Keys to Healing - Part 4
Key #10 - Stop being passive about Jesus' gift of healing!
Many times when somebody gives us a gift, we are very excited and thankful, but when Jesus paid a price of near-death abuse (the lashings on His back) just for our healing alone, we are often very passive and "hope" to be healed. We need to change our attitude concerning the things God has provided for us in the covenant, and out of a thankful heart full of faith, we need to boldly take hold of what is rightfully ours because of what Jesus did for us! We need to develop an attitude against the works of the devil in our lives!!
If we are truly believing that we are made worthy, and that such a great purchase was made for us, then we would be overflowing with joy and a passion against the thing (sickness) which rises itself against the finished work of Jesus in our lives! Our lack of passion is a fruit of unbelief on our behalf. Jesus hated our sickness passionately, so much so that He nearly died as payment for our healing!
Let's say that somebody that loved you dearly, went out and spent their life savings to buy you the most beautiful home to live in with your family, but some thief was making every attempt to take that home away from you or keep you from receiving it by burning it to the ground. How would you feel toward that thief? Would you be furious and stand up to that runt? Or would you be passive and watch such a beautiful gift be destroyed and do little about it? Why can we get so worked up over a material gift, but let the gift of the healing of our bodies go to waste, as if Jesus didn't do a single thing for our healing? We need to confront our sickness with an attitude similar to how we would handle a thief or somebody trying to burn that home down! By having a passive attitude about receiving the things which Jesus purchased for us, tells Jesus that we really don't care all that much about what He did!
We need to HATE sickness, bondage, and the things which God hates and that Jesus paid a steep price that we could be freed and healed of! I encourage you to speak to that sickness and tell it, "I am a son/daughter of God, and I am in a healing covenant with the Father because of the work Jesus did for me in the Atonement. Sickness (name it specifically), you are a violation of the rights that I have in Christ Jesus! I curse you, and command you to leave my body in Jesus' name!"
Just as we need to stand up for the freedoms that our forefather's (in America) have died that we might have, we also need to stand up and take boldly the things which Jesus has made atonement for us. To take a passive attitude is to show no appreciation for the great things that were done for us!
Key #11 - Gifts of healing, laying on of hands, and anointing with oil
"Is any sick among you? 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 shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." (James 5:14-15 KJV)
Things like anointing oil and laying on of hands (Mark 16:17-18) helps connect that person in need with the power of the Holy Spirit in the person praying, and allows the healing power of God to flow through them and can trigger a manifestation of a healing. Other points of contacts are used as well, for example, prayer clothes were used by Paul to get people healed who were a good distance away and unable to travel:
"And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them." (Acts 19:11-12 KJV)
The laying on of hands can encourage the transferring of power from us into the person and heal them, just like the woman who felt power flow from Jesus when she touched the hem of His garment (Mark 5:30)! Jesus said that those who believe will have the Holy Ghost flowing out of their innermost being (John 7:38-39), and even Peter's shadow healed people (Acts 5:15)!
"And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." (Mark 16:17-18 KJV)
Key #12 - Why some lose their healing and how to keep yours
Something that has plagued many in the healing ministry is that some people who receive a healing, can lose their healing within a few weeks. They call it losing a healing, and it's usually blamed on the person's faith not holding up. This made no sense to me, because as a good Father, it makes no sense for Him to give a person back their sickness if their faith should slip. Then one day the Holy Spirit gave me a revelation on what is really going on. At first the person may be healed of a purely physical condition, or maybe a spirit causing an infirmity, but when it comes back, it's always demonic. It's a spirit that came to replicate the pain or infliction, but when we confront it in Jesus' name, it goes away quickly. I like to tell people to use their authority in Christ and tell that pain, spirit behind the infliction, or whatever, to go in Jesus' name. We have that authority you know!
Maintaining a holy lifestyle is the best way to keep from inviting spirits in which carry infirmities. When Jesus told the woman to go and sin no more lest a worse thing come upon her, was due to her infirmity being caused by a spirit which entered in through her sin or sinful lifestyle. Going back to a sinful lifestyle which got you the demons in the first place, is a great way to wind up with 7 worse spirits than you had before:
"When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first." (Luke 11:24-26 KJV)
I don't like to use this scripture often because it can create fear in some people of even going through deliverance in the first place. For the sincere believer who is living for Jesus and stumbles and falls, I don't see them getting 7 worse spirits. Sometimes they slip up and we just have to go through some deliverance a second time, but it's usually not that big of a deal. It's when a person turns back to a sinful lifestyle or dive deep into sin again, is where they get jacked up with several times as many demons as they had before.
Some closing thoughts
God not only wants us healed, Jesus has paid the price for our healing, and included it in His atoning work. That makes all the difference when it comes to God's will and how we minister healing. Many times, physical infirmities are brought on by unclean spirits carrying infirmities, and in such cases we need to dig into the emotional and spiritual root of such cases. If it's there because of unforgiveness, then we need to get that person to forgive and then take them through emotional healing to clean up the emotional wound. Once the emotional wound has been healed, we need to take authority over the sickness and the spirits which brought in the infirmity, and drive it out in Jesus' name.
It takes real faith to believe that we are totally forgiven of all our sins, and worthy to receive complete healing of our bodies because of the atonement of Christ which cost Jesus dearly. We need to change how we see God. We can't keep seeing Him through the eyes of religion, where God puts sickness on His people to teach them things. We need to start believing the Word of God strait up. Jesus made it very clear who came to kill, steal and destroy, versus who came that we might have life and have it more abundantly (see John 10:10). If God's will for His people in the Old Testament was that they all be healed, how much more would it be His will under the New Covenant, where healing is actually a part of the atonement?
"He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes." (Psalms 105:37 KJV)
