A word from the Scriptures to build your faith
Written teachings from Gary Bailey — drawn from years of ministry letters to partners and friends. Read them slowly, look up the Scriptures, and let the Word strengthen your walk with God.
Honoring the covenant in our health and our finances
Many Christians, because of improper instruction or a lack of teaching, are still shaky in their faith when it comes to divine healing. We have so much available to us today in medical care and medicine that some never even think to ask God for help. Let me say this plainly at the outset: I thank God for doctors, hospitals, and the medical care we have. I have personally benefited from a doctor’s care, and I appreciate the medical profession’s desire to heal hurting humanity. There is no sin in going to a doctor or taking medicine when you need it.
But as God’s children we should keep one thing constantly in mind: we are in covenant with God, whose very name is Healer.
If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God… I will put none of these diseases upon thee… for I am the LORD that healeth thee.Exodus 15:26
If we are going to grow in faith concerning healing, we must put God first in every area of our lives — including the health of our bodies. It is the same principle we learn about our finances: to prosper, we must first understand that God is our source of supply. He wants us to acknowledge Him as Lord over our money, and He is pleased when we trust Him to meet our needs.
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.Hebrews 11:6
If our faith gives God pleasure, then we ought to consider that any time we face a physical or financial need. Abraham, the father of our faith, was careful to honor his covenant with God. After rescuing Lot and defeating the kings who had taken him, Abraham refused to let the king of Sodom take the credit: “I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD… that I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet… lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich” (Genesis 14:22–23). He gave God the glory for every blessing.
I cannot tell you how many times my wife and I have come face to face with a financial dilemma, paid our tithe or gave an offering first, and then watched God meet our need. I can say boldly: Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who supplies, has never failed us.
Where most people make their mistake is in not acknowledging God first. They try everything available to them, and only as a last resort turn to the Word of God or call for the elders of the church. But coming to God ought not to be the last resort — it should be the first thing we do.
Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him… And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.James 5:14–15
Scripture even gives us a warning. King Asa, in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, was diseased in his feet, “yet in his disease he sought not to the LORD, but to the physicians” (2 Chronicles 16:12). It was not that he went to physicians that cost him — it was that he never put God first. How different things could have been if Asa had sought God, prayed, and set his heart right.
Put God first when it comes to your health, your finances, and everything else. Have you asked Him for what you need? Honor Him today, and ask big. You will be glad you did.
Peace in the middle of the storm
Our God is the God of all comfort. He comforts us in our distresses so that we, in turn, can comfort others.
Blessed be God… the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble.2 Corinthians 1:3–4
Think of the word comfort, and think of the word comfortable. Our heavenly Father wants us to be comfortable in Christ — at ease, contented, calm. When the storms of life rage around us, we can still be at peace. “Let not your heart be troubled… Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you” (John 14:1, 27). The peace God gives is settled deep in the heart. There may be turmoil all around, yet at our center, in our spirit, we are at rest.
Paul described this beautiful paradox: “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8–9). It is cold outside, but we are warm and cozy inside. Though we are pilgrims just traveling through this life, we have a refuge, a very present help in time of trouble.
Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.1 Peter 5:7
Don’t carry a burden one more minute. Give it to Him. He cares for you tenderly and affectionately. And He has provided His comfort in more ways than we often realize.
We have comfort by His Word: “This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me” (Psalm 119:50). We have comfort by the Holy Ghost, the Comforter Jesus promised would abide with us forever (John 14:16). We have comfort through prophecy — “he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort” (1 Corinthians 14:3) — a word in due season that says, It will be all right; this too shall pass; God is with you.
We have comfort through one another in the Body of Christ. God comforted Paul “by the coming of Titus” (2 Corinthians 7:6). O, how we need each other! Never neglect fellowship. Get with other believers; get in church. At some point every one of us will need the comfort of another believer. We have comfort in His return — His very name is Consolation, and the hope of His coming steadies the soul like an anchor (Hebrews 6:19). And we have comfort by His grace: “God, even our Father… hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace” (2 Thessalonians 2:16). We don’t deserve it, but He provided it anyway.
Are you sad, distressed, or lonely today? He is your Friend. He is your comfort, and He is only a prayer away. “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4). You are valuable and precious. You belong to Him — you are His child.
Living faith is always moving toward something
Faith has a goal. Faith has an objective. If there is one thing that will help us in our walk with God, it is understanding how faith works, because our whole life in Christ revolves around it. Again and again the Word declares that the just shall live by faith (Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38). And we are not only to live by faith — we are to walk by it: “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
But what does that mean in practice? Most people you meet will say they “believe” in God. So what is the difference between simply believing in God and actually living by faith? James made the distinction plain.
Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone… Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.James 2:17, 19
I, for one, do not want to be put in the same class as the devils. Yes, we believe — but there is something more. To know that Jesus is the Son of God, that He died and rose again and shed His blood for our sins, is a wonderful revelation. But is it enough just to hear? Is it enough just to know? Bible faith must act. It is hearing and acting on the Word of God that makes the difference. Genuine faith is never dormant. Bible faith lives. Bible faith walks. Bible faith works.
The first time you heard the Gospel may not have been the day you were saved — but the first time you responded to it was. Please understand: it is not what we do but what He did that saves us. Yet we must respond to His finished work. Faith is our response. I believe — yes! I believe and I act.
So faith is always moving toward a goal. When we stop moving, our faith is failing. Where there is movement, there is life. Each day I give my faith something to work on.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.Hebrews 11:1
Notice — faith is now. What is the tangible substance in your life today that will see your hope come to pass tomorrow? When four friends carried a paralyzed man to Jesus, the Bible says “Jesus saw their faith” (Mark 2:5). What does Jesus see in your life? Someone once asked the pointed question: if being a Christian were against the law, would there be enough evidence to convict you?
So have a goal. Is your goal heaven? Take a step toward it today and every day after. Is your goal healing? Financial provision? A ministry of your own? What are you doing today — daily, consistently — that puts your faith to work toward it? Plan your work, and work your plan. Even a small goal counts; begin now to set things in motion.
Have you fallen? Have you failed? Get up and start again — “for a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again” (Proverbs 24:16). Paul, in a horrible prison, still said, “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14). Your faith is enough to get you through this day. Tomorrow you will be closer still. Live, walk, and work your faith every day — and you will see your goal come to pass.
Why the way we honor God shapes the way He honors us
I have been thinking about what it means to honor God. To honor someone is to revere and respect them, to pay tribute, to recognize and venerate, to bless and to make weighty in influence. The opposite—to dishonor—is to bring shame, to disgrace, debase or humiliate. God is to be honored in all the earth. Even in Israel’s exodus out of Egypt, God was contending for His own honor and recognition. The glory of God is revealed by creation itself, but it takes a man or a woman who will honor God for sinners to look up and take notice of the Creator, our Heavenly Father.
And I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them: and I will get me honour upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen.Exodus 14:17
If Pharaoh had feared the Lord, he could have been blessed. Instead he rebelled, and calamity came upon his nation. God wanted him to know beyond any shadow of doubt that He is the one true God, and always will be. Here is the great truth: when we honor the Lord, God honors us. He watches over those who honor Him, and whomever God honors must be honored by others. King Abimelech learned this when he took Sarah, and God warned him in a dream that he was a dead man unless he returned the wife of His prophet. Balak learned it too, for though he hired Balaam to curse Israel, Balaam could only bless what God had blessed.
Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee.Numbers 24:9
You see, when God honors someone, they have honor; when God blesses someone, they are blessed. We are to honor whom God honors and bless whom God blesses. If we will not, we make ourselves subject to the curse. So God commands us to honor our father and mother, that our days may be long (Exodus 20:12; Ephesians 6:1–3). We are to honor widows indeed (1 Timothy 5:3), to honor our own bodies in sanctification (1 Thessalonians 4:4), to count worthy of double honor the elders who labor in the word (1 Timothy 5:17), and to be loyal to our employers (1 Timothy 6:1). Even the trial of your faith is precious and worthy of honor at the appearing of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:7).
Did you know that rising when an elderly person enters the room is not merely polite but scriptural? “Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God” (Leviticus 19:32). When we honor whom God honors, we are honoring God Himself. And His promise stands firm:
Them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.1 Samuel 2:30
God has honored man, crowning him with glory and honor (Psalm 8:5), so we ought to honor ourselves and one another, for we are created in His image. This is why murder, suicide, and abortion are sinful—they dishonor both man and God. Yet honor is not pride. “A man’s pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit” (Proverbs 29:23). To honor yourself is to walk in genuine humility, clothed in dignity, never ashamed of who you are, for you are God’s own creation and the best that He has.
We honor God with our praise (Psalm 66:2), and with our substance and tithe: “Honour the LORD with thy substance…so shall thy barns be filled with plenty” (Proverbs 3:9–10). You cannot out-give God. But He wants more than our lips; He wants our heart (Isaiah 29:13). Nebuchadnezzar forgot the God who made him king and was driven to eat grass as the oxen until he lifted his eyes to heaven and honored the Most High. When you are lifted into leadership, humble yourself and keep giving thanks. Above all, by honoring Jesus we honor the Father, “that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father” (John 5:23). Be sure that in all you do, God receives honor from your life.
One family’s stand of faith when medical science had no answer
Last month I wrote about the importance of putting God first in order to receive healing and to walk in divine health. This month I want to share a testimony that moved me so deeply I had to pass it along to you. It is the true story of Dr. Gary Hill and his wife Marie, who trusted God for a miracle when everything around them said there was no hope.
Early in Marie’s pregnancy, the doctors delivered a devastating report. “Your child has had an intrauterine stroke,” they said. “The entire left hemisphere of the brain has been destroyed and has been replaced by a large cyst.” What made this so significant is that Dr. Hill is a medical doctor. He knew intimately how devastating and life-threatening his daughter’s condition was. He read the report and saw the ultrasound with his own eyes. Half the brain was missing. There was not one chance in ten million of her ever being normal.
Yet in that darkest moment, Dr. Hill looked up to heaven and said, “My God has never let me down and He’s not about to start now. I don’t know how He’s going to get me out of this, but He will!” He grabbed himself by the ear and said, “Listen, buster, you’ve been listening to the Word of faith being preached for ten years. Your child’s life depends on you believing God, and you’re going to do it!”
So he went to war. He quit his job and refused to let one negative word about the baby come out of his mouth. He immersed himself twenty-four hours a day in the Word, in books, and in teaching about faith and healing. He read the New Testament through three times in six weeks and worshipped God three hours every day. He gathered three pages of healing scriptures and read them aloud three times a day, personalizing each one for his child. He chose one especially and said it three hundred times a day: “With the stripes that wounded Jesus my baby was healed and made whole.” When the doctor, the devil, and the ultrasound stared him in the face in the middle of the night, he grabbed his Bible and declared, “It is written!”
God met that faith. One night as Dr. Hill worshipped, the presence of God filled the room so heavily that he fell to the floor, pinned by a weight from above. Another night the Lord told him, “Continue to praise me specifically for healing your baby, right now!” Obeying, he laid his hand on Marie’s abdomen, and a sensation he could only describe as absolute purity flowed down his arm. From that moment the baby’s kicks grew stronger and stronger. They knew their child had been healed.
On January 16, 1992, Carolyn was born. The nurses, who knew nothing of the diagnosis, remarked on how little distress there was, even compared to a normal delivery. When the obstetrician handed her to Marie, she was completely normal in every way. Even when the enemy tried once more with a dangerous case of jaundice, the bilirubin dropped so fast the doctor said, “There is no way that I can explain how the bilirubin came down so quickly. Take your baby and go home.” Dr. Hill wept and said, “God is real! He really does heal people, and there’s a whole world full of people out there who don’t know it yet!”
The Hills had no other recourse. Medical science had no answer, so they had to trust God, and the Word worked. When you apply God’s Word to your situation, you can expect results. Faith really does make the difference, and God truly is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.1 Thessalonians 2:13
If you need healing, my prayer is that this story will inspire you to seek God for yourself, for He is faithful, merciful, and kind to all who call upon His name. Don’t ever give up. Keep your faith working. Your answer will come!
How to be filled—and stay filled—with the Holy Ghost
The Holy Spirit plays a major role in our lives as Christians. I want to show you the unity of the Spirit, how to be filled with the Holy Spirit, how to stay filled, and how to be continually filled. According to Ephesians, there is one Spirit.
Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.Ephesians 4:3–6
All who have received Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour are born of the same Spirit. The terms “born again,” “saved,” “new creature in Christ,” and “becoming a child of God” are all synonymous—they mean the same thing. As Jesus said, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). This is the born again experience.
For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.1 Corinthians 12:13
The key to heaven is not being a good, moral, or religious person, nor having done many good works. The key is receiving eternal life into our spirits, which is the born again experience. We do not wait until we die to receive it. The moment a person is born again they receive eternal life—the very life, nature, and ability of God imparted to our hearts.
Being born of the Spirit is one thing; being filled with the Spirit is quite another. Being filled with the Spirit, baptized in the Holy Ghost, and receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit all mean the same thing. Jesus commanded His disciples to be filled: “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you” (Acts 1:8). On the day of Pentecost, they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
The Holy Spirit is received by asking in faith. “How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:13). After Pentecost, He was also received through the laying on of hands, as when Ananias prayed for Saul, and when Paul laid hands on the disciples at Ephesus and they spake with tongues.
Scripture also tells us to be continually filled, again and again. What is in us runs out—from giving to others or from being pressed by the world, the flesh, and the devil—so we need fresh infilling. In Acts 4:31 those already filled at Pentecost were filled again. If the early disciples needed it, so do we. Paul writes, “Be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18)—more literally, be being continually filled.
How? Do not forget the pattern in Acts. Give your tongue over to the Holy Ghost and pray in tongues often, for “he that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself” (1 Corinthians 14:4). Smith Wigglesworth, whose ministry saw many saved and healed, said his only secret was rising each morning to edify himself praying in other tongues for two hours before going out to preach. Pray, pray, pray in the Holy Ghost.
Be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.Ephesians 5:18–19
Music stays with you. Sing the Word of God; sing songs of faith and victory. God inhabits the praises of His people. Keep godly company too, for the right associations rub off, while bad company deflates you quickly. Guard your thoughts, thinking on whatsoever things are true, honest, just, and lovely (Philippians 4:8). Be filled, stay filled, and be continually filled with the Holy Ghost. Thank God for His Spirit!
Great faith grows from knowing the greatness of God’s name
Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, was once asked how to develop great faith. His answer was simple: meditate on the attributes of God. Study His greatness and His character. We need to have faith in a BIG God who has GREAT ability and power. If your God is too small, He cannot deliver you from every affliction and trouble. But thank God, our God is a great God—He is a mighty God! And if we study God’s name, we will discover His attributes.
In the Hebrew tradition, a person’s name described who that person was. To know someone’s name was to know their character. That is not always true of us, but it always holds true with God. To have faith in the name of Jesus is to know all that stands behind that name and the authority that goes with it. The seven sons of Sceva used the name of Jesus, but they had no faith in the power behind it.
And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.Acts 19:15–16
The name of Jesus has power over ALL devils, but these men had no intimate knowledge of it. That name has been given to us, and we have the right and privilege to use it according to our faith. Faith is based on the knowledge you have of the name, and that knowledge comes from the Word of God. This is why the Psalmist could say, “I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name … for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name” (Psalm 138:2). It is the Word that gives us a revelation of, and faith in, the name.
We can know the power in the name of Jesus by studying the Scriptures. The mighty acts of the Old Testament and the life of Jesus in the Gospels reveal how great God is. The power displayed over storms, the multiplication of food, the miracles of provision and healing—all of it is available to us through His name. Jesus declared, “I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world” (John 17:6). We know that power too through His death, burial, and resurrection.
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.Philippians 2:9–10
The power that raised Jesus from the dead is the same power made available to us in His name. We also receive a revelation of that name through the Old Testament names of God, for all of them are resident in the name of Jesus. There are twelve names in the Old Testament ascribed directly to God, and each unveils another facet of His character.
He is ELOHIM, God our Creator, mentioned always in relation to His mighty deeds. He is JEHOVAH, the Eternal One, who reveals Himself in covenant. He is EL SHADDAI, the God who is more than enough. He is ADONAI, our Master and Lord, to whom we belong as His cherished possession. He is JEHOVAH-JIREH, the Lord our Provider; JEHOVAH-RAPHA, the Lord our Healer; and JEHOVAH-NISSI, the Lord our Banner and Victory. He is JEHOVAH-M’KADESH, the Lord our Sanctifier; JEHOVAH-SHALOM, the Lord our Peace; and JEHOVAH-TSIDKENU, the Lord our Righteousness, that righteous Branch who is Jesus Himself. He is JEHOVAH-RAAH, the Lord our Shepherd, so that Psalm 23 becomes real in our daily walk. And He is JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH, the Lord who is present with us, an abiding presence, for Jesus said, “lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20).
He is our God, and He is a GREAT God! May He richly bless you with a mighty faith in Him.