Free Amazing Grace by Watchman Nee

and inquired again how he was. Once
more he replied, “Thank God, I am delivered.”
    What, then, is true faith? It is not
believing that God will do,
but in believing God has already done. The “made” in this Bible passage speaks
of a past accomplished fact. Let us never change the “made” to “will be” or
“shall be.” Let us instead thank God that in Christ He has already set us free.

Healed
through Faith
    In 1929 I was in Foochow. Where I lived was about a two-hours ’ boat ride from the city. At that time we had among
us a sister in the Lord who had a serious eye disease. So she had gone to Foochow
for treatment. The doctor there told her that her eye was in such serious condition
that even after her recovery she would need to wear glasses. The doctor agreed
to treat her eye on a daily basis and would soon provide a pair of glasses for
her.
    Soon after this she heard me speak on faith. She
believed, and she also prayed before God, saying: “My eye problem is very
serious. I will need to go to Foochow every day hereafter for treatment. And even
after I am recovered, I will have to wear glasses for life. Not only will this
cost money, it will also be time-consuming.” So she asked God for His healing.
After she prayed she believed that God had healed her eye. So her heart was at
peace and joyful.
    However, she had already set up the next appointment with
the doctor. What should she do now? A Christian should not violate an
appointment and   a person was obviously not going to be able to sell one’s prescription glasses to
others. So she went anyway. The doctor applied medicine to her eye and supplied
the glasses to her. As she was returning on the steamer she thought in her
heart that since she had believed in God’s promise and God had already healed
her eyes, what—she asked herself— should she do with the glasses and the
medicine? In her mind came the thought that she would take the glasses and the
medicine home and observe the situation regarding her eyes for a few days. In
case she was not healed she could yet use them. But there came a counter voice
within her, saying: “Have you believed that God has already healed you?” “I do
indeed believe. What, then, can these things do for me?” But Satan said to her:
“You should not take action too quickly. You have already spent quite a lot of
money.” Now she knew it was Satan’s voice. So she began to praise God and threw
the medicine and the glasses into the river. She was full of joy. She would
later testify that she had never been so happy as she was
at that moment. A week later her eyes were as well as anybody else’s. One day,
during the church assembly, she stood up and testified regarding her
experience.
    A few days afterwards I heard another story. A Christian brother’s
eyes had a problem. He went to the same doctor whom the sister had consulted.
The doctor gave him medicine as well as spectacles. On that very day he had
listened to the testimony of that sister. So, on his way back on the steamer,
he told himself that since God had healed her, He could and would heal him too.
“She had believed God, I have also believed God, who
is not partial. He certainly can heal me.” So with this kind of faith, he cast
the medicine and the spectacles into the river. Upon his return he told his
story to our brother Faithful Luke, stating that God would heal him.
    One day shortly after this, brother Luke came to me and told me how the faith of such and such a brother had
greatly improved. When I heard it, I said: “That sister’s eye disease has really
been healed, but I dare not guarantee this brother’s healing.” Brother Luke
asked why. I replied that he had better take that brother to the doctor. Brother
Luke thought that I was being too hard on him. But I said to him that it was
because that brother did not have faith. Brother Luke said to me: “But he threw
away those things that were worth more than twenty dollars, and he also