Lookahead: Over the years, I believe that people have labored exceedingly (as in, “engineered this thing to death!”) to understand why Jesus doesn’t heal everyone who seeks it.  I was watching a documentary about a British healing evangelist whose ministry grew exponentially when he received the gift of healing…in the early 20^th century.  In his writings, I saw what I believed to be the sad germination of a seed of misunderstanding that was echoed by a lot of off-road teachings over the decades. Basically, the theory was, if a person doesn’t get healed, their faith isn’t where it needs to be.  Talk about a heart breaker—it’s bad enough being sick. ☹

Do you need to have faith to enter the Kingdom of Heaven-on-earth?  Well, I definitely think that you need to believe that there is such a thing.  And if you don’t believe that it exists, the foregone conclusion would be that you won’t care about getting in…

But, as an example of someone who wants in, I might want to know, “(1) What belief system do I need in order to enter? (2) how much faith is required? (2a) to enter? (2b) to stay in? (2c) to fully enjoy the Kingdom blessings?”   

Personally, I believe that there are many blessings that are associated with a Kingdom existence.  In particular, I’m referring to spiritual gifts and the manifestations of God—including but not limited to supernatural healing.  But healing is a good representative test case, for answering questions (1) and (2). 

I have heard a lot of teaching about faith as it relates to healing—basically along the lines of the brand of faith that is required (1)…and how to increase your faith for a healing (2). 

Even the apostles felt they needed something above and beyond the measure of faith that they had been given when Jesus sent them out 2×2.  I’m referring to Luke 17:7-10 in which they asked Jesus to increase their faith; His response was to use the example of a dutiful servant who understands his role in the household—and knows that he has been equipped with whatever he needs to do the job.  Therefore,  I believe Jesus was saying that to give them more faith would be like adding on to something that the apostles didn’t need for their mission. (Morli-ism)

In terms of healing, the brand of faith/belief system that’s required might be…having faith in God as our healer – that He exists – that He loves us – that He wants everyone to be healed – that He is ready, willing, and able to heal us – that He bore our physical and mental afflictions when He was tortured/crucified so that we would not have to – that healing is the children’s bread/for us/today – that if we ask Him, He will heal us.  But what about the amount of faith?

Over the years, I believe that people have labored exceedingly (as in, “engineered this thing to death!”) to understand why Jesus doesn’t heal everyone who seeks it.  I was watching a documentary about a British healing evangelist whose ministry grew exponentially when he received the gift of healing…in the early 20^th century.  In his writings, I saw what I believed to be the sad germination of a seed of misunderstanding that was echoed by a lot of off-road teachings over the decades. Basically, the theory was, if a person doesn’t get healed, their faith isn’t where it needs to be.  Talk about a heart breaker—it’s bad enough being sick. ☹ But this evangelist watched hundreds, if not thousands, get miraculously healed when he prayed for them.  And yet he had two chronic conditions, each of which caused excruciating pain when there was a flareup.  The symptoms came and went, but God never addressed the root cause.  The evangelist knew it wasn’t God’s fault—so he evidently theorized that it must be his fault, ergo inadequate faith.  (Side Note 1:  He didn’t believe in doctors or any kind of medication—so he wouldn’t have been expecting healing to come via that avenue.)

And yet he preached a powerful sermon that is absolutely timeless—all about Who the Author and Perfecter of our faith is!  That sermon will stand on its own merit for time immemorial—or ‘til time “rapturous”… I believe that sermon, and the underpinning Word of God!  So I typically go on the basis that Jesus will give me the (brand and amount of) faith that I need for whatever it is.  But do I always trust that He will pre-empt the pain?  Not 100%. Jesus invariably comes to my rescue, and turns the bad situation around for good. But if the battle has been prolonged, my trust can get depleted.  (E.g., when I lost eight relatives in 20 months, I couldn’t help asking—are You mad at me? He wasn’t mad! 😦 However, the only way to get 100% pain-free is if He takes away Free Will on earth.) So there is a big difference between faith and trust. And I can guarantee that there’s no Kingdom existence without trust.  Probing further, what’s the diff?

According to a website called ‘difference.between.info:’ “Key Difference: (The verbs) trust and believe have deeper meanings when it comes to using it in relationships…Trust would actually mean that a person places complete confidence in another person. The person believes that the person he/she is trusting will not harm them in any way and will always look out for them. For example: a person that allows a friend to borrow his car, he has faith that the person would not harm his car and would return in the same condition that he/she borrowed. Another example includes borrowing money. If a person lent his friend money, he ‘trusts’ that the friend would return the money in due time. Trust is a permanent concept, where a person that is trusted is usually trusted for life, until that person breaks that trust. If either party breaks the trust, it takes a long time to build it back. The term ‘trust’ is derived from Old Norse word ‘traust’ meaning “trust, protection, firmness…

“Faith is more commonly considered as a spiritual concept. It is considered as an allegiance, duty or loyalty to one person or being…Faith is mostly complete belief, devotion or loyalty. It is usually when a person blindly believes a person or being.”

So faith is believing that someone or something exists and is the real deal?  Trust is believing that the subject/object of faith will behave in predictably specific ways?  And yet, it appeared that, 2000+ years ago, Jesus was goin’ for faith; He lauded several people on their faith saying, “Your faith has saved you.”  BTW, the word “faith” is not used a lot in the Old Testament; the word trust takes pre-eminence and is used frequently.  And on the reverse side, the noun form of “trust” is hardly used in the New Testament;  but, as we are well aware, the word faith is everywhere. 

The thought occurred to me to check out the Aramaic.  The reason I would go back to Aramaic is that there’s a school of thought that Jesus actually spoke Aramaic as his day-to-day language, reserving Hebrew for special (spiritual and religious) occasions.  Aramaic was the lingua franca in Israel in Jesus’ day—diverse Semitic people had used it to communicate for centuries.  There is a copy of the Aramaic New Testament (Peshitta) that dates back to the 300’s or 400’s.  This lines up with the earliest Greek manuscripts (e.g., Codex Vaticanus ~300 – 340 AD).  I am not necessarily saying that the New Testament was originally written in Aramaic; but we have a document that goes back as far back as its Greek counterparts.  So, worst case, the translators might have only been one or two generations removed from Jesus’ eyewitnesses.  (Side Note 2: To my knowledge, they have never been able to find an ancient Hebrew New Testament, even among the Dead Sea Scroll fragments; those resp. translations were done centuries after the fact.)  I do believe that the gospel writers, Luke (Hellenic Jew?) and Mark (Peter’s traveling companion and interpreter?), may have written in Greek.  But Matthew and John were observant Jews, so we can’t rule out the possibility that they chose a Semitic language. 

In the Aramaic, it turned out that there was one word that Jesus used for faith.  Ironically, it was the same word that Paul used when he was referring to Abraham’s faith that was counted as righteousness.  It is hemenū and seems to be a blend of two words–the Aramaic word for trust (ūmūd) and faith (imahn);  so it’s a trusting kind of faith 😊…and that’s what Jesus saw in several people including the centurion, the woman of ill repute, the woman with the issue, and the Syro-phoenician woman. He also appeared to use the same term for what He didn’t always see in His apostles. However, going back to the Greek, He combined the word for “faith” with the word for “little.”  In fact, instead of “ye of little faith,” He may have actually been calling them:  “Littlefaiths.” 😊  I like to think of this as a term of endearment.

But did Jesus need to see hemenū of the right brand/amount before He healed somone 2000+ years ago? No.  For the most part, the people just needed enough faith to seek Him as a healer.  If we’re not careful, we can wind up pursuing faith—according to some legalistic formula—instead of the Author and Finisher of our faith.  A recent meme said, “Faith doesn’t always take you out of the problem, Faith takes you through the problem.  Faith doesn’t always take away the pain, Faith gives you the ability to handle the pain.  Faith doesn’t always take you out of the storm, Faith calms you in the midst of the storm.” My comment was that you might want to sub in the word “God” instead of “Faith” here. 

I believe that the same thing applies to the Kingdom of Heaven-on-earth as it does to the healing example.  And I stand by what I said in paragraph #1.  He that comes to (Jesus) must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Heb 11:6  If we do that, it’s a done deal.