It used to be good advice to say, “Don’t believe everything you hear.” It is harder to find good advice these days.

It is far easier to persuade someone to believe an outrageous story than persuade them to believe the Bible rightly divided. People are gullible.

Don’t believe me?

Have you heard of the four foot man eating chicken? No? There is is a video. Prepare to be disappointed. What a circus!

What about the story of the boy who came back from heaven? There is a best selling book. It is full of malarkey.

Certainly, you have heard stories of miraculous healing. Gullible Christians believe them all. They believe everything they hear.

A Healing Story

One popular practitioner of healing claims to have healed hundreds of thousands, and that all that came to his house were healed. The dead were raised, the blind see, the lame walk, the infirmed were healed!

Then you learn that his method of healing is the popular “name it and claim it” method. This method teaches claiming a healing before it actually happens.

This is purportedly the approach used by Jesus and Peter and the apostles. “Rise up and walk!” (Acts 3:6)

The practitioners of name-it-and-claim-it healing will claim a healing even if it has not yet happened. This will tend to inflate the healing claims if we can count unhealed people because they are claiming their healing by faith.

Then you learn that the person being healed is taught that an expression of doubt about being healed is a lack of faith in God. They are told they must claim the healing now whether they see it or not, and let all doubt to the contrary be erased from their mind. They are taught to do more than plead for healing, they must claim the healing!

Many people are “healed” this way. All it takes is for people to believe what they hear, and put their faith in being healed now. To guard against this sort of gullibility believe the Bible rightly divided.

What the Bible Rightly Divided Says

Our faith is not in a healing, but in the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation (Rom 1:16;Rom 4:25; 1 Cor 15:1-4). Walking by faith does not describe a healing (2 Cor 5:7).

God did everything necessary to save your soul by the cross of Christ. If there is something left for God to do for you, then he has not done it all, and you are not complete in Him. Without the truth, people believe lies, they become gullible.

If you believe the grace of God is sufficient, then the Bible says you are complete in Christ, even if you are physically infirmed (Col 2:10; 2 Cor 12:9). Put your hope in the Lord, not in a healing.

When you hear something that is too good to be true, ask yourself: is this what the Bible says when rightly divided, or is this a story being told to misplace my hope in the Lord. If its not the Bible rightly divided, then it is highly suspect if not a lie (Rom 3:4; 2 Tim 2:15-16).

Don’t believe everything you hear. Compare what you hear to the Bible rightly divided. Then choose to believe your Bible.