We should not embrace sickness, nor worry
These last few weeks at church we've been learning about healing, and how in order to be healed through faith we must never embrace sickness, for it is very dangerous.
This means instead of saying "my headaches" we should say "the headaches".
We also should not pray to God asking him to cure the sickness. We can do that, but it's not what will get us results. What will get us results is having authority for the healing in the name of Jesus. Just like the apostles, we too can cast out sickness from ourselves, but we should remember the healing happens only in the name of Jesus (i.e. not by our own name). It is the Holy Spirit that provides this healing. Jesus did not ask God to heal people, nor did the apostles. We need to use that same delegated power. The power is from God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit; we simply use that power from them to provide the healing.
But it is much harder for healing to occur when the person has claimed (i.e. embraced) the sickness. If someone says "my heart disease", it is much harder for healing to happen than if that person has rejected or distanced themselves from the sickness (e.g. "the heart disease").
I also realized that by the same token that embracing worry or stress is exactly as counterproductive as embracing healing. If we say "my stress", "my problems", "my worries", then we are embracing the very thing we seek to be delivered from. Instead, we should say "the stress", and so on. Also, praying to God to take the stress away isn't helpful either. I have found that in almost all situations, stress arises from conflict of goals and/or conflict of responsibilities. Instead, I pray to God not about the stress (which is the end effect of this), but about cause: the underlying conflict I'm experiencing through two clashing goals. I ask for clarity and guidance. This is helping a lot. I still fall down a lot, and I think I am not alone in this. But each time I spiritually fall down and let worries overtake me, I get back up quickly and think of God and His glory. This is the one thing that helps the most.
If the worries are rooted in a conflict of goals or of responsibilities (and they always are for me), then I pray about the fact of being conflicted and that I am seeking wisdom and discernment for these goals and responsibilities. And should I fall again, I get back up again. Each time it gets easier though! Each time I recognize it for what it is. If I do experience stress, I'm a lot more positive about it now, reminding myself it is a great opportunity to exercise my faith and test my new skills, as opposed to feeling that it is a crushing burden that is making me miserable.
If you found this post interesting, you might also like these related posts on this blog:
This means instead of saying "my headaches" we should say "the headaches".
We also should not pray to God asking him to cure the sickness. We can do that, but it's not what will get us results. What will get us results is having authority for the healing in the name of Jesus. Just like the apostles, we too can cast out sickness from ourselves, but we should remember the healing happens only in the name of Jesus (i.e. not by our own name). It is the Holy Spirit that provides this healing. Jesus did not ask God to heal people, nor did the apostles. We need to use that same delegated power. The power is from God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit; we simply use that power from them to provide the healing.
But it is much harder for healing to occur when the person has claimed (i.e. embraced) the sickness. If someone says "my heart disease", it is much harder for healing to happen than if that person has rejected or distanced themselves from the sickness (e.g. "the heart disease").
I also realized that by the same token that embracing worry or stress is exactly as counterproductive as embracing healing. If we say "my stress", "my problems", "my worries", then we are embracing the very thing we seek to be delivered from. Instead, we should say "the stress", and so on. Also, praying to God to take the stress away isn't helpful either. I have found that in almost all situations, stress arises from conflict of goals and/or conflict of responsibilities. Instead, I pray to God not about the stress (which is the end effect of this), but about cause: the underlying conflict I'm experiencing through two clashing goals. I ask for clarity and guidance. This is helping a lot. I still fall down a lot, and I think I am not alone in this. But each time I spiritually fall down and let worries overtake me, I get back up quickly and think of God and His glory. This is the one thing that helps the most.
If the worries are rooted in a conflict of goals or of responsibilities (and they always are for me), then I pray about the fact of being conflicted and that I am seeking wisdom and discernment for these goals and responsibilities. And should I fall again, I get back up again. Each time it gets easier though! Each time I recognize it for what it is. If I do experience stress, I'm a lot more positive about it now, reminding myself it is a great opportunity to exercise my faith and test my new skills, as opposed to feeling that it is a crushing burden that is making me miserable.
If you found this post interesting, you might also like these related posts on this blog:
- Why we should still pray no matter how busy things are
- Trying to stop worrying - and what finally worked for me
- Get to know God better first, then know what to ask for
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