Interferences To Healing

We have been talking about three things that, if present, can prevent healing. They are: 1) curses, 2) pacts with the devil, and 3) the judgment of God in a person's life.

Our last lesson developed how the judgment of God in a person's life prevents healing. We developed from scripture how a person can put themselves under God's judgement through refusing to believe when God has clearly revealed Himself, or by an attitude of rebellion against God or by profaning holy things.

I would like to continue to develop the topic of profaning holy things a bit further in this lesson. We already looked at examples from Scripture, such as when Aaron's sons offered "strange fire" to God by misusing priestly incense in an ungodly way, and how God struck them dead for doing that. We also looked at how God struck Uzzah dead for touching the ark of the covenant when he thought it was going to fall off of the ox cart. It may be hard for you to relate to those types of stories. So, let's look at some things that are more prominent in the church today.

First, how we deal with the Lord's supper. Let me give you some verses for this. This is in 1 Cor. 11:28-32: "If anyone eats this bread and drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily, that person is guilty of sinning against the body and the blood of the Lord. That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking of the cup. If you eat the bread and drink the cup unworthily, not honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God's judgment upon yourself. That is why many of you were weak and sick and some have even died. But if we examine ourselves, we will not be examined by God and judged."

Some people say, "I never saw that." But it is right in there. The Lord's supper is the remembrance of what Christ did on the cross for us. It is a reminder of the price of salvation. It is a promise of the future when Jesus would return. It is by the blood of Jesus that we were saved and it is by His sacrifice that healing is found. And whenever you dishonor what God has said to be holy, you simply are cutting it off, you can't reach any more.

So what does it mean to dishonor the Lord's supper today? I think you dishonor this, you take it in an unworthy fashion, when you take it and you say "I receive the blood of Jesus, and yet I am going to continue on in my lifestyle of sin." You dishonor the body here whenever you receive the forgiveness that God has provided upon the cross and what He shed his blood for so that you can have forgiveness, they you refuse to forgive somebody else.

And you dishonor the body when part of the body attacks another part of the body. We suffer from auto-immune disease of the body of Christ. We are simply attacking each other and attacking ourselves, and whenever we do that, I believe we are dishonoring the Lord.

However, the Lord's supper that is taken, there's the thing that is the healing power of Christ. The Lord's supper itself is a reminder that shows what Christ has done. But when we take the Lord's supper, we receive what is done. Communion is the physical act of receiving what He has done. And I believe there is healing in the receiving of the Lord's supper.

Let me give you one more example of modern-day profaning of holy things. One thing that we see very prominent that simply profanes the holy things of God and profanes what is sacred is simply messing with "God's anointed." I don't say that for self-preservation or protection, but it is a real factor here.

David had an opportunity to kill Saul when Saul was chasing after him. David was hiding in a cave, and Saul happened to come up and sleep in the very cave where David was. One of the men with David said, "Isn't God good, He is giving you the chance to kill him right now! And David said that he was not going to do that. Instead he went over and cut off a piece of his robe to prove he'd been close. Later, when Saul was a long ways away, David called out, "Hey Saul," and he showed him the piece. And Saul is thinking, "Oh man, he could have gotten me if he wanted to." David said this "You have seen something with your own eyes today. The Lord put you in my power in the cave. They said I should kill you but I was merciful. I said I won't harm my master, because he is the Lord's anointed."

1 Chron. 16:22 says "Do not touch my anointed ones and do my prophets no harm." And because God had chosen Saul as King, David refused to harm him. The guy who did kill King Saul, David killed. And Saul wanted to be killed. He was in battle, he was suffering and dying, and said, "have mercy, would you please kill me." And the guy said "sure," and he killed him. And he went and told David what he did. And David said, "I can't believe you did that." Then David killed him.

Don't touch the Lord's anointed. Take a look at the life of Moses. Moses had several people who came against him. There was Korah in Numbers 16 who came against him. Korah said, "You think you are the only one who hears from God, you think you are the only one who God speaks to." Guess what? Korah didn't live very long.

And if we back up a few chapters to chapter 12, Aaron and Miriam opposed Moses. These were Moses' brother and sister and they complained about him and said, "You think you are the only one God speaks to." They came with the same complaint (they preceded Cora). God said "Would you bring those two. I would like to have a little conference with them." And He brought them there and let them know the way things were. And because of that, Miriam got leprosy, she turned white with leprosy. And she had it for seven days and was not able to join the fellowship of the community. She was punished for seven days because she touched the Lord's anointed. It was dangerous to complain against Moses.

Let's examine what the New Testament has to say about this from 1 Cor 10:10. It is speaking about the people in the desert and it says this, "And do not grumble as some of them did and were killed by the destroying angel."

Anybody got any complaints? See, we don't put those complaints out there, just for our own preservation.

If you have been seeking God for a healing and have not been receiving it, these are some of the things you have to keep in mind and you have to ask yourself. Am I under a curse here? Have I made a pact with the devil? Am I under the judgment of God?

If you are involved in any of those three things, you may be committing a sin. I have been talking about things that you did, not things that were done to you. I don't think you would have diseases because somebody did those things to you. I think these are things you choose because of your own volition. And because of that, only you can choose to break those things.

One passage of scripture that I never understood was 1 John 5:16; "A sin that leads to death." Some people want to say that this is about eternal death, but most everything I read said no it is not. It refers to physical death. "If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin, not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death. I do not say he should make requests for this one." That verse has always bothered me, and I didn't really know what that was, and I really didn't know what "a sin unto death" was. And I have done very extensive research on this particular verse consulting many commentaries. Most of the conclusions are that there is a sin that leads to physical death. I don't know what it is.

I know that in anything we have talked about in these past few lessons, if you don't take care of it, it will. You understand? It is kind of like Omar said, "I am not going to pray for this because that needs to be taken care of, and he moves on to those who will receive." But I will say that of all the things we have talked about, I believe these could be undone. I think we can be a part of undoing these things; walk in forgiveness there. Remove and renounce any pact that we made with the devil. If there is anything you have done to put you under the judgment of God, confess it, forsake it and move out of it. I think God will honor your repentance to do that. So those are things that we need to do if healing is not flowing. Those are the questions I think we need to ask if the Spirit of God moves you to ask.

My dad told me this story when we were living in Aida, Oklahoma and I was in Jr. High or High School. There was a man in our church who was the most dishonoring guy in church, I don't know if he was even saved. He was undermining everything. My father was the pastor of the church. The guy had a very big heart attack and was just about dead. And my dad had a word from the Lord so he went to the hospital. Dad looked at him and said, "You have really been a contention and a thorn to God moving in this church. And I am tempted not to pray for you, because I believe that if I don't pray for you, you are going to die." He was looking at my dad. Dad continued, "I believe that the Lord says that if you will repent, I will pray for you and you will live. What are you going to do?" He repented. My dad prayed for him. Recovery was awesome, quick, fast. My dad had no more problems the rest of the time he was there.

There is much sickness that could be overcome with our choice. So much prevents healing that is based upon our choice. The bottom line is -- what is it you want to do?

Lord Jesus, we just want You to establish Your kingdom in our lives. We ask You today that You would undo and unravel any work of the enemy and bring revelation to our mind if we have participated in and cooperated with the things of the devil, cursing ourselves. Father, I ask You bring to our mind anyone here that we need to forgive, that we need to release and let go of. Lord I pray that You would bring us to the place of being totally free in our minds, that we are totally free. In Jesus name. Amen.