The Blessing of Abraham is available to all who believe.
Because you are in Christ, you already have something called "the blessing of Abraham." You do not need to get it. You already have it now. You don't receive it by your works. You received it when you were saved. Whether you ever walk in the light of it or not, Abraham's blessing is yours already!
Let's prove this in Galatians 3:
"Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." -- Gal 3:-7-9.
"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles, through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." -- Gal 3:13-14.
"Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." -- Gal 3:16.
"And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." -- Gal 3:29.
You are a partaker of the blessing of Abraham because you are in Christ. It has nothing to do with your works.
One of the conspicuous blessings Abraham had was great wealth. This is why you should not run around acting and talking like the devil is keeping money away from you. If you say that, he'll be happy to mess with your money, but the truth is, he can't keep it from you because you already have the blessing of Abraham. You're not trying to get it. You have it now. You just need to act and talk in agreement with that.
What does this have to do with healing, and why is this included in a discussion of healing? Abraham enjoyed good health. Isaac was born to him when he was a hundred years old. Years later he was able to climb a mountain to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. This guy was definitely in good shape for that age. And that's not all! When Sarah died, Abraham remarried -- and had six more kids by his second wife (Gen 25:1-3)! In all, Abraham lived 165 years (Gen 25:8). Long life was one way that God blessed him.
Yeah, but can we really think that health is part of the blessing of Abraham? You can think what you want, but what Jesus thought is in Luke 13:11-16. Jesus said that the woman ought to be healed because she was a daughter of Abraham. It appears that Jesus considered good health to be part of the blessing of Abraham, which you now have. Therefore, you should enjoy this part of the blessing. Remember, this blessing is already yours. You're not trying to get it -- you already have it! Act and talk in a way that reflects that fact.
According to Your Faith
One of the biggest barriers to receiving healing from God is the wrong idea that your healing is up to God. That is no different from saying that your salvation from hell is up to God. In both cases, God has made a provision for you through Christ's atonement, and in both cases it is up to you to believe this and receive what Jesus died to give you.
Suppose that you thought your salvation were up to God. "If God wants me to be saved, he will save me; if not, it must be his good pleasure that I remain unsaved." This is no less absurd than saying, "If God wants me to be healed, he will heal me; if not, it must be his good pleasure that I remain sick." God's will for you concerning both your salvation and your healing are clear from his Word. He wants you to have both, and you receive them both the same way -- through your faith.
Many who are prayed for think that the preacher's faith is supposed to get them healed. This is not what Jesus taught. He never
said, "My faith has made you whole." In many cases, he told the healed person, "Your faith has made you whole." It was up to the person receiving the healing.
Take the case of the woman with the issue of blood. Jesus was not conducting any kind of healing service when she touched him. He was on his way to take care of another healing matter at the time. He had no idea that this woman was coming to him for healing. He had to ask who had touched him! The disciples were amazed because everyone was bumping against him, but Jesus wanted to know who had touched him in faith. He felt power go out of him and knew that someone had touched him in faith, but he did not know who it was.
Therefore, this healing could not have had anything to do with Jesus or his faith. This healing was brought about solely by the woman's faith. Jesus told her that her faith had healed her.
Where did she get this faith? The same way you do -- by hearing the gospel. The woman went and got her healing "when she had heard of Jesus." Someone must have told her the good news.
You will find the following statements in the New Testament (the Scripture references in context are below):
"As thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee."
"And Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy..."
"Thy faith hath made thee whole." (This phrase appears 5 times!)
"According to your faith be it unto you."
"Great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt."
"And perceiving that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet."
For your clicking-and-reading enjoyment, here are the passages of Scripture where Jesus (or in one case, Luke) said that the person's faith (or a household member's faith) was responsible for the healing:
The centurion's son -- Matthew 8:5-13
The paralytic -- Matthew 9:2-8, Luke 5:17-26
The woman with the issue of blood -- Matthew 9:20-22, Mark 5:25-34, Luke 8:43-48
Two blind men -- Matthew 9:27-30
The Canaanite woman -- Matthew 15:22-28
Blind Bartimaeus -- Mark 10:46-52, Luke 18:35-43
A leper -- Luke 17:12-19
The lame man at Lystra -- Acts 14:7-10
Now let's look at what happened in a place where the people did not have faith:
Matthew 13:54-58
Mark 6:1-6
The Bible does not say that Jesus refused to do many mighty works. It says that Jesus could not do them at Nazareth, and that he marveled at their unbelief. Consider this: Jesus himself, the best preacher ever to walk the earth, could not get many people in the congregation healed because of their unbelief. Here we see the opposite side of the cases where people's faith got them healed.
How unfair for unbelieving congregations today to point the finger at the preacher when no signs and wonders occur. Yes, the preacher must believe also, but even if he does, not much will happen in a congregation with a hostile and unbelieving attitude. If Jesus himself could not get results where there was such unbelief, no other preacher can, because the servant is not greater than his master.
It is not that God did not want to heal every disease at Nazareth. We know that he did from Psalm 103:1-5 and elsewhere. The same preacher (Jesus) was healing multitudes in other cities. Jesus did not change from one place to another. What the people received depended more upon their faith or their unbelief than it did on Jesus!
If that was true then, that is still true today. It is not all up to Jesus. It's not up to God who gets saved or healed; it's up to us. "Whosoever will" can receive salvation and healing.
Read the account of the man with the demon-possessed boy in these verses:
Matthew 17:14-21
Mark 9:17-29
Luke 9:38-42
Jesus attributed the disciples' failure to their lack of faith. He had already given them power and authority over all devils (Luke 9:1-2), so power was not the issue. They had the power! The issue was not what Jesus could do, but what they could believe.
Then the man asked Jesus to do something "if you can do anything." Jesus again made it clear that the issue was not what Jesus could do, but what the man could believe. His answer was: "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes."
We know that with God nothing shall be impossible (Luke 1:37), but it's not solely an issue of what God or Jesus can do. It's also an issue of what you can believe.
In Mark 11:24, Jesus made it clear that you can have whatsoever you desire if you believe that you receive it when you pray. It depends on your faith, not Jesus' faith.
This is not a popular teaching these days because many Christians are lazy and do not want to take responsibility for anything. It's so easy just to say that whatever happens is the will of God, and to let the will of Satan be done in your body while saying that it must be God. If it's solely up to God's will, you have no responsibility. Yet Jesus made it clear throughout his ministry that it is up to you, not him, to do something. God is not responsible for any man's failure to receive something that is available to all.
This is especially true now that healing has been permanently provided "by his stripes" (1 Peter 2:24). Jesus has done everything he needs to do about your healing. Whether you receive the healing he paid for in his atonement is completely up to you. God can heal you, and God wants to heal you. The only issue is, can you believe it?
You can be healed in God's mercy by the gifts of the Spirit operating through another believer. But the best way (and only sure way) to get healed and stay healed is to believe for yourself. Ultimately, it is according to your faith that it will be done unto you!
How To Get More Faith
There is only one effective way to get more faith:
"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" -- Romans 10:17.
If you want to have more faith, you need to hear more of the word of God. Even if you mentally acknowledge what it says, you must continue to reflect upon it and speak it to yourself. This hearing is not a one-shot deal where you hear it once and go your merry way. This refers to a continuous process of hearing the Word repeatedly. The Word itself produces faith.
If you look up the word word in Romans 10:17 in a concordance, you will discover that it is the Greek word rhema, which denotes a direct word from God to you and not simply the Word in a more general sense, which would be translated logos. You must spend time thinking about the Word before it becomes rhema to you and not simply logos. You must receive God's Word as his personal message to you.
"But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach" -- Romans 10:8.
Faith will come automatically when you keep hearing God's promises. They are not mere facts but spirit and life. When you get full of the Word, you get full of faith without consciously trying to do so! This is so simple that it's amazing more people don't see this, and thus resort to the ineffective means shown below. God's word is the "word of faith." Faith and the Word go together.
Many believers do not need more faith; they simply need to act on the faith that they already have. The man in Acts 14:7-10 was an example of this.
Here are some ineffective ways to try to get more faith:
Praying for more faith
This didn't work for the apostles, and it won't work for you.
Luke 17:5-6
Here Jesus pointed out that you do not need "great faith" to do something, but you need to act on the faith that you have. You do the majority of acting your faith with the words of your mouth. "Ye might say unto this sycamine tree...."
Trying harder to believe
This involves a struggle to "make yourself believe" something. Prepare for a lot of frustration and not much faith. God never commanded you to try to believe anything. He just commanded you to believe his words.
But there is a difference between believing his words and just trying to believe that you are healed. If you have no Bible basis for believing that you can receive healing as a gift from God, you will not develop more faith. You will stay frustrated and sick! If you still have doubts that the God of the Bible has promised to heal you, the solution is to continue to listen to and read his promises over and over. You will find that believing will start to happen naturally in you without it seeming like an impossible struggle.
Praying in other tongues
You are commanded to build yourself up on your most holy faith (Jude 20), but this verse does not say that speaking in tongues produces faith. It can help you enter into rest and become sensitive to the Holy Spirit so that you can hear the Word better, but faith still comes by hearing the Word, not by praying in other tongues. When you pray in other tongues, you are speaking mysteries that your mind does not understand. You will charge yourself up to act on whatever faith you have, but you will not get more faith.
Denying your circumstances
You will not develop faith by trying to forget your problems or by pretending that they don't exist. Doing so is not faith at all and only gives you practice lying to yourself. Faith does not deny that the problem exists; faith denies the problem the right to continue existing based on what God says.
Looking at improvement in your body for encouragement
Faith is based solely on God's promises, not on any apparent improvement of your condition. It does not matter to faith if you seem to be getting better or worse. You can rejoice at improvement, but remember that it is faith that creates improvement. Then you won't be shaken off your stand of faith if suddenly symptoms worsen or reappear in your body.
Hearing exciting testimonies
Testimonies will excite you and motivate you to believe God for yourself, but you cannot base faith on the experience of anyone else. Just because God healed someone else with your condition does not mean that you will receive your healing. What will you do if you hear that someone with your condition died? Your faith must rest solely on God's Word. Then, even if no one else you know gets any results, you still can. Of course, to the extent that someone's testimony involves the Word of God, your faith will be built by hearing the promise that someone else believed.
The other problem with testimonies is that many are given at crusades by people are healed by the gifts of the Spirit, not their faith. Someone could give a wonderful testimony of receiving this way, but you have no guarantee apart from your faith that YOU will receive such a healing. It's quite possible that in his mercy, God will suddenly heal an unbeliever who has no idea what's going on. God is looking for believers to BELIEVE and not rely on the gifts of the Spirit to receive healing.
Condemning yourself for your little faith
You will never get anywhere by chiding and belittling yourself. "Oh, I must be a 'ye' of little faith. God must be so displeased with me. I really am a failure at believing God. I should have more faith. What's wrong with me?" You will never develop great faith if you keep tearing down what little faith you have. You will just make yourself miserable.
Worship
God does seek you to worship him, and failure to do so will definitely hinder you in every area of your life. However, you do not get faith by worshipping God. Worship is an expression of the faith that you already have, not a means to get more.