“And
some of the scribes said to themselves, ‘This man is blaspheming!’ And Jesus, perceiving their thoughts, said, ‘Why
are you thinking evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are
forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man
has authority on earth to forgive sins’—then He said to the paralyzed man, ‘Get
up, pick up your stretcher and go home.’ And he got up and went home. But when
the crowds saw this, they were awestruck, and they glorified God, who had given
such authority to men.” (Matthew 9:3-8)
What
we think matters. Evil starts in our
heart. It is an agreement with the
enemy about something that it not fully true, will lead us off course or cause us
harm. Sin, in this case is the Greek
word hametria, Strongs #266, and
it is derived from the word for not having a share of, not having a part of, or
forfeiture because not hitting the target.
It is self-empowered rather than God empowered.[1]
Or,
you could say it is self-determined rather than God breathed and a work of
faith. The unction for sin comes from temptation
or one’s own lust. According to James
1:14-15, sin occurs when we are enticed or tempted and carried away by one’s
own lust. We are lured and then dragged
away by our own desire. This happens in one’s heart, as it is out of the heart
that comes lusts and evil desires that result in sin (Matthew 15:19).
We
know that enticement comes from Satan, just as it did with Adam and Eve in the
Garden. The unction is to override the
will and purposes of God with His will and purpose for our own self-determined
will and purpose. We know from the Word
that Satan came to kill, steal, and destroy while Jesus came that we may have
life abundantly. We also know that sin
leads to condemnation and spiritual death as it is acted upon (Romans 5:17-18,
and James 1:15).
While
sin brings death to our spirits as it is acted upon, it does not need to be
fully acted out to be considered sin. Jesus
says in Matthew 5:27-28, “You have heard
that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone
who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his
heart.”
We
also know that sin lived out brings separation from God and the judgement of
God. Matthew 5: 21-22 says, “You have heard that it was said to the
people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject
to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone
who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.”
Sin
can cause sickness, disease and even physical death. There are spiritual laws built into the world
and when we oppose them and come against them, we are hindered by this. Jesus tells the man he healed in John 5:14 to
go and sin no more so that nothing worse happens to him.
However,
we also know that not all sickness and disease is the result of sin. When the people asked who sinned because a
man was born blind, He said that no one sinned, but it happened so that God may
be glorified in him (John 9:3).
Just
as the flow and our agreement in one direction is strong with faith and hopefulness,
the flow in the other direction can be filled with doubt, disbelief, fear,
stress, anger, spite, envy, and other forces that will quench the flow of the
spirit from within. [2]
This
author notes that the breath of God, or His unction, originating with creation and
the spiritual substance which God released that energized all people with life sustaining
force is given as we are born again.
They note that it is this breath within us that influences our daily
decisions, desires and, therefore, their ultimate destiny. [2]
In
this flow of agreeing with some force, whether it be breathed from Satan as a
result of the fall, our sinful nature, or breathed from God by the Spirit, it
has its force when it comes into alignment with our will and inner desires of
the soul. When our will, desires and appetites
are in alignment with God, it is like we have wind in our sails and flow
forward naturally and with ease. And the
same with alignment with the sinful nature and the demonic. Often though, what happens is that we can
get stuck in this middle ground of lack of alignment.
Paul
speaks of this in Romans 7:14- 20, “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am
unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I
want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree
that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is
sin living in me. For I know that good
itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the
desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the
evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want
to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.”
There
are oppositional forces at work in and around us. And we
know that the forces that are sinful in nature are not just human nature but
demonically breathed. Ephesians 6:12
tells us that this wrestling match of internal conflict of God’s life breathed
through us, giving us a spirit and conscious in one direction and this other
nature within us is demonically charged.
Paul says it is against principalities, against powers, and against the
rulers of darkness of this world, and against spiritual wickedness in high
places that we battle.
Sometimes
these forces, like Satan with Jesus in the wilderness, build our inner strength
as they try to oppose the Kingdom flow of the Spirit within us. As we say no to temptations and turn away
from things that would not honor God, we grow stronger and grow in momentum as
well in the Spirit. Our faith increases
and, like Jesus, we are strengthened in the power of His might. Steve Backlund notes that we must have great
trials and temptations to have great testimonies and triumphs.
The
opposite is also true. Where we agree
with the sinful nature that is demonically infused, we open the door for more difficulty
or flow in this direction. If we become
enough in alignment and agreement with these forces, we can become demonically
possessed by them. This flows more and
more as we move further away from alignment with the truth in God.
I
came to the realization around this many years ago just as I was coming to know
the Lord. Before I knew the Lord, I struggled with anger. And as I had fed my anger over the years with
opposing my father to, what I thought was to protect my sister, it became
demonically possessed. I had opened a
doorway that was causing me harm and destruction. I wanted it to stop and had
heard some self-help material that if I let it all out with someone, it would
go away. I tried this. It was terrible and made it worse. What I needed was freedom all together.
1
Corinthians 10:13 promises that even when we are suffering under tremendous temptation
to go in the direction of sin and are even overtaken by it at times, the Lord
will make a way out so that we can escape it and come into alignment.
When I came to know the Lord, I was working on
my anger, reading Bible studies about how to deal with it, about setting healthy
boundaries and about having healthy conversations. The more I studied and came into alignment
with this truth of the Kingdom of God, the easier it became to override this
anger. The sin stopped being able to
overtake me and eventually I was completely delivered of the demonic spirit
that was behind it and set free. When
this happened, I flowed freely in the Kingdom’s direction instead by the power of
the Spirit.
One
question this brings up to me is where are we conflicted and not in alignment
with God?
Fear
and anxiety used to be an area of conflict for me. I would wake up in the middle of the night
with terrible anxiety attacks. I didn’t
desire this in my life and wanted to be calm and restful but all this worry and
these fears just hijacked me and took me in a different direction. It is interesting that there were terrible temptations
to drink or take something to calm my nerves taking me further in the wrong
direction.
But
every time I struggled, I would put on music and then open the Word of
God. As God seemed to break every rule
to speak to me, once I heard His loving voice of assurance, I would come back
into alignment with God’s goodness and be able to go back to sleep. Then one time, I just suddenly came in full
alignment with the goodness of God and His love for me. As I confessed this by singing Your Love
Is Strong, I came into alignment and it stuck. I never struggled again with it! So grateful!
Coming
back to the original verse, what we think, believe, confess and then act upon
has spiritual significance in our lives.
It is important that we agree with the right voices and identify and
root out the wrong ones so that we have freedom in the Spirit. As I have been reading frequently lately,
this also has to do with us flowing in the nature of God and gifts of the
Spirit.
If
we are conflicted on the inside about the truth, it will stop the flow of the
gifts of the Spirit. We need total
alignment and agreement with His will to allow the free flowing of the
Spirit. We need to surrender any
resistance. When we have free access,
we operate under the full covenant and all of its resources with the full power
of the Spirit.
I was reading that someone was conflicted
about if everyone who was baptized with the Holy Spirit would receive the gifts
of tongues. Because of the internal conflict,
whenever he would pray for someone and believe for them to be baptized with the
Spirit as he was, it just wouldn’t happen.
But when he came fully in line with the truth that God had this gift for
everyone, it flowed naturally. I am
sure this is the same with healings.
When we believe God wants to heal some and not all who are sick or
diseased, our conflicted beliefs will limit the flow of the Spirit that joins
with our faith and brings it to fruition.
While
we are trying to be compassionate when people are not being healed, are we
really being biblical? Psalm 103:3 says
that He heals all our diseases.
Psalm 105:37 says that there was not one feeble among them. And Isaiah 53:4-5 says that it is by His
stripes that we were healed.
Notice
this is in the past tense that “we were healed.” It is already done and part of the
covenant. We are not to forget these
benefits that He gives us. Our internal
conflict resulting from a lack of faith will hinder our ability to see His
healing come forth.
With
healing, besides being the result of sin, I have found that It may be a root
cause of something emotionally in their lives that causes the physical ailment. We all know that stress, unaddressed, can
lead to physical ailments and an early death.
Once
when I was ministering, God gave me words for people about emotional root
causes of their sickness or physical ailment.
When I prayed for them about the emotional root cause, it strengthened
their faith and as the root cause dissipated, the ailment went away. But needing physical healing may not be
rooted in any emotional or sin cause at all.
No matter what the cause or lack of cause is, God can heal it.
I
was healed and delivered from more things that most ever experience in their
lives… toxic shame, anger, anxiety, phobias, depression and even some physical
ailments. That is just the start, the
list goes on and on. But why me and not
others? We see any time that someone
asked in the Bible, He was willing. Often,
in the Bible, it had to do with having faith and being willing. We see with Naaman, he almost missed his
healing by refusing to dip in the Jordan 7 times due to pride.
There is an opposing force that is trying to keep
us in doubt, disbelief, stubbornness, refusal or pride so we do not receive the
healing He has for us. With the man who sat at the pool for many
years, he was looking to the wrong source.
Like me looking to this self-help material that told me to express my
anger to get it out, we have to get ourselves in right alignment with the
Word.
We
never saw Jesus say to someone, no sorry, not you. But there were places where He did not heal
others. He passed through and did very few miracles. As He was leaving the earth, Jesus promised
that those who followed Him would do greater miracles. Then Peter healed people in the power of God
by just walking by and Paul’s handkerchief caused people to get healed.
Yet
today, we see people not get healed when we pray and can’t understand it. I guess the greater question is a question
of alignment. Are we aligned with God
and His will? Are we asking for His healing? And, are we also doing everything we can in
the natural? Even if it does not happen,
we are better believing for it and praying for it than doubting.
My
fish became sick this week with a bacterial infection. It didn’t look like he was going to make for
a while. His gills were barely moving
and he was laying flat on the bottom. I
prayed and asked my friends to pray. I
also did what I knew to fight an infection by giving him a salt bath. I thought he was dead for a bit. Then he significantly improved but was swimming
upside down for a while. When he
improved, I just knew in my heart he was going to make it. And suddenly, he was completely better.
For
those who were perishing or had physical ailments because of their sin, sometimes
God just still healed them without any repentance. But also, often the healing seemed to come
if they turn from their sinful ways and repent. When they are no longer sinning and giving
entry way to the enemy to cause them harm, this door becomes closed and they
can get new alignment. We see this all
the time at where I work. They come
into alignment with God and their lives are totally restored.
Coming
back again to alignment, I believe this is where declarations can sometimes
seem rote but help us come into agreement with God. As we use our voice that is empowered by the
Spirit to proclaim the truth over ourselves as well as others, it brings life
and change as it aligns us more with His Kingdom and will.
Lord,
more than anything, we desire to be in alignment with Your Spirit and
will. Show us where we are conflicted
and need to turn in your direction. Identify
and remove obstacles in our lives to being in full alignment. Also, what a beautiful sight when people are
healed or delivered! Thank you for loving
us so well. We want to believe and see
more, help our unbelief!
1.
Strong's
Greek: 266. ἁμαρτία (hamartia) -- a sin, failure (biblehub.com)
2.
Eberle, Harold R. Spiritual Realities: The Breath of God In Us. Volume 2.
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