Believe and receive are part of faith’s language. They are part of faith’s domain. It’s important to understand the domain of faith. People believe in miracles and that’s a good thing.  That’s what a recent poll by Newsweek revealed. Here are the percentages:

• Americans who believe in divine miracles: 84 percent
• the ones who believe in the reality of miracles described in the Bible: 79 percent
• those who have personal experiences with miracles: 48 percent
• the ones who know of people who have experienced miracles: 63 percent
• those who have prayed for a miracle: 67 percent
• the ones who believe God or the saints heal sick people who have been given no chance of survival by medical doctors: 77 percent¹ Believing in miracles is good. Knowing how to receive them is even better.

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Why You Don’t Have to Be Sick in Light of the Bible

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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 into operation.
This week’s call is:

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.

Join the Conversation

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

Question: What healing miracle has the Lord done in your life? Please share your testimony in the comments section below.

Episode Resources:

You can find additional information on the subject of the will of God in the resources listed below.

1. Why Divine Healing Is Better for Your Life

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 40 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. Both he and his wife Sharon of 35 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is both 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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Podcast Notes

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
  • Crockpot
  • 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.

Three Words that Mean Faith

• 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.

Persuaded Means Faith

• We can now add this word to the domain.
  • Persuaded

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.

Three More Faith Words

• 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 undergone 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.
• So, 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 snot out of you with this bat unless you say you’re not healed unless you have the boldness go ahead and take your swing 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.
• Because we are on this subject of real faith take a look 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.

Fear is the Big Gorilla

• So, 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.
• So, what is Paul implying?
• He’s implying the reason why Timothy hasn’t tapped into the gift of God in him is that of fear.
• Most importantly, 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.
• 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 as Jesus did, then you have to do it like Jesus did it.

The Zoe Life of God in the Person of Jesus

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