Faith Ignores Symptoms

Faith Ignores Symptoms

By Harold Horton

Many sick people, when they have been prayed for, almost

unconsciously examine their symptoms, their feelings and

appearances, to see if they are healed. It is very evident that that is not

faith. That is "putting the cart before the horse," the effect before the

cause. It is an attempt to measure the Word of God, not by God's

faithfulness, but by what we have understood and proved of it. We must not come to God to

see IF He heals us. We must come with full assurance of faith that He will and does heal us.

God never tries to heal us. God never half or partially heals us. If we do not seem to be

healed it is because we have not yet assuredly believed. If we seem to be only partially

healed it is because we have only partially believed. Healing does not at all depend on what

we see or feel, but on what we BELIEVE.

DON'T EXPECT RETURN

Only recently a good brother came to me to be prayed for an obstinate hernia. He said he had

been healed long ago but that the swelling kept coming back again. I told him as graciously

as I could that it kept coming back because he really expected it to come back. The fact that

he was still wearing a truss proved the accuracy of my words, Now, I am not here

considering the legitimacy or otherwise of "means" - that is another subject.

I am discussing the reason why this hernia kept showing up again. Obviously he was

expecting it to come back. He was even making provision for its reappearance. The sure way

to discover signs of returning symptoms is to look for them and prepare for them. The

enemy will help you to find them almost any time you like. Faith ignores symptoms, and

relies absolutely on the Word of God - let me not be misunderstood. We are of course to

expect manifestations of perfect healing. There is no healing without health. But the

manifestation always follows the faith.

The kind of manifestation accords with the degree of faith. But faith must always go first. I

reminded you in a former study that David had so many enemies (so have you, dear friend

and I) that he came to the position in God where he determined not to acknowledge them.

He "ran through troops" - which is better than fighting them. He ignored what he saw. All

the "armies of the aliens" are really defeated and "turned to flight" for us the moment when

in real faith and understanding we set foot in the Kingdom of God. We can, if we understand

this, ignore them.

FEAR OF DEFEAT

Fear of defeat is a fruitful source of enemy manifestations. If you fear them and look for

them, symptoms will appear and follow you like a pack of hungry wolves. Recognition and

examination of them emboldens them. Bold courage and living faith intimidate them; they

will slink away defeated. Resist them and they will flee from you. If you look to see IF you are healed you may easily find that you are not. Fearsome symptoms dog your steps in fear

and unbelief. If you BELIEVE, evil symptoms leave you victorious and inviolate, and health

symptoms catch you up and accompany you to your infinite delight.

Consider the incident from which we have taken our text. Jesus was hungry. He came to a

fig tree, expecting to find fruit. There was no fruit. He thereupon withered it with a word of

faith. In the morning, "Peter calling to remembrance said unto him, Master, the fig tree

which thou cursedst is withered away." Why did Peter wait until "the morning" to say "The

fig tree is withered away?" No doubt because the evening before, when Jesus actually spoke

to the tree, Peter did not think it was withered away for to him and the other disciples It did

not look as if it were withered away. Perhaps, like thousands since their day, they were

looking at symptoms instead of God and His eternal unbreakable Word.

As Jesus spoke, the evening before, they might have been thinking: "The Master has spoken

His destructive Word, but so far as we can see, there is no immediate result. There is the tree

exactly as it stood - the same root, the same stem, the same branch, the same twig, the same

leaf. No change. The Master has worked many wonderful miracles in our sight, but this time

He seems to have failed." But - "in the morning, as they passed by" their verdict was

reversed. They saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. They needed to see to believe. Last

evening they were looking at the tree instead of the Word of the Master. But last evening

Jesus was not looking at the tree but at the Omnipotent Word of His unfailing Father. They

were looking at symptoms and seeing failure.

Christ was looking at His Word of Faith and seeing victory. They were considering the look

of things and missing the reality. Christ was considering the reality of the situation and

ignoring appearances. "Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away!"

Of course it was! It was withered away last night when Jesus spoke to it, but they did not

believe it because they did not see it! Jesus knew it was withered away because He

BELIEVED IT, ignoring symptoms. It was when they realized the actuality of Faith's

product that Jesus said to them: "Have faith in God." They had been having faith in

appearances; in physical manifestations, in miracles and fig leaves - that is, in symptoms -

instead of in God and God's Word spoken by God's mighty Son. Sight may deceive us.

Appearances may mislead. Miracles may seem to fall, Leaves may appear to persist.

Symptoms may lie. But God's Word cannot fail, and God's love cannot deceive.

Beloved sufferer, if you have been prayed for. Jesus has already spoken the withering Word

to that unprofitable growth or development in your body. It is dead and will do you no more

harm. Believe it until you even SEE that it will do no harm. Appearances will align with

faith.

The evening before, as Jesus spoke the withering Word, the tree immediately became lifeless

and harmless. So with your disease, even though appearances do not seem to have changed.

But the next day the tree became, not only lifeless and harmless, but leafless and fruitless,

that is symptomless. The next day, in a word, the tree looked what it actually was in Jesus'

mind the day before - checked and rotted and defunct. No unprofitable growth can withstand

the Word of the Lord of Life and Health. Jesus has spoken the Word of power now to your

disease. Believe it.

Do not look to see if the condition has changed. Look to the unfailing Word and believe it

has changed. Ignore symptoms and rejoice in faith. The work is done the moment the Word

is spoken. The change has come the instant the heart has accepted it by faith. The dreaded

disease is gone by faith - Keep hold of faith until it has gone in fact. Do not look at leaves

and twigs and branches and bark-swellings and sores and pains.

Look at the promise, and the Word, and the Lord - and believe! Symptoms will tell you the

tree is the same. Faith will assure you the thing is dead. Jesus believed His Word. You do

the same. The same result will accrue for you as for Him. Following this incident, in a word

that has blessed and encouraged and delivered thousands of real believers down the

centuries, Jesus announced, "Have faith in God . . . What things soever ye desire, when ye

pray, believe that ye have taken them (Greek), and ye shall have them."

Consider again that devil's hateful trinity mentioned above - swellings and sores and pains....

How dreadful and threatening they are! They are like the three "sons of Anak, Sheshai, and

Ahiman, and Talmai," (Josh. 15:14), fearsome giants, who terrorized the people of God for

years, and challenged their entry into the Land of Promise. Of them the terrified spies said

(the unbelieving spies, who went into the Land to see IF God's promise was true - instead of

believing it), "There we saw the giants, the sons of Anak: and we were in our own sight as

grasshoppers, and so were we in their sight." But had not God already said, "Thou shalt not

be afraid of them," though they were "a people great and tall, whom thou knowest, and of

whom thou hast heard say, Who can stand before the children of Anak! Understand

therefore this day, that the Lord thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming

fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive

them out, and destroy them quickly, as the Lord thy God hath said unto thee!" (Deut. 9:2, 3).

Is not that wonderful encouragement! Therefore courageous Caleb ("whose faith follow" )

prayed: "If so be the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them cut, as the Lord

hath said." Thus, testifying to his faith and the faithfulness of God, we triumphantly read

that "Caleb drove thence the three sons of Anak, Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai," (Josh.

15: 14).

So, beloved child of God, if you too are molested by those modern sons of Anak," Pains and

Swellings and Sores; if after prayer they have persistently plagued you and challenged your

entry into the Promised Land of Health; now - in the Name of the Lord, take victory over

them, and, like Caleb, drive them off your territory. Or rather, accept the fact that they are

driven off long ago by one Mightier than Caleb. They are beaten at Calvary, and you are free

from their power as you stand in faith. Arise in victory now. Slip past the beaten bullies. Do

not bow to them. Do not recognize them. Do not see them. Ignore them.

Jesus has dealt with them and driven them out of your pathway and life. Ignore their power

and their very presence. Stand in Christ's victory, and rejoice. The manifestation of victory

will follow the Faith.

It is perfectly natural to look for symptoms. But divine healing is perfectly supernatural. It is

not a physical thing. It is, like salvation, a thing of grace. Both are by faith and not by sight

or feeling. If you look for symptoms you are limited by what you see. Faith leaps far beyond

sight and lives in a realm of perfect heaven-centered liberty and victory. Faith has X-ray

eyes that see the invisible through the visible, the reality beyond the seeming. The invisible

is always in Christ, that serene peace and health and harmony in spirit, soul and body that

Jesus died to purchase for all who believe. Symptoms will mislead you. Mistrust them. God

will deliver you. Trust Him. Arise - come to Him in the scriptural way - and claim His

perfect redeeming work for your body - NOW. In spite of everything- trust Him. Faith

ignores symptoms. Because Faith trusts God.