Reality is what God thinks and decides in His mind. You can’t get more real or tangible than that. Same deal with salvation. When God saves us, He doesn’t send out a permission slip first—He just does it. Jesus steps in as our substitute, full stop. In the Father’s thoughts, every single wrong that belonged to me gets transferred straight onto Jesus. Jesus takes the full punishment for that list because, in the Father’s mind, those wrongs are now officially His. 

Then comes the glorious swap: the Father looks at all the righteousness that belongs to Jesus and decides—right there in His thoughts—that it now belongs to me. And just like that, it does. Because God’s thoughts aren’t wishful thinking; they create reality. This wasn’t some fuzzy “maybe someday” plan. It happened in history. The Bible says so. It’s already finished, already completed, already settled in the courtroom of the Father’s mind.

When God gives me faith (Ephesians 2), He’s creating something brand-new in me. Faith isn’t me twisting God’s arm—it’s God letting me in on what He already pulled off, then causing my heart to shout, “YES!” The lights flip on. Suddenly I see the receipt stamped “PAID IN FULL” in Jesus’ blood. That enthusiastic “yes” to what God already did? That’s faith. It’s God’s own yes echoing in my heart—the voice of the Spirit and my full-throated agreement with Him. God simply reveals to my heart the transaction Jesus finished long ago.

Scripture also calls Jesus our sanctification. He’s the Author and Perfecter of my faith. So even in the “become holy” department, God’s running the whole show. He’s helping me live out in my everyday actions what I already am in His thoughts—perfect, the righteousness of God. 

When I sin, I don’t shrug and say, “Welp, must be God’s will for me to stay stuck in this besetting sin forever.” Nope. I own it, reckon with the fact that I’m already righteous and already dead to sin, and remember that God wants me sanctified both by my identity in Jesus and by the commands that tell me to walk in holiness. I rest completely on God’s supernatural power—because “He is my sanctification”—while also taking practical steps until my behavior lines up with the righteous definition I already carry in Christ.

The exact same logic applies to healing. Healing is baked right into Jesus’ substitutionary atonement. He carried away my sickness like the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement. By His stripes I was healed. Jesus took my curses and handed me the gospel of Abraham: blessing instead of curse, health instead of sickness. 

Just like with sanctification, I now have both my new definition in Jesus (I am healed—sickness is Satan’s grubby fingerprints; healing is God’s good work) and the clear command to get healed (James 5:15). So if I pray and I don’t see the healing yet, I don’t sigh and say, “Guess it must be God’s will for me to stay sick.” That line mocks the blood and the finished work of Jesus just as badly as the sin-version does. No way. 

My definition in Christ and God’s command are crystal clear: I am to become in action what I already am in the mind of God. I am righteous. I am healed. When there’s a disconnect between what I’m experiencing and what God says I am, I don’t blame His sovereign plan—I own it. I call it what it is: a faith gap. Then I run back to the Word, back to the promises, back to the finished work until my everyday reality catches up to what God already decided.

And if you spot someone who preaches God’s finished healing in the atonement but they’re still rocking glasses? Your job isn’t to mock them. It’s to help them get more healing—just like you’d help in any other area of sanctification. In fact, you can treat it exactly the same way. Because healing already happened on Jesus’ body and in the mind of God, being healed is holiness. It’s being more set apart for God. Since Jesus isn’t sick, being healed means being more like Jesus. It’s actively participating in the promise and reality of His finished sacrifice. Since healing is commanded, it is holiness. If that isn’t holiness, I don’t know what is.

This isn’t complicated. It’s just consistent. God already did the heavy lifting—in His mind and in history—through the work of Jesus. Faith is simply agreeing with what He already settled. Whether it’s sin or sickness, the move is the same: reckon what God reckons, speak what God speaks, and watch your life line up with the reality that’s more real than anything you can see or feel right now. 

That’s how you walk out the healed life you already possess in Christ.  🚀