Jesus operated in a fundamentally different way than man-made doctrine would have us believe. Over and over again, when people approached him for healing, he said to them, “According to your faith be it unto you.” He never said, “I am healing you because it is the will of God” or “I cannot heal you because it is not the will of God.” This is the lie that the church has told to humanity throughout the centuries, but it has never been biblical doctrine. It is contrary to how Jesus operated, and how the apostles operated. The principle has never been, “If it is the will of God, then it will happen to you.” Never. Jesus said, “If you believe it will happen to you, then it will happen to you.”

This is the doctrine that Jesus established. And this is good news. The gospel teaches you to stop focusing on some unknown will of God, but to focus on what you believe based on what God has revealed. There is no need to guess the will of God as to what will happen to you. The Bible teaches us what God is like. It says that God forgives all our iniquities and heals all our diseases. What do you believe? We have the evidence of revelation to believe that he is good, that he forgives, that he heals, that he rescues and delivers, that he showers us with blessings and good things. When we believe this, then this is what will happen to us. This is the ministry of Jesus Christ. We do not need to wander through life worried and unsure.

There is good news for you. This world lives by the law of sin and death. Everything heads toward decay and corruption. But because of Jesus Christ, you do not need to live this way. You can live by another law, the law of spirit and life. By faith in God, you are in control. You can decide to receive from God. Satan cannot stop you. People cannot stop you. God will not stop you, because he is the one who established this. He is the one who teaches you the good news that is in Jesus. He teaches us to think about getting things from him not from his perspective of an eternal will. He does not demand a farmer or a housewife or an office worker to think like a philosophical theologian. It is enough for a person to earnestly hear what God said and believe it. Scholars can make the Christian faith all technical and convoluted, but they cannot escape the fact that it is impossible to please God without faith. God teaches us to think about getting things from him from the perspective of what we need, what we want, and what we believe. And by the gospel of Jesus Christ, he has given us a reliable basis to believe the right things about him.

Jesus came at a time when there were strict religious traditions and structures in society. The people who went to him in faith defied customs and bureaucracies in order to make contact with him, to obtain what they wanted. They did not need approval from the religious leaders and scholars to receive from God. They went straight to God and received. We would expect those who portray themselves as teachers about God to welcome our faith and desire to receive from God, but this is often not the case. Many of those who pressed toward Jesus were rebuked and hindered by the crowds who followed him. Why did the people follow him, if they were going to push away those who came to him? This is the insanity of religion without faith. It is good that such things are recorded, so we can see that the members of false orthodoxy have never repented and never improved, but when we have faith in Jesus, we do not need other people’s agreement or permission. The teachers of unbelief do not own Jesus, but Jesus had offered up himself to all those who would have faith in him. Jesus said, “I am the door” – he is the gate to the sheepfold. Jesus is the way. If you have faith, Jesus welcomes you. The self-appointed leaders and scholars cannot let you in, and they cannot keep you out.

This is good news for you. You are never limited by what other people think about God. You are never limited by what other people think you can receive from God. It does not matter if they present themselves as experts in religion. Evidently, they are not experts, because they say one thing, but Jesus says something else. They say one thing, but God does the opposite. So these people do not understand very much. Never submit to people like that. You are not asking them to answer you anyway. They are not the ones who has the power to grant your desire or to honor your faith. Know what you want, then have faith that God will give it to you. People are pressed down by religion. They are not pressed down by God, or by righteousness — very often they do not even get the chance to know God and his true demands. No, they are pressed down by man-made teachings and traditions. They are suffering under the mere opinions of self-appointed leaders and scholars as to how things ought to be done, even on how God ought to behave. Throw off these people and stop caring what they say. We want the blessings of God. We want the life, the healing, and the prosperity that he guarantees to us by the gospel. We would be so much better off with the blessings of God than the compliments of men. So what if people speak well of us? It is not worth staying weak in spirit and sick in body. Conformity to human religion is not worth what we give up in exchange. Have faith in God. Have faith for good things, and what we believe will happen.