One night, I was sitting in my recliner in excruciating pain after suffering a severe sciatica attack in my left hip. I was crying out to the Lord and commanding my healing, as I normally would, but nothing seemed to be happening. I was going into my second week, and the pain simply would not let up. I had never experienced pain that bad before. I had even borrowed a set of crutches from a friend just so I could get around. I have prayed for hundreds of people over the years and have seen them healed from just about anything you can think of. I also know that, as a mature believer, it is our responsibility to get the Word into us. 

"Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You." — Psalm 119:11

Over the years, I have memorized hundreds of Scriptures, especially Scriptures concerning healing, the move of the Holy Spirit, and the gifts of the Spirit. Yet something seemed to be out of order. It didn't seem to be working the way I expected it to.

As a side note, I know that it is God's will to heal. However, we need to understand the way He wants to heal us. This is where having a relationship—a REVELATIONSHIP—with Him becomes a must.

I was smart enough to know that the problem wasn't with the Sender. The problem had to be with the receiver. That night, I asked the Lord what was wrong. I asked Him what I was missing and why my healing had not happened. I told Him, "I know it isn't You, so it has to be me. What am I missing?" Then I closed my eyes, became still, and began praying quietly in tongues while listening for the answer. A few moments later, in my mind's eye, I saw a gas gauge—just like the ones in my old cars, with a needle pointing somewhere on the gauge.

The needle was pointing to the E. Empty.

As I looked at the gas gauge, I heard the Lord say, "Your faith tank is empty. You have neglected My Word, which is the anchor for every need that you have."

I responded, "But I'm quoting all the healing Scriptures that I have memorized—at least the ones I can remember. I'm using them to fight. I'm binding the pain and the nerve damage, and I'm loosing healing into my body."

He said, "Yes, but you still need to get into the Word and read them."

I understood what He meant. I had replaced the Word with my Scripture cards and was using them exclusively. I had Scripture memorized, but I wasn't getting back into the Word itself. As I pondered our conversation, I remembered that I had downloaded a Healing Scriptures booklet from Nancy Dufrene's site. I immediately opened it and began confessing and meditating on every Scripture in that booklet. I also had my Bible open so I could look up each Scripture. Many of them I already had memorized.

For the next couple of hours, I simply sat there with my Bible open, reading through her booklet over and over again and meditating on the Scriptures. Then a particular Scripture that I had known and used for years suddenly jumped out at me: Proverbs 4:20–22.

At that moment, I knew that I knew this was the Scripture that was going to put me over. I began meditating on every word. I read it in my Bible over and over again. I knew that I had to hide His Word in my heart. "Your word I have hidden in my heart..." — Psalm 119:11 Because that is where the miracle happens. I also knew that I needed to see myself healed. That was something I had been struggling with because of the pain.

It is the Word in the heart, not merely the Word in the head, and that is where we often miss it.

People can quote Scripture after Scripture, but the Word never reaches their heart because they have not meditated on it. They have not taken the time to ask the Father questions about what they are reading and allow Him to reveal it to them. This is why healing—or any other promise of God—doesn't manifest as we expect it to. We don't have His Word established in our hearts.

Then there are those who, when they want healing, simply ask, and ask, and ask, over and over again, God for it—which can easily turn into begging.

When you ask them what Scriptures they are standing on, they may be able to quote the Scripture, but they don't know where it is located in the Word.

I not only meditated on Proverbs 4:20–22, although it became the main Scripture for me that night. I wanted to get the fresh oil on the other Scriptures in the booklet as well. At some point, I fell asleep. That was actually a good thing because I hadn't been getting much sleep up to that point. When I woke up that morning, something was different.

My left leg was straightened out.

I couldn't do that the day before. Whenever I tried to lie down and stretch my leg out, excruciating pain would shoot through my back. But now my leg was straight. When I saw it, I said, "Lord, I receive my healing!" "Have faith in God..." — Mark 11:22–24 I got up and walked into the kitchen. I was a little weak, but I was walking without pain.

I had learned a valuable lesson that night: the importance of meditating on the Scriptures so that I had an anchor that was unmovable.  Also to not let what we have heard to slip. Hebrews 2:1  Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. 

But the story didn't end there. At one point, the pain came back with a vengeance and knocked me to the floor. I reached for the crutches and used them to pull myself back up. Once I was standing, I began telling my body,

"You are HEALED!"

I started quoting the Scriptures from my Bible. And the pain left. I didn't need the crutches again.

Glory to God!

I would like to add something here that I believe is very important.

Faith is an important fruit that needs to grow.

Hebrews 11:6 says: "Without faith it is impossible to please Him..." The "Him" being the Father. 

So, if we are not in faith or operating by faith, we are not pleasing to Him. Remember, walking by faith means that we need to see it in the Spirit before it manifests in the natural.

As I said before: If we can see it, we can have it. "For we walk by faith, not by sight." — 2 Corinthians 5:7 Hebrews 11:1 tells us that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Faith is the evidence. Hope says, "Someday God will heal me," and we are hopeful that He will. Hope always points to the future, Faith is now.

But hope's expectations are found in faith's realities. We hope for something that seems impossible. Then we begin by finding out God's will concerning the matter. Once we know His will, we gather the Scriptures that support His will and begin meditating on them day and night. "This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night..." — Joshua 1:8 Then, all of a sudden, faith begins to rise in your heart. The Word becomes the anchor. You begin to see it. And eventually, you stand to your feet and say,

"I believe I receive in the name of Jesus."

"Have faith in God..." — Mark 11:22–24 You begin calling those things which be not as though they were. Romans 4:13–22 We believe; therefore, we speak. 2 Corinthians 4:13–14 God wants our faith to rest in His power. 1 Corinthians 2:4–5

Then look at what Jesus said in John 15:7: "If, if, if you abide in Me and My Word abides in you, then you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you."

Notice the conditions.

IF you abide in Him.

AND His Word abides in you.

THEN you will ask.

AND it shall be done.

The word abide means "To make oneself at home!"

Now look at the very next verse: "By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples." — John 15:8 By this—by asking and receiving—My Father is glorified. The result is that we bear much fruit. Bearing fruit is connected to the asking and receiving of what we have asked for. Yet many people are asking, but hardly any are receiving.

Why? They are not asking in faith, Mark 11:22 - 24. They are not abiding in the Vine. They are not living in REVELATIONSHIP with Him. The roots provide the nourishment, and they also provide what is needed for faith to grow. We must play by the rule book.

The Word—the Scriptures—gives us the rules to play by so that we are not deceived. The Word should be our final authority.

Faith does not say:

"Someday I'll get healed."

Faith does not say:

"God only heals sometimes."

Faith does not say:

"What if God doesn't want to heal me?"

And faith does not say:

"If it is God's will, it will happen."

That last statement can sound spiritual, but it can also become an excuse to do nothing.

It says, in effect, "I don't need to do anything. If it happens, it was God's will, and if it doesn't happen, then it wasn't God's will." Basically, nothing is required on our part. Everything is placed on God so that we don't have to do anything. We are saying we have no responsibility for our healing/need.

But faith requires participation. Faith requires that we get into the Word, discover God's will, meditate upon His promises, allow those promises to become established in our hearts, and then act upon what we believe.

There is much more I could say about this, but I hope you get the idea.

This site is all about REVELATIONSHIP. It is about understanding how faith and REVELATIONSHIP are inseparably connected and learning how to walk the talk. REVELATIONSHIP is not merely knowing about God. It is not simply memorizing Scripture. 

It is not merely knowing what the Bible says and all of these thing are necessary and important. But It is learning to walk in a living, revelatory relationship with the Father, through the Son, by the power and leading of the Holy Spirit—and allowing His Word to become established in our hearts. That is where faith becomes an anchor. That is where revelation becomes reality.

And that is where we learn to walk by faith and not by sight.

My prayer is that this testimony has helped you in some way.

There is much more to say about faith.

More on faith later.

Mark 11:23 - 24