Jesus, Healing, and Spiritual Realities

Recently during my devotion time I sensed Holy Spirit highlighting particular scriptures that connected with my ponderings this week.  I realized He was guiding me through what Jesus did and how, when it came to healing various physical and neurobiological ailments and the phenomena of what the Bible calls “demon possession", or "oppression".  I’ve had opportunity to explore all these topics before and have witnessed people get healed, but also get delivered from possession.

Yes, demons exist.  No, they are not mythical.  I’ve seen their effects, and exits from people, with my own eyes:  while praying for someone’s healing (a bowel issue), while praying for a move and job transition for an individual (a spirit of witchcraft began to manifest and grip their spine), while praying for a youth pastor (a spirit of grief).  How do I know they were spirits?  They exit with some noise, through the persons mouth.  They try to fight it, they try to exit with as much drama as they are allowed.  Sounds such as belching, retching, coughing uncontrollably, seething and screaming.  If you know your authority in Christ, then you can order them to exit without drama and they have to obey Christ’s authority through you.  When it’s over, the person feels the freedom, because they were heavily oppressed before.

So back to what Holy Spirit showed me.  I was pondering what one pastor wrote about neuro-biological disorders (NBD) (an article excerpt on the web) and thought, how brilliant, this seems simple, comforting and nice (separating demon possession from NBD's in particular).  I was actually going to buy his theory, in part.  But later, Holy Spirit debunked the man’s theories and interpretation of scripture, when He illuminated key scriptures about demon-possession, it’s link to healing and the fact that it is actually not rare and it does not occur with only older people who’ve committed terrible or habitual sins or are involved in the occult.  In fact, a number of the most potent examples in scripture involve children.  Other examples show healing of the mind, healing of speech, and healing of what appear to be symptoms of catatonic schizophrenia and a crippled body - after being delivered from a demon of “infirmity”, a “mute” demon, and a “deaf & mute” demon.  When a demon was not involved, Jesus simply laid His hands on them or stuck his fingers in their ears and said “be opened”.  Some ailments are caused by demons, some are not.

Some will come out if you just invoke the name of Jesus, others will say, “Who are you?”, and won’t budge unless you have a lifestyle that is marked by prayerful relationship with God the Father and lead a life consecrated (obedient, set apart) to God.  Even Jesus said He could do nothing apart from the Father and He did only what He saw the Father doing.  This means He had a very close and active/real relationship with God, where He could see and hear what God the Father was telling Him and then move in response.  This provided Jesus with Heaven’s power and the confidence to use it.

The other thing I found, that impacted me, was that God the Father gave Jesus authority on earth because He is the Son of Man (John 5:26-27).  Jesus was the Son of God and the Son of Man.  If He was not the Son of Man, He would not have authority on Earth.  Because God gave the Earth to Man.  Satan usurped it through deception and getting Man’s agreement - this is how satan gains authority on Earth.  God doesn’t usurp.  He offers partnership with Heaven.  He’s got the power of life, we have the authority on Earth.  Jesus had both, and then through His work on the cross and the gift of Holy Spirit, that is made available to all who believe, we are to release it in the Earth, with our authority, to destroy satan’s work.  We are mandated to imitate Christ and do even greater works than He did.

Nothing Jesus did should be impossible for us.  Our problem is lifestyle, lack of faith and apathy, and we give up when we don’t see immediate results (and build false theology around it), as though obeying our mandate was an option based on our success rate, and lastly, we are not willing to risk looking like idiots (Jesus was accused of being out of his mind, by his family, and demon possessed, by the religious).  Thankfully, Holy Spirit is available to heal those heart issues in us, if we recognize them in ourselves, confess and repent of them, and ask Him to change us.  It would be His joyful pleasure to do so.

Miracles

I thank the Lord for miracles, because when we shake our heads and exclaim, "what was I thinking?!", the Lord reminds us that we were walking by faith, not by sight, and by His Spirit, not by our might or power.  The miracles that mark the way are like the footprints of God when we look back on the path we embarked on.  They are permanent markers, signposts that defy any doubt formed by human logic about the path we are on, though it may seem foolish at times, with no current evidence of wisdom.  The miracles are there, lighting the path we had taken, while the path ahead is only a vision, a sensing, a hope and faith.  Thank you Lord, for confirming your presence, for granting the miracles, for giving us everything we need.  I love you.

Desires That Bring Death vs. Death That Brings Life

I heard an excellent sermon a few weeks ago (well, I've heard many recently too, but you know what I mean). It was on a subject I have written about before, lived out and fully embraced, but too often, or repeatedly, fail at. It is the subject of giving everything over to God. Hopes. Dreams. Purpose. Giftedness. Happiness. Everything. Because unless we do, we are not yet truly embracing the Giver of all those things, but the things themselves.

How to do this without killing desire? Well, we call it sanctified desire. But even that is not good enough, as I have discovered. Sanctified desire is desire that has passed through the refining fires of surrender to God's will, God's purpose, God's dreams for us, those dreams and hopes and desires within us that are good and God-given. How can something placed in us by God fall short of His glory? How can something designed by God still bring us to destruction?

I know that I have not been immune to inadvertently placing my hopes, dreams, and purpose in between God and I. I know how it all feels. It can be very raw. However, thankfully, pouring my brokenness at His feet has put me in a position to recieve His grace in time of need. I suppose what I have percieved to be one of my weaknesses has turned into my strength. Because when I'm honest with Him about my weakness, He shows Himself strong. And it happens in the context of relationship, relationship that keeps having the roadblocks I dump into it removed (by Him) when I lament what they do to me. Sounds really bent, but we all do the dumping, few of us do the lamenting. I think it's because we don't percieve that our pain is from us dumping things between us and God. We think it's caused by our circumstances that are out of our control and in God's control and so we have a big question mark about God's goodness (though we Christians may rarely admit it). Which reminds me of a tree God planted in the beautiful garden He made for us in the beginning, the tree we were warned not to touch because it would bring death. The first couple doubted God's goodness when they were denied something that looked good to them, something, in fact, that God had made. They were led down a garden path of thinking that they should have this good-looking, God-made fruit that would give them something that seemed beneficial in their eyes. We look back and think they should have trusted God, they should not have listened to the deciever. But we fail at the same thing on a constant basis. I have learned my lesson on this topic over and over and over again. And it's not because I'm un-intelligent (did an IQ test for fun once). I think it's because life is a series of tests, and a battlefield. Being tested in battle. The battle for worship.

Satan knows that what we worship actually owns us. He knows most of us are too smart to overtly worship him, so he provides substitutes, whatever it takes, to keep us from actually worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, Son of God, the only way to the Father. Because then we would become like Him and that is life to us and death to satan's power. When Jesus said that “you will know them (true believers/false believers/immature believers/unbelievers) by their fruit” He was not kidding. He was talking about what forms in us and in our lives as a result of what we worship. And we all worship. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness, Faithfulness and Self Control. As we grow in our relationship with God, our worship being purified, our inner self being healed as we spend more time with Jesus, we will exhibit this fruit of the Holy Spirit in increasing measure (it doesn't happen overnight).

There is a danger zone, however, one where the spiritual battle gets fierce. As we become more like Jesus, satan becomes agitated and afraid. As we begin to understand how the keys to God's Kingdom, the Kingdom of Light, work, satan sends an all out assault to try to stop and reverse this transformation and promotion to new levels of spiritual authority. Satan knows who has authority over him and who doesn't, who can begin to take back what he took from humanity and who can't. This may all sound like science fiction, especially if you're from North America or Europe, but that's because we think science has the answers, but the rest of the world knows better, hopefully N.A. and EU will start catching up. I know the thought of occult activity is unpleasant, but their power has a source, his name is satan, he has an army of spirit beings that do his bidding to keep humanity in bondage and ignorance. God also has an army. Evil spirits are cast out of people in the name and authority of Jesus Christ and they are healed of whatever bondage or illness that spirit was enforcing in them (not all illness is caused by evil spirits necessarily, but is a result of a sick and dying planet), I've witnessed it in Canada and it happens all over the world too. In Africa the Christians are raising people from the dead. In China imprisoned Christians with broken feet “somehow” walk out of locked prisons and their feet are healed. But secular media won't publish that, because everything in this world is controlled by spiritual powers and so, to keep things in doubt, satan controls what information gets out to the populace and discredits, where possible, the media that would print the acts of God. Powerless churches full of hoopla that cater to the thirst for entertainment and comfort, but fail to teach personal relationship with Jesus, obedience to His voice, and repentance from sin, and loving your neighbour as yourself, don't help either.

True Christianity is wonderful and it is also very hard. Because dying to yourself, to allow His life to be formed in you, is painful at times. The wonderful part can only begin to be described. God is love. He loves us, unconditionally. He always loved us, even before we know Him. He cares about the details of our lives, about our hearts. He knows what brings death to us and in order to save us from that, He goes after the virus in our souls. The various idols that we worship. He goes after them, one, by one, by one. He challenges the idol, he exposes it's ugliness and the level of it's grasp on us, often by thwarting it. The common response is grief or anger as we feel the sting. Which, ironically, we blame on God, but if we had God in His proper place in our lives (on the throne of our heart), we would have peace and joy, not angst and grief. This is how God exposes the idols that have power over us.

This is how He heals us from mental strongholds too. Strongholds are ways of thinking that hold us in a death grip of destructive patterns that gained access through emotional wounding and sin, these can even be passed on through family lines to consequent generations. He removes all the shoddy dressings we've applied, He challenges the stronghold, exposes it's true identity, so that we can confess it for what it is, repent of it, and be healed. He does the healing. It's like magic. I am not kidding. I can testify to it in my own life. There is one prayer God always says yes to, and it is this: “Lord, remove any strongholds in me and heal my wounds.”*** Then brace yourself, but don't worry it will turn out well, and it will be worth it. I've survived and went on to thrive after several such encounters. God is good. Despite what you feel at the moment.

Love,

M

*** Before you pray this prayer, if you haven't yet invited Jesus into your heart/life, as your personal Saviour and Lord, you need to do so first. If you're not sure how, you can use the following as a guide:

“Lord Jesus I need you to cleanse me from my sins, I choose to believe you are the Son of God, as the Bible says, who came to die as an atoning sacrifice for all sin, so that I can be reconciled to Father God. I now surrender myself, and my life to you, come take your place in me as my Lord and Saviour. Thank you God for loving me so much that you sent your Son for me, I recieve your gift of life and love. Thank you for this fresh start in life. I welcome you Holy Spirit, to be my counsellor and comforter, as promised by Jesus. Amen.”

If you've just prayed this prayer to recieve salvation, welcome to the family! To learn more about your new life in Christ and to help keep you strong, ask Holy Spirit to guide you to the church that is right for you at this time, make contact with someone in leadership there and let them know of your new found faith, they will love on you and help you grow as you get to know Jesus for yourself. God bless you!