Creflo Dollar - How to Take Possession of Your Healing
Well, let's begin this morning in the book of Galatians chapter 2 and verse 16 and 20 and 21 in the New Living Translation. We've been talking about ten ways to respond to the finished works of Jesus. Ten ways to respond to grace. Ten ways to respond to what grace has already made available for us all. And, you know, one of the things that I've been trying to just really get into your thinking is if Jesus has already done a thing, then you shouldn't be trying to do a thing because it's already done. If Jesus has already healed you, if Jesus has already made you righteous, if Jesus has already made you whole, if Jesus has already done it, then as Christian people we should not be trying to do what's already done.
I use for an illustration, if I were to come out here and say to you, "Sit down", and you've already been seated and I continue to insist, "Sit down", and you've already been seated, eventually you're gonna start questioning my mental health. Well, somehow we keep doing that where God is concerned. You know, "God deliver me". He said, "We did that". "God, heal me". "We did that". "God, make me righteous". "We did that". And so, as Christian people, we cannot find ourselves doing what Jesus has already done and we've got to get to the point where we can receive by faith, "It's finished". Receive by faith, "It's already done". And so then faith will take possession of what has already been done, rather than you coming up with some kind of religious activity to try to get it done.
And so, in light of that, the series is about teaching you how to respond to what's already done. In other words, what does it look like then? If I'm not doing something to get it done, 'cause it's already done, what does faith look like, responding to something that's already done? That's what faith is. It is a positive response to what has already been made available. But how does that look? Practically, how does that look? What am I supposed, what does it look like for me to respond to what Jesus has already done? So we begin here in Galatians 2:16. Let's read it out loud together. Galatians 2:16, ready? Read: "Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, and not by obeying the law".
Stop. That is so radical, right? Because most of us, all of our lives, we've gone to church and we heard, "You've got to obey the law in order to be right with God and you're not right with God if you do that or you don't do that". And the Scripture says you're not made right with God by obeying the law. You're made right with God by your faith in Jesus Christ: your faith in Jesus Christ and your faith in the finished works of Jesus Christ and your faith in what Jesus has already made available. That's how you're made right with God. Now, we are not justifying bad behavior. You have to say that because that's what people begin to think about, but what he says is if you'll have faith in what Jesus has already done, then, you know, that's when you're made right with God. You're not made right with God by keeping the law. That's so radical. You know what would happen if your Mama saw that Scripture? All right?
Now watch this, he said, "And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ". So we're made right with God because we believe what Jesus did. We believe that through the blood and through the body of Jesus Christ, we've been delivered, we've been made right with God, we've been made the righteousness of God, not based on what we do, but based on what he did and our faith in what he did. And the rest of this Scripture. He says, "Not because we've obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law". I mean to tell you that goes against everything I heard growing up. "No one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law".
The only way you can be made right with God is by believing and trusting in what Jesus has done for you and your faith to appropriate or to take possession of what is already done. And really, that's what the Christian life is about. It's about a relationship with Jesus and taking possession of what he's already done. Turn to two people and tell 'em, "It is finished". It is finished. So we've defined faith, faith in Jesus. We defined faith as a positive response to what's already made available. You came in here, you saw these seats. They were constructed a certain way and you responded in a way that said, "I have confidence in this seat's ability to support me", and you took a seat. I like that. C'mon now, you took a seat. I want you to be able to say, "I took healing", "I took deliverance", "I took promotion". You responded, right? You responded.
Now, we've talked about the first two ways to respond. Well, actually, we're stuck on the second one. First of all is believing in the love that God has for you. If you don't believe God loves you, you won't believe what he says. If you don't believe God loves you, you won't believe what he promised. Number two, to make a decision to believe in the finished works of Jesus Christ. And we've been talking about that. The first part we talked about was that your forgiveness is already done. Secondly, your redemption is already done. Thirdly, judgment is already done so you can check those off the list of things that you don't try to do 'cause it's already done.
So today we're gonna talk about your healing is a done deal. Your healing is already done. So I'm gonna lay a foundation for healing. Your healing is already done. Emotionally, brokenness, and in your physical body, your healing is already done. I'm pretty qualified to teach on this, this morning, because I took healing for meningitis. I took healing for cancer. I'm here today, healthy and aging backwards. You listening to me? My wife has experienced some supernatural healing. And I'm telling you, I remember one time, I don't know how many years ago, we went to have some tumors moved. When the doctor opened you up, it was already gone.
So, you know, we need to begin to teach on things like this in a practical way. Just in case you need it one day, you can go pull it out your drawer when you need it, praise God. I would rather it be in your heart so you'll know how to do it. But you may know people that have no idea how to respond to the report of a doctor. They have no idea. Now, listen to this, I'm gonna lay a foundation for this. You go into a place and the doctor says, "You have cancer, you have this disease, you have that or you're wounded emotionally or you're going through some type of depression", the first move is towards the Word. The first place you go, you go to the Word as the final authority. What you heard from the doctor is not the final authority. The final authority is what the Word says. You go to the Word. That's the first place. Please believe me. That's the first move. You go to the Word. The Word is your final authority.
What do I mean, "Go to the Word"? Go to the Bible and you retrieve every Scripture that talks about you being healed already. You go to the Bible. See, it's a real simple choice. The doctor doesn't have a cure for everything that comes up with you. But supernaturally, it's already done. So either trust what he says or trust what I say and trust what God's already done. I ain't gonna sit up here trying to beg you to get this. You gonna need it one day. Somebody said, "I don't believe in miracles anymore". You will when you need one. Go to the Word as your final authority. Until the will of God is known, faith won't work. You have to know that it's God's will and you have to believe it and see it that it is God's will for you to be healed. The will of God does not automatically come to pass.
You know, it was God's will for all to be saved. But how many of you know that doesn't automatically come to pass? God's will is for everybody on the planet to be saved. But it doesn't come to pass automatically. You have to make a decision. You have to make a decision to respond for by grace are you saved but you get it how? Through faith. So you have to make a decision to respond to the salvation that's been made available. Salvation has been made available for the whole world, but only those who respond take hold of it, amen? And so the will of God doesn't automatically come to pass. In fact, look at Luke chapter 5 before I give you these ten steps.
Luke chapter 5, verses 12 through 13. The will of God doesn't automatically come to pass. Here's a situation here where this guy wanted to know if it was God's will to heal him, King James Version. And he wanted to know if God wanted to heal him and he says, "And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy: who seeing Jesus". That's important. Let's see Jesus, amen? "Who seeing Jesus fell on his face, besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou can make me clean". So he knew God could make him clean and heal him, but he just didn't know if it was his will. He says, "I know you can heal, and I know you can do great things, but I don't know if it's your will for you to do it for me".
See, most of you believe that God's a miracle worker. And most of you believe that God's a healer, but sometimes the question is, "Will he heal me"? And the answer to that question is what? "Yes". Look what happened in the next verse here, in verse 13: "And he put forth his hands, and he touched him. He said", watch this, "I will: be thou clean". And what happened? "Immediately the leprosy departed from him". The will of God is known and your faith, you won't be able to respond positively until you know it's the will of God for you to be healed.
Now, I know there are lots of us, all of us in here, we've had somebody in our lives that died of sickness and disease and we went through a lot of emotions and sometimes there's the temptation to say, "Well, I just don't believe it because of the number of people that died of a different sickness or disease". I tell you what, ladies and gentlemen, I don't know, nor will I pretend to give you an explanation for that, but what would I will tell you is Jesus is still healing today. Why?
Wait a minute, because he's already done it. That same temptation came over my head to say, "Well, you know what? There are lots of people who are dead from the cancer that I had", and I just, something on the inside of me which is the Holy Spirit said, "No, it's not God's will", and I'm not going to base what's gonna happen to me based on what's happened to everybody else. I don't know why that happened, and I'm not gonna try to get an answer to why that happened, but I am gonna receive that it's God's will for me to be healed and in the name of Jesus I take it right now in Jesus' name. Hallelujah, glory be to God. I'm telling you, I'm glad to be alive today, praise God. That came across my mind. I'm like, "Dear God, that was".
You know, just thought about all those things and I thought, "Well, I'm gonna share this and I need to share this with my friends and partners and members here in this congregation to say, 'Uh-uh, just because you're pronounced with something doesn't mean that you can't have victory over it if you'll realize that you already have victory over it'". See, I think for the most part, people have always tried to get something instead of believing they already had it. All right, watch this. So a positive response to the finished work of healing is what we're dealing with. All right, so that was the primary, that was the foundation. The Word is the final authority. I gotta know the will of God for my life.
Now once you settle that, the Word's the first place you, in fact, the Word is the first move when anything happens. When crazy stuff happens, the Word is the first move. What's God say about it? Baby need a pair of shoes? Look, you got a light bill due? You've even got a gas bill too? Word of God's the first move. It's the first move. I go to the Word. What's the Word have to say about it? What does the Word have to say about it? As a Christian, you are basing everything you do in this life based on God's Word, amen?
So now, examine yourself. Are you responding to something without, first of all, finding out the will of God for your life? The will of God is the Word of God, amen? So what's the Word have to say about this? What does the Word have to say about this situation that just happened, this egregious, hurtful situation? What does the Word have to say about it? What does the Word have to say about a job, promotion? What does the Word have to say about all that stuff? First step, all right? The report is there, you've gone, you've found out it's the will of God, you've turned to the Word first, so what do we do? 1 Peter chapter 2:24. Here's the first thing you get.
Number one, watch this: "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body and on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness", watch this, "by whose stripes ye", c'mon, "were", what? "Healed". So number one, you've got to realize that I am already healed because he said you were, which means if you were healed, then you, excuse the English, if you were healed, then you is healed. I would tell you turn to your neighbor and say, "I is healed", but I'm not gonna. You were healed so you're healed. All right, so before anything is ever diagnosed over your body, say this out loud: "I am healed". All right, now, you maintain that stance. So if anything shows up, you don't change. You're no longer not healed just 'cause the doctor saw something. You were healed, which means you are healed, which means you is healed, and you hold on to that, regardless of whether you have no symptoms or you get symptoms, it doesn't change that stance, amen?
Number two, Hebrews chapter 4, verses 1 through 3. And this is number two: "Rest in the finished work of healing". So if you were healed, so now you gotta figure out now I'm gonna rest in the finished works of healing. I'm not trying to get healed, I'm not trying to work for it. I'm gonna rest in this. I'm gonna find rest which means I'm not gonna stress when situations happened. I've already decided to rest in this. Look what he says in these three Scriptures here, verses 1 through 3: "Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us".
Now, that doesn't mean fright here, okay? He says, "A promise is being left us of entering into his rest, that any of you should seem to come short of it". Verse 2, he says, "For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them", why? "It wasn't mixed with faith in them that heard it". Verse 3: "For we which have believed", all right, here is the authenticity of your belief. "For he who has believed do enter into the rest". So when you say, "I believe I'm healed", that means we should not see you in stress and worry. "I believe I'm healed". We should see you at rest.
People ought to be trying to send you to a therapist because they're, like, "How is it that you're responding like this when the doctor just told you you're gonna be dead in three weeks"? You say, "No, I'm resting in what Jesus said 2000 years ago, not what the doctor's talked about gon' happen in three weeks. I'm resting, I'm resting". And so what happens now? I find rest in what's already done. He says, "As he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest", he said, "although the works were finished from the foundations of the world". So I'm resting in what's finished. And what is finished? Healing is finished so I'm gonna find rest in that.
Now, step three, here's the next step that's gonna come up. So I decided, "Well, I'm gonna go to the Word". I decided in the name of Jesus I believe I were healed. I knew that now I had to move from stress to rest. I felt it in my whole body. Every cell felt like it felt it when, you know, you go in that room and you wonder why the doctor ain't called you back, and wonder why he wanna see you in the office, and you finally get there and you hear him say, "You do have cancer. It's very aggressive". And you have to make sure that you keep your emotions under because your emotion wants to govern everything and so either, you know, if I can control my mouth, I can control my emotions.
So I just kind of just shut up, and he moved me into another room and immediately, "Let's find out what we're gonna do". And I went in that room and they started counseling, "Well, we're gonna enter in from here, and we're gonna shove this here, and do that here, and cut that out, and do this, and do that, and you're not gonna be the same", and all this. And I'm thinking, "This sounds Frankenstein. All this cuttin'? Uh-uh". And so I took off. I flew to New York and just walked around and went shopping. And then a friend of mine called me up and he had this little comedy show and he says, "We want you to be on this show", and I'm thinking, "In this, what do you want me to do on a show"?
And I'm like, I'm gon' just deny, you all don't know what I'm going through. And God said, "Do it". And it was a comedy show. And I said, "All right, what's the part I'm gonna play"? He said, "A funeral home director". I'm like, "God. A funeral home director"? Funeral home director named Mr. Watson. I'm like, "Either God has a sense of humor and this ain't funny". Went there and laughed all day long. And around midnight, I heard this word. He says, "I told you laughter works like medicine". And I just had to keep my emotions in a place where they wouldn't rise up above and so I knew I had to stay in rest and so, look at number three here. It's in verse 11, step number three. So I knew that there was gonna be a labor. A labor.
Number three is labor to rest. I was not gonna labor to get healed, but I'm gonna labor to rest in healing. Labor to rest in "By his stripes you were healed". What does that look like? Well, that's what he was trying to show me. Laughter works good like medicine. Speaking in agreement with what I'm already resting in. Praise and worship. The biggest thing was go ahead and serve other people. Get your attention off yourself. Serve other people. So I never stood in this pulpit until it was over with and said anything. I didn't come to this pulpit and say, "Well, chil'ren, we about at the end. Oh, Lord, Lord, Jesus, I got cancer"! I ain't doin' that. I ain't doin' that. I ain't even worried like that. Just keep going, just keep preaching. Keep smiling, keep studying, keep meditating the Word, keep praising the Lord. That's what labor looks like to rest. I wasn't laboring to be healed. I'd already believed I'm healed. I'm laboring to stay at rest, to stay out of stress.
So one of the things I would do is I would spend time in praise. I would spend time in worship. I didn't wanna talk to nobody what was going on. I wanted to stay extremely Word-based on what I believed was already done. I came to church, I enjoyed people, I enjoyed life. I was laboring to stay at rest. And then sometimes when I would lay down, the thought would try to come and I'd have to get in and just start confessing what I believed. I was laboring to stay at rest, to lift my hands up. I was laboring to stay at rest, to hear my favorite praise song. I was laboring to stay at rest, to get around people who were joyful and I was laboring to stay at rest.
That's what he's talking about. Don't get in stress. Do what you've got to do. You don't labor from work, you labor while you're in work. You don't labor from life, you labor while you're in life. I'm resting in life, I'm laboring to stay at rest. Not to get healed. I believe I'm healed. I'm laboring to stay at rest, not to stay in stress. That's probably the biggest part of this thing because if you go to sitting around, feeling sorry for yourself, looking at movies of people dying of cancer, going to visit people at the graveyard, "I'll see you soon". Uh-uh, no, you're laboring to stay at rest.
Number four, step four, is found in 1 John 4:19. This was huge. Step four, 4:19, 1 John 4:19, and here's step four: believing God's love for you. Now, I can't tell you how often, you know, sometimes when you would go and check the numbers that you didn't get as much results as you wanted and so the most powerful thing that would dwell in my thinking was, "I'm not gonna die. God loves me. God loves me. I mean, I've got too much to do, I'm not finished yet, I am too young to be dying, and this is not God's will for my life and, at the end of the day, God loves me. God loves me".
And I so convinced myself to the point where I was thinking that God loved me, like, more than anybody. And that's what you need to do. You need to get to the point where you think that God don't love nobody more than he love you. I am the only beloved of the Father. Look what he says in verse 19: "We love him", why? "Because he first loved us". Say out loud, "God loves me", and you remind yourself when you're thinking about all those horrible thoughts, "God loves me". When you don't know where the money's gonna come from to pay your bills, "God loves me". When you have no idea how to recover from this crazy decision you made, "God loves me". That's always a big deal, big deal.
Number five, Communion. I took Communion like the doctor prescribed it. In fact, I took the Communion and, you know, I don't think I had any medication, I wouldn't take 'em. I don't think, I didn't have no medication that I was taking in a long time. I just didn't do it, I did something else. I'll show you, the next part, which is wisdom. But I took Communion like it was my medicine. And I'm gonna tell you right now, Communion is like medicine.
Let me show you another promise of Communion we don't look at much in Saint John chapter 6, verse 48. Saint John 6:48, I'll read probably down to about 58. Here's what the Bible says about the body and the blood of Jesus Christ. We gotta change how we look at Communion. It is a supernatural advantage that we have and whether you use Kool-Aid or some days I didn't have nothing, but I had water, and I said, "This represents the blood of Jesus". And then I had a piece of light bread and a corner of a cookie or something, you know. "This is the body of Jesus, this is the blood of Jesus", amen. All right, so look what he says in verse 48. He says, "I am that bread of life".
Now watch this. Next, 49: "Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness", he says, "and they are dead". Next verse: "This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat"? They thought it was cannibalism. Look at this: "Then Jesus said unto them, 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you'".
Now, about this time, everybody that was following Jesus and thought he was a rock star thought, "Dude done lost it. We got to go". And then he looked at some of the disciples, he said, "Y'all gonna leave, too"? They said, "Lord, where we gonna go? You have the words of life". Look at this. "Whosoever eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life". Now, he's referring to Communion. Blood, that cup, flesh, that bread. "He has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day". 55: "For my flesh is meat indeed, my blood is drink indeed". 56: He said, "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father has sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live forever". That got it for me. It was like, "This is the most powerful medicine a man can take if he'll know how to believe right".
So, taking Communion became a part of the everyday process. When the doctor said, "You're certainly gonna die, that we ain't got no cure for this", I thought, "I got some Communion, buddy. You have no idea what I'm getting ready to take, and I'm telling you I trust in Jesus, I take that bread, I take that cup", and it became a part of my healing. And then you're familiar with 1 Corinthians 11, verse 24 and 25: "You do this, remembering what he's already done". He's already healed you.
So every time you take Communion you think, "I'm already healed". "And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: do this in remembrance of me". Remember, my body was broken for you to be healed. 25, he said: "After this same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood: this do you, as often as you drink it", what? "In remembrance of me". So whatever it is, whether it's orange juice or a cracker, whatever it is, that's not the issue. The issue is you're taking this to symbolically represent and to remember what his body and his flesh and his blood has already accomplished. Somebody shout, "I am healed".
Step seven. Did I do six? Okay, step six. This is the big one. 2 Corinthians chapter 10 and 5. Now, while all this is going on, don't think for a moment that the devil's just gonna sit back and just let you do all this, all right? So, step six, take authority over your negative thoughts. You're gonna have a bunch of 'em. Take authority over your negative thoughts. Take authority over your negative thoughts. So now, we're talking about being a good maintenance man 'cause the most powerful weapon of your enemy is suggestion. He's already been stripped of authority. But what he wants to do is make a suggestion. Hath God said? He just wanna plant a thought in your mind and to get you to somehow to submit to those thoughts. You do not have to submit to those negative thoughts.
Now, look what he says you can do. This is what you have the authority to do and you're gonna have to do this every time you think about dying, every time you think about, well, you're not gonna get your victory, every time there's a thought, well, maybe I'm not healed, or every time you start thinking about who's died of the same thing that you have died of. Look what he says: "Casting down imaginations", that's when you start seeing it. You see yourself in a casket, you see yourself. I could never see myself laying down in a casket. I just couldn't see that. Why? I didn't want to. I didn't want to. I just realized that they got a thing to crank 'em down. I just thought that is really close to the top. I didn't want to.
But you know, I had the temptation. There were times where I saw myself coming up to the casket and I thought, "Nah, nah, that ain't right". I just thought, "That ain't supposed to be. That ain't right. Come to no casket". 'Cause people don't remember. They remember you when you die, maybe about a week or two. And I got mad. I'm thinking, like, "What? I'm gonna have to depend on them to exist. If they don't think about me I don't exist". I'm like, "Forget that. I ain't going nowhere, having to be dependent on them jokers before you can exist. I ain't doing it. I ain't. I'm gonna be around here until, like, I'm ready to go. Anyway, I'll go get dressed in the suit I wanna be buried in, laid out in my bed and call all my great-grans and great-great-grans and tell 'em to come ahead and say, 'Bye'".
Look at someone and say, "You know I was gonna leave you some money but you've been acting crazy lately". So you gotta get those thoughts. What are you thinking after the report has been announced or the symptoms come up or they showed you where it was on the x-ray? "Casting down every imagination, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ". So two things we learn here. You have the authority to cast down a thought and, number two, you have authority to capture a thought. Oh, my God. So how does that work? That's real simple.
If you've been in this church a little while, you've heard what I'm getting ready to tell you. I wanna show you how to capture thoughts and how to cast them down. So I want you to count to yourself from one to ten, don't say it out loud, so you'll use your thoughts, okay? You ready? Count. Now say your name out loud. All right, what happened to the thought? Why? 'Cause it had to stop to hear what was coming out your mouth, right? That's how you deal with a thought. So when there's a thought going, "You're gonna die, you're gonna die, you're gonna die". "I will live"! And you'll shut it up. You caught it.
Well, you know, you ain't gonna be able to beat this. "I've already beaten it"! So how do you take authority over your thoughts? With words. You don't fight thoughts with thoughts. You fight thoughts with words. You open your mouth up and you contradict that thought with what the Word has already said and if the thought says you gonna die, you say, "I live and not die. I will live and not die". It stops the thought, it captures the thought, and your words have introduced the one that you want in your head. You're not just talking. This works. I had to walk up and down my hallway, catching thoughts. "Uh-huh, you gonna be dead in a couple of months". I said, "No, I'm not. I'm gonna live and not die. God's already made a decision on that and I believe it".
And then about a minute go by and I hear something else: "Hm, what's gonna happen to this after you die"? "Ain't nothing gonna happen to it 'cause I ain't gonna die. I done told you I'm gonna live and not die". Then I bought myself about five more minutes of peace. Then it showed up again. Said, "Hm, you know this cancer done spread somewhere. You got it in other places. That's why they didn't wanna tell you when they went and saw it. It's back there in your spine". I say, "I don't care what it is, I'm already healed of it". And then I walk a little bit, I bought myself ten more minutes. And see, he gonna keep coming to see if you have really changed your mind. Hm-mm. "What Taffi and them gonna do when you're gone"? I said, "She probably sell the house, collect the money, and gon' keep living". But that ain't gonna be no problem 'cause I ain't going nowhere. Ohh, my God.
Now, in the middle of this, in the middle of this, you gonna get mad. In the middle of this, you gonna realize he playing with me. And that's when something happens. Now it comes out with authority, and he come up to you and say, "Look at that. They gonna take every word you ever said and it ain't gonna mean nothing because you died". I will not die. I will live. By his stripes I'm already healed. I were healed, I was healed, I is healed. Jesus died on that cross, he shed his blood for me, and I will live and not die. And I will give the glory to the Lord God Almighty. And I tell you, when you get to that point, then the devil will leave it be.
Now, what I just described is step seven: understand spiritual warfare. Ephesians 6 and 10: understand that the warfare is a spiritual warfare and a lot of Christians don't understand a spiritual warfare. It is not you going and finding the devil to put him in a headlock. Here's how the spiritual warfare works when you're fighting. It is what you established up there in step one in your foundation. "By his stripes I were healed". Now, here's spiritual warfare. You're holding on to "I'm healed". You're holding on to "It's a done deal. It's finished. I'm healed". This is not up for negotiations, I am healed, now.
The warfare is holding on to that because the enemy is now gonna try to come to take your healing. He'll use symptoms, he'll use, "Oh, I see more on the x-ray". He'll use the thoughts and your job is to maintain healing in the midst of everything around you trying to take it, trying to change your mind, no, "I'm healed", no, "Well, yeah. Oh, it's spreaded to this thing". I mean, it freaked me out. Find out they're talking about, ohh, there was one old lady shedding tears when I got out of that big old tank, and they said, "Oh, it done spread to his spine. Oh, it's spread". And you know, let something somebody saw. It was trying to steal what I already had.
And by the time I got to the car, the theater over there, I told the doc what they said and he said, "Ah, don't pay no attention to that. You ain't got to worry about that for a long time". I said, "Well, is it or isn't it"? He said, "Ah, don't pay no attention to none of that". And I'm thinking, "That is a weapon. That's a dart. That's a dart. He's trying to plant that in my head to keep working against me". And my job is, "No, I'm healed". See, Satan will send symptoms, bad reports, more symptoms, to try to convince you no, you're not. The warfare is, "Yes, I am". "No, you're not". "Yes, I am". Ha, ha. "You're not". "Yes". That's the spiritual warfare. It's like a tug of war. But your tug of war looks like this. And he trying to pull of you, like, "I ain't moving".
And he's trying to, "No, I ain't moving". And you might get a big hit one day. And then after a while you get mad. Is that all you got? C'mon, baby, c'mon, bring it on. I ain't changing my mind. I believe what Jesus did. I believe it's a done deal. I ain't walking out of this spot. I'm staying here, praise God. I'm not calling my faith in off the field. I'm healed. I'm healed. I'll shout it to the mountaintop. I am not gonna move. I fight the good fight of faith, hallelujah. Which means it is finished. I'm done. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 6 through 18. I've seen Darlene singing. Man, she be wearing him out with this step.
And this step number eight is worship, praise, and thanksgiving for the healing that's already done. I tell you, if it's one thing that will quiet the avenger, is when you in the midst of the situation dare to open your mouth up in praise. To dare to open your mouth up in worship. To dare to thank God in the middle of what you're going through. The Bible says: "This is the will of God. Even your thanksgiving". Honey, in the middle of a pit, you thanking God. In the middle of the tumor just grew a little bit more, you thanking God. In the middle of them saying there ain't nothing else left for us to do, you gonna shout with a praise right there in the hospital.
I'm telling you, that'll drive the devil so far deep into hell, you better learn how to open your mouth up and say, "Lord, I give you thanks for what you already done. I thank you for my healing. I thank you, Lord, for what you've done. I thank you that by your stripes I'm already healed. I'll give you a praise, hallelujah". The devil cannot stand it when a born again, tongue-talking, fire-baptized believer opens his mouth up and begins to speak in faith out loud. I am healed. And they start singing songs about healing. They start dancing about healing. They start running over their healing, praise God. He can't figure it out. That confuses him.
How is it that I can throw all of this on you and you still come out with a praise? How is it that I told you you're gonna die and you still come out with thanksgiving? What kind of person are you? "I'm a born again, fire-baptized, anointed person. I believe God", hallelujah. "I believe God. Thank you, Jesus. I'm healed, praise you, God". He can't handle that. He can't handle that. The temptation is to sink in depression. The temptation is to yield to your emotions and, rather than doing that, you let praise arise and your enemies are scattered. You let joy arise and your enemies are scattered. Because if he can't steal your joy, he can't keep your goods. "And with his stripes", and you say, "Like I said, I was, I were, I is healed", amen.
Number nine, step nine, hallelujah. Hallelujah, glory be to God. Sometimes I take my favorite song and just put it on and begin to worship God. And then I'd sense the presence of God coming over my body, praise God, and I'm in his presence, praise God, and he's in the room, praise the Lord. And there's no way I can believe I'm gonna die with all of this presence, hallelujah. And then I'm sitting down reading the Word one day and I read Jesus went in and healed everybody in the village. And I realized none of them were born again. And I thought, "I'm born again in-filled with the Holy Ghost. Ain't no way in the world all them gonna get healed and I end up dying, praise God, when he's not just around me, he's living on the inside of me, hallelujah. It just became increasingly obvious that there's no way that this plan is gonna be able to work on me".
Oh, glory to God. Oh, glory to God. Oh, glory to God. 1 Thessalonians 5 and 6 says: "Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober". Ha, ha, ha, watch this, verse 7. Watch this. "Be alert", verse 7, c'mon. "For they that sleep, sleep in the night". Oh, my God. "And they that be drunken are drunken in the night". 8, yeah: "But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation". Oh my God. Verse 9: "For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ". And this is a good Scripture. "Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him".