Bringing Together Faith and Scripture to Experience God's Promises

Several years ago, a dear friend of mine, Carol, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The doctors told her there was no hope. A cancerous tumor had wrapped itself around a major artery, and according to a very well-known and respected surgeon, an operation would kill her. In other words, they gave her a death sentence. While Carol was obviously stunned, she chose to cling to God’s promises of healing in the Word of God. She refused to believe the doctors’ expectations and, instead, declared that God is her healer. Carol had a 30-year track record of standing on God’s Word, and because of her close relationship with God, she did not waver in her faith. She believed that He had saved her, and included in that salvation was healing for her body. About her fight of faith, she says, “I knew God doesn’t lie. I knew the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior was not in vain." This confident belief in her heart enabled her to stand strong, even when she was tempted with discouraging and hopeless thoughts. Over and over, Carol would declare, “I know God is real, and I have received my healing; it’s mine, and I have it now.” She wasn’t denying the reality of the sickness or the symptoms she experienced, but she was grabbing onto a deeper reality—that though the sickness and symptoms were real, they did not belong to her, because Jesus had already born her sicknesses and diseases and taken away her infirmities. She clung to the promise in Scripture that Jesus “took up our infirmities and bore our diseases” (Matt. 8:17; see Isa. 53:4), as well as many other promises of healing from Scripture. Carol told me she simply was not ready to die, and she refused to believe the negative report. Instead, she declared God’s Word out loud and stood strong in faith. Three months later, when she went to the doctor for her next set of scans, they discovered that the cancerous tumor was completely gone. The promises of God’s Word that Carol had held onto manifested in her life, just like she believed they would!!! That was three years ago, and she is still cancer free! This is the power of the prayer of faith that is firmly rooted in the promises of God’s Word.

As long as what we ask for aligns with God’s Word, we can confidently expect to receive it (see 1 John 5:14–15). This is step one in the prayer of faith. Once we know what need or desire we have, then step two is bolstering our faith in God’s promises. See, when we ask God for what we need but are not grounded in His promise to provide, if we do not immediately see His answer, we may begin to doubt. This is the enemy’s strategy against us that can cause us to sabotage the provision we seek.

When Jesus died on the cross and rose again, He made provision for abundant blessing in our lives. He gave us access to the storehouses of heaven and the wisdom of God. When we pray in faith, we are not begging God to provide. We are grabbing hold of the provision He has already made available to us—and we do that by faith. However, if our faith falters while we wait to see the provision manifest, we can actually miss out on the provision that God has for us. This is why it is absolutely crucial for us to know the promises of God and have them firmly rooted in our hearts and minds before we pray the prayer of faith. If we want to see results, we need to come to prayer armed with the promises of God from Scripture. This is the solid foundation that our faith needs.