By Pastor Chinedu Emmanuel

“That evening many demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. He cast out the evil spirits with simple command, and he healed all the sick” Matthew 8:16.

Roadblocks to healing

1. ​A huge part of receiving healing is actually listening to God. In Luke 6:17-19 people came to see Jesus from all over the villages to first HEAR Him and then be healed of their diseases. We must hear to be healed. Hearing His word builds the faith to receive your healing and everything you need from Him. But people are impatient. Sometimes they do not understand how hearing the word can facilitate their healing. They think anointing works automatically. So, they put their faith in the anointing instead of in the word of God. But the anointing performs the word we believe is true for us.

2. Some Christians don’t receive their healing because they put their faith in a ritual. They believe that if they wake up and pray by a specific time and pray loud enough and use some names they were given, their miracles come. That is not Scriptural! First of all, their faith is in what they do which is the rituals they perform, and not in Jesus and His word. For the word simply said ask and it shall be given. No time is preferred and no other name is given except to ask in the Name of Jesus. Only faith in Him guarantees that we will not be put to shame. Trusting in rituals simply means trusting in the arm of the flesh and it will fail woefully. Only demons work with such lies!!! The Lord performs only His word.

3. ​A roadblock we tend to have as Christians is questioning God’s desire to heal us personally. It’s easy to believe that God heals others, but when it comes to ourselves, we have doubts that He can heal us or is even willing to heal us. It is God’s will for us to be healed, but only if we are willing to believe it. Some even believe that they are like Job in the bible. So, they accept all kinds of sickness and all manner of things and believe that it is God’s will and they just have to go through it. No! this is a lie!!! The Scripture tells you to resist the devil and he will flee and sickness is the work of Satan. Secondly, Jesus provided you healing by His stripes so just take it and be well. Thirdly, Job did not live under the covenant we currently have which is sealed with the blood of Jesus. Also, Jesus came to do the will of God and He provided us healing. You are not another Job. You are another child of God blessed with all spiritual blessings and set free from all curses of the law. Called to glory and victory!!

4. Others erroneously believe that if it is God’s will to heal them then God will, but if it is not, then God will not heal them. They think it is up to God to make up His mind either to heal them or not. God is not schizophrenic! He works according to His set will. He does not randomly decide who to heal and who not to heal. Again, that is not Scriptural. God has already provided healing through Jesus Christ for you. It is totally up to you to receive it or not. God is no respecter of persons.

 In Mark 1:49 “A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. “If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean,” he said. Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing”, he said. “Be healed!’ This passage here shows us that God only heals people who are willing to receive healing. He won’t force healing upon us if we don’t want it for ourselves.

5. ​Another roadblock the devil throws at us to prevent our healing is making us think we are not deserving or qualified to be healed. Every blessing from God is UNMERITED. There is no blessing of God that you can pay for. Only through grace can we receive. Healing is FREE.!! The Holy Spirit has come to show us the things that are FREELY given to us. We are qualified, but not by anything that we did. But by the grace of God. Jesus our Lord said to His disciples to go heal and preach and it is freely given because they received freely too.

Does sickness come from God to teach us to be better people? Christians often ask this question. Well let’s ask ourselves this question, “do we make our children sick to make them better people?” That sounds like a silly question but when you think about it, it’s the same as thinking God would make us sick to teach us to be better people. It’s actually insulting and belittling to God when we think he would do something that malicious. The devil is working hard to convince people that God is the source of all the calamity on earth. A lot of Christians are buying into this lie. Sickness is of the devil and doesn’t come from God. God gives life and the devil comes to steal, kill and destroy. You can easily see that all that steals your health, your wealth, destroys, and kills is not God but the lying devil.

Luke 13:11 says, “He saw a woman who had been crippled by an evil spirit. She had been bent double for eighteen years and was unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, Dear woman, you are healed of your sickness!” Here we see Jesus healing a woman who had evil spirits in her. The devil causes sickness, God heals!!

​The law of the Spirit of life in Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death. The scripture reveals to us two aspects of this law. The first one: sin kills. Romans 8:10 tells us that “If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness”. Our natural bodies are naturally dying because of its sinful nature. The spirit of God brings life. The sin of Adam brought death to the world. Before sin came into the world, there was no sickness or death.

The second aspect of the law is that sin demands death as its penalty. Ezekiel 18:20 tells us that the soul that sins shall die. Sickness over time can lead to death. But when God intervened, sin and death were no longer our portion! Amen! He put an end to the reign of Satan and his evil doing. Jesus Christ made an atonement for our sins, wiping them away and remembering them no more! We have been redeemed from sin and death. His death on the cross paid for our sins so that we could have eternal life. Our freedom was purchased on the cross, paid in FULL! Isn’t this good news? Colossians 2:15 says “In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross”.

Some Christians have a problem accepting the grace of God. Their reason is that it makes people commit sin intentionally and frequently. But that is not true. Pay attention here. In the Old Testament, the Israelites sinned a lot and received punishment for their sins. Sometimes they were killed in their thousands and taken captive but that did not stop them from idol worship. Even while in captivity they worshiped more idols. God has a better way to bring us to genuine repentance. Through the goodness of God, His mercy and love. The grace of God brings us salvation and freedom from sin, Satan, and the flesh. The goodness of God leads us to repentance!!! Zacchaeus is a good example.

As Christians, we must now carry out and live life like we KNOW death and sin have no more power over us. We must claim all the promises we have in Christ Jesus! Christ did not just die for dying sake. He died for a purpose and that purpose is to pay for our sins, pay all the penalties of our sin and restore us back to God as our Father. Christ died to also take our place and we take His place. He was never sick. But He was stricken and made sick so we by His stripes are made whole. Believe and receive. God cannot now give you sickness after all of this.

Pastor Chinedu Emmanuel is the Senior Pastor at the Fountain Of The Living Word Church, New Jersey.