“How are things in your close relationships?” Bill asked me. I told him about some strain with one particular family member. This was someone for whom I had great respect who had rejected me when I became a Christian. Bill talked to me about forgiveness and said I needed to release that person from the debt I perceived he owed me because of his rejection of me.
He went on to ask me, “How is your relationship with Jesus? Are you as close to Him and as in love with Him as when you first received salvation?” I let him know about the business pressures and demands for my time that had been crowding my devotional time with the Lord. He also asked me about my thought life and encouraged me to establish some spiritual disciplines in my life. Then he led me in prayer over these areas and we took communion together. After all of this, Bill prayed for my healing. I really didn’t get it at the time, but later I understood how important it was to my healing that Bill asked preliminary questions and led me to deal with issues in my life before he prayed for me.
When I received the news from the surgeon that I had cancer, the Lord led me to go to three different men to pray for me. Each one was a spiritual leader in my life. Bill was one of those men.
He was the first one I went to see. My expectation was that each would pray a simple prayer of faith over me and something supernatural would happen. Something supernatural happened all right, but much of it was connected with how these men helped me address spiritual issues in my heart. Prior to my visit with each of them, I had not seen how essential righteousness, faith, my love walk, my relationships, and my priorities were to receiving from God. What I needed was healing from cancer. These men helped me to see that what I needed most was to remove all barriers in my heart that had the potential to block the healing God had provided for me. They taught me some things I did not realize. I found out that one of the keys to my health was developing a prosperous soul: “Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers” (3 John 2). They also taught me I needed to guard my heart so that the issues of life, which include healing, would flow unhindered in my life. “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23).
The bottom line is that, with the help of the Holy Spirit and these three men, some major obstructions were removed from my heart and I was free to receive from God. When I went in for further tests at the hospital, the doctors could find no sign of cancer. God’s healing power had been released to flow from my spirit to my physical body and it had eradicated all traces of that dreaded disease
In both letters to the church at Corinth, the apostle Paul charges them to “Examine yourselves” (see 1 Corinthians 11:28 and 2 Corinthians 13:5). What is that all about? What was his motive for repeating this command? He knew unforgiveness, bitterness, pride, offense, anger, hatred, or tolerated and unconfessed sin would hinder the flow of spiritual life in their lives. These things actually can contaminate the soul and act as a dam that shuts off the flow of life from the spirit man to the natural realm, including the physical body.
The truth is each of us has blind spots and we need the help of the Holy Spirit and others in order to see them.
Do you have anyone in your life you can trust to be accountable to and vulnerable with regarding matters of your heart? I needed those three men several years ago to assist me in examining my heart. In addition to my wife, I have a small group of men to whom I have voluntarily made myself accountable. I have given them the right to speak into my life if they see anything—whether it is my words, my attitude, or my behavior—that is questionable, out of order, or lacks Christlikeness. This small, trusted group of people is a great resource of wisdom and help to me in keeping my heart and attitude in the right place. I want to encourage you to pray and find someone you can be accountable to as well. This accountability is essential in keeping your heart free from things the enemy will use to block the flow of God’s life and healing to you.
We also need the Holy Spirit’s help in examining our heart to keep it free from spiritual obstructions and contamination. One of my favorite passages of Scripture describes this process. Look at what 1 Corinthians 4:4-5 says:
For I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; but He who judges me is the Lord. Therefore, judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God.
Ask the Lord to show you your heart the way He sees it to bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of your heart. Most of us are afraid of this process because we don’t want the junk, we have tolerated in our hearts to be revealed. The truth is there is nothing to be afraid of because there is nothing in your heart that God doesn’t already know about! Bringing it to the surface and into the light simply allows you to deal with it and get free from it.
This is a good place for me to encourage you to stop reading and to receive communion. Something powerful and supernatural happened in my life years ago when Bill urged me to receive communion with him. I believe strongly that the same thing will happen for you when you receive the Lord’s Table. Let me share with you the three-fold purpose of communion so that you may receive the full benefit of it:
Now, partake of the Lord’s Table with these things in mind. May His cleansing, delivering, and healing power manifest in your life—spirit, soul, and body!
There is one final point I want to make. When ministering healing to others, never assume the condition of an individual’s heart. Some people are experiencing chronic sickness in their lives because of an unresolved spiritual problem that is rooted in their heart. However, that doesn’t mean personal sin is always the cause of an individual’s sickness. The point is, don’t be presumptuous about these things. If you have opportunity, before you pray for healing, take time to check out the individual’s spiritual condition. Is there any noticeable unforgiveness, bitterness, or offense in their lives?
Once you help people identify and deal with any spiritual root that exists in their heart, they are on the road to physical recovery. Once the axe of God’s Word is laid to the root problem, the bad fruit that it produced such as sickness and disease will eventually dry up, die, and leave their body. A prosperous soul is one who has removed the barriers from the heart that obstruct the life flow from his spirit to the physical realm. May you not only discover this freedom yourself but also be used mightily to set others free.
Adapted from Greg Mohr’s book, Your Healing Door.
Today’s Reading: Proverbs 9, John 4-6 John 5:5-9 (NKJV) 5 Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there; and
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