During Jesus’ time on earth, He took notice of those who had the highest faith. A Centurion, who came on behalf of his servant. A Canaanite, who came on behalf of her daughter. Jesus noted their faith and the Spirit of God recorded these episodes for our benefit so that we might know what great faith looks like. We need to know. God wants us to aim high. Here us an account from a brand new Jesus follower. He said, “WHEN I was a new believer, I knew little about prayer. My understanding of it was mostly selfish. I considered prayer to be a magic way to get what I wanted. But one day a friend called. His daughter was being rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery. Her appendix had ruptured. Alone on my back porch, I cried out to God, “I’m ashamed of my selfishness in prayer. Forgive me for praying only for myself. Would you please heal that little girl?” Several hours later, my friend called back. Every symptom had evaporated on the operating table. No surgery was performed. The daughter would be held overnight for observation and released in the morning. Can you imagine what that did for my faith as a new believer? God was able to answer prayer and nothing was beyond His power. Some time after that, all the lymph nodes on one side of my body became swollen and sore. Weak and nauseated, unable to eat for days, I finally consulted a doctor. After many tests, we scheduled a biopsy. I was diagnosed as having cancer. The morning of the day we were to hear the results and prognosis from the doctor, the symptoms disappeared. Two nights before, standing in the bathroom and confessing my confusion and anger, I had yielded myself to God’s will regardless of what it might be. As God added to these experiences, those of trusting Him for employment, a place to live, finances, and a ministry of reaching others for Christ, faith grew. There were times it seemed God wasn’t there, but as my understanding and capacity for faith grew, so did experiences of the reality of His ever-present intimacy. Faith didn’t rest on the experiences; the experiences grew out of faith.”¹ Your faith can grow as well. It can grow to the highest of heights. Join us on this week’s journey as we look at Why Taking God at His Word is the Highest Faith. That’s our focus on this weeks Light on Life.

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To receive any blessing from heaven, Jesus followers must be fully convinced of God’s willingness for them to have it. Click To Tweet

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You can view a basic transcript of this podcast at the bottom of this section.

Accept the Challenge

Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put it into operation.
This week’s call is:

To receive any blessing from heaven, Jesus followers must be fully convinced of God’s willingness for them to have it. Are you convinced it’s God’s will for you to be saved, healed, and live a victorious life? If not, dig into God’s Word until you are.  

Join the Conversation

Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11). Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony.
This week’s question is:

Question: If you have questions about God’s willingness to bless in the above mentioned areas, leave your question or concern in the comments section below or write us at emery@emeryhorvath.com.  

Episode Resources:

If you would like to know more about growing in faith, see the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

1. Why Possessing Patience Is A Powerful Step to A Faith Filled Life [Podcast]
2. Why Praying in Faith Means to Believe You Receive [Encore Podcast]
3. How You Can Demonstrate Powerful Faith in God [Podcast]
4. Why Taking the Forgiveness Test Helps Your Faith in God [Podcast]
5. Faith and Prayer: Important Lessons to Know [Podcast]
6. Why It’s Important to Flow in Faith’s Domain [Podcast]
7. Scriptures to Feed Your Faith and Combat Fear [Podcast]

We are currently teaching on the subject of Divine Healing. You can click on the links below to listen to more podcasts or read blog posts along this line.

1. #S12-008: How You Can Remarkably Experience Jesus Powerful Healing Touch [Podcast]
2. #S12-007: Why Being Free from Disease Is Available for You [Podcast]
3. #S12-006: God’s Love for You and Methods of Divine Healing [Podcast]
4. #S9-006: Why Your Miracle Testimony of God’s Healing Power Is Vital [Podcast]
5. #S8-034: How God Did Healing Miracles Through the Early Church Fathers [Podcast]
6. #S8-020: Why You Need to Know the Healing Ministry of John Alexander Dowie [Podcast]
7. #S8-015: Why Your Human Will Is So Vital In Receiving Help and Healing [Podcast]
8. #S8-007: Why Your Will is A Powerful Help to Healing [Podcast]
9. #S7-031: What Divine Healing Is and What It Isn’t [Encore Podcast]
10. #S7-002: Jesus Heals A Blind Man: Why You Can Have Hope [Podcast]
11. Why the Natural and the Supernatural Leads To Healthy Lives
12. #S4-041: Why Your ‘Want To’ Needs to Be Fierce to Receive Healing from God [Encore Podcast]
13. #S4-034: Why You Can Absolutely Expect Powerful Healing Moves of God [Podcast]
14. #S2-034: How to Put Yourself In the Word for Healing [Podcast]
15. #S2-036: Why Hearing is the Most Necessary Healing Component [Podcast]
16. #S3-003: How to Minister Healing Like Jesus Did [Podcast]
17. #S3-005: What Does Jesus Healing on the Sabbath Teach? [Podcast]
18. #S4-007: Why Divine Healing Is Better for Your Life [Podcast]

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 48 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. He and his wife Sharon of 44 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate it on Stitcher Radio and leave a review. If you have a suggestion for a Bible topic, you would like to see taught, or if you have a question, please e-mail me at emery@emeryhorvath.com

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Prayer

• Well again, welcome.
• Let’s pray.

Father God, help is to grow and develop. Open the Word of God to our understanding. Grant unto us a Spirit of wisdom and revelation that we might know the exceeding greatness of His power to each of us. We thank you in advance for doing this in Jesus Name Amen.

The Highest Faith Means Being Fully Persuaded

• So, we are going to look at the account of the Centurions Servant in Matthew 8:5–13.
• But, before we do, I want you to know that I keep running into this thought on ‘being fully persuaded.’
• That comes out of several verses in the book of Romans.

Romans 14:5 (ESV) — 5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.

• Fully convinced — fully persuaded is the same thing just different translations of the same thought.
• One is KJV and the other is ESV.

Romans 4:20–21 (ESV) — 20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

• You can add to that this passage in Colossians.

Colossians 4:12 (ESV) — 12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.

• So because this thought of being ‘fully persuaded’ kept popping up, I did some further research on the word.
• And came up with a more complete definition of it.
• This one has some more bite to it.
• To be ‘fully convinced’ means to be completely certain of the truth of something—‘to be absolutely sure, to be certain, complete certainty.’
• The phrase ‘with complete certainty’ may be expressed in some languages as ‘you may surely believe it’ or ‘there is no reason at all for you to doubt.’²
• To receive any blessing from heaven, Jesus followers must be fully convinced of God’s willingness for them to have it.
• We must live fully convinced that God will do what He has promised.
• Are you fully convinced that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life?
• Are you certain of your salvation through Jesus?
• Can any one talk you out of the fact that you are a saved, born again, blood-washed child of God?
• I mean, let’s get down to the meat and potatoes of this thing.
• How do you know you’re saved?
• Well, God’s Word says it, you believed it, and that settled the whole matter.
• This kind of being ‘fully persuaded’ has a name.
• It is the Helmet of Salvation.

Ephesians 6:14–17 (ESV) — 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness…17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God…

• Now, in a previous podcast, we gave you the definition of salvation.
• And, in that definition, we understood that after being born again, the most common usage of the word salvation is medical.
• To be healed is to be saved in a physical sense.
• Physical remedies are saviors in this sense of the word.
• Are you fully convinced that Jesus himself took your infirmities and bore your sicknesses, as First Peter 2:24 states?
• God’s Word says it, but did you believe it, and settle that whole matter like you did becoming a child of God?
• So here’s a verse that I ran into this week.

The Highest Faith Trusts Proverbs Style

Proverbs 3:5–6 (ESV) — 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

• These verses are telling — let’s survey them.
• Let’s start out with verse five: ‘Trust in the Lord.’
• The Hebrew word ‘trust,’ what does that mean?
• Well, it means to have a strong confidence or reliance upon someone or something.
• So, we must have a strong confidence or reliance on the Lord.
• Isn’t that being fully persuaded, like Romans 14:5 says?
• Sure it does.
• Now there’s more to this verse in Proverbs three because the scripture says do this ‘strong confidence or reliance’ in a particular way.
• Do it with all your heart.
• The small three letter word ‘all’ is a huge word in defintion.
• What does trusting with ALL your heart mean?
• Well, the word ‘all’ in Hebrew is the one we want to look at and with that thought, here is the Definition of the Day.
• The Hebrew word ‘all’ means whole, everyone, everything, total in all.
• The Old Testament translates it as entire, everywhere, throughout, always, completely, continually, every way, perpetually, throughout the whole, totally, whenever, whatever, wholehearted, and wholly.³
• So this verse is saying ‘trust God totally in all.’
• Trust Him entirely.
• Have strong confidence in God totally, throughout, whenever, whatever, wherever, wholly and completely with your heart.
• The Hebrew word ‘heart’ means the inner man.
• If you stitch these definitions together, here’s what the front part of Proverbs 3:5 looks like.

Have a total, whenever, whatever, wherever, wholly and complete strong confidence or reliance in God that comes from your inner man.

The Highest Kind of Faith Doesn’t Lean to It’s Own Understanding

• Let’s continue analyzing the rest of Proverbs 3:5 which says: ‘and do not lean on your own understanding.’
• Putting the word ‘lean’ under the microscope of the lexicon yields: ‘to depend on, rely on or to put trust in with confidence.’
• So you see, ‘lean’ sounds exactly like the word ‘trust’ that we already defined.
• Except, there’s a negative in front of the word ‘lean.’
• Do not lean the scripture says.
• Don’t depend or rely or put your trust in your own understanding.
• Don’t do it.
• ‘Understanding’ is the capacity for rational thought.
• That’s how you define that word.
• Now, stitching these last two words together, — you know, we are going to have a beautiful embroidered garment before this is all over with.
• ‘Do not depend on, rely on nor put confident trust in your rational thinking.
• You know the word rational means good sense or sound judgment.’
• The Lord is saying here is saying to us.

Don’t rely on your idea of what makes good sense or your idea of what sounds like sound judgment to you.

• Trust God above what you think is sound judgment.
• You might have heard the testimony of how the flood waters came within a 1/2 mile of our house a couple of years ago.
• You might have heard that our neighbors were getting ready for the flood by sandbagging.
• Now, to their credit, sandbagging is rational thinking.
• Certainly that would be sound judgment.
• Wouldn’t you think?
• But this wasn’t rational thinking for Sharon and I because we had a piece of information that our neighbors didn’t have.
• That information came out of God’s Word.
• It’s because the Lord gave us this house the year before rather dramatically.
• I mean why would God send Sharon and I into a neighborhood, bless us with a home there, and I mean He blessed us, He made the way knowing [because He knows all things — He knows the end from the beginning] that flood waters would wipe us out?
• You see, rational thinking is sound judgement alright, but it’s lacking something.
• It’s thinking that doesn’t factor in God’s ability.
• It is a sound judgment that doesn’t factor in God’s Word, God’s power, or God’s character.
• When you take these things into account, now you have a higher level of sound judgement.
• The Lord is not telling you not to use your brain.
• He is saying having confidence in Him, trust Him, above your brain — above your rational thinking.
• Sharon and I did that ‘walking by faith’ thing and we hired contractors to paint our house as corresponding action.
• Our neighbors, who were ‘walking by sight,’ as evidenced by the sandbags, received the blessing as well because a someone in the neighborhood trusted God and the flood waters, never reached our neighborhood.
• Now, we have defined all the keywords of verse five.
• Let’s put this whole verse, Proverbs three, together.

The Highest Kind of Faith: Putting Proverbs 3:5 Together

• Here’s what it looks like.

Have a total, whenever, whatever, wherever, wholly and complete strong confidence or reliance in God that comes from your inner man. Don’t rely on your idea of what makes good sense or your idea of what sounds like sound judgment to you.

The Highest Kind of Faith Acknowledges God in All Ways

• Alright let’s look at verse six.

In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

• Notice that once again we have the word ‘all.’
• It’s the same word with the same meaning as in verse five.
• Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart — in ALL your ways, acknowledge Him.
• You should appreciate the fact that the word ‘acknowledge’ doesn’t mean ‘check in with God.’
• What it means is to accept someone to be what is claimed.
• Ah, isn’t that insightful?
• Now take a look at the Hebrew word ‘ways.’
• It means road, distance, journey, manner, custom, or behavior.
• So, let’s get to stitching again.

“Instead, in all your travels, in all your behavior, in all your manner, custom or behavior, whenever, whatever, wherever, wholly and completely accept God for all He claims to be.”

The Highest Kind of Faith Accepts God for Who He Is

• So, in all your travels, if you run into problems, accept God as your problem solver.
• In all your behavior, if you run into tests, trials, and difficulties, don’t take matters into your own hands.
• In all your manner, your ways, whenever, whatever, wherever, wholly and completely accept God for all He claims to be.
• Accept who God says He is.
• So, who is God?
• Who does He say that He is?

Psalm 46:1 ESV (ESV) — God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

• Who does God say that He is when you run into physical challenges in your body?
• He says in Exodus 15:26, I am the Lord, your healer.”
• You can have a lot of fun with this.
• Who does God claim to be?
• You need to know.
• He claims to be your provider.

Genesis 22:13–14 (ESV) — 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

• The Most High God claims to be your victory as you enage the enemy in the battles of life.
• Do you believe who He claims to be?
• Moses did.

Exodus 17:8–15 (ESV) — 8 Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim… 11 Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed…13 And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword. 14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” 15 And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The Lord Is My Banner,

• In sports arena around the world, banners hang to signify championships.
• Championships signify that in that particular year, this team was the best, the brightest, the most blessed, and came out number one throughout all their contests.
• You are number one, my brother and sister.
• God will make you that.
• The question is, do you believe God is the Lord your Banner?
• He claims that.
• God claims to be your healer as well.
• He claims to be your deliverer.
• The Lord claims to be your salvation.

The Highest Kind of Faith Knows God Will Straighten Everything Out

• So, we have strong confidence in God totally, throughout, whenever, whatever, wherever, wholly and completely that God is who He claims to be.
• We must accept that God is the one and only one who can make straight your paths.
• This is the last part of Proverbs 3:5–6.
• The Hebrew word ‘will make straight’ means to be smooth, straight, or right.
• In some places the word is translated agreeable or pleasing.⁴
• That may remind you of this verse in Hebrews.

Hebrews 12:12–13 (ESV) — 12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

• God is the total expert at straightening out crooked things.
• Crooked things are things not in line with His Word — not in line with His thinking.
• The word ‘paths’ — make straight your paths — means ‘way, path, course or highway.’
• So, let’s put this last part together.

Because the Lord is the only one who can make your course, your life’s course, that particular highway of life that you are on, smooth, straight, and right in such a way that it will be pleasing to you as well as to Him.

The Highest Kind of Faith Acts on Proverbs 3:5–6

• So, now that we have looked at all the word definitions together.
• This is what the complete translation of Proverbs 3:5–6 looks like for you and me.

Have a total, whenever, whatever, wherever, wholly and complete strong confidence or reliance in God that comes from your inner man. Don’t rely on your idea of what makes good sense or your idea of what sounds like sound judgment to you. Instead, in all your travels, in all your behavior, in all your manner, custom or behavior, whenever, whatever, wherever, wholly and completely accept God for all He claims to be. Because the Lord is the only one who can make your course, your life’s course, that particular highway of life that you are on, smooth, straight, and right in such a way that it will be pleasing to you as well as to Him.

• Now, don’t you want that?
• Well believe that and act on that.

The Highest Kind of Faith: The Centurion’s Servant.

Matthew 8:5–13 (ESV) — 5 When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, 6 “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” 7 And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8 But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10 When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. 11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 12 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13 And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment.

• This Roman Centurion, commander of eighty men, had a servant.
• There are 3 significantly mentioned Centurions in scripture: Cornelius in Acts 10, a man who was at the Crucifixion of Jesus and called him the son of God in Mark 15:39 and this gentleman in Matthew 8.
• So concerning this servant of this Centurion the Greek language lets us know that he is a male servant.
• The grammar is masculine.
• So, this is a he not a she.
• Remember, there are only two genders.
• It’s sad that we have to say that.
• Second, this man wasn’t a man at all — he was a young child or a young boy.
• The Greek word used here refers to someone who hasn’t hit puberty yet.
• This young child, this boy was bedridden.
• So you know, as a young boy, to be confined to a bed must mean he was really badly off.
• He was paralyzed.
• The KJV says he was ‘sick of the palsy.’
• That’s the King James way of saying he was not able to walk.
• This paralysis caused great pain and suffering.
• The Word of God says that he ‘suffered terribly.’
• The Greek word ‘suffered’ means to be tortured or tormented.
• It’s an agony word amplified here by the word ‘terribly.’
• ‘Terribly’ means an extreme point on a scale involving negative values.
• This little boy was tormented to an extreme point.
• How could anybody say that sickness comes from God.
• It doesn’t – it comes from Satan — every bit of it. That’s a Bible fact.

Highest Kind of Faith: The Centurion

• That’s the servant boy now what do we know about the Centurion?
• He was respectful — He called Jesus Lord.
• Now, this Centurion didn’t call Jesus Lord the same way as believers call Jesus Lord for salvation.
• He called Jesus Lord out of respect.
• The Greek word means ‘master, Lord, or sir.’
• Terms of respect.
• He exercised humility: Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.
• He admitted, “I’m a Gentile — I don’t have the covenant that you do as a Jewish man with God. I am an outsider.”
• “But,” the Centurion went on to say, “I am a believer.”
• “Just say the word only and my servant will be healed.”
• Isn’t that marvelous?
• You can do that.
• That is, express your faith the same way.
• You can say these words in the presence of God the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and all the host of heaven.
• “Say the Word, and I will be healed.”
• Now, here’s what you need to know.
• He has already said the Word.
• And unlike the Centurion, you have that Word written down for you in 1 Peter 2:24.

1 Peter 2:24 (ESV) — 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

• “Lord, I don’t need you to come to my house physically, that is come down from heaven, you have already said in the Word that I am healed right now.”
• Here’s another thing about the Centurion that’s apparent here.
• His military background gave him a fundamental understanding of authority.
• This Centurion said to one of his 80 soldiers — “Hey you, go over there and do some more training. You didn’t look like you were holding your own on the last engagement.”
• “Do some pushups, lift some boulders, get stronger so you can go into combat strong. I don’t need any puny men in my army.”
• “Practice your swordsmanship — you’re looking a little inept there.”
• “Do it — do it now.”
• Well, that soldier went and did it.
• He got the order and that was it.
• Off he goes doing pushups.
• The fact that Jesus could heal and that the Centurion knew something about authority are the only two deposits he had in the bank.
• But, that was enough to cash the check.
• “Jesus, you speak to sickness and it better get out of here and go do pushups somewhere else.”
• “Because, sickness, you cannot stay here in this body.”
• So Jesus did just what the Centurion asked him to do: He spoke the word, ‘Go, let it be done for you as you have believed.’
• The rest is history!
• I am boldly telling you that if you understand authority and you speak the written Word, believing that your words will not fall to the ground because they are God’s words and you know He cannot lie, you will be healed.

Now Father God, thank you for the opportunity to take you at your Word. We do it willingly. We do it freely. We do it believing in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

• Now, you know what to do.
• You know to take Jesus at his Word.
• This is the highest kind of faith and it is available to you.
• You also understand your need to know the ins and outs of authority.
• That when the Word of God comes out of your mouth you understand that it is enough to do the job.
• You have a total, whenever, whatever, wherever, wholly and completely strong confidence or reliance in God that comes from your inner man.
• And you don’t rely on your idea of what makes good sense or your idea of what sounds like sound judgment to you.
• Instead, in all your travels, in all your behavior, in all your manner, custom or behavior, whenever, whatever, wherever, wholly and completely you accept God for all He claims to be. Because you know the Lord is the only one who can make your course, your life’s course, that particular highway of life that you are on, smooth, straight, and right in such a way that it will be pleasing both to you as well as to Him.
• Why Taking God at His Word is the Highest Faith.
• You guys have a great God-week and we will see you next time for another edition of Light on Life.

Why Satan’s Broken Power Over Your Life Means You’re Free

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