Becoming a Man of Unwavering Faith Read Online Free PDF Page A

testimony of that loved one for whom they’ve been praying for years. They hear it with the ears of faith.
    How did Elijah hear the rain that no one else could see or hear?
Because he knew the Word of God
.
W HAT N O E YE H AS S EEN OR H EARD
    Several years ago a friend of mine was flying in a jet at35,000 feet on his way to a preaching appointment. At the time, he was such an accomplished pianist that he had been offered opportunities in the entertainment world that would have assured him a great future. He also had a beautiful solo voice. God had called him to preach, and he had chosen to follow the vocation that was the perfect will of God for his life.
    Several years before this flight, he had been afflicted with rheumatoid arthritis, which had grown progressively worse in his entire body. His hands became knotted and gnarled and paralyzed to free movement, ending his days of artistry at the piano. All the joints of his body were affected by this disease and filled with pain. His ankles were swollen to the size of grapefruits, and his knees were enlarged.
    My friend was unable to function in a normal way. He told me he bought aspirin by the full box rather than the bottle. He took it constantly to try to relieve the excruciating pain that was throughout his body. Many mornings he had to be rolled out of bed with the help of others and placed in a tub of hot water to loosen up the joints and partially relieve the pain. He was not able to walk in a normal fashion, but simply made his way along the best he could with his knees and ankles and the rest of his joints aching and deformed by this crippling disease.
    This was his condition as he sat on the airplanegoing to preach the Gospel. The doctors had given him the verdict that there was nothing that medical science could do for him as far as there being any permanent healing. He could only get relief from the pain by taking medication. They told him that he would just simply have to live with it and gradually grow worse.
    Gone was his ability to thrill and bless people with piano music. Gone was his ability to live a normal life. But he sat on that airplane, determined to preach the Gospel to the best of his ability.
    While reading his Bible on the airplane, he began to meditate on the Scriptures. He read that Jesus bore our sicknesses and carried our pains and by His stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:5). He read in Matthew 8:17 that Jesus healed all the sick: “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: ‘He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.’ ” He read in 1 Peter 2:24, “Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.”
    Suddenly, a light turned on deep inside of him. He heard in his inner man the words, “By His stripes
you were healed
.” There came a true understanding on the inside of him. Suddenly, he knew that he was healed! Suddenly, he had absolute assurance that he was freefrom that disease. He began to rejoice, because he was certain he was healed.
    If you hear the word impossible ringing in your ears, then listen to the sweet voice of the Son of God.
    As he sat in his seat with this revelation knowledge that he was healed, he didn’t look any different; his body didn’t feel any different; his body didn’t function any different. No one seated around him could see the miracle. But he knew that a miracle had taken place on the inside.
    When he went to deplane, he could barely make it out of his seat, then he hobbled down the aisle. The pastor from the church met him at the airport gate, took his little case, and asked, “How are you?” And my hobbling friend, still stooped over and unable to look up in a normal fashion, turned his head slightly (as far as he could) to look upward toward the pastor and said, “Oh, I’m glad to announce to you that I’m healed by the stripes of Jesus.”
    I’m