“The effectual fervent prayer of the righteous avails much”

My faith journey started with a need for healing and ended up being all about my relationship with the Lord.  Early on I knew that to be healed I needed faith.  The problem was obtaining faith.  How could I get this effective substance? I tried so hard my brain hurt to ‘understand faith!’  I got the concept of hearing the Word, believing it as true and asking the Lord in prayer for the promise contained in the Word but shaking it down from my head to my heart was the sticking point.

I was my own issue.  I could see the blue-print for healing but didn’t understand my role in it.  I saw all the process points as things for me to achieve, to tick off.  I had made it all about the knowledge and overlooked the heart; I was so desperate for healing I couldn’t see the Healer.

With gentle leading, the Lord took me by the hand and led me on a pathway that drip-fed His Word into my heart one stepping stone at a time.

Each pathway will differ person to person for the Lord truly knows us and knows the best way forward for us;  for me it was a series of revelatory moments with some key scriptures.  As we spend time in God’s Word, our spirit grows stronger, our hearts softer and our ears more aware of the Lord’s presence and voice.

For me it started with 2 Corinthians 10:5 –

“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ”

Your imagination can be a very powerful thing to contend with.  When my mind would race at one hundred miles an hour, I would speak this scripture over and over.  When thoughts would project potential outcomes or consequences, I would hold fast to this scripture.

A scripture that soon followed was Ephesians 4:23-24 (AMP) –

“And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind (having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude), and put on the new nature (the regenerate self) created in God’s image, (Godlike) in true righteousness and holiness.”

To have our mind renewed is to have the auto-pilot of thinking ‘what do I think’ turned off and to begin to not think and form an opinion before we have sought what the Lord thinks on the matter.  We have been conditioned from children to think about how we feel, what our opinion is and that perspective is reality.  To walk the regenerated Christian life is to take on the new nature and to think in a completely different way; this isn’t to say that all our views may be different but rather the process in which we think changes, the first reaction becomes ‘ what do you think Lord’ rather than ‘what do I think’.

You cannot have mind renewal without spending time in the Word of God.  Our thought process changes when we choose to yield to God’s ways.  Enter the next scripture….Isaiah 55:8-9.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

When meditating on Isaiah 55:8-9 and studying the Word, trust began to develop.  As we surrender our lives over to the Lord we begin to develop trust and see just how great our God is.  In trust we see that the Lord is joyful, strong, a defender of those who rest in Him, the Giver of life and life in abundance.

I began to lean heavily on the promise of protection in Psalm 5:11-12 –

“But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice; let them ever shout for joy because You defendest them; let them also that love Your name be joyful in You.  For You Lord will bless the righteous; with favour will You encompass them as with a shield”.

As the Lord began to develop a foundation for faith in my heart, my journey to healing started to take shape. Bit by bit, as we give our trust to the Lord, He leads and guides us to the depths of the Word that bring comfort, deliverance and a true relational experience of knowing Him; faith blossoms as we spend time getting to know the Lord’s heart.

Isaiah 53:4-5 had been a scripture often quoted, although I knew it, I didn’t have a heart understanding of it.  We can see the promise of healing through the cross in this scripture with our eyes but to receive of the Lord, we need to see the promise with our heart.

“Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”

Healing is a promise of God.  Through Jesus’ shed blood at Calvary the price was paid not only for our eternal life but for healing, spirit soul and body.  Standing in need at the edge of this scripture, the chasm between the promise and it manifesting in our lives can seem insurmountable for being unwell creates a desperation for health.  We need to dig deeper into the Lord’s Word to see the worth He places on staying true to His Word.  It is there we find Isaiah 55:11 –

“So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”

Holding fast to this promise was a big stepping stone for me.  When adding in Romans 4:21 – “being fully persuaded that God had the power to do what He had promised” – traction took place.

Mark 11:24 says “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”  This scripture is life-giving hope for those who are in need of healing.  When we understand that healing is a promise of the Lord, it is His WILL that we be healed we can take this scripture and pray in faith to receive the Lord’s healing graces.  When we believe to be healed we need to continue to confess the Lord’s words over our life.  We need to ignore what can be seen or felt and see that the Lord’s word is higher; higher than everything that would assault itself against us in life.  Every good and perfect gift is from the Lord and healing is more than a gift it is the Lord’s Will for your life.

Spend time with the Lord, give time to reading the Word, pray and ask the Lord to lead you on a pathway through His Word to your need being met.  

What begins as stepping stones soon becomes a firm foundation as we continue to trust the Lord; from this foundation prayers of faith emerge and effect change.