Appropriating God's Promises By Faith

In 2018, when I experienced three separate mini-strokes, I felt the Lord tell me that they were attacks from Satan. I also felt these were meant to curtail and cease my preaching and teaching ministry. Strokes attack the brain and often take away the ability to speak.

In praying about how to counterattack this attack by the enemy, I heard the Lord tell me to use His Word, both the written word, the Bible, as well as the prophecies that I had received over the years. I began to do so and one of the most meaningful Scriptures I quoted was found in Psalm 91.

Psalm 91:1-3 1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High

Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress;

My God, in Him I will trust.”

3 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler

And from the perilous pestilence.

Psalm 91:5-7 5 You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,

Nor of the arrow that flies by day,

6 Nor of the pestilence [disease] that walks in darkness,

Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.

7 A thousand may fall at your side,

And ten thousand at your right hand;

But it shall not come near you.

Anyone can read this passage of Scripture and even quote it, but we know that many Christians and non-Christians alike have died of many sicknesses and diseases. I am sure that in their physical dilemma that eventually ended in their death they read or were told these words found in Psalm 91. Then why did they succumb to the disease that took their lives?

We find some understanding to this question by considering the meaning of the word faith.

Faith

Faith is a powerful tool to use against the enemy and for approaching the Lord and receiving from Him.

Matthew 17:14-20 14 And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. 16 So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.”

17 Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” 18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.

19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”

20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief [lack of faith]; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.

Notice that Jesus did not say great faith but faith as a mustard seed. What is faith? We find the answer and many examples in Hebrews.

Hebrews 11:1 1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:6 6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

I believe that being delivered and protected from any attack from the enemy is definitely a reward. If I may, let me speak a little more about faith. As I was meditating on this subject of faith I put together this thought.

Faith=knowledge+confession+action+agreement+gratitude

Allow me to explain this “formula” with regard to believing and benefiting from Psalm 91. In order to have faith to benefit from Psalm 91, or any promise of God, we must first have knowledge that the considered promise exists. Using a well-worn example, if I open a new bank account in your name and put $10,000 in that account and you never know about it, that $10,000 won’t do you any good. It is the same with God’s Word. If you never have knowledge of the promises of God found in the Bible, you will never utilize faith in them.

Secondly, you must agree with those promises and confess them to be true. That same Bible tells us in the passage above, “if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” When you do this, you are confessing the truth of God’s Word.

Next, you must act on what you believe and confess.

James 2:17-22 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! 20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?

It is obvious that if we have knowledge of a promise, confess it to be true and act on the promise then we are in agreement with it. To agree with God is to disagree with the enemy and the thoughts and doubts that he is trying to put into our minds. When Satan comes against us and attempts to kill, steal and destroy, we must resist him. Having and walking by faith is a spiritual battle. We are given instructions in Ephesians about how to engage in spiritual warfare.

Ephesians 6:13-17 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;

Every part of these instructions exemplifies knowledge (gird your waist with truth, the Word of God), confession (breastplate of righteousness [I am the righteousness of Christ]), action (take up, put on) and agreement (stand therefore).

The last ingredient of faith is gratitude. One will not have gratitude unless he receives what he is standing and asking for. We are not thankful for what we do not receive. Faith means to have gratitude even before we receive. At some point before we see the answer to our prayer we should turn our petition from asking to thanking. This is the real test of having faith. Let me give you a personal example.

Several years ago we needed $12,000 to complete the purchase of some land. Karen and I decided to ask God to provide this need by June 1. We prayed in February. I then had the thought, “If I really believe God is going to answer this prayer, then I should act in faith and gratitude and go ahead and tithe ($1200) on it now. In the natural, this was crazy. I needed that $1200 to put toward the $12000 now. If I gave that $1200 I would now need $13,200 by June. By giving the tithe, I was showing faith and gratitude for God answering our prayer. You know the result already. We paid the tithe and on June 1 we had all the money we needed. God was faithful.

I recall two instances in the New Testament where people were healed and God attributed their healing to faith. The woman with the issue of blood (Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole) and blind Bartimaeus (Then Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.”)

To summarize, the promises of God (as in Psalm 91) being fulfilled requires not just knowledge of the promise but faith. Faith involves knowledge, confession, action, agreement and gratitude. It is not just enough to read something in the Bible but we must receive by faith.

James 5:15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. I pray that not only will you read Psalm 91 but be able to appropriate its promises and comfort by faith during these troublesome times.

*All Scriptures quoted in this article are from NKJV.