February 7

Acts 14:9 (NIV)
9 He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed

Many have spoken about faith like it is the key ingredient in anything God does. Others have recoiled from the emphasis put on faith to make faith something akin to leaven! Is there a balance? !

The scripture is true. This man had faith to be healed. It takes some level of faith to be healed. It takes faith to believe in and please God. That should be a settled issue. (Heb. 11) The question is how much faith does it take to be healed and where did Paul look to see that this guy had enough? There is another nagging question for many; if you don’t get healed is it because of your lack of faith. The answers to these questions are only found in Christ! We are afraid to tell someone that they lack faith but Jesus did. That fact is that we lack faith for many things including healing, however, that doesn’t translate into if someone isn’t healed then they lack faith. We have got to get away from the simplistic equations that aren’t found in the Word of God and see what Paul saw – he saw into the man’s soul or spirit. He saw the fruit was just dangling from the tree and just needed to be shaken. We are NOT suppose to judge people who don’t have faith, we are supposed to bolster their faith! So condemning someone who isn’t healed or whatever because of a lack of faith is counterproductive! We must encourage their faith and stand with them in their trail! There may be several different reasons why people don’t get healed or see prayers answered besides a lack of faith. Who knows all things except God? The one thing I get is this, Paul was preaching the Word of God and saw that this guy did have the faith for healing, so he acted. Instead of trying to figure out why this one and not that one, let’s preach the Word, ask God for vision beyond the physical realm and do the stuff.