Word of Faith, name it and claim it, blab and grab....

Or my newest fav that I believe JB coined...spit it and get it.  LOL!

I've done some warring on this.  Was confronted by someone I dearly love at my church Sunday about healing and he was doing the, you gotta believe to receive!  You have to believe God has already healed you or you won't get healing.  I tried to explain my views on it and that unless God reveals something to me, I simply feel saying that I'm already healed is akin to lying to me and whatever is not of faith is sin.  So if I don't have faith in saying it that way, I'd be sinning to actually do that!  Aye!  Now I confuse myself.

But I've been praying for revelation at times.  And so Sunday again, I got a bit more serious on it, asking God to reveal to me the truth of this.  Since that time, my devotions, scripture, sermons I hear, they keep pointing to a theme.  So I was listening to a sermon while getting ready this morning and a scripture just really stood out to me this time.  I've heard it before, but never like this. 

Mark 11:24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

Well, in context, Jesus is talking to his disciples about the fig tree He cursed.  But verses 23 and 24 state:  And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

So when He says whosoever, He's not just saying this to the disciples, but to anyone.  But it speaks as if we must believe that they WILL/SHALL come to pass, that we SHALL have them.  It doesn't state immediately or that we have to believe we already have it.  If we're sick, we don't have to say I'm healed, I'm not sick.  But we can believe that we have prayed for healing and WILL receive it.  Perhaps today, tomorrow, maybe in the next minute, maybe in a year...we don't know that. 

But one thing I had trouble with is that claiming something was akin to commanding God, and yet these are the words of Jesus, so we're not commanding God, just believing what He's told us. 

And then I checked John Gill's commentary:

believe that ye receive [them], and ye shall have [them];
the petitions that are desired, and the things asked in them: for the sense can never be, that they should believe they received them before they had them; this would be a contradiction in terms; and Beza's ancient copy, and one of Stephens's copies read it, "believe that ye shall receive", as in ( Matthew 21:22 ) , and so the Vulgate Latin version; with which agree the Arabic and Ethiopic versions, which render it, "believe that ye shall enjoy", or "obtain"; and the Syriac version, "believe that ye are about to receive".

All in all, I've determined rather than try to answer it when told I must believe I'm already healed physically, rather than believing I've already been granted my petition in the spiritual realm and will receive it in the physical realm at some point, that I will simply smile and nod.  Easier than to argue the point.  ;-)