Faith Believes Before it Receives

Faith Believes Before it Receives

By HAROLD HORTON

"Have faith in God (Have the faith of God. R.V.) ... What things

soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and

ye shall have them." Mark 11:22, 24.

Faith is the opposite principle of sight. One of the most difficult lessons to learn (it ought to

be the simplest) is that what we see has nothing at all to do with what we believe. It is only

difficult because we have an idea faith is profound. It is not. Faith is simple. If our faith were

but more simple, we would take Him at His Word. My old intimate friend, Wigglesworth,

often said in my hearing, that "Faith has nothing whatever to do with symptoms."

What we see may not be what we believe, but what we believe is bound to come to pass as

soon as we believe it. What we see, even after prayer; may often give the lie to what we

believe, but the liar is not faith but sight. What we believe already exists, though for the time

being we may not see it. When there are clashing evidences like that, one of them must be

wrong. Which is the culprit? What we believe or what we see? Which is the liar, faith or

sight? There ought to be no doubt in our minds about the matter when we view it in the light

of God. If we receive the Word as the voice of God, then it must be true. That being so, the

opposite evidence must be the lie. God says, "everyone that asketh receiveth." (Matt. 7:8.) If

when we ask we do not seem to receive, then the seeming must be wrong. But how often this

seeming is the only thing that people see and believe when they pray. In the natural order we

always want to see to believe. In God's order we must "believe to see.” Psalm 27:13.

Believing always precedes seeing. But just as truly, seeing always follows believing, that is

if believing is true, founded, unshakable, solid faith. When, therefore, we ask God for a thing

like healing, we must not look or feel to see whether or not we have it. "He that cometh to

God must believe THAT He is." We must not consult looks or feelings or symptoms. We

must consult the Word of God which says we already have the thing we ask for when we

believe. We must not, I repeat, look around to see if we have the thing we ask for. We must

believe and know that we certainly have it as we ask in faith. Asking is receiveing. Believing

is having. Faith is more than desiring... It is more than asking…It is possessing.

The promised land belonged to the people of God before they actually set foot on it. "Every

place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given you." Joshua 1:2, 3. God

here was not promising to give them the promised land. He was stating that He had already

given it to them. It was theirs! All they had to do was to believe and possess it.

So God has already "blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ."

(Eph. 1:3). All the heritage Jesus died to purchase for us is ours, now, at this moment. It is

not that God promises to give it to us. He has done that already. It is ours. All we have to do

is to set foot on it . . . To believe and possess it by faith.

Now healing for the body is part of that blessed inheritance represented by the land of

promise. It is therefore before us now, ready for our possession. God completed the work of

healing nearly 2,000 years ago when He placed all our diseases on the precious, flawless

Lamb of God, our Substitute. That heritage - healing - is now yours and mine. It is the

purchased possession, our Lover's legacy to us. We are the legitimate legatees, the heirs to

all the estate. We are not only right to go in and claim our very own inheritance; we are well

able to go in and possess it, as Caleb said, the people were well able to possess all the land

of Canaan. (Num. 13:30). Thousands missed that lovely land through common unbelief. God

grant we may not in the some way miss our inheritance of healing for our sickness through

the very same common, almost universal unbelief.

Look at the passage we are considering again, and divide it for clearness. "What things

soever ye desire." Soever means anything, Ye means everybody. What things means your

healing, beloved sufferer. It is perfectly natural and legitimate for the sick to desire healing.

God has budgeted for that very thing in the gospel of deliverance. Most people have been

taught so little or so poorly in the churches that they are afraid even to desire healing from

God, though they are strangely not afraid to desire healing from the human professionals.

Are you deathly sick, brother, sister? You are in divine order in desiring to be healed. One of

the names of your Saviour is Jehovah Rapha, "the Lord that healeth thee." Then begin there,

with absolute confidence that you are in the will of God. Desire strongly now your perfect

healing. Then add that the Lord has promised to give you even the desires of your heart. But

the next word is, Pray - "when ye pray." Here again many who do not know the Lord very

well (He loves them all the same) are afraid to pray lest they pray wrong. Do not try to

invent fine sentences. The Lord hears a broken cry, as He heard the cry of the young lad,

Ishmael, in his grief. (Gen. 21:17). Prayer is not talk, nor oratory. Some people think it is.

They thought so in Jesus' day. (Matt. 6:7). No. Prayer is need finding expression. Three

words will do, if you mean them and believe God takes you seriously. Pray now - "Lord heal

me." Again, to quote my dear old friend Wigglesworth, I have heard him more than once

declare that he could get more out of God "by believing Him for one minute than by talking

to Him all night." Do you get the truth of that? It is important. God never promises to answer

prayer in the abstract. There is a skyful of abstract prayer rising to God every day. He only

promises to answer BELIEVING prayer. Prayer that does not believe is not prayer in any

scriptural sense. When ye pray, BELIEVE. That is the next thing. Do it now. Put your hand

on your sick part, and ask God now in those three simple words in real faith: "Lord heal

me." Believe He does it NOW.

The next move is to "receive." When? Just now, the moment we pray. Now the text in the

King James version is "believe that ye receive them." But the text both in the American and

the English revision is “believe that you have received them.”... Which is mightier still. Do

not believe as you pray that God is going to give you what you ask for. Do not even believe

He is giving it to you. Believe that you have it - now. Indeed F. B. Meyer tells us that the

word in the original is much stronger even than "have received." He says it is a physical

word, violently active. He translates the verse this way: "What things soever you desire

when you pray, believe that you have taken them." We must believe, that is, before we

receive. Do that now with your healing. Take it - grasp it - seize it. Lay depredatory hands

on it. Snatch it. Make it yours. Hold it fast. Do not wait to see if it is coming. Do not look to

see if it is there. Take God's Word concerning it as the actual thing you are desiring. It is

yours, not for the asking, but for the taking. Assuredly know what God has assuredly

promised. Not because you can see it or feel it, but because you have taken it in the vice-like

grip of living faith, When you pray in faith of that sort, the faith of God, you already have

the thing you pray for. You have it because God says so. Believe that, and you have it

actually, visibly, sensibly, rejoicingly.

A good sister, wife of a Pentecostal pastor friend, in middle life suffered, like many sisters,

from internal prolapse. The Lord healed her and the healing stood for some years. But one

day, as she was ironing clothes in her kitchen, her inner organs once more slipped from their

moorings, She grew wrathful with the enemy, slapped down her iron, put up her hands and

cried. "Lord Jesus, I will not have this! You have healed me. I claim that healing now!" She

felt warm divine hands knit together her organs. She was healed. At that moment her

husband came into the house from a pastoral visit. 'As he saw his wife he said, "Mary, you

are rosy with the glory!" "Yes," she said - and told him what I have just written. "Ah, Mary,"

he said, "I am learning in my advanced years. I see there is something more than believing.

There is something more than receiving. It is TAKING ."

Take your healing now, sister, brother. Count on it - and God ... and rejoice.