A Vision Becomes Reality

“He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.”

—Matthew 8:17

I want to tell you a remarkable story. One day I was standing at the bottom of Shanklin Road, Belfast, Ireland, with a piece of paper in my hand, looking at the addresses of where I had to go, when a man came over and said to me, “Are you visiting the sick?” “Yes,” I said. “Go there,” he said, and pointed to a house nearby.

I knocked at the door. No reply. I knocked again, and then a voice inside said, “Come in!” So I opened the door and walked in. Then a young man pointed for me to go up the stairway.

When I got up onto the landing, there was a door wide open. So I walked right through the doorway and found a woman sitting up on the bed. As soon as I looked at her, I knew she couldn’t speak to me, so I began to pray. She was rocking back and forth, gasping for breath. I knew she was beyond answering me.

When I prayed, the Lord said to me—the Holy Spirit said distinctly—“Read Isaiah 53.” So I opened the Book and began to read aloud,

Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. (Isaiah 53:1–2)

When I got to the fifth verse, “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed,” the woman shouted, “I am healed!”

“Oh!” I said. “Tell me what happened.”

“Two weeks ago I was cleaning the house,” she said. “In moving some furniture, I strained my heart. The doctors examined me and said that I would die of suffocation. But last night, in the middle of the night, I saw you come into the room. When you saw me, you knew I could not speak, so you began to pray. Then you opened to Isaiah 53 and read until you came to the fifth verse, and when you read the fifth verse, I was completely healed. That was a vision; now it is a fact.”

So I know the Word of God is still true. Now that is a word from the Lord. You will never get anything more distinct than that from the Lord. People miss the greatest plan of healing because of moving from one thing to another. Become grounded. God wants you to take the Word, claim the Word, and believe the Word. That is the perfect way of healing. Do not turn to the right hand or to the left (Deuteronomy 5:32), but believe God.

God wants to sweep away all unbelief from your heart. He wants you to dare to believe His Word. It is the Word of the Spirit. If you allow anything to come between you and the Word, it will poison your whole system, and you will have no hope. It is like the Devil putting a spear into you. The Word of Life is the breath of heaven, the life-giving power by which your very self is changed. By it, you begin to bear the image of the heavenly One.

Thought for today: One bit of unbelief against the Word is poison.