Constant Expectation - Healing School - Pastor Philip Steele - June 16th, 2026

Hi, my name is Michelle Steele.

Pastor Phillip and I want to thank you for listening to this message from Life of Faith First.

We have more resources available to help you build your faith and bring your world by the Word of God.

From our website, lifeofffaith.net, you can connect to our YouTube channel, watch the live stream feed from our church services, access books and downloads in our web store, and discover more about Life of Faith Church.

Producing life city, state, nation, and world.

Visit lifeoffaith.net today.

Good morning, everybody.

Hallelujah.

Let's uh go over to Hebrews 6.

And uh we're going to begin uh a new study.

Uh we're calling a constant expectation.

And uh just some things that I believe that the Lord would have us to be looking at.

Hallelujah.

And uh F.

F.

Osworth made a statement concerning healing.

He said, When we have learned the process of faith for receiving healing, he said, We have learned how to receive anything else that God promises in his word.

And he emphasized when we've learned the process of faith for receiving healing.

So there's a process.

And you know, a lot of times people say, Well, yeah, the process is faith comes by hearing.

Well, it does.

But the when I learn that process, you know, I've said this over the years.

There are things that you begin to learn, you just do something long enough, you begin to pick up some things and and and understand some things.

I told my wife not too long ago uh there was a situation that required my attention with uh uh a certain circumstance that had occurred.

And I told her, I was I was sharing with one of my leaders, I said, now this is what we got to be on guard about.

And I told them a certain thing, and my wife overheard the conversation.

She said, Well, are they are they asking that already?

I said, No, but they will.

They will.

And she said, Well, how do you know?

I said, You just watch in these circumstances.

That's the first question people have.

Well, how do I gain that knowledge?

30 years of pastoring.

I just know.

And sure enough, the very next day, not next week, not the next month, the very next day, I got communication from a person involved in that, and it was the very thing I told my wife they were gonna ask.

Because no, that's not supernatural.

That's not, I didn't pray in tongues four hours, and God told me that.

I just, I just know, right?

It's you know, it's like eventually when you're raising children, they're gonna ask you, why is the sky blue?

It's coming, right?

Why is the grass green?

Right?

Daddy, where do babies come from?

Go ask your mom.

Right?

Right?

See, I just gave you that that's coming, and there's your response.

I helped you.

All right.

But anyway, the point is that this process, and and so there are things that you just pick up, and uh, you know, when the Lord began to reveal to us a number of years ago, we've always had healing school in our churches because we've always known that God heal obviously healing is God's will.

And uh we've always laid hands on the sick, but when it became very apparent that uh the Lord had special anointings on our lives and on the ministry uh for healing, especially certain things, um we gave ourselves even more to it.

And uh because I mean I've been around healing all my life.

Uh the most the first phenomenal thing that I remember uh in my life personally being healed was R.W.

Shambok had come to Florida.

We my parents pastored in Florida for a few years, and uh he had come there because uh back then the tent ministers, and they still do, uh although not by and large like they used to, uh, well, it would get cold up north, they would go down south, and they would spend the winter months down south uh ministering Georgia, Florida, these things.

Well, just so happened that it turned off cold there where we lived in Florida, and you know, cold there is like 40 degrees, so but still cold.

And uh so his meetings weren't as well attended, but our church supported his meeting every night.

And uh uh the long and short of it is is that we we were going there and he had a special anointing, oil anointing service one night, and there's a lot there that I could tell because Shambok didn't anoint with oil, take the bottle and do it like that and put a little nice cross on your head.

You know, he had a bucket of oil that they replenished, and he put both of his hands in it, and you you got anointed.

All right, it's like Pastor Caldwell says when uh uh Vanetta Copeland anointed him, she didn't just put it on his head, she opened the bottle and poured it all over his head and down his shirt, and she said, There you are, boy, now you're anointed.

But anyway, the point is is when I went there, uh I had a tooth that had a cavity in it.

I was probably nine, ten, ten years old, I think.

And um it it was hurting.

And so I got in the the healing line.

He was anointing people with oil, and uh, you know, he didn't just lay hands on me, he stuck that oily finger in my mouth and uh and and prayed for me, and instantly the pain left.

Well, I'm nine, ten years old, eight, nine, something like that.

And so I want to it quit hurting.

What happened here, you know?

And so I went out in the car and uh to my dad's car and and got in and looked in the rearview mirror, and that tooth was brand new.

I mean, there's a cavity when I went and not when I left.

You know, so I've grown up around that, but here's the thing I saw that I now that I received that, I received that out of childlike faith.

I received that just believing God can heal because I've seen God heal.

I didn't know anything about the process of faith for healing.

All right?

I didn't I didn't know anything about that.

And um, while that's wonderful and God will do that, right?

We're gonna lay hands on people that want hands laid on them today, and God will heal, obviously.

But if we learn this process, Pastor Caldwell made the statement, he said, wait or patience is a constant expectation of what God promised he would bring to pass.

And he made the statement there is no expiration date.

Right?

In other words, when God says something, it's an eternal word.

There's no time that it expires.

And so part of this process is this constant expectation.

And here's what constant expectation is not.

Well, I know God can.

That's not constant expectation, that's knowledge that anybody that believes in God would have.

All right?

Because anybody that really believes God is who he says he is believes he can heal.

They believe God can do anything.

Constant expectation is believing that God will do it for you based on what you see in his word.

Based on what you see in his word.

So while this may sound like common knowledge, so I'm not believing that I'm healed because I feel better.

I'm not believing I'm healed because I see a reduction in symptoms.

I'm believing I'm healed because I see it in the word, and then I enter into this process of patience, of constant expectation that God will do what his word said.

So Hebrews 6 and verse 12, we're going to read two verses.

And the writer of Hebrews is talking to the Hebrew believers about not being slothful and you know when we think about slothful, we think, you know, lazy.

That's not necessarily sluggish is a better, a better word.

Sluggish, slow, all right.

That you're you're not slow or sluggish, but notice followers of them.

Now, of course, that word followers is the Greek word mimetes, all right.

It means to mimic or to uh you know mimic uh a father, mimic a mother, of them who through faith and patience inherit the promise.

The promise is.

So notice how they inherited the promises.

Faith and patience.

Faith is being convinced that something is true, the conviction of the truth of anything.

That's the Greek word for faith.

And then patience.

They inherit the promises.

And then verse 15 says, concerning Abraham, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

So faith and patience will receive the promises, and then notice after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

Now there's a misconception about patience.

That patience is just waiting, that patience is just sitting and waiting.

And I've said over the years that patience is not just waiting, it's how you wait.

The word patience that's used here is defined as constancy.

All right, anything connected to faith will require constancy.

I have to be constant in what I believe.

The word patience also means steadfastness.

So not only am I constant in what I believe, I cannot be moved away from it.

I'm steadfast in what I believe.

And then the last word is endurance.

So this word patience carries the idea of being constantly steadfast and enduring.

Enduring.

Remember, he said a constant expectation of what God promised.

There is no expiration date.

You know, very often people talk about the devil fights your faith, he fights your patience.

Because patience is just faith over a long period of time.

And I've got to be willing to do that.

Patience, as we said, is not just waiting, it's being constant.

Your confession is constant.

What you believe is constant.

All right, that that's what's called no wavering.

When the Bible talks about how uh Abraham staggered not at the promises of God, well, after he got a hold of it, he didn't.

We see him stagger twice before a certain period of time in the book of Genesis.

But finally, one day he got it.

And then the Weast Bible says in Romans 4, it says he did not consider his own body now dead as a reason that God could not do what he promised.

Now he's entered into steadfastness.

Now this is steadfast.

This is patience.

Because I've received the promise.

It's there.

By faith I've received it.

Now the only thing I have to do is walk it out.

Hallelujah.

Patience is being constant, steadfast in what we do and say and believe.

What we do, what we say, and what we believe.

Right?

What we do, what we say, what we believe.

That's important.

Because, you know, especially in spirit-filled circles, uh, word and faith circles, you know, we have this understanding that what we say will have what we say.

And we'll even tell people, oh, don't say that, you know, that's a bad confession.

Well, I understand, but I don't want to say something for any other reason than that's how I receive from God.

And I have to be constant in what I say.

Anything can become legalism.

Oh, don't say that.

Oh, that's a bad confession.

And that person's not receiving anything from God about anything.

They might have a good confession in front of you, they caution you about your negative confession.

But you know why Brother Hagin used to always say the proof of the pudding's in the eating?

Right?

Because if if you're cautioning me about my confession, that is because your confession is producing something for you.

Right?

My job is just be constant.

Amen.

We can take a very elementary statement.

I am the healed of the Lord.

That's yours constantly.

Patience is you constantly declaring that.

When somebody says, How are you feeling?

I'm the healed of the Lord.

When somebody says, What are you dealing with here?

I'm the healed of the Lord.

What about that thing?

I'm the healed of the Lord.

I'm not saying that's the answer to everything that people ask you.

That's an illustration.

That's constancy.

That's being steadfast.

You're not being moved away from that.

If somebody says, What the doctor said, well, here's what the doctor said, but I'm the heel of the Lord.

Well, how are you feeling?

Well, that has nothing to do with it.

I'm the heel of the Lord.

Well, is the pain gone yet?

Well, not yet completely, but I'm the heel of the Lord.

Amen.

Somebody says, is that still hurting?

Say, well, yeah, you know it's still there to an extent, but Jesus carried my pain.

That's being constant.

That's being constant.

That's consistently expecting.

I've watched over the years.

Healing is lost in the realm of inconsistency.

Why is healing such a big thing in people's lives and and and it in the church?

Why does it seem it's such a big thing?

Because it's something that is so in the natural.

I can feel what's going on.

I can see what's going on.

Right?

It's something that's constantly fighting what I'm believing.

And everything I'm believing, the only place I can see it is in the Word.

Right?

That's why the Word of God has to be more real than what you're dealing with.

That's what's so important.

Is I'm not just looking at this as this is a promise of healing.

This is healing.

Right?

We used to say all the time, this is my Bible.

I am what it says I am.

I can do what it says I can do.

I have what it says I have.

Notice I have, I'm doing, I am.

Not going to be.

So I am the heel of the Lord constantly, steadfastly, regardless of what I feel.

Because what you feel today in your body will go away under the weight of the Word of God.

If you're constant, if you're steadfast, oh hallelujah.

I did it.

I preached myself happy.

It don't take much.

Amen.

My wife tells me all the time, she said, Philip, it don't take much to make you happy.

I know it.

I know it.

Isn't that wonderful?

So when you're steadfast about what you say, how are you doing today?

I'm well, I'm healed in Jesus' name.

Doing great.

Those are not for us that know the power of what we're saying.

That's not just words.

We're not just being kind.

That's really what we believe.

I'm doing great.

And they might walk away shaking their head and say, Well, I know good and well they're going through something.

Well, that don't matter.

I'm saying what it's going to take to bring me out of what you know I'm going through.

Hallelujah.

When I look at somebody and I know they're facing something and they respond with the word of God, man, it fires me up because I know what they're dealing with, but they're being constant in the word of God.

And here's the thing: when you see somebody that has received healing from God or received a miracle in their life, never discount the fact that they had to stand through something.

They had to be constant.

They had to be steadfast.

There were things they had to endure.

There were nights they had to get out of bed and walk the floor and declare the word of God.

There were days they didn't feel like getting up and going to work, but they got up and went anyway.

There were times they didn't feel like being in church, but they were there.

They were enduring everything that that sickness or that disease was throwing at them, and they were enduring it through the word of God, and that sickness, that disease wilted like a flower in summer heat under the pressure of the Word of God.

Amen.

That's what's going to happen to you.

Because you're constant and steadfast.

And when the thought comes, well, you know, other things have left, but this thing's hanging on.

No, it's leaving.

It's not hanging on.

It's leaving.

It's leaving your body.

Why?

Because you've evicted it.

Right?

What are you saying when you say, hands were laid on me and I received my healing in the name of Jesus?

Here's what you're saying without saying that.

That thing that was planted in my body that was not planted there by my father's being rooted up and threw out of my body in Jesus' name.

Hallelujah.

Glory be to Jesus.

So the end of Abraham's patience was what he received.

So the end of your patience will be that you receive.

That will be the end of your patience.

Amen.

Now in Isaiah forty.

And verse twenty-eight, he starts out and he says, Have you not known?

Have you not heard that the everlasting God?

Now that's important.

I talked about this in the series The Faithful God, and in my book, Eternally Faithful.

It's important that we see God this way.

The everlasting God.

Everlasting God.

Everything about God is everlasting.

Whatever He is, it's everlasting.

It never changes.

It cannot change.

All right.

The everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth.

Notice he does not faint.

He is not weary.

There is no searching of his understanding.

He gives power to the faint and to them that have no might.

He increases strength.

Then he presents a contrast.

Even the youths shall faint and be weary.

And the young men will utterly fall.

But he puts the word but there, but they that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength, they will mount up with wings as eagles, they will run and not be weary, and they will walk and not faint.

So notice he says the young will faint and be weary.

But they that wait upon the Lord.

Now very often, again, people get this idea.

Yeah, I'm just waiting on God.

That's not what it means.

All right?

Waiting, when you're waiting on God in that sense, it's never right if you don't add expectancy there.

When you study the word of God, that word wait is always connected to expectancy.

You're looking for something, you're not just waiting.

Alright?

Those that wait upon the Lord, it literally means those who hope in the Lord, those that expect from the Lord, what will happen?

They will renew their strength.

They will renew their strength.

The Amplified Bible says, those who wait for the Lord, who expect, who look for and hope in him, will gain new strength and renew their power.

Another translation says, but unto them who have the Lord before their eyes will strength be increased.

Now notice this new strength, increased strength.

How is that obtained?

By expecting, by looking for, by hoping in the Lord.

So what are you looking for?

How does sickness continue?

How does sickness gain a foothold in a person's life and gain traction?

They're expecting it to gain traction.

They go to the doctor, and the doctor says, You have this, and this is what you can expect in six months, and they start telling people what's going to happen in the next six months.

And their words give it traction.

Well, you know, I went to the doctor and he said, I have this, so in six months, this is what I can expect.

And what do they do?

What those that wait, what are they doing?

They're waiting, they're expecting it to go that way.

Amen.

Folks, I I know we, you know, we chuckle about these things.

Why do you think I'm always telling you to quit calling yourself old?

Who told you you were old?

Who said?

Who decided what age we were old?

You know, the Bible says that Enoch walked with God and he was not because God took him.

When you read the book of Genesis, the Bible says Enoch was 300 and some odd years old when God took him.

But the indication there is he was young.

He only had one child at 300 years of age, one child.

This is important.

The Bible says in the book of Isaiah that in the millennial reign of Christ, if somebody dies before the age of a hundred, they would be considered a child.

This is important.

Because what do people do?

They look at their birthday, the age, I'm not saying you, but people.

They look at the age and they start saying, Well, you know, I'm filling the blank.

Can't do that anymore.

Um well, who said?

I mean, who said?

See, what what are you expecting?

If you expect a certain age to bring a certain thing, it's gonna bring it.

But it's not gonna bring it because of the age, it's gonna bring it because you're expecting it.

Amen.

I I used to to know a man, and I God bless him, I loved him, but he would always say things, well, you know, when you get to be my age, forget your head if it's not tied on.

You know, and he was the most forgetful man I ever met in my life.

And he didn't need to be.

You know, I find, I find the older I get, the sharper things become.

I know more.

I know more.

I'm smarter than I was at 30.

Right?

Aren't you?

I hope.

I'm wiser than I was at 25.

Amen.

But that doesn't mean I've got to slow down.

Where is that slow down scripture that once you become a certain age, you gotta slow down.

You can't enjoy life, you know, you gotta you're sitting on the couch or on the recliner, you're, you know, whatever.

Now, if you want to do that, that's your business.

But here's the point.

Here's the point that I'm trying to make to you.

Why is that something people constantly expect?

Because we've been told what to think.

We've been told after this age, you can't this, and you can't that, and you can't this.

You know, there's certain people, I don't talk to them about my life.

I don't talk to them about what I do.

Because I don't want to have to fight their words.

There's a person that if I was to talk to them, here's what they would ask me.

Well, are you still doing such and such?

Like, are you still running?

And of course, my response would be yes.

They'd say, You mean at your age?

What does my age have to do with it?

Right?

I mean, if Pastor Ron, Brother Ron here, pulled up in a Ferrari Wednesday night for church, I'm not gonna go out to him and say, Pastor Ron, at your age, you got a Ferrari.

I'd walk out and say, when can I drive it?

Take me for a ride.

Right?

Because it has nothing to do with that.

Amen.

Whatever you want to do.

If you want to sit on the back porch and crochet, that's fine.

But don't be saying that's all I can do at my age.

If you want to run a marathon, don't be, don't let people say, you mean at your age you're gonna do that?

What does my age have to do with it?

It's what I'm constantly expecting.

What am I expecting?

I'm expecting for my youth to be renewed, for my strength to be renewed.

Now notice this is so important because it uses this phrase, and we'll we'll talk about this.

Well, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Go to Psalm 103.

Because notice he said renewed strength, new strength, increased strength.

And how is that obtained?

By expecting, by looking for, and hoping in the Lord.

You know, there's a term that's really popular now.

It's called biohacking.

All right.

And and and uh, you know, people are uh coming up with different things, you know, they they call it biohacking, and and they're saying, you know, they can reverse aging.

Well, I don't think you can reverse aging, but you can nullify the effects.

And you can do that through the word of God.

All right, but I I've I've watched things with people that that they, oh my goodness, they one guy I was watching something yesterday, and uh literally not just a handful of supplements, five dosage of supplements, literally a handful, five handfuls.

Five handfuls.

Now, I'm I'm not saying there's anything wrong with him doing that, what's he doing?

He's trying to biohack his system, right?

And reverse the aging.

Well, supplements are not a bad thing.

I take supplements, they're not bad.

But here's the thing here's the thing.

If I don't have the source of all life going into me, all of that is a stop gap at best.

Just a stopgap.

It might help me, it might energize me, but it cannot truly renew me.

Hallelujah.

Psalm 103, verse 2, notice what it says.

Psalms 103:2

Bless the Lord, oh my soul, do not forget all of his benefits.

Who forgives all your iniquities, heals all your diseases.

I think that's important that he says, do not forget all of his benefits.

And the first two, he says he forgives all your iniquities and heals all your diseases.

And there are people in certain belief systems that they will tell you that God uh removed all of your iniquities, but then they'll say, But he might not heal you every time.

Well, it said he healed all my diseases.

Right?

Who redeems your life from destruction, crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, satisfies your mouth with good things, for what purpose?

So that your youth is renewed like the eagles.

Oh, hallelujah! People have called this the believer's benefit package.

Comprehensive believers package.

So notice your iniquities are forgiven.

All your diseases are healed, redeemed from destruction.

My life is redeemed from destruction.

Amen.

There's not going to be any destroying in my life.

Crowned with loving kindness and tender mercy, satisfied with good things, and then your youth is renewed as the eagles.

Hallelujah.

Now I'm using this analogy of being renewed because of the process it denotes.

That word renew, it means to rebuild or to repair or to renew.

That's a process that requires patience.

If you're going to rebuild something or repair something or renew something, it's a process.

I used to have a side business in the early days of our ministry, and uh a guy in the church had a garage, a uh uh repair shop, and it had three bay, four bays, and uh uh I had one of the bays and I did auto-detailing in that that bay.

And uh uh did that until we got so busy with the ministry I couldn't do it anymore.

But anyway, my point is this you know, I see people at the car wash, and if you ask them, what are you doing?

I'm detailing my car.

No, you're not.

No, you you put a little water on it and slapped a little armor all on it, but you're not detailing it.

All right?

Because if if I'm detailing your car, I'm gonna pull the the wheels off, I'm gonna scrub them back in front, right?

I'm gonna I'm gonna take all your mats out.

I'm gonna I'm gonna blow out the vents, I'm gonna scrub every, right?

If you drop your car off for me to detail it, it's gonna take about three hours for me to detail your car.

And I'm gonna charge you about 150 bucks, right?

Because we're not just washing it and slapping a little armor all on it.

It's it's a process.

You know, they used to rebuild cars there, classic, classic vehicles.

And, you know, somebody would buy something, they'd bring it in on a trailer, and you're thinking, what is this?

What junk heap did they get this out of?

But to the guy that knew how to repair it and restore it and rebuild it, it he could, he said, This is this is gonna be a classic.

You know, it would take sometimes a year or two years to get that thing repaired and restored back to its original place.

What'd that take?

Patience.

Did the guy that owned that car want to drive it?

He sure did.

But they had to restore it, they had to repair it.

Right?

If you if you want something, if you want something in the natural just real quick, you don't want the best.

You just want immediate gratification.

Right?

If you want a good meal, don't go to McDonald's.

I mean, that's just the reality of it.

Yeah, but it tastes good.

Doesn't mean it's good.

Right?

I mean, grease tastes good no matter how you get it.

But here's the here's the point.

So you can, and I don't know, I don't go to McDonald's, so I could be wrong.

But here's the point.

I mean, you can go and in a few minutes get, you know, a couple burgers and some fries and whatever else.

Right?

But then if you want to go somewhere good and get a real meal, you got to go in and sit down and wait.

Why?

Because they are in the process, everybody say process.

They're in the process of producing something that's gonna be really good.

Oh, hallelujah.

Do you see that?

My wife likes for me to uh make lasagna.

All right?

Now we do lasagna a little different, but here's here's the point.

If you've ever made a lasagna, it is a labor-intensive effort.

All right, because you it the way you gotta chop the vegetables, you gotta, right, you gotta boil the noodles, and you gotta pull the noodles out, put them on a paper towel, then you gotta put a layer of this and a layer of that, and then another layer, and then another layer, and then, right?

And then you gotta bake it for 45 minutes.

So you've spent 45 minutes preparing it.

Now you gotta bake it for 45 minutes.

You get it out on the table, you've got nearly two hours of preparation in that.

Amen.

Why she like it?

It's good, it takes time.

Any, anything, anything that produces results in your life is not just gonna happen overnight.

You see what I'm saying?

So he says, I want to rebuild, I want to repair, I want to renew.

See, how long is affected by my efforts to get the word in my heart?

I I have a large part to say about how quickly something happens.

And so you might be here watching online, and you might not have symptoms of anything in your body, or there may not be pain in your body, or whatever the case may be.

You need to you just need to be liberally applying doses of the word of God now.

Right?

Yeah, why?

Because why, Pastor?

Because I'm gonna get sick?

Um because we live in the earth with the curse on it and it tries to come around.

I need to be ready.

If you are dealing with something, he said if it's there, he would take it.

Amen.

Glory to Jesus.

So we need patience because when we are seeing the word, we're storing the word in our heart.

So I'm taking the word.

I read it in Proverbs today.

It said, the heart of the righteous teacheth his mouth.

All right, and so I'm putting the word in my heart.

David called it, I'm storing up the word.

Your word I've hid, I've stored up in my heart.

I'm saving the word in my heart.

For what purpose?

For when I need it.

It's there.

Right?

Just like you're you're you put money back in a savings account, you put money back in a responsibility fund, whatever it may be.

Why?

Because am I expecting a challenge every day?

No, but if one shows up, I want to have provision to take care of it.

Amen.

So as I'm speaking the word, I'm storing the word in my heart as I'm seeing the word.

When I'm speaking the word, I'm applying the word to my life.

And then we apply the word to our lives.

And then when we re-speak the word, and we reapply the word to our everyday lives, every day you're saying the word, you're speaking the word, you're declaring what the word of God has to say.

Hallelujah.

And again, that's not just confession.

Remember what he said in the book of Deuteronomy?

He said, You should hold on to this word because it is your life.

It is your life.

The word of God is my life.

That's what sets people of the word apart from people that know about the word.

People that know about the word, they can tell you you should confess the word, but the word's not their life.

People that know about the word can tell you what the word can do, but the word's not their life.

The word is my life.

Right?

Say it out loud, the word is my life.

See?

Because when the word's your life, you realize no matter what I'm faced with, the word will fix it.

Right?

And so when the word is your life, a diagnosis doesn't scare you.

Because I've already got too much of the life of God on the inside of me.

Right?

I declare, for instance, I declare over my family, over myself every day.

In our pathway is life, and there is no death.

In our pathway, all that's there is life.

There is no death.

Amen.

And and and you know, you just you just consistently do that.

Well, today I'm I'm coming to work and I'm coming over the bridge, coming out of Maw Mail, coming over the bridge.

And uh I uh got over in the right lane.

You're coming over the bridge, there's the far right lane that will take you up to Cantrell, Highway 10.

And and so, you know, people are always getting over there.

And so I got over in the second to the end lane.

There's a big truck ahead of me.

And uh I don't know how fast I was going, speed limit, or maybe I don't know.

But anyway, uh the truck all of a sudden it went over into the right lane.

Well, you know, I I had just seen him.

Well, I saw why he in a moment, I saw why he got over.

There were two cars all but stopped right in that lane.

I only had a split second of time to get back over in the left lane.

You know, what's the first thing I said?

In my pathway is life and there is no death.

Thank you, Jesus.

And I called my wife and said, I'm glad that in our pathway is life and there is no death.

Now understand, we're painting our lives with that.

So someone who's the word is their life, they don't grab a hold of the word when something happens.

They already had a hold of the word before it happened.

Amen.

Look at Luke 17.

Thank you, Jesus.

And um, verse 12.

And this is uh another passage of scripture, an account of the ministry of Jesus that very often we've heard of, but it says in verse 12, he entered into a certain village, and there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off.

And they lifted up their voice and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.

When he saw them, he said to them, Go show yourself to the priest.

And it came to pass that as they went, they were cleansed.

As they went, they were healed.

One translation says they left, and on the way they were healed.

Another says, while they were going there, they became well again.

Yet another says, on the way they were cleansed of their leprosy.

So what we see is that when Jesus said go to the priest, they saw no immediate change.

When Jesus said go to the priest, they didn't see anything immediately.

But notice what it says as they went.

Now we don't know how far they had to win, but it was as they went.

Now, why is this important?

Because we teach on this very often about how healing sometimes is a process, and and and you know a miracle is instantaneous and a healing can be a process.

But here's what I want you to see.

We don't know how far they went before they noticed that they were healed.

What's the key?

Don't let time defeat you.

Don't let time defeat you.

But I've been believing God.

We'll just keep believing him.

Well, I've been standing, keep standing.

I had a person come to me and say, Pastor, you know, I've been saying it and I don't see a change yet, and I just said, Well, keep saying it.

Just say it again.

Why?

Because that's what he said.

He said, Go show yourself to the priest.

Don't let time defeat you.

Well, I thought, surely, thought surely I'd be better by now.

Well, you're believing you're better.

Your faith's working.

You're still here.

Remember, I've talked to you a lot about questions.

I've talked to people before, and they would go through a harrowing situation with their family or with themselves or whatever.

And they would say, I just don't understand this, and I don't understand that.

And I've told you I like to boil things down to the lowest common denominator.

Here's the issue: you're alive.

I don't know why that happened.

You're alive.

God kept you.

Let's rejoice in that.

If there's something else we need to know, he'll tell us.

Right?

So I don't know how far they went.

Here's what I know: that as they went, they were healed.

I don't know if they got almost there, three-quarters of the way there.

I don't know if they were knocking on his door.

I don't know.

I don't care.

Right?

Understand, this is the essence of waiting on the Lord.

This is the essence of being patient.

When did God heal you?

When, right?

People will say, well, I see that you're healed.

You're not in pain anymore.

No, I was healed six months ago when I was hurting like the Dickens.

That's when I was healed.

I wasn't healed when the pain went away.

I was healed when I received my healing.

Hallelujah.

Okay, listen, I got to tell another story then.

I've told it time and time again about the instructor at Ramah that could not see.

He was legally blind without his glasses.

Could not drive, was not allowed to drive without his glasses.

Believing for healing.

And every day after class, he'd teach with his glasses on.

At the end of class, he'd look at the clock.

He couldn't see the clock.

He'd say, Thank you, Lord, for my healing.

And he'd put his glasses on and drive home.

He did that for months upon months.

Thank you, Lord, I'm healed.

Couldn't see the clock.

Put his glasses on and drive home.

One day he got done teaching, looked up at the clock, said, Thank you, Lord, that I'm healed, walked off and left his glasses and never needed them again.

It was a process.

When did he believe he received his healing?

The moment hands were laid on him, the moment he found the word.

When I found the scripture that said, the hearing ear and the seeing eye, God has made them both.

I decided right then and there both of mine are going to be good.

Amen.

And you might be walking through something, whatever it may be.

But if the Lord created them, the Lord did not create them to fall apart.

The Lord did not create my body to fall apart.

He created my body in the beginning for it to be an eternal vessel.

Oh, hallelujah.

So as they went, the word had been spoken.

What did they do?

They acted on the word spoken.

And what did the word spoken do?

Produce the desired results.

So he said in the word, in Psalm 107, he sent his word and healed them.

He sent his word and healed them.

So don't let time defeat you.

Well, when are things going to get better?

They're getting better already.

They're getting better right now.

Well, I don't feel better.

That doesn't change the fact that they're getting better.

See, the essence of faith is you're taking what God said.

He said the pathway of the righteous grows brighter and brighter.

Amen.

My life gets better and better.

Well, I don't see it better.

The word says it is.

That's the reality of it.

Hallelujah.

Look at John 4.

Now I must say this is John 4 is my absolute favorite account of healing in the Bible.

You might have a more favorite account than you have, and that's good.

But this, of course, is this courtier or nobleman that was in Herod's court, his son was sick.

And according to all accounts, I mean so sick that he wasn't sure he was alive when he got to Jesus.

And he got there and he asked Jesus to come, and uh Jesus helped him, corrected him in some areas, and finally the nobleman in verse 29 said, Sir, come down ere my child, or unless my child dies.

Verse 50, Jesus said to him, Go your way, your son lives.

And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken to him and went his way.

And as he was going down to his house, his servants met him and said, Your son lives.

Now, there's a teaching, part of a teaching here that we we obviously don't have time to get in.

What did he get?

Exactly what the word said.

What did the word say, your son lives?

What did they say?

Your son lives.

Just what the word said.

So what do I expect?

Just what the word said.

I don't expect a discount version of what the word said.

If he said he carried my pain, then he carried my pain.

He didn't carry most of my pain.

I'm not going to carry any of it if he carried all of it.

Right?

That's what the word said.

And so when the word your life, that's what you expect.

What did the word say?

Amen.

Now notice.

Then he inquired of them, the hour that he began to amend, the time that he began to get better.

Notice it doesn't say he was better, he began to get better.

When did he start getting better?

And they said unto him, Yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him.

Yesterday, at one o'clock in the afternoon, the fever left him.

And the Father knew it was at the same hour that Jesus said to him, Your son lives, and himself believed, and his whole house.

Now that's when he believed on Jesus.

He already believed the word that Jesus said.

This is when he believed on Jesus.

But I want you to see something.

Notice the man believed with no other evidence than the word Jesus spoke.

No other evidence but the word Jesus spoke.

You know, the Roman centurion came to Jesus, and we always talk about him from Matthew chapter 8, and Jesus said, uh, uh, you know, go your way, and as you have believed, be it done unto you.

Matthew 8 · chapter mention

And we always preach and teach.

I've got a sermon series called The Greatest Faith.

And because Jesus said that that man had the greatest faith that he had found in Israel.

Well, this miracle in the book of John was the second miracle Jesus performed.

The first miracle was the turning of water into wine.

But here's the point: this is the second miracle that Jesus had performed.

And the man, this father, had to obtain the word or had to obtain what the word promised.

Notice, this is key.

Go your way, your son lives.

The man believed the word that Jesus had spoken.

I've asked people before about the word.

I mean, you believe the word, right?

Well, I'm trying.

That's not believing.

Well, I'm doing my best, that's not believing.

Well, I believe God can.

That's not believing.

If I knew you had a million dollars in your pocket today, I know that you're able to take care of a certain bill that I have.

Doesn't mean you're gonna.

Just because I believe you can.

You, right?

I have to have some knowledge that you want to do it.

So when someone says, Well, I, yeah, I believe, I believe God can, that doesn't mean they believe he has or that he will.

The man believed the word.

What was the word that the man spoke?

Your son lives.

In other words, evidently this man thought somehow in his heart or in his mind he was thinking his son has died.

And Jesus said, first of all, look, your son lives.

And the man believed the word.

So when the word says by his stripes you are healed, what's your job?

Believe the word.

Listen, not I'm confessing the word.

I believe the word.

I believe the word.

Say it out loud.

I believe the word.

See, he believed the word.

No other evidence than the word Jesus had spoken.

So he had to obtain what the word promised.

Now he's got to go all night back home.

It took him a day to get there.

He's got to go a day back.

This is the next day.

He inquired of them when he began to amend.

They said, yesterday, at one o'clock.

So this guy has traveled all night.

We don't know if he stopped and slept or what, but the Bible doesn't tell us.

But here's what I know.

He has, we know that reports back then were not as, right?

They didn't have Gmail and email and clutter up your life, mail.

Right?

But here's the thing.

So it took time.

So now I just because I know how people's minds work, I know how the devil works.

I can tell you the fight that he was dealing with all the way home.

Right?

Because sitting in here today online, you've had hands laid on you and declared, I'm the healed of the Lord.

And before you got home, your mind started talking to you.

At the prodding of the devil.

Well, you know, I mean, if you did receive your healing, wouldn't you feel better?

So if you're healed when you go to the doctor, that's gonna be gone, right?

I'm the only one.

Y'all pray for me then.

Right?

No, I'm not the only one.

I know I'm not the only one.

If you say I'm the only one, we're gonna pray for liars.

Because we all live in a fallen world and the devil fights in the middle arena.

And man, you you get hands laid on you, and it's like, whoa boy, praise God.

I feel better.

And you go get in your car, and by the time you get home, you step out of the car and you're like, oh, oh.

And right there, right there is that thought.

See, you didn't receive.

No, no, no, no.

I believe the word that was spoken.

Hands were laid on me.

I'm the heel of the Lord.

Norville Hayes made this statement.

He said, most people have wrong thinking because they do their own thinking.

Right?

You gotta let the word think for you.

And so this man all the way home, he's doing what?

He's obtaining what the word said.

He's holding on to it.

And what happened?

The boy started getting better at one o'clock.

When?

When Jesus said, Your son lives.

So here's the thing.

When did the word start working?

And people will say, when Jesus said it.

No, when the man believed it.

Jesus said it, he had to believe it.

Right?

That's why I had a minister that would take issue with this.

Because even Brother Hagin would say this: God said it, I believe it, that settles it.

And I had a minister friend of mine, ah, God said it and that settles it.

And I would be like, brother, no, that's not right.

Because there's a lot of things that God said that are not settled in people's lives because they don't believe it.

I gotta believe it.

The word that you're confessing every day, you've got to believe it.

I've got to believe it.

Amen.

And I don't believe it.

I don't believe that God will heal you because he healed me.

I believe God will heal you because he said in his word, he will heal you.

I do not base anything that God will do for you based on what he did for me.

Because I don't know where you're at and you're believing.

I can tell you that if you believe God, God will do what he said.

And testimonies sometimes come off like, look, if you just do what I did, you can get what I got.

No, no, no.

If you just believe God's word.

The Lord helped me see that years ago.

And and please understand, it takes a certain, when I say this, it's gonna sound like I'm calling myself humble.

And I guess I am, right?

You know, it's like the guy that, you know, in the church they they gave him the pen, you know, the ribbon for being the most humble, and then took it away from him because he wore it.

You know, prideful?

Dr.

Oral Roberts was ministering one time, and the guy stood up and maybe center yelled at him, shouted him down from the from the the bleachers.

Oh, Roberts, you're the most prideful person in the world.

As the ushers were helping him out.

Dr.

Roberts said, Hold on one minute, stop.

They stopped and he said, My brother, it is only my humility that stops me from telling you how humble I really am.

Anyway, here I don't know what was I saying.

I was saying something.

Oh, here it is, here it is.

You know, the Lord cautioned me some years ago because you know, sometimes you'll hear people and they'll they'll give a testimony and they'll leave it like this look what my faith, my way of believing, my level of faith.

Look what it got.

How'd you get that car?

Believed God.

And they walk away thinking, boy, how great he is.

What a great person of faith he is.

Right?

Well, yeah, I did believe God, but who did it?

Whose word did I use?

Whose faith did I use?

So who did this?

God.

Right?

And so my point is when we give a testimony, very often it's it's like if you just do the things I did, you'll get what I got.

Here's the thing.

Boil it down to this if you believe God, God will do what he said.

Am I helping you?

So the word started working when the man believed it.

The word you will not let go of is the word that will heal your body.

Just don't let go of it.

Amen.

Don't let go of it.

Brother Hagin told the stories.

I'm closing, and he told it in this little book, God's Medicine.

This is one of my favorite books on healing, God's Medicine.

And uh he uh he told the story in this book uh about when he was out on the road traveling uh in the early days of their ministry, back in the uh late 50s, early 60s, and uh his daughter Pat, Sister Pat, uh got a growth on her eye.

It was either on her eyelid or bottom or top, I forget, but uh a growth, a bump.

And uh the nurse, back then, the nurse would come around every now and then to the school to check everybody out, and and she pointed that out.

And Pat came home and said the nurse asked, you know, did we know about this?

So, of course, then Oretha wrote Brother Hagan a letter and told him what was going on.

And so he's in service every night, and he made the statement.

He said, So that night after I got that letter, she said, because they were asking, you know, Pat wants to know what does she tell the nurse?

So he said, after service that night, I got home and he said, I I, you know, uh got out of my church clothes, got ready for bed, and he said, I decided uh I'm gonna I'm gonna sit here and I'm gonna I'm gonna read the word on healing for an hour.

And so he said, from like 10:30 to 11:30, he read the word on healing.

He said, then I decided to lay down and he said, I'm gonna wake up in an hour and I'm gonna read the word on healing for another hour.

And he did that throughout the night.

Well, here's the point is he said, you know, I could have quoted every verse that I read because I knew it.

He said, but the Bible says that when you're meditating on the word, you're putting the word in your eyes, getting it in your heart, right?

And he said, uh, I just kept meditating on the word and meditating on the word.

And he said, I did that all night long.

And he said, I got up the next morning and wrote my wife a letter, and I said, Here's what you tell Pat.

You tell Pat, Daddy says she's healed.

He said, Now I knew all those verses.

I just wanted to go back and meditate, store them up in my heart.

Hallelujah.

Well, the end result was she was healed.

I I've asked her personally about that story a couple times, and and and she said it just went away.

Well, now here's the thing: anything that people are dealing with, we just want it to go away.

But here's the thing: how does it go away?

The word keeps moving it out.

You get so full of the word the sickness can't stay.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

You know the way to avoid dessert, eat enough good food that you don't want it.

Amen.

Yeah, yeah, that's the way to avoid it.

If you want to avoid it, maybe you don't want to avoid it.

That's your business.

We're not talking about nutrition.

But but here's the point.

Here's the point.

How do I get rid of sickness?

Gets so full of healing it can't stay.

Oh, hallelujah.

You know, it's a lot hotter outside than it is in here.

And if we didn't have the air on, it would be just as hot inside as it is outside.

Hotter, probably.

But what's the problem?

We've had a unit constantly introducing conditioned air into this building, and what did it do?

The building is so full of cool air, it's not hot.

Oh, hallelujah.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

Well, you may or may not want hands laid on you.

If you want hands laid on you, we're we that that was our purpose for this meeting today.