In April 2000, a boy named Nathan was in a near-fatal car accident while trying to avoid a deer. When he arrived at the hospital, he had a broken leg, spinal cord damage, numerous lacerations, and a collapsed lung. To stabilize him, doctors put him into a drug-induced coma. Nathan was in a coma for four days, but when the drugs were discontinued, he didn’t come out of the coma. That night Nathan’s father prayed and read the Bible to him, repeating the words Jesus said to Lazarus: “Come forth.” You’ve got to fight. You’ve got to wake up.” The next morning he came out of the coma. The parents were beside ourselves with joy. But the spinal cord damage was a major concern. Nathan had a fracture in his neck, the same vertebra that actor Christopher Reeve had injured several years ago. The doctors gave Nathan a protective neck collar to prevent further separation of the vertebrae. He was in danger of full or partial paralysis.
For two weeks Nathan prayed earnestly for healing. One night as he was falling asleep, he heard and felt a popping in his neck. The next morning physicians performed three sets of X-rays to see if the vertebrae were continuing to separate. Instead, the tests showed that the vertebrae had fused back together. The doctors were stunned; there was no medical explanation for the healing. Three months after the accident, doctors cleared Nathan to resume his participation in athletics, including football, wrestling, and track and field. ¹ Our God is a healing God. He is a miracle worker and He will do a miracle for you.

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The Importance of Getting Your Domain Right

• Jesus ministered healing to twenty-three individual cases.
• In the vast majority of these individual cases, you can see evidence of the person’s faith in connection with their healing.
• What does it mean to have faith for healing?
• What does it mean to believe?
• So let’s introduce the term ‘semantic domain’ here and illustrate what it means.
• What is a semantic domain?
• If we use the words the following words:
  • Touchdown
  • Forward pass
  • Fumble
  • Running back
  • Wide receiver
• What are we referring to?
• We are referencing American football.
• These words belong to that domain.
• What about the following words:
  • Ladle
  • Spatula
  • Crock pot
  • Frying pan
  • Grill
  • Sear
• What am I talking about here?
• I’m talking about cooking.
• These words belong to that domain.
• As long as we are in the same domain, we can understand one another.
• If you go to a foreign country like India, and step off the plane and say, ‘Hey, I am recruiter, do you all have any good wide receivers in this country? ‘ What will happen?
• We won’t communicate.
• We won’t connect.
• In order to connect, you have to speak in the same domain.
• If you want to communicate, you have to use the words that are in the other person’s domain.
• You can’t get to the place you need to be unless you communicate in the right domain.

The Domain of Faith

• Let’s talk about the word believe.
• Let’s make sure what the word ‘believe’ means in God’s domain means the same thing in your domain.
• What does the word believe mean?

2 Timothy 1:12 (ESV)
12 which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.

• He gives us the words:
• So here’s the Spirit of God inspiring Paul to give you some words that are in faith’s domain.
  • Believe
  • Know
  • Convinced
• The word convinced means ‘to be persuaded’ in the Greek.
• We can now add this word to the domain.
  • Persuaded

[Tweet “Make sure the word ‘believe’ means the same in God’s domain as it does in yours.”]

Hebrews 11:1 (ESV)
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

• Now we can also add the word ‘assurance and we can add the word ‘conviction’ to this domain.
• The word ‘faith’ in this verse means ‘strong confidence’.
  • Strong Confidence
  • Assurance
  • Conviction
• You see what this domain is beginning to look like now?
• By scripturally building this domain, we have a strong sense of what it takes to receive your healing.
• So that’s all well and good.
• The problem we come to is that the word ‘believe’ has under gone a domain shift in some Christians minds.
• We have inadvertently thought that the word ‘believe’ means something else.
• When we hear the Word, we/say
  • Mentally agree
  • Man that Sounds good
  • Something to say amen to.
  • Makes us say ‘WOW’ when we hear it.
  • Makes us say ‘You know, I never knew that.’
  • I sure hope so.
• None of these terms mean you have faith for the promise of God.
• Where this shows up in the area of healing is when you go into a hospital room, or you come into contact with a loved you who has a physical abnormality and you say to them, ‘Well what do you believe about this?’
• And they say to you, ‘I believe I’m healed.’
• You and I both have heard these words in our circles and have seen that person remain unhealed and in some cases even die.
• Why?
• Which domain of ‘believe’ were they using?
• Were they using the ‘I agree with’ version?
• Or, the ‘I’m fully persuaded, absolutely convinced version?’
• The difference between the two domains life and death.
• Make sure you have God’s domain.
• That means your mission should you choose to accept it is to work with God’s Word long enough until you are fully persuaded and when you are fully persuaded then you pray then you receive and you don’t do until you are.
• Put down your contact list and grab your Bible.
• Well how do you know you really believe?
• How do you know that you’re fully persuaded, completely convinced and that not you’re not just mentally agreeing?
• One gentleman said it this way.
  • “If you walk up to me with a baseball bat and say to me, “I’m going to beat the snout out of you with this bat unless you say you’re not healed, unless you have the boldness go ahead and take your swing man because I believe I am healed. You are not there yet.”

Make Sure Your Domain Is Not the Realm of Fear

• Here’s a gentleman who said ‘You watch me, I’m going to go down to that healing line and when the minister lays His hands on me I’m going to get healed.’
• You know what he did. He received his healing.
• That’s faith.
• Make sure, you are in the right domain.
• While we are om this subject of real faith take at these verses also in 2 Timothy.

2 Timothy 1:5–7 (NKJV)
5 when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. 6 Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

• We understood from these verses that fear is the big gorilla in the room.
• Timothy’s faith was genuine, sincere, un-hypocritical, the real deal.
• Because he already had the faith part, he needed to add something else.
• And so Paul says, “fan into flame the gift of God in you.”
• What is He saying, “You have the Word now get the Spirit.”
• Then he goes into verse seven talking about fear.
• Why?
• We normally quote verse seven, “God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power, love, and sound mind’ and apply them to any area of fear and that’s a true application.
• However the context that Paul uses is this area of the gift of God.
• What is Paul implying?
• He’s implying the reason why Timothy hasn’t tapped into the gift of God in him is because of fear.
• Paul is saying, ‘Timothy, God has not given you the spirit of fear, go on and fan into flame the gift in you. Step on out there.’
• So, Paul acknowledges that this area of dealing with the Spirit, since it has an unknown, can be a source of fear.

[Tweet “We understood from these verses in 2 Tim. 1:5-7 that fear is the big gorilla in the room.”]

• You can learn how to trust the Spirit.
• He is not here to hurt.
• He is here to help you.
• So while you trusting God add to your faith, the direction of the Spirit.
• This was the case in Jesus ministry.
• There were twenty-three individual cases of healing in the ministry of Jesus.
• You check it out. Jesus didn’t minister to any two cases the same way.
• He always worked through God.
• And, He always had results.
• If you want to minister like Jesus did, then you have to do it like Jesus did it.

Call to Action:

One minister said, “Some of us need a check-up from the neck-up.” This is vitally true in the area of faith. Faith works through the realm of words (Romans 10:17). How are your words? Is your definition of faith the same as God’s? Search it out and make the adjustment today.

You can find more information on this subject by clicking on the links above.

1. How to Minister Healing Like Jesus Did [Podcast]

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Question: In what other area of the Christian life do you see a ‘domain shift’ where God’s definition differs from ours? Please leave your comments in the comments section below.