Faith Bible Study Guide
Here is the counterpart to that scripture in the New Testament.
2 CORINTHIANS 10:4,5
4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 5 Casting down IMAGINATIONS [or reasonings], and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity EVERY THOUGHT to the obedience of Christ.
I remember when I came off the bed of sickness and I went back to high school. I was just as tall as I am now and only weighed eighty nine pounds. They called me a walking skeleton.
One day the principal of my school called me into his office and said, “Do you think you should be coming to school? All the women teachers are just scared to death that you’re going to fall down dead in the classroom. They have called your doctor, and he has told them, `Yes, that’s just what he will do.’ And that is just frightening them to death. In fact, I called the doctor myself, and the doctor said you didn’t have any business walking two miles to school and climbing steps. He said you were just up by willpower and that he
would give you ninety days at the most to live. So do you suppose you ought to be coming to school?”
I said, “Mr. Smart, I’m not up by WILLPOWER. I’m up and going by faith.” And I told him what the Lord Jesus Christ said when He was on earth as recorded in 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.” I didn’t argue with him about divine healing. I just talked about prayer and faith.
I continued, “Mr. Smart, I believe that I have received healing for my heart and my body, and I’m not walking by willpower, I’m walking by faith.” And do you know, that man began to weep and he said, “Son, if that is what you’re doing, I wouldn’t stand in your way a minute. I don’t understand it myself, but if you want to come to school, you just come on. I’ll just talk to these teachers and they’ll have to do the best they can.”
I said, “I believe I have received my healing; I believe I have what I prayed for.”
“Well, Son,” he said, “I wouldn’t put one stone in your way. I phoned your mother and asked her if she should take you out and she told me the same thing. She said, `No, Mr. Smart, he is not up by willpower; he’s walking by faith, and his faith will hold out.”‘ I said, “It will, Sir.” He didn’t realize it but immediately he played right into the hands of the enemy himself. He did put some stones in my way.
He said, “I’m going to talk to all of your teachers, and anytime you want to, you can go out of class for a breath of fresh air or for a drink of water. Or you can just get up and go home if you want to. I give you permission ahead of time. Just don’t ask anyone anything; just do what you feel like doing.” Oh, he made it so easy to fail. But you know, if I had missed one class – if I had failed to climb those steps to the schoolhouse just one time – I would have been admitting failure and been acting in doubt and my faith wouldn’t have held out.
So I didn’t miss one class. And I tell you, as weak as I was by the time those afternoon classes came around, it would have been easy to miss classes; but I never missed one. I had my worst struggles and my hardest battles in the nighttime. Whether you realize it or not, the devil is a good mathematician. After I would go to bed at night, the devil would say, “You’ve got just so many days left, boy. Remember what the doctor said “only ninety days.”
Every night the devil would tell me how many more days I had left. And I would struggle some-times in the nighttime for hours casting down imaginations, and that is not always easy. I remember one time I don’t think I slept over an hour all night long for fighting the good fight of faith.
But, thank God, it can be done by “Casting down reasonings and every high thing that exalts itself against the Word of God, and by bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of the Word, for Christ is the Word” (2 Cor. 10:5; John 1:14).
And so in the nighttime, I would begin to think in line with what God’s Word says. And I would say, “Now, Mr. Devil, I appreciate my doctor. I appreciate him highly. I appreciate him more than any of the other five doctors. He came to my house one day and sat down by my bedside and told me the truth. He said there wasn’t anything he or any other doctor could do unless a Higher Power intervened. (Actually, it isn’t a matter of a Higher Power intervening; it is a matter of a person believing God.)
My doctor had told me to go down the middle of the road and stay ready to go. I appreciated him for being frank with me and for telling me the truth. So
I said to the devil, “I appreciate my doctor and all he’s done for me. He never charged us a penny and he would come whenever my family would call him. But I’m walking in the light of the Word; and the Word says God has heard me. And the Word says I’m healed. The Word says I have my healing. And I believe the Word.”