On Sunday evening, July 7, 1991, Trina left a church service with a severe headache. A few minutes later, she suffered a seizure. Once at the hospital she had, many tests and an MRI was done. But before her eyes opened, God’s Word, which is what she meditated on for years, sprang up like a living fountain, and rose up like a shield in her heart and mind. “Himself took our infirmities; by whose stripes we were healed.” The shield of faith quenched the words of the doctor who said, “It looks like you have an inoperable brain tumor.”  I spoke to that tumor, according to Mark 11:23, to be removed. I then posted a sign outside the hospital room door which said, “No Wavering Allowed!”  From that moment, our focus was on the Word of God.
Years before, Trina was healed from asthma as she meditated on healing scriptures, taking them regularly like medicine. She followed Proverbs 4:20-22, which gives four steps to God’s prescription: 1) Attend to my words; 2) Incline thine ear unto my sayings. 3) Let them not depart from thine eyes; 4) Keep them in the midst of thine heart.  It goes on to say “For they are life unto those that find them, and health (medicine) to all their flesh.” 
Here are two examples of what happened when multitudes in Jesus’ ministry came to hear him and to be healed: “But so much the more went there a fame abroad of him: and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities,” Luke 5:15. “…great multitude of people…which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases,” Luke 6:17-19.
The Greek word for the phrase, “to be healed” is therapeuo, which means “to relieve of disease, to cure, heal and worship.” The little word “of” denotes separation, departure, cessation, completion, and reversal. As the multitudes came day after day to hear Jesus’ teaching, they were receiving divine therapy. Their diseases and pain ended and completely reversed as they heard Jesus, the Living Word, speak. His Words were life and health to their souls and bodies. Psalm 107:20, “He sent his word, and healed them, And delivered them from their destructions.”  The fight of faith is a fight to focus on the Word of God.
A good example of that kind of focusing is Numbers 21:1-9. As Moses led the Jews in the wilderness, they complained about the menu of manna and how hard their lives were. Poisonous snakes started biting them until they cried to Moses for help. God told Moses to make a brass serpent and put it on a pole. When the people would look at it, they’d live and not die. Can you imagine the effort it took to look away from the snakes and keep focused on the image? It was not a passing glance, but the AMPC describes how to look at this image: attentively, expectantly, with a steady and absorbing gaze.  The serpent was a type of Jesus, who, on the cross, became a curse for us. (Gal.3:13) The curse includes every sickness, disease, or injury.  This covers anything physically, emotionally, or financially.  
Isaiah 53:5-6 is one of the most powerful verses to look at attentively, expectantly, with a steady and absorbing gaze: “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 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.” Notice the word “borne.” The Hebrew word for borne is nasa, which means “to lift up, to bear away, to convey or to remove to a distance.” The Hebrew words for “griefs and sorrows” refer to physical pain, sickness, and disease. They signify a heavy burden, and denote actual substitution, and a complete removal of the thing borne. When Jesus bore our sins, our sicknesses, and our pains, He bore them away, or removed them once and for all.
After several days of standing in faith, Trina went for a biopsy to determine the nature of the tumor. However, God sent Romans 8:11 to Trina on the way to surgery. The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead was working!  It was not our job to do the supernatural, but to simply arrange a meeting between the tumor and God—to open the door to the supernatural.  When I commanded that tumor to dry up and to be removed, I simply opened the door and said, “Mr. Tumor, meet Jehovah!”  We rejoiced and laughed all the way to surgery. Hours later, the surgeon came out of surgery with this report: “I don’t know what to tell you, but the tumor is completely gone!”
Meditation on the substitutionary work of Christ will heal you. Don’t wait until you need healing to get grounded in faith for healing. Instead, build your faith up so that when an evil day comes, you will stand and keep standing (Eph. 6:13) He sent His Word. His Word is true. His Word is on a mission. His Word heals and restores. When you need healing, the first thing to do is look to the Word. God and His Word are one.                      
God’s Prescription: Take the scriptures daily as frequently as desired with bottomless drinks of living water from the River of Life. Results increase if you smile or laugh out loud! A merry heart does good like a medicine.

1. MAKE A CHOICE TO RECEIVE HEALING. Deuteronomy 30:19
2. USE YOUR VOICE. Proverbs 18:21
3. THINK, ACT AND SPEAK GOD’S WORD ONLY. James 1:22-24
4. DEPEND ON THE HOLY SPIRIT TO HELP YOU. Philippians 2:13 (AMPC)

This month we want to offer you Trina’s book, God’s Healing Word.  We believe this book will fuel your faith and help you to receive God’s Word as your medicine. He sent His Word to heal YOU! For your offering of $25 or more we will send this book to you.   Remember the fight of faith is a fight to focus on the Word of God.  We believe this book will help you do just that.
We want to thank you for your faithful partnership with us. We recently launched out and purchased new video cameras and television equipment that will greatly help us in our new conference center and studio.  Thank you for your partnership with us in this project.  Together, with our partners, we are preaching the Gospel to a potential of 80 million households a day.  We thank God for that and believe to reach out to even more. 
We declare great blessing to each of you as you partner with us in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
 
In Christ,
Mark and Trina Hankins