So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
(Rom. 1:15-17)

The Word is the power, and that it's the power of God unto salvation. We know it's the power of God unto healing, prosperity, victory and whatever you need. The Word of God is the power of God.

Now in verse 17, he says, "the just shall live by faith." Notice this is not a request from God. He is not asking you—would you please live by faith. He's saying: the just—that's you who are the ones that are made righteous—shall live by faith.

That means that once I got saved I needed to live a new way; I needed to have a new lifestyle. That means that every area in my life should be governed in this way. My marriage should be governed by faith. If it's my job, my kids or whatever it is, it's by faith. We have a new and a more fulfilling way of life than we did before we got saved.

But notice that it's a life of faith. Go with me to Habakkuk 2:4.

"Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith."

Looks familiar doesn't it? Go with me to Galatians 3:11.

"But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, the just shall live by faith."

There it is again. Go with me to Hebrews 10:38.

"Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him."

That's four times in the word of God where God said—the just shall live by faith. Now it's a real good principle to make a big deal out of what God makes a big deal of. This is the way you're supposed to live and operate.

Living By The Word
The Bible says in Romans 10 that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So we know that the Word of God produces faith. So anywhere that I see in the Word where it's talking about faith, I can substitute the Word there and it will still be correct.

So we just saw four scriptures that said the just shall live by faith. That tells me that the just shall live by the Word.

"And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God" (Luke 4:4).

So that proves that we are supposed to live by the Word. So you can't live faith if you don't live the Word of God. The Word produces faith.

Now you might say - "Okay Pastor Butler, what do you mean by living by the Word? How can I live by the Word?"

That's a good question. Go with me to John 15.

"If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" (John 15:7).

Notice that he said "and my words abide in you." When you talk about dwelling or you talk about abiding you normally think about a house. Colossians 3:16, the Amplified version says - "...and my words have its home in your spirit." So it's talking about having the word of God abiding in your spirit or having its home in your spirit. See, when you live by the Word is when the Word stays in your spirit; it abides there.

Go with me to James chapter 1.

Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
(James 1:21-25)

Notice this man "looketh." That means he didn't just look and turn away; he "looketh," and he does it continually.

Now he talks about the difference between a hearer of the Word and an doer of the Word. An example he gives of a hearer of the Word is someone who looks at a mirror, sees himself, turns around and forgets what he looks like. The person who is a doer of the word is one who continually looks at it.

Let me give you an example of this. Do you remember high school geometry? If I asked you a question, can you answer me? I don't think so. Why? Because it's been years, right?

I can't remember geometry myself. Why is that? Because you haven't looked at it, you haven't studied it; you knew it once upon a time, you knew it enough to get by that class, and as soon as you got that grade you completely washed it out of your head.

I remember when I was in school, we used to always say, I'm not going to use this in my life. So we'd forget it immediately. But I guarantee that if you are an engineer, or in some other field where you have to use it, you remember all of it, because you're constantly looking at it.

That's what this man does with the Word of God - because he is constantly looking at the Word of God, he is constantly blessed.

Levels of Faith
Go with me to Third John and let me show you something else about this man.

"Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth" (3 John 1:2).

This is a man who prospers and is in health. Notice he didn't say—I wish above all things you may prosper and get healed. I wish above all things that you may prosper and be believing God for your healing. He said—I wish above all things that you may be in health.

It is not the Father's intention for you to ever be sick. You'll notice with the nation of Israel, when they left Egypt, they had three million people. The Word of God says that there was not one sick or feeble person among them that night.

When God created this planet with Adam and Eve, there was no sickness because there was no curse. In fact if you go through the Word of God and look at godly Bible characters, you'll find maybe one or two incidences where godly Bible characters were sick. God's best for you is not to get sick and then get well. God's best for you is to live constantly well, to be in health.

We've heard about God wanting to heal us and that is absolutely true, but the truth of the matter is healing and salvation is for the unbeliever; health is for the believer. We've gotten ourselves to a point where we're believing for healing, but we need to take our faith to another level. You need to believe God that you'll never be sick. When Satan tries to attack you, you immediately reject it. Say - I rebuke that in the name of Jesus.

God's will for you is to dominate sickness. That's his will for you, to be in health, not to just be getting healed.

The problem is the average Christian who believes in divine healing takes for granted that getting sick occasionally and getting healed is God's order for their life. They just think that's normal, that's the way it's supposed to be - I'm supposed to get sick and then I'm supposed to get healed, but God says no. You have to get to a point where you don't ever get sick anymore. You live in divine health; that's what you walk in.

That's a whole other level of faith, and it takes time to get there. It's a process. That's how your faith is, you've got to keep feeding yourself, your spirit, the Word of God, so you can get your faith to a certain level. You're exercising your faith at a certain level and then what you do is you feed yourself the Word even more so you can go even higher.

God wants you to have permanent deliverance from sickness. Repeated illnesses should not be the normal experience of the New Testament believer. You should not be getting sick and getting well.

Let's Keep the Right Perspective On This
Now I don't want anybody to get under condemnation about this, this is not about condemnation, there's no condemnation to those who walk after the Spirit. You know that Satan attacks you. So it's not that issue. But I want you to understand what God's best is for you. His best isn't for you just to get healed; his best is for you to live in divine health.

Really, divine healing is just an emergency measure. It's for when God has a child who happens to fall sick or get ill because they did things, they disobeyed the laws of the land. We've all done that. We go outside, it's cold out, and we go outside without a coat on. Well, that's not wisdom and guess what you do? You open yourself up to the enemy.

It's an emergency measure for when a believer falls sick for whatever reason, but it's not the way God wants you to continue to operate.

It's the same thing financially. A lot of believers get used to God supplying miracles. You know—I needed so and so money at this time and He came at the last minute; miracle after miracle. But miracles are temporary. That's God's emergency measure. They are temporary, but blessings are forever.

See, God will give you an emergency when you need it, but His nature is to bless you to a point where you don't need any more miracles because you're living in divine blessings. That's His nature.

Keith Butler Ministries
All rights reserved. Used by permission.