Divine Healing Made Simple: Simplifying the supernatural to make healing & miracles a part of your everyday life (The Kingdom of God Made Simple Book 1) (27 page)

I’ve seen patterns in this group as well. It seems like many of these people have gone through times of emotional trauma without being completely healed of the painful memories from their past. In addition to the memories, there are a host of feelings they struggle with like helplessness, worthlessness, rejection, fear, bitterness, mistrust and loneliness. Some of them clearly appear to suffer from some demonic oppression. I believe at least one contributing factor to the failure of their physical healing is their failed emotional and spiritual healing.

What they desire most is physical healing from the symptoms of disease. What they seem to want least is to re-live the events of their past and go through the emotions again, or to be involved in what could become a lengthy or dramatic deliverance and inner healing process. Most have found a way to endure their emotional trauma and keep going in spite of their physical sickness. I believe it is God’s ultimate desire for all of us to be healed, set free and walking in the truth. God is interested in our complete healing; body, spirit and soul; in a word;
sozo.

“Sozo” is one of the Greek words found in the New Testament that is translated as “healing”. When we use the term sozo, we’re talking about something that’s more than just physical healing. In fact, sozo contains the idea of physical healing but it is much broader in scope. It means to:

•  Save

•  Keep safe and sound

•  Rescue from danger or destruction

•  Rescue from injury or peril

•  Save from suffering or disease

•  Make well

•  Heal

•  Restore to health.

If someone is healed of an illness affecting the physical body, we refer to it as physical healing. If they receive deliverance from an evil spirit, it’s a spiritual healing. If they’re healed of post-traumatic stress disorder, it’s an emotional healing. If they were to be healed of all three, we’re describing something referred to as being made “whole,” which is the idea behind the word “sozo.”

Jon Sellers and other friends have taught me the importance of wholeness and the fact that God is just as concerned about our spiritual and mental health as our physical health, even if we are not. Let me rephrase that; God cares more about our emotional healing than we do. The same is true for spiritual healing. The problem is that some of us care too much about the physical healing we want and not enough about the spiritual and emotional healing we need. The fact is that our physical condition may require emotional and spiritual healing to be completed first. Why do I believe this?

There are two reasons. The first is that some physical diseases have demonic (spiritual) origins. As we’ve seen with the woman who was bent over for 18 years and the boy with seizures who was deaf and mute. Both had physical symptoms that required deliverance from a spirit before they could be healed. Many people who only desire to be physically healed, are actually in need of deliverance (spiritual healing) first. And because this has not occurred, they remain unhealed and tormented by the enemy.

The other reason is just a hunch. God wants everyone to be healed in every way. Strange as it may sound, some people only want to be healed of a disease or condition that causes physical pain. They have no great desire to be healed of painful emotions or memories. They’re willing to put up with feelings of fear, rejection and other emotional wounds because they see them as just another part of life. But God wants us to be free of those things as well.

Perhaps God knows that if we were to be healed of our physical sickness, we might never seek healing of the unforgiveness that poisons our soul or the spirit of fear that attacks us at night. The wisdom of God may allow our physical healing to manifest only after the spiritual and emotional problems are dealt with as a way to assure that in the end, we are completely healed. What good is a healed body connected to a bitter, unforgiving heart? What benefit is a sound tummy to someone plagued by a spirit of fear that dominates their every thought?

I think what these people need most is not more prayer over their physical symptoms, but the completion of their emotional and spiritual healing which, if it were to happen, would result in their physical healing being completed. Many of us need some degree of deliverance and others need inner healing to take place before any long-term physical healing will happen.

The pain of dealing with the past may prevent us from facing those problems and resolving them. The healing that God desires for us may require us to do things we’d rather not, like facing bitterness, rejection, unforgiveness, fear, abandonment, shame, etc. Submitting ourselves to God and surrendering our right to allow these things to remain is a process. As long as we allow them to remain, they’ll hold us captive and the spirits of infirmity will have a hold on us that can’t be broken, no matter how many people pray for us to be healed.

One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. I’m all for persistence in prayer. I’m convinced that some things just take time. But those cases are the ones where gradual progress is being made. If we pray and pray and absolutely no progress is made or the person seems to be getting worse, and there are obvious signs that emotional healing or deliverance are needed, it’s foolish to continue on the same course. In such cases we must consider using other tools. This might require us to discover tools we haven’t heard of, or perhaps use tools that we had previously rejected or dismissed.

If we are to walk as Jesus walked and do the things He did, we might consider the novel, peculiar and sometimes bizarre methods He used. I don’t think Jesus avoided predictable formulas just to confound us. I believe He continually asked His Father for the best solution to the problem, not assuming it would be the same as the previous one. His openness to the leading of the Father was the thing that gave Him such a consistent life of victory. If it worked for Him, it should work for us.

W
HEN
I
REFER TO FASTING
in this chapter, I’m speaking of abstaining from eating certain foods or drinking certain beverages for a period of time for spiritual reasons. Although some people abstain from things like watching television and refer to it as fasting, that is not what I would consider fasting for the purpose of this discussion.

Looking at what the Bible says about fasting, it’s apparent that it has been done in different ways in the past. Some people seemed to have fasted only once or twice over a long period of time – typically forty days. Moses, Elijah and Jesus fasted this way (see Ex. 34:28, 1 Kgs. 19:8 and Lk. 4:1-2). Daniel fasted for 21 days before receiving a vision of future events from the angel Michael (see Dan. 10:3). But not everyone mentioned in scripture followed these examples. Some made a habit to fast frequently, for shorter periods of time. The apostle Paul, the disciples of John the Baptist, Cornelius and Anna, the woman who served at the temple all fasted often and for short periods of time (see Mt. 9:14, 2 Cor. 11:27, Acts 10:30 and Lk. 2:37).

Many instances of fasting are recorded in the Old Testament. They generally had to do with the death of a beloved person, times of prayer and intercession for approaching military conflicts and for divine guidance in personal and public affairs. Fewer are recorded in the New Testament, but fasting was done when decisions were made concerning the appointing of elders (see Acts 14:23) and when the disciples were instructed by the Holy Spirit to send Paul and Barnabas on their missionary journey (see Acts 13:2).

When someone asks me if they should fast, I usually say, “It depends.” Whether or not a person should fast depends on what they want to accomplish. Since most of the people who ask are merely interested in healing a few people my answer is often, “no.” It isn’t necessary to fast before you can heal the sick. Jesus gave His disciples authority over all the power of the enemy and this authority encompasses healing. It is not dependent on fasting. Fasting is not
required
before you can see the sick healed.

Because Jesus told the disciples that the demon in the epileptic boy would not come out except through prayer and fasting (see Mt. 17:21), some have taught that it is necessary to spend time praying and fasting before you can heal the sick or cast out demons. While fasting may be helpful to accomplish certain things related to healing, I don’t believe it’s absolutely necessary. The disciples were able to heal many people in spite of the fact that they apparently had not done much fasting.

For the believer interested in healing, one advantage of fasting is that it helps put to death the flesh. The
flesh
is a biblical term for our bodily desires. Our spirit and our flesh are constantly at war with each other (see Gal. 5:17). When we’re hungry, we eat, which feeds our body and keeps our flesh happy and more or less in control of things. When we fast, the goal is to decrease the dominion our bodily desires have over the power of our spirit man. When we fast, our spirit man becomes stronger and more dominant. A stronger spirit is more aware of God’s presence and that creates greater faith and confidence in what He wants to accomplish.

Fasting has developed a bad reputation in some circles. Many people who operate successfully in healing are strongly opposed to fasting. Others believe it’s essential to spend time fasting before the sick can be healed. Beliefs about fasting have been taken to extremes in both directions. Personally, I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. The biblical narrative on fasting isn’t crystal clear, which may account for the disagreement people have. You could support almost any view on fasting using the right verses of Scripture.

Some teach that fasting was part of the old covenant and as such, it has no application today, because we live under a new covenant. Their objection is that fasting, because it is done as a ritual in order to keep the law, can become a form of legalism. In this assertion, they are correct. If we believe that fasting or any of our acts will impress God, we are mistaken (see Rom. 3:28). Keeping rules and performing rituals will never make us righteous in God’s eyes. Fasting that is done to maintain or earn a righteous standing with God is useless. But this isn’t the only reason for fasting and God is always interested in the motives behind our actions.

Fasting may be seen not as an attempt to keep the law, but as a spiritual principle used to accomplish certain things. There are principles taught in the Scriptures that are eternal spiritual principles which bear fruit to those who desire their benefits, and I believe fasting is one of them. Moses, Elijah and Jesus all spent long periods of time fasting. They heard God’s voice more clearly than anyone of their day and collectively, they worked countless miracles. Jesus performed no miracles until after He spent 40 days fasting in the wilderness (see Mt. 4:2).

The western world seems to be wedded to a lifestyle of eating. How do we deal with the problem of eating meals at work? Some of us eat at the nearest café, some carry containers of food to work and many of us forage on whatever we can find in break rooms. I’m as guilty as anyone. The hospitals put out free chips, sandwiches and cookies in their EMS rooms. Some provide free meals in their cafeterias. Our skylines are littered with fast food restaurants screaming for our attention. For some, eating is no longer a means to provide fuel for the body. It’s become an obsession, a ritual, and an expensive lifestyle.

We need an awareness of our lifestyle if we ever hope to make changes to it. The apostle Paul said we shouldn’t be conformed to the world’s ways, but we should be transformed by the renewing of our minds (see Rom. 12:2). If we are to grow and develop a lifestyle of healing, we must consider our present way of living and admit two things: few of us actually hear God as clearly as we’d like to, and we don’t see the kind of victory over the enemy that we hope for.

In the Sermon on the Mount, recorded in Matthew chapter 6, Jesus taught His disciples how to pray. Immediately following this, He taught them how to fast:

“When you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”
MT. 6:16-18

Jesus taught His disciples how to fast in this passage, but according to the disciples of John the Baptist, they didn’t make a habit of fasting (see Mt. 9:14). The disciples were able to heal the sick and cast out demons without fasting, that is, until they failed to heal the boy with seizures. When they asked why they failed, Jesus said it was because of unbelief. He then said their unbelief resulted from their failure to spend time in prayer and fasting (see Mt. 17:21). The implication here is that if the disciples had obeyed His teaching and spent time in prayer and fasting, they may have had the faith needed to cast the demon out.

From this, I would conclude that fasting is neither essential, nor useless. Fasting could be seen as optional for the believer interested in healing. It wasn’t required for the disciples to heal the sick and cast out most of the demons they encountered. Likewise, most of the healing and deliverance we’ll do can be done without fasting. But there are certain adversaries that require greater faith to conquer. That level of faith may come only through prayer and fasting. If healing a few people once in a while is your goal, it probably isn’t necessary to fast. But if you plan to do warfare against demons on a regular basis, it may afford you an advantage.

Jesus didn’t create a long list of rules about fasting. He kept it simple; when you fast, don’t make a public show of it and don’t be a hypocrite. Fasting isn’t about looking spiritual or impressing anyone. It’s between you and the Father. He left the specifics up to them.