Becoming a Man of Unwavering Faith (8 page)

Yet, in the midst of all that, Jonah found deliverance. “Then Jonah prayed to the L
ORD
his God from the fish’s belly” (Jonah 2:1). Did you know that you can pray in a fish’s belly? If he could pray inside of a fish, you can certainly pray in the midst of your trouble!

Jonah prayed to the Lord out of the fish’s belly: “I cried out to the L
ORD
because of my affliction, and He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice. For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me; all Your billows and Your waves passed over me. Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; the deep closed around me; weeds were wrapped around my head. I went down to the moorings of the mountains; the earth with its bars closed behind me forever; yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O L
ORD
, my God” (Jonah 2:2–6).

Notice that Jonah then recalled, “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the L
ORD
” (Jonah 2:7). If you can just get your eyes on the Eternal, Almighty God who created heaven and earth, there is hope for you.

Remember God when your son has gone astray or
your daughter has fallen by the wayside. Remember God when your business has failed. Remember God when the doctor says you can’t live. Remember God when the situation looks dark. Jonah said, “I remembered the Lord.”

Then consider Jonah 2:9. “But I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving.” What did Jonah do between Monday and Saturday while sitting in that fish? He offered the sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise.

Are you sitting in the belly of a fish today? Does it feel as though Saturday will never come? Are you to cry, beg, and doubt God? Or are you to sit there and say, “Mr. Fish, you may look like you’ve swallowed me forever, but I have remembered the Eternal God. I have His Word. Salvation is of the Lord. I know that He will get me out of this situation. I see myself out of it. I will offer the Lord the sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise. I praise You, Lord, that I am coming out of this terrible situation.”

No matter how difficult the situation, thanksgiving and praise touch the heart of God. All God has to do is speak to your fish, and the fish will instantly spit you out. In Jonah’s case, he came out on dry ground, running and preaching!

If Jonah could praise God in the midst of a fish, can’t you praise God in the midst of a physical discomfort?
Can’t you praise God in spite of seeing fish every place? Can you look up into the face of God and just praise Him with joy because you already see your child serving God, your home filled with peace and love, and the situation in your business already resolved?

Praise is the secret to a man of faith developing an unwavering confidence in God.

Know that the enemy will try to shake your confidence in God. Let me share an incident from my own life that illustrates this truth.

We used to have a convention every year during Thanksgiving at Lakewood Church, during which we would serve food to the people. One year I determined that I was going to pray that God would give us money to buy two head of cattle or that someone would give us two head of cattle to feed all the visiting missionaries. I stood before our congregation and asked them to pray with me.

But Saturday didn’t come soon enough. I waited and waited as the convention neared, but there were no cattle, not even a cow. One day I began to think,
You’re not going to get those cows. You have the money in the bank to buy those cows, so there’s no use of worrying over this
.

I shook myself and said, “I believe God has supplied
us some cattle.” But the truth was that I was getting weaker and weaker.

A few days later I heard a voice saying to me, “Why go through all of this? You have the money, and you’re busy preaching and teaching. You don’t have time to mess with trying to have faith for two cows. Just buy them.”

That made sense to me. So I became quiet about it, and I decided to just go buy the meat, and no one would ever care. I can remember the very minute I let go of believing God for the cows. Something left me out of my spirit. I released it. I gave up and lost my confidence. I didn’t lose confidence in a doctrine or a scripture, but in a Person.

I bought the meat, we had a great convention, and I thought I got away with it. However, a few days later the Lord gave me a visitation in a dream in the night. In this visitation, He took me down a lonely country road where I saw the biggest snakes I have ever seen in my life. They looked forty to fifty feet long. The Lord had me walk up close to the snakes and gaze at them. As I got closer, I noticed that two of them were bulging with a distinct outline of a cow—the head, shoulders, backbone, and hipbone. There was a cow in both snakes. Then the Lord said to me, “I just want you to know that you let the devil swallow your cows!”

I learned a valuable lesson from this experience. This
principle of faith in God will give you the same joy on Monday or Friday as you will have on Saturday! Why? Because God’s answer is yours the very moment you pray and believe you receive it. It is yours, and you can rest in that fact!

Every day you should praise God for what He has promised you. If you have a physical need, even if the symptoms rage in your body, do not put your attention on the symptoms. When Peter was walking on the water, his eyes were fixed on Jesus (Matthew 14:29–30). Did you know that the waves were just as high and the wind was just as strong when he was walking as it was when he sank? He walked because he did not look at the waves; he looked at Jesus. But when he turned his attention to the waves and wind, he sank.

Jesus is the Word of God. He is the Living Word. No matter how high the waves billow or how strong the wind may blow, do not get your attention on them. Just keep on walking toward Jesus!

Every contrary thing that comes against you financially, mentally, emotionally, morally, maritally, physically, or any contrary thing that tries to get you to doubt God’s Word, should be the very indication to you that you need to keep on looking at Jesus. Keep your eyes on the Word of God.

How would you act today if you had what you are believing for? What if you actually saw and touched the manifestation? How happy would you get?

This is how you should feel and act right now! As you praise God, fear and anxiety will fall away from your life. It may be on a Monday that your heavenly Father says that He will supply all your needs and give you the desires of your heart. It may not yet be Saturday, but Saturday’s coming. All you need to do is spend your time praising the Lord. Settle it in your heart as to what your specific desire is. Then picture yourself having it, release your faith, and start praising God.

When you praise God and rejoice and rest in His presence, disease departs, demons flee, and the enemy is defeated. Don’t think it is a burden to do this, but know that this is faith at work!

This is how you begin exercising your faith by your praise and your words of praise. Saturday will come!

A
fter the prophet Elijah’s servant had made six trips to the top of the mountain to look for a cloud, “The seventh time the servant reported, ‘A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea’ ” (1 Kings 18:44
NIV
). The servant gazed out over the sea and saw a tiny cloud, not very promising, but he ran back to tell Elijah.

As demonstrated by Elijah, the fifth quality of a man of unwavering faith is he continues to believe and expect the victory when there is just a little evidence. The whole answer hasn’t come yet. The need hasn’t been completely met. But he keeps on believing.

You say, “I’m believing for my healing. I’ve been hurting all over, and I have a little relief. But it’s so little.” Or, “I’m believing for a financial need. I did get one bill paid, but I have a hundred more. It’s so little.”

Faith goes on when there’s just a little cloud in the sky—not a big thunderhead, but a little white cloud no bigger than a man’s hand.

There were many times when my wife, Dodie, was fighting her battle with cancer that she saw nothing. In 1981, she was diagnosed as having metastatic cancer of the liver with only a few weeks to live. The doctors said there was nothing they could do, but she knew what God has promised in His Word. She held it up to Him and reminded Him that by His stripes she was healed (1 Peter 2:24). She continued to pray and believe for her complete healing even when her body was in pain and there was no evidence she would be healed.

There were many times when she had to say, “Go again. Go again. Look once more.” And then she got a little relief—just a little. So she made a list of all the symptoms she was believing would leave her body. She kept speaking the Word of God in the face of the symptoms and began to check them off, one by one. She saw very little at first, but she went on. And today, she is completely healed!

Dodie’s remarkable story of healing is told in her book
Healed of Cancer
. If you see nothing, if you see just a little, go on, as she did. Hang in there. Pray earnestly. Put God in remembrance. Don’t give up, and don’t let Satan steal what belongs to you.

I love the story of Jesus and the leper in Matthew 8:1–3. “When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, ‘Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.’ Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.’ Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.”

I am convinced that Jesus did not love that leper any more than He loves you or me. He is the
very same Jesus today
as He was the day this leper was healed. Most of us who read this want what he received from Jesus, but we will not receive it because we only
think
we have done what he did.

As men of faith, this is the great lesson we learn from the leper:
He came to Jesus
.

The leper recognized that
Jesus is the Healer
. You cannot have healing without the Healer; the benefit without the Benefactor; the blessing without the Blesser. You cannot separate the gift from the Giver! Only God can heal, and the secret is to come to Jesus. He is full of compassion and mercy. He bore your sins and sicknesses on the cross (Matthew 8:17).

Do not bar the door of your heart against Jesus. Let Him in.

If you send for a doctor and let him in the front door of your house, but refuse to let him into the bedroom where the patient is, he can do very little good. Our hearts have many rooms. Some are locked and barred with bad memories, unconfessed sin, bitterness, and other things. Open wide every door to Jesus.
He cannot do you any good until you let Him go where the trouble is.

In my own life, I received Jesus as my Savior, trained for the ministry, and had preached for many years, yet I had a serious condition in my stomach—ulcers. Why was I not healed? I had received Jesus into the front door of my heart, but there were many rooms barred to Him.

I believed the days of healing and miracles were over.

I did not know if I believed in demons or not, but I was certain it was beneath my dignity as a preacher to be caught casting out demons.

It embarrassed me to be around people who were always lifting their hands and praising the Lord. And I felt that those who spoke in tongues were emotional people who lacked a little in mentality!

Later, when I was baptized with the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues, I unlocked every door and opened them
wide so Jesus would have free access to
all my heart
, and He came in His fullness. Whenever the Healer comes, there is healing. I don’t remember when I was healed, but I suddenly discovered I no longer had ulcers! Years have passed, and I am still healed.

The leper did more than just come to Jesus.
He came humbly to Jesus
. He came beseeching Him, worshiping Him, and falling on his face before Him. I humbled myself and fell before the Lord. I lifted my hands and heart in adoration and praise to His holy Name, and healing came. “Let everything that has breath praise the L
ORD
. Praise the L
ORD
” (Psalm 150:6).

The leper allowed Jesus to
settle all doubts
about the will of God.

I can well imagine this man meeting with several other lepers. They talk about this wonderful man Jesus. One says, “But it is not God’s will to heal people like us. We are suffering for God’s glory. We are being chastened.” Another says, “How could this be the will of God? This seems more like the will of
hate
than the will of
love.
” Turning to the man who came to Jesus, I imagine they ask him, “What do you think?” He replies, “I don’t know, but I think it is His
will. I hope it is His will. I think I’ll go ask Him and find out.”