started going wild, the doctors grabbed me and called security and threw me out of the hospital because I was trying to get a person to believe in a supernatural healing. I’m telling you, not every person is believing God for healing. They may desire to be over the sickness, to be void of the problem, but that doesn’t mean they’re believing God.

I had another guy, I’ll have to do this quickly, but there was a guy that in the first church that I pastored, Seagoville, Texas, he used to be the sheriff there, I prayed for him: he was paralyzed from the waist down. He had a bullet in his back and I prayed for him and he was paralyzed, unable to move his legs, and he started moving his legs, kicking his legs, and I said, you’re healed, get out of that wheelchair, and he said, oh, I’ve got this gallbladder surgery and he had a tube from where they had done the incision down to this bag and he says, you know, I’m bent over, if I was to stand up, it would pull this tube out, and this was back in the very beginning of my ministry.

I wasn’t very aggressive and I just said, well, when you get this tube taken out and when the drainage is gone, then you get up and walk and stuff, and he said, okay, and I let him go. Well, it was a week or two before he got the tube out and after he got it out, he still was in the wheelchair. Long story, but I had another guy come minister to him and this guy had more maturity than I did and he knew that this guy was not all that he claimed to be and he said, if you really want to be healed, come to church tonight and I can guarantee you, you’ll get out of that wheelchair and walk, and the guy didn’t show up.

So, the next day after the evangelist was gone, I went over and said, why didn’t you come? And instead of me trying to force healing on this guy, I just got to asking him, what’s going on with you? And he broke down and cried and he said, I used to be the sheriff. I got shot. People think I’m a hero. They honor me. They do all of these things. People at my church tell me how I’m just bearing these sufferings for the Lord and I’m everybody’s favorite, I get money from the government.

He says, if I was to be healed, I don’t know what I would do. I can’t do anything else, and you know, it had been 20 years since he was sheriff, he says, I can’t do it. I can’t get out of this wheelchair, I would lose my money, I would lose the acclaim of people, and you know what? That man didn’t want to be healed. He was healed. His legs moved, but he wouldn’t get out of that wheelchair, and when I left Seagoville, he was still in that wheelchair because of all of these things.

I’m telling you, you have to believe, there has to be some degree of faith on your part in order to receive your healing. That’s not all that there is to it, but it’s an absolutely essential, basic part of receiving healing, you have to believe, not just believe it’s possible, but believe that God has done it, he’s put this power on the inside of you and now you can activate that supernatural power by the words that you speak, by the actions that you have and other things. I’m going to continue talking about this and share some things that I promise you will make a big difference.