MARK 5:27,28,34
27 WHEN SHE HAD HEARD OF JESUS, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.
28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole....34 And he [Jesus] said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague. Where did this woman get faith to receive healing? She got faith when she ". . . had heard of Jesus. .." (Mark 5:27).
I was preaching in Dallas in 1953 for several weeks in a Full Gospel church. Then I stayed on an additional three months while the pastor took a leave of absence. Besides preaching at different times during the week, I had a daily radio program, and I also conducted some special missionary services on the weekend. One Friday night after the services had been dismissed, one of the ushers came and told me that a man and a woman from Forth Worth had come to see me. The woman was sick and wanted to be healed. I met with them, and the man related that he had been going to work one morning and had heard my radio program. He said that I had taught on the radio that healing was for everyone. He told his wife about that statement I had made, and they began to tune in to the radio program every day.
The man told me that his wife had had two serious major operations, and she was facing the third one. They had been praying that if it was the will of God for her to be healed, God would give them faith to believe that she would be healed.
They had come to me so I could pray for her. I told them that it was unscriptural to pray to God for healing using the words, "If it be Thy will." When you put an "if' in your prayer in praying for anything God has promised you in His Word, you are praying in doubt.
Some people think they are being humble when they pray that way, but they are really being ignorant. In other words, when you pray in faith, you don't use an "if." You will get no answer to the prayer of faith if you put "ifs" in your prayers.
But when you are praying a prayer of consecration, committing your life to the plan of God, then you can use the phrase, "If it be Thy will," because you don't know for sure what the Lord's will is. When you are praying the prayer of consecration, you are not praying to change something. But the prayer of faith is the prayer to change things. "If' is the badge of doubt, and the word "if' shouldn't be used in your prayers if you are
trying to change a situation.
I had given some scriptures on the radio concerning faith, but they hadn't registered on this man whose wife was sick because he still wasn't sure it was God's will to heal his wife. I asked him, "If the New Testament said that Jesus took your wife's infirmities and bare her sicknesses, then wouldn't it be God's will for her to have her healing?" He agreed that it would. So we turned to Matthew 8:17.
MATTHEW 8:17
17 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, HIMSELF TOOK OUR INFIRMITIES, and BARE OUR SICKNESSES. This man jumped up and exclaimed that it was the will of God for his wife to be healed. His wife saw it too. Then we turned to First Peter 2:24.
1 PETER 2:24
24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: BY WHOSE STRIPES YE WERE HEALED.
Then we turned to the Book of Isaiah.
