HEALING
One of the most controversial subjects in most Christian circles is in regard to divine healing.
Introduction
The confusion over unanswered prayer in the area of sickness and disease has left many believers baffled about God’s true intentions when it comes to healing. God has made many positive and indisputable promises in His Word about healing and what to do if we get sick.
“Ask and it shall be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (Lk. 11:9) “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.” (Jas. 5:14-15) “I am the Lord that heals you” (Ex. 15:26) and “Bless the LORD, O my soul; …who forgives all our iniquities, who heals all our diseases,” (Ps. 103:1&3)
Jesus came to earth and healed the sick. There were no real obstacles that prevented anyone that came or were brought, from being healed. And since we know that Jesus did only the will of His Father, we must conclude that His Father wanted these people healed. So the big controversy about being healed “if it is God’s will”, or not being healed because the person does not have enough faith is unacceptable. So what is the problem? Why don’t people just get well?
Actually, many of them do get healed. But the Devil fights the release of the testimony of healing that confirms the authority of the Word of God because he does not want the witness of God’s love and grace as manifested in answers to prayer to be released. So it is the Evil One that snatches the revelation of God’s love and desire to heal and comfort His people. Satan wants us to think we are abandoned and on our own. He wants us to feel rejected and that God is mad at us. Satan does not want us to know that we know that God loves us. Why? Because the love of God is the most powerful force in the universe for healing and justice. Truth frees us, but love heals us!!!!
It is not about there being something “wrong with us”, our lack of faith, nor is it a question of the will of God. So what is the problem? Satan wants us to think these things. That resistance and the Enemy’s only hope is to keep us believing lies, lies about our worth and God’s goodness. Jesus died to set us free over 2000 years ago.
“Whom the Son sets free is free”. (Jn. 8:32) “By His stripes we are [were] healed”. (Is. 53:5).
HEALTH AND HUMAN VULNERABILITY
The quality of everything we do rests on how well we feel. Our health determines the quality of our life. It becomes the foundation for how we think and for what we do. The Enemy knows this. And because we are three part beings made up of body, soul and spirit, we are vulnerable to his attack at three different levels. Our “flesh” as the Bible describes us, is “fearfully and wonderfully made” but it is weak. Just because something is weak, however, does not mean it is bad though that vulnerability can make us susceptible to the pressure we feel coming from our bodies and souls to meet certain needs. This forces us to make choices that put us in dangerous positions, both spiritually and physically.
The “flesh” is made up of the body and the soul. The soul is made up of the mind, will and emotions. The soul is attached to the body and sustains the life of the body until it departs. When the soul departs, the body dies. It becomes a corpse. The soul is programmed with the experiences each of us has received as we move through the situations of our lives. Those bits of information become the information bank and basis for our decisions and beliefs. If the information contained in our mind sets is not true and we have been persuaded to believe lies, than the “print out”, the actions and decisions that come out of our soul will be sin, and the Bible says that “when sin is fully grown it brings forth death”. (Jas. 1:14)
Much of what we learn about ourselves, unfortunately, comes from what we learn about ourselves. It comes from “circular reasoning”. I form my impressions, not from God and His Word of Truth, but from myself, from what I see or hear myself doing or saying. I am putting together a concept of myself based on what I see myself doing. If the things I see myself doing and saying and thinking and the things I am told by others about my actions and acceptability, are not true, the core of my self-concept – my identity -will not be correct because it is not based upon the truth of God’s Word. It is based upon me and my opinion about myself, or the opinions, expectations or disappointments of others or my perceptions of their responses to me.
MY IDENTITY AND MY AUTOIMMUNE SYSTEM
Knowing the truth about who I am is critical to good health. Confusion about my identity is one of the two major battlefields in the war for truth, justice and health. If I do not know who I am according to the Word of God and where I came from, the Enemy will use that confusion to attack me with guilt, condemnation and accusation of wrong doing and begin to undermine my health. The second battle is fought over establishing the goodness of God.
Agreeing with guilt, shame, and self-judgment give the Enemy an open door to march into my house, my physical body, to disrupt and damage the harmonious interactions and function of its many members who must work together to keep me safe and healthy. Confusion among the organs and systems of my body creates discord and division which are the precursors to disease and death.
When God created us, He declared us to be “good”. All goes well under those provisions as long as we agree with God that we are good and our bodies are worthy of protection. God commissioned the Immune System to protect that which is deemed good and dispose of that which is determined to be bad. In other words, the Auto Immune System was created and given to us by God to protect us internally from things that could do us harm including antigens, bacteria and viruses, and cancerous cell mutations. The Immune System’s army of T-cells and killer cells and white blood cells (corpuscles) were appointed and equipped to protect us from both invasion (viruses and bad bacteria) and internal mutiny (cancer).
The job of the white corpuscles is to remove that which is determined to be bad. If we begin speak negative words and messages of condemnation and hatred over ourselves, the Immune System becomes confused as to whether we are good or not. When the Auto Immune defense system gets confused with the messages we are sending it, it begins to target parts of our bodies that it identifies as “bad” and in need of removal. Our Immune System begins to turn on us as it had identified us as the enemy, and parts of us as the thing that needs to be removed.
The root of all health problems begins in the spiritual world. We are spiritual beings first whether we realize it or not. If we begin to get caught on the hooks of temptation and come into agreement with Satan’s bait – the lie, and sin, we automatically begin to feel bad. But because we don’t like feeling bad, the Liar offers us a solution to sin and guilt that puts pressure on us to perform or prove we are worthy of love.
Sin and feeling guilty provoke us to speak into existence those negative words and feelings of regret that accompany sin. We are, in essence, coming into agreement with the Enemy’s indictments against us. These agreements cause our Immune System to become confused about our divine nature and identity. Are we good and worthy of our Immune System’s protection or are we bad and need to be devoured, suffocated and removed?
We listen to the Liar because we are trying to resolve the incongruences between our innate goodness and our not so good behavior by trying harder to be good. At this point something happens. There is a subtle, unnoticeable shift in the internal voice that guides us. The Enemy comes into take up the job of managing us under the guise of helping us “be good” to avert another spiritual collision with sin and guilt. This is where things get a little tricky.
The First Person Impersonator who calls himself “me” begins to impersonate us using the first person pronoun “I” to get us to receive his counsel. This new internal guidance system is NOT the voice of the Holy Spirit sent to lead us into all truth and triumph. This is the “stronger man” Jesus talked about in Matthew 12:25 and Luke 11:15 and Mark 3:22 who comes to divide the house with his divisive counsel and set us up in opposition to ourselves, (II Tim. 2:24-26 KJV)! A divided house is a weak and unhealthy house.
Therefore, the root of the Autoimmune Diseases, some of which include DIABETES, CROHN’S, RHEUMATIOD ARTHRITIS, LUPUS, and MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS, etc., are specific diseases where the joint or the pancreas, or the myelin sheath are identified as the enemy. So, how do the words we speak and the things we believe about ourselves so negatively affect our physical bodies? Remember, there is “death and life in the power of the tongue” (Pr. 18:29)
For example: I see myself or hear myself saying “I get mad at myself a lot.”, or “I am such a mess.”, or “I never seem to do anything right.” “I don’t like myself.”, or “I have to do better next time.” or “I should have.”, or “What if?” or “It is up to me.”, or “What will they think?” or “It’s my fault.” or “I am not worthy.” If it is true, that what the heart is full of, the mouth speaks, then, the Enemy is setting me up to agree with him that I get mad at myself, I don’t like myself, I have to do better, and it is my responsibility to fix things I cannot control. I am who others say I am and I am not worth anything apart from what I can do to earn that love or acceptance.
Once I speak and act on these thoughts, the door is opened in my life for the invasion. Anger comes in to make me mad for being used, lied to and tricked into giving away parts of me to get you to like me! Guilt and the stress of trying to make others happy dump the burden of responsibility onto me and I get depressed trying to solve the irresolvable conflicts in my relationships by myself. Fear of being rejected and the fear of saying “No” and being worried about what other people will think overwhelm me with obligation and oppression. I want to be okay, but I have to be perfect in order to be okay – which never happens.
All of this sends my Immune System into a tailspin of confusion. Am I still good if I mess up and am I still eligible to be loved and protected or do I need to be destroyed? Most people are giving their bodies and their Immune Systems a mixed message at best at best. This is where the term “compromised immune system” comes from. Self-hatred, guilt, condemnation, confusion, rage, anger, and the barrage of offenses, broken expectations, injustices and accusations are being made against us constantly by the Accuser. The Enemy has now found a way to control my thoughts and use my emotions against me, begins to take down my health and destroy my house.
In all Auto Immune System Diseases we are basically being “gas-lit” by the counselors of Hell to make us feel like what they have instigated to tempt us, to blackmail and bully us and set us up is all OUR fault. If they can get us to take the blame for what they are doing, they get to bring their demonic judgments upon us which include pain, punishment, penalty, poverty, and infirmity. Agreement with guilt implies that I agree that I am guilty, I did it, and I deserve to be punished (Pain), I don’t deserve good things (Poverty) and I am bad (Infirmity), which is set I motion by a compromised Immune System.
The only real solution to resolving the irresolvable conflict between doing sins (sinning) and release from those sins is to confess them as sin and ask God to forgive us for believing the lie that set us up in the first place. God had to make a way to satisfy the Devil’s demands for our punishment without letting the Devil kill us. God did that by making repentance and confession the escapes from death.
SPIRITUAL ROOT CAUSES OF PHYSICAL DISEASES
Behind every disease or physical malady is an agreement with a lie that allows the Enemy to continue to operate with our permission to bring his demonic judgments upon us. Jesus said that “You shall know the truth and the truth will set your free.” (Jn. 8:32) That means that there is a spiritual root cause behind every disease. Most people do not want to dig that deeply into their spiritual, emotional, relational baggage to see what that lie could be.
Illness and disease consumes our time and demands our attention. Because the attack on our bodies and our health are so common place, we are in danger of accepting physical maladies as normal and inevitable. Accepting pain and sickness as “my cross to bear”, “my fibromyalgia” or “my depression” only solidify our agreement with the Enemy that permit him to press into our lives further. When we believe health issues are “normal for my age” or address the symptoms with a pill that only provides temporary relief at best, we are trying to find a short cut and not a cure in search of real healing.
THE BODY DOES NOT LIE
Our physical health is the best indicator of harmony and well-being of our soul and the soundness of our spirit. The body does not lie. When things are out of whack in our soul or our relationships are in conflict, our bodies will reflect those problems as sickness, infirmities, pain, heart problems, allergic reactions, fibromyalgia, migraines, ulcers, arthritis, and bone and joint degeneration, to name a few.
A healthy body, full of energy that knows how to rest and receive as well as give and abide reflects an internal peace and harmony itself and with truth because the body does not lie. Our lips may lie and say we are “fine”, but our body does not fall for something that pretends to be something it is not. That is why, when the body is calling for help, experiencing dysfunction or sending our distress signals, we do well to listen.
We do even better to hear. What is my body telling me? What is going on? Am I not giving it the essential nutrients it needs to be well? Am I not permitting it to rest? Am I putting too much stress on it and demanding it perform to higher and higher expectations? Do I expect my hypothalamus to keep me safe from sexual predators? Am I using my body to prove my worth by forcing it to serve vanity as a means to love and the acceptance of others? Am I living with a narcissist or someone who is anxious and controlling, trying to manage their fears or serve their demands disregarding my own self-worth and respe
HIJACKING HEALTH THROUGH PSYCHOLOGICAL RECONDITIONING
Our Health is sustained be eating the foods God prescribed for us in Genesis 2. Satan knows that and has done everything to pervert our appetites and seduce us into eat and drinking things that will ultimately not supply the nutrients we need to keep our bodies functioning well. In addition to manipulating our taste buds to crave the wrong foods, he also psychologically reconditions us through reward and punishment, to avoid or declare as dangerous, certain foods or things to set up areas of deprivation in our bodies.
How does this psychological reconditioning work that ultimately affects our physiological actions? When I see myself reacting to a particular food, or smell, or situation and conclude I must be ALLERGIC to that something, I am connect that physical reaction with the thing I just experienced. I am being programmed by the things that I experience to “learn” to avoid certain things. I conclude I must be allergic to that thing.
When the experiences I am reacting to are not as easily defined as a food or chemical, and the causes are more subjective, like in the rejection or abandonment of a parent, the real reason for the reactions, like Asthma or Crohn’s, become more elusive. Because the causes for these physical “outbursts” of pain and dysfunction are not understood, the connections between cause and effect are not as clear. Fear and confusion are able to reinforce the cycle of pain and hold us hostage in the Enemy’s stronghold of the physical manifestation and sickness because we fail to connect the root cause to the manifestation.
Our conclusion is “I have asthma” or “I am allergic to___”, or “There must be something wrong with me or my __.” We begin to accept certain health conditions as “normal” – something God never intended to be normal. Drawing these superficial conclusions prompt us to make agreements with the Enemy that allows him to proceed with his internal take down of our health. Not understanding the spiritual mechanisms that operate behind the scenes of disease keeps us from reclaiming our health on all three levels of body, soul, and spirit.
In other words, everything regarding our health begins and ends with a spiritual act. The initial acts of obedience insure the continuation of good health, as in following the rules of eating God prescribes for us in Genesis. The acts of corrective action, like repentance, confession, and forgiveness bring us back to the path of health and vitality. The key is knowing what is going on in the spiritual world, and what claims Satan has made to your body and your health.
The search is not a witch hunt to blame us or our ancestors for it being our fault we are sick. The real culprit is not us or them. The real understanding comes when we understand the principles of spiritual warfare, that the “curse without a cause does not come”, (Pr. 26:2). We have an Enemy who has set us up, tricked us into believing his lie (temptation, whether through thought or feeling), and taken it upon himself to punish us for our disobedience. He cites our disobedience as justification for him to bring upon us the consequences of that disobedience which can include the curse of sickness.
We must remember that many of the lies we believe come from a twisted understanding of God who Satan has taught us to believe is angry and hard to please. That God is mad at us most of the time and we have to be good to get Him to like us. This may have been the way many of us were raised and programmed to believe about our earthly parents, but programming children to believe lies set up in childhood is one of the devil’s specialties.
Obedience to God is insurance and assurance against the day of calamity – the day of the devil’s accusation against us. Obedience to God is not at all grievous to us as we were already built by God to love His law and His law is love. The key to good health is the same as the key to recovering our health – KNOWING WE ARE LOVED.
The specifics of health and healing are laid out in a more detailed way in the book “A Case for Healing.“
