Nevertheless, I frequently see people who face life-threatening conditions in their bodies who come to church only once a week—and yet spend four hours a night in front of the television set.
Sure, they do a few things that build faith, but overall their actions reveal that they are not taking the situation seriously. I want to say, "What is the matter with you? Don't you realize that you are in a fight for your life? Satan doesn't take a break. He doesn't take the evening off to watch television. If you are going to beat this thing, you will have to fight!"
Somebody who doesn't fight for his healing by using every available resource and every available moment in his day is deceived. I will say this without qualification. I have never seen anybody win a major battle with sickness and disease who didn't fight for it.
On the other hand, I have had the privilege of seeing numerous glorious testimonies of miraculous healings—many in the church I pastor—of people who were willing to fight the good fight of faith.
What To Do
How do you fight for faith to receive your healing? First of all, you recognize that faith comes by hearing the Word of God. So you will have to fight to hear as much of God's Word about healing as you can.
And you'll have to separate yourself from people who unwittingly try to speak death to you and instead fellowship with like-minded believers who will reinforce what you believe.
Fighting the good fight of faith means reading healing Scriptures and books about healing, listening to healing tapes and avoiding anyone or anything that speaks contrary to God's Word. Satan will try to fill your mind with fear-filled thoughts of never being healed and of dying prematurely.
You must fight to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ—particularly those that would exalt themselves above what you see in the Word regarding your healing: "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" (2 Cor. 10:5).
You must fight to think only in line with God's Word. And you must fight to speak the right words. "Life and death are in the power of the tongue" (Prov. 18:21). Sadly, all too often people confronted with sickness just do not have the fight in them. They begin reasoning contrary to the truth. They might say something like, "Well, maybe it is my time to go home and be with the Lord." They begin questioning the will of God.
It is always easier to give up than to fight, but God does not condone quitting. The question you need to ask yourself is: "Do I want the healing that Jesus suffered to provide for me or not?" If you do, then you'll have to fight for it.
If Satan can't deceive you into quitting without a fight, he might try to push you into the other "ditch," getting you to focus so totally on your need that you cease to be available to God to meet anybody else's.
This is exactly what locked Job into his negative situation. For more than 40 chapters, he cried and moaned and groaned, "Why me, Lord?" But when Job finally took his eyes off his own problems and prayed for his friends, his deliverance came.
You need to fight for your healing, but don't make that the sole focus of all your efforts. Keep pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Get your eyes off yourself. Go pray and minister to somebody else. Speak to that infirmity and tell it that it is not going to stop you from witnessing, serving in the church, or attending your prayer group. Whatever you do, don't fall for the deception that causes you to be self-centered and self-absorbed.
Lastly, stay joyous during a time of testing—especially during a severe attack of sickness or disease. Know that if you don't quit, you win. You will come out on the other side of your trial being perfect and entire, wanting nothing. In the midst of your darkest night, you focus not on the challenge at hand but on the promise of what will happen in the end.
Every time you rejoice over that certainty, you get stronger. Every time you laugh at circumstances, the anointing goes up a notch. You absolutely must protect and increase your joy. Don't be deceived into thinking that you don't need to cultivate joy, for it is the spiritual strength you need to stand through a time of trial.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers
Mac Hammond is the senior pastor of Living Word, a large and growing church in Brooklyn Park (a suburb of Minneapolis), Minnesota. He is the host of the Winner’s Minute, which is seen locally in the Minneapolis area on KMSP Channel 9 at 6:44 a.m. and 11:11 a.m. He is also the host of the Winner's Way broadcast and author of several internationally distributed books. Mac is broadly acclaimed for his ability to apply the principles of the Bible to practical situations and the challenges of daily living.
