Removing the Roadblocks to Healing Part 2
Removing the Roadblocks to Healing and Health
4. Holding on to Negative Emotions
Please notice I said HOLDING ON to negative emotions. Negative emotions happen as a reaction to situations and you cannot necessarily stop your feelings nor should you. But just like the energy of sickness, you must let them pass. You can choose to experience the feeling and let go of it. If you continue to talk about it, think about it and exercise judgement against yourself and others, it will set up like concrete. In other words, you will turn that negative energy into a physical reality in your body.
There is no question that your emotions affect your health. We all know this even on a subconscious level because you hear it in our speech. Humans say things like, “I worried myself sick.” “It scared him to death.” “When I heard it, it just made me sick to my stomach.” “She upset me so bad that I got a migraine headache.”
Anger, hurt, fear, jealousy, rage, resentment. These are just some of the emotions that we all experience at some time in our lives and these have a detrimental effect not only on our mental health but our physical health as well if we are unwilling to commit them to the Lord and let them go.
Are you living in physical pain? Have you had a painful experience that you haven’t been able to let go of or resolve? Is something paining you in your relationships? Your work? When I receive a letter from a partner asking me why they can’t get healed of terrible pain, I ask them if they have also experienced a terrible emotional pain of some type. There seems to be a correlation between emotional and physical pain.
Isaiah 53:4 (CJB) declares: “In fact, it was our diseases he bore, our pains from which he suffered; ...”
All of the emotional pain you have ever suffered, every traumatic experience, Jesus suffered and bore for you. There is no need for you to continue in emotional and physical pain, however the emotional pain must be acknowledged and released to Him.
Jeremiah 30:17 captures the essence of the love of God and His desire to restore:
For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord;
The Word of God clearly shows the relationship between our emotions and our health and encourages us to discipline and train ourselves to gain control over anger, envy, and resentment:
He who is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who is hasty of spirit exposes and exalts his folly.
A calm and undisturbed mind and heart are the life and health of the body, but envy, jealousy, and wrath are like rottenness of the bones.
Proverbs 14:29-30 Amplified
5. Refusing to Forgive
Someone once said, “Rather than asking ‘What is wrong with you?’, it is more accurate to ask ‘Who is wrong with you?’” Getting crosswise with someone has a most unfavorable effect on health.
There is a difference in feeling unforgiving and refusing to forgive. How many times have you heard someone say, “That is unforgivable,” or “I will never forgive him for that,” or “I could never forgive that.”? Your words become a snare when you say these sort of things. Jesus would never ask us to do something we are incapable of.
Truly I tell you, whoever says to this mountain, Be lifted up and thrown into the sea! and does not doubt at all in his heart but believes that what he says will take place, it will be done for him.
For this reason I am telling you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe (trust and be confident) that it is granted to you, and you will [get it].
And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him and let it drop (leave it, let it go), in order that your Father Who is in heaven may also forgive you your [own] failings and shortcomings and let them drop.
Mark 11:23-25 Amplified
Here Jesus tells us some important information:
- If you believe what you say, it will happen.
- When you pray, have faith for what you are asking for, and it will happen.
- While you are praying, forgive and let it drop.
So if we believe what Jesus said, and we declare “I can’t forgive,” then you will have what you say and you will not be able to forgive. If you cannot forgive, then you might as well stop praying because that is part of this package. Now before you give up and say you just can’t do it, let’s take that same package and use it to do what Jesus says. Are you willing?
- Say out loud, “I can and I will forgive in Jesus’ name.”
- Pray and ask God to give you a willing and forgiving heart and have faith it is done.
- While you are praying, say, “Lord I forgive _______by faith in the name of Jesus.”
You may not feel like doing it and you may not feel instant forgiveness, but we are not moved by what we hear, feel, or see; we are moved by the Word of God! Use your faith to forgive. Forgive on faith, not on feeling! Faith in God’s Word works for forgiveness as well as finances, healing, and salvation.
6. Feeding the Spirit of Infirmity
In order to survive, an idea must have attention and be fed. It may sound strange to put it this way, but the idea of being sick or unwell can dissipate and starve if you don’t feed it with your thinking, meditating and talking. If you feed the idea of wellness with your thoughts, activities and speech, health will grow and increase.
When Jesus released the woman with the spirit of infirmity, she had been bound 18 years and no doubt most of her waking moments were of how bad she was and what she couldn’t do and how she hurt. No hope. Everyone who saw her agreed with this assessment and contributed their pity, feeding the idea of her bondage.
I believe at the moment Jesus spoke and said “Woman, thou are loosed from thine infirmity!” she was released instantly from the idea in her mind that she was permanently bowed over. She was released from that image and identity. How she saw herself changed, and hope and faith flooded her heart and mind.
And there was a woman there who for eighteen years had had an infirmity caused by a spirit (a demon of sickness). She was bent completely forward and utterly unable to straighten herself up or to look upward.
And when Jesus saw her, He called [her to Him] and said to her, Woman, you are released from your infirmity!
Then He laid [His] hands on her, and instantly she was made straight, and she recognized and thanked and praised God.
Luke 13:11-13 Amplified
This says that the sickness was caused by a spirit, but Jesus said, “You are released from your infirmity.” So was it a spirit or was it an infirmity that belonged to her? I believe that a spirit attached itself to her body and she accepted it as her own. Perhaps her own mother had such a problem and she fed the idea that she would probably inherit it. Demons will often follow family members until someone stops them with the mighty name of Jesus. Or, she might have been at a low spot, feeling defeated, angry and unforgiving and a spirit took advantage of her weakened condition. Then, she could see herself no other way. We are not given the information and what really matters is there is deliverance from infirmity of every kind.
Are you feeding a spirit of sickness? Do you watch television with all the bombardment of commercials suggesting drugs for every sickness and disease? Do you listen when they describe the symptoms, comparing them with your own? Do you watch medical shows, real or fiction, and become fascinated with analyzing your own health? Is searching the internet for a diagnosis of your symptoms becoming an obsession?
If yes, you are feeding a spirit of infirmity.
Is it OK if you get well without ever having a “diagnosis” or discovering what is wrong with you?
Have you ever searched the internet to try to determine why you feel so good? Have you ever made an appointment with your doctor to find out why you have so much energy?
If you focus on the good things with your health, your health is fed and becomes greater. When you do the things that help your health, even marginally, you are feeding a spirit of wellness.
Examine the amount of time you spend every day listening to, reading, or meditating on life, health, beauty and God’s Word. Then compare it to the amount of time you are subjected to suggestions of bad health, death, destruction, and ugliness in the world. In order for health to grow strong, you must feed it with good things including gratitude and thankfulness. If you weigh these things on a scale, would you find that you “are feeding infirmity and starving health?” or “are you feeding health and starving infirmity?”
Changing the image of sickness and weakness to an image of health and strength requires daily feeding of life-giving substance and the starving of thoughts and images of sickness and death.
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Ephesians 6:10
Say out loud:
I AM STRONG IN THE LORDS AND MY BODY IS STRONG!
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Romans 8:11
Declare:
THE SAME SPIRIT THAT RAISED CHRIST FROM THE DEAD DWELLS IN ME AND NOW QUICKENS AND MAKES ALIVE EVERY CELL OF MY BODY!
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