Hi Mike,
I was just reading one of your recent posts and I’m again ‘amazed’ at something you pointed I just never “saw” in the Word.

Mat 8:5  And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him,
Mat 8:6  And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.
Mat 8:7  And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.
Mat 8:8  The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.
Mat 8:9  For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.
Mat 8:10  When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.

When I was in “word of faith”, “full gospel” church I was taught and subsequently taught on a regular basis to anyone that would listen that this Centurion understood “Authority” and Jesus marveled at the fact that the centurion knew the power of the spoken word and THAT was the key to making your faith “work” for you (to get what you want and think you need)…’Speak it’ was the key so I thought… after all God said, God said, God said in Gen 7 times and as He is so are we… therefore  we need to say it if we want IT to manifest…(unfortunately we say our own words with our own idols and lusts rather than every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God ONLY). NOW I see that Jesus was referencing the centurion’s humble attitude and marveled at this man’s faith because of his humility (i. e. a broken contrite spirit… which ONLY God can mold to be truly contrite, broken, ‘pliable’) and that is the primary point of this story… teaching Humility.

So, thank you for the ‘golden nugget’!
M____

Good morning M____,
It is always good to hear from you.
The one verse which the ‘word of faith’ brothers seem to avoid like the plague is this:

1Jn 5:14  And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:

When we ask our petitions “according to His will,” our prayers are always answered simply because He is working all things after the counsel of His will. So if I pray for a brother to be given a job, in these times of high unemployment, that prayer will be answered “according to His will,” and likewise if I ask God to heal a brother of cancer such as my friend in N. Y., that prayer also will be answered “according to His will. When Christ said to the centurion, “As you have believed, so be it unto you,” He was not contradicting the words he also inspired John to write in 1Jn 5:14.

Mat 8:13  And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.

As always, “the sum of thy word is truth” (Psa 119:160), and “As thy faith is, so be it unto you” simply compliments 1Jn 5:14. I know from personal experience that God can heal physical diseases. I have every confidence that O____ will be healed “according to God’s will” and not according to my own will. Physical healing is not to be rejoiced over so much as the fact that we have been healed of our spiritual leprosy and our spiritual cancer:

Luk 10:1 After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.
Luk 10:9 And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.
Luk 10:17 And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.
Luk 10:18 And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.
Luk 10:19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Luk 10:20 Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.

The subjection of the spirits to these seventy disciples of Christ included His command to them to “heal the sick.” Yet Christ tells them that physical healing is nothing compared to spiritual healing.
Many of the ‘word of faith’ brothers have it exactly backward. They “don’t want their pie in the sky by and by. They want it NOW!” And that is all they are willing to rejoice in. They want to speak their own will into existence, and the fact that it doesn’t work doesn’t seem to register because of their spiritually blinded condition. Their prayers have been miraculously answered in the past, and because of that, carnal babes in Christ, who come behind in no gift, think that their faith is the same as God’s will.

1Co 1:5  That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and [ in] all knowledge;
1Co 1:6  Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:
1Co 1:7  So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:
1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able [ to bear it], neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas [ there is] among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I [ am] of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

Gifts of the spirit must never be confused with fruits of the spirit.

Gal 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Gal 5:23  Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Gal 5:24  And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
Gal 5:25  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Gal 5:26  Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

Christ’s words are spirit (Joh 6:63), and “live by every word that proceeds out of His mouth.”  Those who emphasize the gifts of the spirit over, or at the exclusion of, the fruits of the spirit, are always “desirous of vain glory, provoking and envying one another.” Placing miracles about fruit makes us susceptible to this deception:

Rev 13:14  And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by [ the means of] those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

Oh Lord! Deliver us from all such who “think above what is written.”

1Co 4:6  And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and [ to] Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think [ of men] above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.

We do not speak God’s will into existence, rather we speak “according to His will,” according to “that which is written,” and we speak “after the counsel of His own will.”

The apostle Paul certainly didn’t “think above what is written,” and he didn’t think that He could simply ‘word of faith’ his way out of every uncomfortable situation. Here is the humble, ‘three Hebrew children,’ and ‘Roman centurion’ attitude we should all have when making petitions to our heavenly Father:

Php 1:20  According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.

Christ is not magnified in the bodies of any who receives everything they ever wanted of this world’s goods. Christ is magnified in the lives of those who stand for Him and His Word in the face of universal hatred, such as He Himself endured. It is not simple faith that is so dear to God as it is the trial of that faith:

1Pe 1:7  That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

That centurion meant it when he said that he was not worthy that Christ should come under his roof:

Mat 8:8  The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.

It was his love of his faithful servant, and his appreciation of his own humble state that gave him the faith to make this petition of Christ. It was, of course, all the work of God for our benefit.

Mat 8:5  And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him,
Mat 8:6  And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.
Mat 8:7  And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.

Christ’s words do not return to Him void. He will heal us all according to His will simply because “He is working all things after the counsel of His own will,” and not after the counsel of our own puffed up will.

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
1Jn 5:14  And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:

Those two verses give us assurance that any and every prayer we ask “according to His will” will be answered, “all things.” There is never an exception. The only question is, can we accept his will and not our own? There should never be a petition to our heavenly Father which is not couched in the words “Not my will, but thine be done.”

Mat 6:9  After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Mat 6:10  Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

The first ‘in’ of Mat 6:10, is the Greek word ‘epi,’ meaning ‘upon the earth,’ the second ‘in’ is the Greek word ‘en,’ meaning ‘within heaven.’ The ‘earth’ in scripture denotes our physical lives and bodies (Jer 22:9), and heaven is the realm of the spirit in our hearts and minds.

Heb 9:23  [ It was] therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

 We are to rejoice “not that the spirits are subject to us,” not that our physical bodies are healed, but that our hearts and minds are being transformed  and conformed into the image of His son.

Luk 10:20  Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.

As you put it, “Unfortunately we say our own words with our own idols and lusts rather than every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God ONLY.”
Your brother in Christ,
Mike