Spiritual not Physical

Many Christians pray for the sick and are disappointed because nothing happens. One reason for this failure is the common belief that sickness has a physical cause. We have imbibed the modern view that all events in the universe have biological, social, genetic, environmental or physical causes. If this is true, it make sense to ask God to intervene and reverse the physical cause.

The Bible teaches that everything that happens on earth has a spiritual cause (Eph 6:12). God does not create sickness, so all sickness comes from the spiritual powers of evil. If we do not understand that reality, we will find it hard to pray for the sick.

Although events may appear to have a physical cause, the real cause is spiritual. For example, an inspection of Job’s body would have discovered a staphylococcus causing his boils, but the Bible explains that they were actually caused by an attack of Satan (Job 2:7).

Jesus came to “destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). One way we he did that was to heal the sick. He healed numerous sick people. In each case it would have been possible to diagnose the infection causing the disease, but from God’s point of view, they were “under the power of the devil” (Acts 10:38).

Jesus healed a woman who had been bent over for so long that she could not straighten up. A physical examination would have diagnosed osteoporosis in her spine, but Jesus said, “Satan has kept her bound for eighteen years” (Luke 13:16).

We must learn to look beyond the medical facts and into the spiritual dimensions of life to understand the real cause of sickness. We must stop thinking that sickness is something that God and has allowed and begin understanding that sickness is something that the powers of evil inflict. They were defeated by the cross, but they will only pull back, if they are resisted by people standing together in faith (1 Peter 5:8-9).

Many Christians have asked God to heal a sick friend or family member, and been disappointed. Some have taken offence at God, because they believe that he let them down. But God was not the problem. The sickness was nothing to do with him. And the spiritual powers of evil are happy, because God is blamed for something they have done.

God has given the followers of Jesus authority to heal the sick. Asking him to heal someone who is sick usually does not work, because it does not deal with the spiritual powers of evil who have inflicted the sickness. We must stop pleading with God and being disappointed. Instead we should take up the authority he has given, and get into a battle with the power of evil, knowing that they were destroyed by the cross.

More at Healing.