Miracles
The manifestation of faith
One of the biggest reasons “faith” sometimes seems to bring things to pass is that “regular faith” (trust) gets confused with the “manifestation of trust.” The “manifestation of trust,” more popularly known as the “manifestation of faith” or even “the gift of faith,” is one of the nine manifestations (sometimes called “gifts”) of the holy spirit (1 Corinthians 12:7-9).
“Regular trust” occurs when there is a trustworthy object to trust. In contrast, the “manifestation of faith” occurs when God or the Lord Jesus Christ gives a specific revelation to a Christian. That revelation is God’s “green light,” and gives the Christian the authority to do what he cannot do by his own human power. If God gives a Christian the revelation to heal a person, then the Christian can operate the manifestations of faith (trust) and healing, and bring about healing.
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The revelation is God’s indication that He will supply the power for the healing. If healing was done by a person’s own human power, then logically, he or she could simply go out and heal everyone. After all, if faith is simply a power that can be operated, and a person had the faith to heal one person, then he should have the power to heal everyone. But this is obviously not the way faith works.
Someone defending the Faith Movement might respond, “But the person being healed needs faith, too.” That is not always true; there are many examples in the Bible and in life where the one healed did not have faith. Dead people have been raised, babies have been healed, and people have been healed who were unbelievers or who did not expect it. So the question remains: why can a person with faith heal some people and not others? The answer is simple: faith is not a force that accomplishes tasks. God is the force; He is the power. The reason we need “faith” (“trust”) is so that when God gives us the revelation to do a miracle or healing, we trust that He will do it. No matter how impossible something seems, if God gives you the revelation to do something, if you trust Him, you can. That is the “manifestation of trust” (1 Corinthians 12:9).
Confusing “regular faith” (“trust”) with the “manifestation of faith” (trust) misleads people into thinking that the great miracles and healings in the Bible were done simply because the person who did them had great “faith.” Actually, the miracles and healings in the Bible were done by the manifestation of faith and God exerting His power. “Faith” is “trust,” and when God makes a promise, we trust it, but it is God who brings His promise to pass; not our trust. We understand this perfectly in the physical world, and it works the same way in the spiritual world.
Let’s say you have a friend whose car is being fixed, so you offer to give him a ride to work. He trusts you will actually show up and give him the ride, so he accepts. Then, because you are trustworthy, you keep your promise and give him the ride. But did his trust in you somehow force you give him the ride? Of course not. His trust gave him the confidence to be ready to be picked up at an appointed time, but it was your power that supplied the ride. Furthermore, you did not have to offer him the ride in the first place even though he was a trusting friend. At no point did the fact that he trusted you force you to act on his behalf.
Biblical trust works the same way. We trust that God can heal, but that does not force Him to heal. Furthermore, our trust does not give us the power to heal without God. The fact that our trust in God does not “make” things happen explains why “faith” seems to fail so often. However, when God does tell us to heal—by giving us the revelation to do it—then we can trust His “Yes” and command a healing.
The power of faith
Sometimes receiving what we want is simply God giving us grace. God is God, and He has plans and purposes that He will accomplish. Additionally, in our personal lives, sometimes receiving God’s grace is due to our humility. The Bible is clear that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (Proverbs 3:34; James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5). There are clearly occasions when believers get what they need or want from God simply because He loves them and gives them grace. A good example is John the Baptist’s mother, Elizabeth, getting pregnant. She had wanted to get pregnant for years without success, but because of God’s purposes and plans He gave her grace and she was able to get pregnant (Luke 1:5-25). It is because these occasions are due to God’s grace and His plans that they are not repeatable at our will. That people do not repeatedly get what they want even when they are trying hard to have “faith”, is good evidence that it is not our “faith” that brings us things, but sometimes is simply due to God’s love and grace.
Prayers
Sometimes when people are trying to have “faith” for something, they ask God for it over and over; but praying over and over for something is one of the things God tells us to do to get our prayers answered (Luke 11:5-10; 18:1-8). So sometimes if someone gets what he has been consistently praying for, it is due to God answering his prayer, not because his human mind and “faith” somehow brought what he wanted to him.
God answering prayers also helps to explain why “faith” seems to fail so often, or takes so long to work. If we really were getting what we wanted due to the power of our faith, then we should be able to get anything that is available, and get it quickly. After all, if we have the faith to get one thing we want, then our faith should build and we should have even more faith to get more things we want. But people’s experience is that they do not always get what they “have faith for,” and often when they do get what they want, it takes a long time. This is consistent with what the Bible says about God answering prayers.
God often answers prayers, especially those prayed fervently over a period of time, but there are also lots of reasons people do not get what they pray for, including asking with the wrong motives (James 4:3), the spiritual battle (Daniel 10:10-13), the fallen nature of the world (Hebrews 9:27), and other realities and laws God has to honor, such as the law of sowing and reaping (Galatians 6:7). But the point is that sometimes when people get what they want it is due to their prayers and God’s decision to answer them, not to their “faith.”
However, James wrote:
My brothers and sisters, count it all joy when you encounter trials of various kinds, knowing that the testing of your trust produces endurance. Now let endurance have its full effect, so that you become fully mature and whole, lacking in nothing.
But if any of you lacks wisdom, ask God for it, Who gives to everyone generously and without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in trust, without doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea blown and tossed around by the wind. Indeed, that person must not expect that he will receive anything from the Lord. A double-minded person is unstable in all his ways.
-- James 2:2-8 (REV)
The popular bible translations replace "trust" with "faith", putting the pressure on you to have enough "faith for things you hope for".
But when you truly trust God, you have a steady anchor or foundation in times of uncertainty. When doubt comes, you can go back to "but God said... therefore I trust Him".
On the other hand if you do not trust God, you will be "double-minded" and "unstable" because you will jump back and forth between God's plans and your own plans, emotions, safety-nets or other people's opinions.
Positive attitude
Another reason that “faith” may appear to work at times is that people are taught that if they have faith, they are to act and speak in a positive and confident manner, as if they have already received what they were having “faith” for. But psychological studies show that people who are happy and have a positive attitude almost always do better in life than those who don’t. Happy, positive people are more successful than sad, doubtful, disillusioned people. One reason is that they typically work harder and are more productive.
But the fact that people who are positive thinkers are generally more successful than those who see the world in a negative light does not make “faith” into a force or law. Plenty of positive people do not have what they would like to have. In fact, some of the happiest and most trusting people on earth are very disadvantaged mentally, physically, and/or materially.
Also, having a happy, positive outlook on life is extremely effective when it comes to our physical health. A person’s mind cannot generate a faith-force that appropriates things outside his body, but the Bible is clear that the way a person thinks powerfully affects his own body (Proverbs 3:7,8; 4:20-22; 12:4; 14:30; 15:13; 16:24; 17:22; 18:14). If we trust in God, think positive thoughts, and maintain a godly environment, we will be much healthier than if we do not. So it is that many times when sick people are healed, it is due to them getting rest, having loving people care for them, getting away from the worries and bustle of life, and taking time to think, pray, and perhaps read the Bible or inspiring literature. The Bible says, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine” (Proverbs 17:22), and many times when people are healed it is due to their being relaxed and “merry,” not due to their “faith.”
Gift ministries
Another reason “faith” seems to work for some people is that God honors the gift ministries He has given. If a person has a gift ministry in an area, then success in that area tends to come as well. Thus, if a person has a ministry in miracles or healing, he may have great success in that area, but may wrongly attribute that success to his personal faith rather than God honoring the special gift He has given him. The Bible tells us that God gives some individuals the ministry of healing, miracles, giving, and more (Romans 12:6-8; 1 Corinthians 12:28).
There are times when Christian healers start ministering without consciously receiving revelation, and either the revelation comes during the ministering, or the person is healed anyway, seemingly without revelation. Those cases are quite common and are due to things such as we just discussed, including prayer, humility, grace, and God honoring a gift ministry.
Demonic influence
An important reason why people believe there is a law that allows them to control things and bring success to themselves is that the Devil wants people to think they can control their lives and destiny without God. Sometimes when “faith” or mental power, seems to work in helping people get what they want, it is because the Devil maneuvers situations and circumstances to make it seem like people are receiving things they have “faith” for. The Devil is constantly seeking to lead people away from God and truth, so he will sometimes help people acquire material things if it accomplishes his greater goal.
A good explanation of how the Devil helps people was written many decades ago in the book, Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill. Hill is still considered a guru of financial self-help, and in his book, as the title suggests, he gives principles of the mind that supposedly allow people to acquire wealth. However, by the end of the book, he reveals the real secret to his success: getting help from a demon. Of course, Hill does not come out and say his helper is a demon, and he might not have fully understood it himself, although he did know he was getting outside help from the spirit realm and not just from the power of his mind.
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For centuries there has been a kind of folk belief — usually made fun of — that you can “sell your soul to the Devil” to get what you want in this life. As with most long-standing beliefs, there is some truth in it. The Devil is willing to help people acquire material success, especially since he can do it in a way that excludes God. One reason for this is that people who focus on material success usually do not turn to God for help or salvation, and so they will perish in the Lake of Fire along with the Devil instead of living forever with Jesus. Even if the person is a Christian when he starts his “success by faith” journey, he is taught that “his faith” is his source of supply, not God, and so finding the will of God becomes less important than figuring out how to build his faith and gain success in life.
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That the Devil sometimes helps people gain worldly success explains why there are non-Christian groups that believe that the power of the mind taps into a “law” that works for both believers and unbelievers. In fact, when the “law” of faith is examined, there is really not much difference between what Word of Faith teachers say about the power of “faith” and what non-believers say about the power of the mind.
The book, The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne, which came out in 2006 and received great publicity, speaks of the “Secret” being the “law of attraction” (p. 25). Byrne, who says the “law of attraction” works for anybody, writes: “The Secret gives you anything you want; happiness, health, and wealth” (p. 1). “If you can think about what you want in your mind, and make that your dominant thought, you will bring it into your life” (p. 9). “Nothing can come into your life unless you summon it through persistent thoughts” (p. 43). “The law of attraction is a law of nature. It is as impartial as the law of gravity” (p. 43).
Byrne and others who believe in the power of the mind do not include God in their teaching, but still say the principles they operate are in the New Testament. Byrne writes: “The Creative Process used in The Secret, which was taken from the New Testament in the Bible, is an easy guideline for you to create what you want in three simple steps” (The Secret, p. 47). The steps she then outlines are: ask, believe, and receive.
So in the final analysis, Word of Faith Christian ministers and power of the mind unbelievers both believe in a law based on the power of the mind that gets people what they want. Sometimes this law seems to work, often it does not. However, when it seems to work, it does not mean that there really is such a “law” or that the mind is somehow affecting the physical world.