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There are three causes of sickness:
Let's look at all three.
There are times when the causes of a problem are simply physical an nothing more. An example would be if a flu virus is going around, and your family catches it. It is a purely physical thing, they were exposed to germs and they caught the disease that the germs carry. Here is another example: a friend falls off a step-ladder and breaks his wrist. It was an unfortunate accident, but in this case that this is all it was, an accident. The wrist is broken because of the impact on the cement floor when it put it down to brace himself. (Not all seemingly natural accidents are purely natural. Sometimes there is enemy activity surrounding the circumstances that brought the accident. We will look at that later.) But there really is such a thing as a purely physical injury or a purely natural illness. We should not always try to read emotional or spiritual things in to a sickness or injury.
Jesus recognized that not all illness was caused by sin or demonic activity. We see this in John 9:1-3, "As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?' 'Neither this man nor his parents sinned,' said Jesus, 'but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.'"
In other words, the disciples were trying to attribute the man's blindness to sin and Jesus said, "No, this one is merely physical." There are times when the ailment is merely physical and only the physical infirmity needs to be addressed or dealt with in prayer.
Doctors tell us that a lot of physical infirmities come from emotional pain/concerns rather than from physical causes. For instance, some people with ulcers have them because they are too stressed, some with hives and rashes are due to nervousness and anxiety. In fact, many secular text books have been written about psychological causes of illnesses.
If you minister to someone with a psychologically caused illness, you need to minister to their soul to help them. The Lord wants to bring His peace and inner healing to their intermost being, so that they can be well and radiant in Him. The physical problem is just a symptom of the deep inner hurt. If you just deal with the physical and don't bring healing to their emotions, then the problem (or another like it) will simply return. God wants to address and heal the whole person.. their physical condition and the underlying emotional condition.
We see Jesus doing this with the paralytic in Matthew 9:1-7. The man was wrought with self condemnation over his sins. He was probably suffering from acute depression as well. His psychological condition effected him so deeply that he lost his ability to walk. Did you notice what Jesus said to him? He did not say, legs be healed. Rather He addressed the depression and said "Be of good cheer" (KJV). In other words, Jesus ministered to his depressed emotional state. And Jesus went after the roots that caused the depression.. guilt and self-condemnation. He said, "your sins are forgiven." This startled and upset the scribes who were present. They did not understand that Jesus was dealing with the root, the condition that held the man in infirmity, his emotion state and guilt/condemnation. When Jesus dealt with the emotional stuff, the underlying cause, then the physical problem went away. We see proof of this in verses 6 and 7 where Jesus said, "But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. And he arose, and departed to his house."
Spiritually caused sickness can come from either of two sources: God or the devil.
The above statement may startle some of you because you believe that God never brings sickness on a person. That simply is not true. In general, it is God's will to heal and to keep us in health. But there are times when we are in rebellion against God and He wants to get our attention. Sometimes He uses sickness to do this. For instance, God struck Paul blind when Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:8-9).
Let me share a more modern day story. Many of you have heard of Aimee Semple McPherson. She is the powerful woman of God who founded the Foursquare denomination. God had called Aimee to preach the gospel. She went with her husband as a missionary to China, and he died there. She came home devastated and eventually remarried to a business man who had no interest in any sort of ministry. God spoke to her to heed His call to preach but she was unresponsive. God brought a serious sickness on her to get her attention and obedience to His command. She shares it in her own words on page 75 of the book Aimee (Foursquare Life Publications):
My health broke. I was taken to the hospital where I underwent a serious major operation. Instead of improving, I grew steadily worse. Even under the ether I could hear the Voice bidding me keep my early pledge to preach the word. Finally my condition became critical, and I was taken to a separate room to die. A nurse sat by me in the early hours of the morning, watching my flickering pulse. Through the death silence which was broken only by my own painful breathing came the Voice of the Lord in trumpet tones, "NOW WILL YOU GO?"Laying there face to face with the Grim Reaper, I realized that I was either going into the grave or out into the field with the gospel. I made my decision and gasped out the words, "Yes -- Lord -- I'll -- go!"
Instantly, new life and warmth surged through my being. I was healed and turned over upon my side, much to the concernation of the nurse. In a few days, I was up and about.
An interesting thing about my healing was that, whereas children of the Lord prayed for me to no avail when I had been unwilling to heed the Divine call, my slightest cry, made with an obedient heart, was accorded an instant hearing in heaven and I was at once made whole.
There are times when the Lord brings sickness on us because we are in rebellion against Him. That sickness is not intended to destroy us, but to get us to change our thinking and behavior to line up with God's (Hosea 6:1-3). If you minister to someone who is under God's hand of correction, the prayer strategy needs to be to help them make a deep and serious commitment to doing it God's way. Only then will God lift the sickness and heal them.
Our enemy, the devil, also causes sickness. Sometimes this comes as a counter attack to the kingdom work we are doing for God. Just yesterday, I received an urgent alert from Christian International (CI). Sharon Stone is the director of the European branch of CI. She has recently come under several physical attacks including illness that requires surgery and she has had odd (demon caused) accidents where she has been seriously hurt. As I write this lesson, she is in the hospital in the UK and many of us are praying for her. We believe this recent series of accidents and illness is the enemy counter attacking her for the powerful work she has been doing for the Lord in Europe. Sometimes the enemy causes accidents and/or illness as a spiritual warfare counterattack. If you minister to someone in this situation, the strategy varies depending on the rank/power of the attacking demon. If it is a low level spirit, then you can handle it with a brief authority prayer canceling the demon's assignment against the person. If it is a high level demon (a power or principality), you will need to rally many intercessors to cover the person in prayer, as in Sharon's case.
The enemy has other ways of causing sickness. A spirit of infirmity might attach to person because of some deep loss, trauma, unforgiveness or sin. If you are dealing with illnesses caused by a spirit of infirmity, then simple deliverance prayer will do the trick. (It is also important to get the person to forgive or repent if sin or unforgiveness is what gave the spirit an entry point.)
There is another type of enemy attack that causes sickness. This comes when the enemy is given a "legal right" to torment us. This usually comes because of substained unforgiveness or bitterness. Jesus explained this in the story of the unforgiving debtor. You know the story.. a man owed a king a great sum of money and could not pay the debt. The king was going to have him sold into slavery to pay the debt, but he begged forgiveness and patience. The King had pity on him and forgave his debt. He went out and found someone who owed him a much smaller amount of money. That person begged for patience but he was merciless and had them thrown into debtor's prison. Word of this got back to the king. Let's pick up Jesus' story from Matt 18:32-35:
Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, "O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desirest me: Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?"And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.
Jesus said that if we don't forgive, God will deliver us to the tormentors. I do not believe this refers to eternal damnation, but that it gives the enemy a "legal right" in this lifetime to torment us. This torment occurs in areas like finances and health and failing relationships. If the torment is in the area of health, the person will begin to experience a series of accidents or illnesses, or get some long term and usually painful ailment. (This is not to say everyone with this type of medical history has been delivered to the tormentors. We need to ask the Lord to show us the root of the problem and how to pray for it.)
When minister to a person who has been delivered to the tormentors, we have to deal with the "inner issues" and forgive/repent/etc. Then Satan looses his legal right to torment and the sickness is much easier to deal with. Let me share an example of this. I ministered to an older man in Pasadena who had severe arthritis. He was also struggling with shame issues from having been a flasher in college. During the ministry session, we discovered that this all stemmed from anger and unforgiveness of his mother and older sisters. I helped him to forgive and repent. The arthritis that had almost crippled him immediately went away as a result. I just said a short simple prayer for it and it was gone. He could walk painlessly for the first time in many years. We took away the tormentor's legal right to torment him, and then it was easy to deal with the sickness.