Hidden Causes of Sickness in the Church - Part 4
- Abundant Life Family Church
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
If you are someone who has endeavored to use your faith for healing, but are tempted to be frustrated by delayed results, this message is for you. We began a series addressing the various reasons why some believers may be struggling with lingering disease in their bodies. I encourage you to go back and read previous blogs to get the full benefit.
Ephesians 4:27 says,
Neither give place to the devil.
The devil can no longer take a place in you when you are born again. However, you can open a door and give him a place through different avenues. If we seek the Lord and find out where a door is open, we can then shut the door just as easily and receive our healing.
Some of the avenues we talked about in past blogs were:
If any of these are present in our lives, we need to make changes if we want to receive complete healing. Some have actually commented that we don’t have to make any changes, because that would mean healing is works-based rather than by grace. However, to regard correction as unnecessary for receiving healing would mean we would need to dismiss the following teaching from the apostle Paul.
But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason, many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. (1 Corinthians 11:28-30)
Paul emphatically stated that there is a reason why many are weak, sick, and die prematurely. If I was suffering from lingering symptoms of disease, I would want to examine myself and see if there was an open door so I could close it.
We are each responsible for how we conduct our lives. If we deny that change is ever needed, we fall into the trap of the saying, “whatever will be will be”. But thank God, we are not victims of chance or circumstance. He has given us His mind and His ability to make any necessary changes for receiving all He has for us, including healing.
This leads us to another area that believers might open the door to the devil.
By refusing to listen!
God is so good to us that He will navigate us out of sickness and into health, if we are willing to listen. Those who enter every conversation or situation with an attitude that they know everything will not fare well in life. This is called pride! This is being stubborn!
People can give place to the devil by not listening to God, to their pastor, to their spouse, or to godly counsel.
Matthew 5:5 says,
Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the earth.
The Cambridge English Dictionary defines meek as, “quiet, gentle, and not willing to argue or express your opinions in a forceful way.”
To be meek is to be teachable. Even Jesus described Himself as meek. When we receive instructions from the Lord, even if through another person, we would do well to heed or listen instead of argue.
We have an entire Bible full of stories where the people refused to listen to the instructions or warnings from the Lord. In each account, the refusal grieved the Lord. Why? Because in each instance refusing to listen meant forgoing God’s answer or provision. He wants us to live with the blessing, not the curse.
As I read through several hundred accounts where people did not listen to God and His spokesmen, I noted that it always said “they refused” to listen. Refusal is a decision. You can decide to listen and do—or to refuse and suffer the results.
Look at what Jeremiah 7:23-26 says:
But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’ Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them. Yet they did not obey Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck.
God wants us to listen so that all will go well with us. And He often uses other people to get a message across to us.
I know of a preacher who was getting ready to eat some raw oysters he ordered at a restaurant. His wife could see that they didn’t look and smell right, so she said, “I wouldn’t eat those if I were you.” He decided to disregard what she said and ate them anyway. As a result, he ended up very sick with food poisoning. It’s one thing to ingest something poisonous by accident, and another thing to eat something intentionally that you know is spoiled. He said he repented for not listening to his wife, and he was then healed of the poisoning.
Some have refused to listen to their pastor. This includes not only messages from the pulpit, but private comments or suggestions made.
A member of our church once told us he was suffering from very bad rashes on his back. He tended to perspire a lot. My husband, his pastor, suggested he buy all cotton shirts. He disregarded the advice for a long time, thinking it really didn’t matter. Eventually, he decided to start wearing all cotton shirts, and within a short time, the rash was gone.
His wife said to him, “You should have listened to Pastor!”
Pastors are certainly not called to run our lives. But the Lord can use them, or anyone He chooses, to speak things that are answers for us. Our job is to perceive by the unction of the Holy Spirit in us that it is our answer when we hear it.
Matthew 11:15 from the Amplified Classic Translation says,
He who has ears to hear, let him be listening and let him consider and perceive and comprehend by hearing.
In Acts 27, the apostle Paul warned the captain of the ship not to set sail because of the harm that was coming. He refused to listen. Although God spared all who were on the ship for Paul’s sake, they lost a great deal of wealth.
Psalm 1:1 from the Amplified Classic Translation says,
BLESSED (HAPPY, fortunate, prosperous, and enviable) is the man who walks and lives not in the counsel of the ungodly [following their advice, their plans and purposes], nor stands [submissive and inactive] in the path where sinners walk, nor sits down [to relax and rest] where the scornful [and the mockers] gather.
This tells us that who we listen to is important. Yes, we must always ultimately follow what the Spirit of God says to our own spirit. But the Holy Spirit will many times confirm what He’s trying to get across to us through godly people. When somebody knows God and their life bears the fruit of walking with God, we benefit by listening to them.
(This series was inspired by Nancy Dufresne.)
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