Today we will continue the series “What healing do you need?”, where through three reflections we will recall biblical stories of physical, emotional and spiritual healing, in which the Lord worked in favor of his children, showing once again his glory and infinite goodness.
In the last text we talked about emotional healing that has a high proximity with today’s subject, spiritual healing. Not all emotional healing is necessarily spiritual, but all spiritual healing is also emotional.
When we talk about deliverance we need to remember that this is a wide-ranging subject. But today we will focus on the freedom that Jesus talked about the most, that of being free to live God’s will for our lives. When we understand this, we will realize that what most imprisons us, especially spiritually, is sin.
The different spiritual cures
Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”. He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Matthew 17:19-21
In this episode, Jesus’ disciples were unable to minister spiritual healing to that boy. When Jesus did what they were unable to do, the question came, “Why could we not cast him out?”, and Jesus’ answer is that they did not know how to diagnose the situation. This was a different caste, a problem they had not yet faced.
It is no good administering headache medicine to someone with heartburn and expecting it to cure. You have to diagnose it correctly, to treat it in the right way. In this case, the disciples could slam words for hours against that demon, but the child would only be freed through prayer and fasting.
This is why it is so important to identify what spiritual healing someone or ourselves needs. Take, for example, depression or anxiety. They can have very different origins. Often, as we mentioned in the previous text, people suffer from anxiety or depression because of physical deficiencies in hormone production, or vitamin absorption. But when we find ourselves with these illnesses, we can find it very difficult to live God’s will for our lives.
However, depression and anxiety, like other illnesses, can have their origin in a spiritual oppression. We often hear from people who, even though they are not inhabited by evil spirits, are influenced by darkness, and this can cause different infirmities and disorders that prevent a person from living God’s will for their life.
In this case, deliverance must be ministered by rebuking, not the illness, but the spirit causing the illness, as Jesus did:
When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the impure spirit. “You deaf and mute spirit,” he said, “I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.”
Mark 9:25
But many prisons that prevent us from living God’s will for our lives, may have another origin that is possibly the most common: the practice of sin. Jesus said: everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. This slavery to sin is one factor that keeps countless people far from what God envisioned for them, and that person maybe you, or someone very close to you.
Healing comes through truth
The Word of God is the truth that sets free, that heals. And in what way can it set us free? Paul explains:
The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:4-5
What are the attributes of God’s Word that are used to bring us deliverance? It is powerful in God. In Romans, we learn that the Gospel is the power of God for salvation, but here we learn that it is also the power of God for deliverance.
The Gospel destroys strongholds, which prevent the renewal of the mind. The Word is powerful to break down the strongholds of fear, insecurity, pride, and many other prisons we have in our minds. It nullifies sophistry, a type of complex, well-crafted lie that keeps people from the truth.
He nullifies all haughtiness, haughty is someone who sees things from the top down, including the Word of God. People who like one verse, because they agree with it, and reject another verse, because they disagree with it, are people who place themselves above the Word. What is the consequence? Sophism and strongholds that will take hold in their minds. But when we decide to put ourselves below the Word, it annuls our haughtiness and delivers us from the lies and strongholds!
It brings every captive thought into the obedience of Christ. Today we live in a world of accelerated thinking. We cannot give ourselves the right to stop. Everything must be fast and instantaneous. If we let ourselves be carried away by the rhythm of the world, of the apps and the social networks, what is the consequence of this? Our thoughts will become disordered.
True habit change, can only happen if it is the result of a change of mind. If you have struggles like those described above, look for someone who can confront and comfort you with the Truth. The church, for sure, is still imperfect, but it is the place where you will find someone who can make a correct diagnosis of your problem and minister deliverance in a proper way.
Finally, remember that the purpose of deliverance is not just to feel good or to lift yourself up. God can heal us and bring relief, but spiritual healing has one goal: that you live God’s will for your life, and He is glorified!
God bless you!
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