The three witnesses

For many years I have been bothered because I could not understand why people who had received their healing and had all the evidence of perfect deliverance should have the disease come back again, and then find it almost impossible to get deliverance.

I believe I have made the discovery.

Their faith was not in the Word of God, but in Sense evidence. What do I mean by Sense Evidence? I mean the evidence of their sight, hearing arid feeling. They were like the sick folk that came to the Master. They had heard that He had healed some of their friends. They said, "If I can get to Him, I will get my healing."

As they drew near they saw men healed. The blind were made to see; the deaf were made to hear. They cried out for their share of the blessing and were healed. During the campaigns there always were many that came to the meetings for healing because the Father has been gracious in healing many in the ministry.

Many of them had no time to be taught in the Word. They were not interested to join the local church; all they were interested in was getting their deliverance. We prayed for them, and many instantly received their healing. But many came back after some time saying: "I can't understand it. That healing did not work through, all the symptoms are back again."
 
Where was the difficulty?  It lay in this: They had no faith in the Word of God. They knew nothing about the Word as far as healing was concerned. Their faith was in me, or in some other person, or in what they saw, but not in the Word.

The Word declares, "By His stripes ye were healed." Take this as an illustration. A gentleman came to me with a bad knee. The doctors even told him that an amputation might be necessary. He was instantly healed. The doctors declared him healed. But still, some five or six days later, while he was walking in the street, that old pain returned.

He said, "This cannot be; I am healed by His stripes. In Jesus' Name, pain leave my knee." That man stood on the Word and the pain left, never to return.

Others stood on Sense Evidence, what they could see, what they could feel or hear. They lost their healing because there was no "depth of soil," as Jesus put it in the parable of the sower.

In every case of healing there are three witnesses.

1. The Word - The Word of God declares, "By His stripes ye were healed."
2. The Pain - There is the witness of pain in the body, and that pain declares that it is not healed. The pain is severe and the sick person can hear nothing but pain.
3. The Sick One - The sick one declares, “By His stripes I am healed”

He is placing his witness or testimony along by the side of the Word of God. He refuses to take his testimony back. He declares in the face of pain - in the face of Sense Evidence -that he is healed and he holds fast to his confession and God makes it good. He is healed.

But often, when we open the Word and prove that "By His stripes they were healed," they say, "Yes, I can see that, but the pain is still here; the pain has not left my limb." They have repudiated the Word of God. They have accepted the testimony of their Senses rather than the Word.

I can pray for them again and again, but I get no results because they witness against the Word of God. You take another case. Here is a woman who is weak; she cannot walk.

I bring her the Word that, "The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?" She says, "Yes, I see that scripture? but I cannot walk."

She repudiates the Word of God. The testimony of her lips joined with the testimony of her Senses disavows the Word of God, and she remains ill.

On the other hand, had she steadfastly maintained her testimony that the Word was true in the face of contrary Sense Evidence, healing would have been hers. But she rejected the Word because of the witness of her pain.

I discovered something else.

He says, "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shall believe in thy heart that God raised Him from the dead thou shalt be saved" or "healed."

Many confess it with their lips, but deny it in their heart. They say, "Yes, the Word of God is true." But in their heart they say, "It is not true in my case. He hasn't healed me. He healed others, but I am no better."

The confession of your lips has no value as long as your heart repudiates it. There must be the testimony of your lips and the confirmation of the Word in your heart. I am sure that the majority of people who have been prayed for and do not get their healing have no assurance in their hearts. They are desperate. Sense knowledge has failed. ,They turn to God but have no real faith.

Healing is always in response to faith's testimony. The pain may be fearful, but you have seen that "By His Stripes you are healed." You know it as you know that two and two are four. You are convinced in your innermost being that God has healed you. You look up and say, "Father, I thank thee." You pay no attention to the pain. You ignore the symptoms because you know in the Father's mind you are healed. The Word declares you are healed. What the Word says is true. You maintain your testimony in the face of evidence that is contrary to the Word, and God makes it real in your life.