An Individual’s Practical Path to Healing (continued)

In my last post, I asserted that healing is best viewed as a lifestyle, not just an event. This is especially so if God has called you into the healing ministry. Jesus would often wake up early in the morning to go and pray. An effective healing ministry calls for such sacrifice and investment in time spent fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit.

Let’s therefore assume you have this foundation under you. You have a healing lifestyle, the healing scriptures are not strange to you, and you spend time with the Lord. What then? One of the first things to find out is exactly what the ailment is and to get it diagnosed. There’s no use praying for cancer when all you have is gas. If you’re not a doctor, don’t pretend to be one. Get diagnosed correctly.

After you fully (or better) understand the problem, examine your lifestyle to see whether you are your own worst enemy. Are you getting enough sleep, are you eating right, are you under stress, do you smoke? Think about it for a second. What’s the point asking for healing when your lifestyle will likely bring it all back in a hurry?

Next, examine your environment to see if it is making you sick. We live in a polluted world, with ‘sick neighborhoods’, ‘sick buildings’, and ‘sick homes’. Sometimes, you may need only to put in a new air filter in your heating unit or test and find carbon monoxide is being released to recover. You may only need to check the expiration dates on your vitamins to stop poisoning yourself.

I know all this may not sound very spiritual to believers who are chomping at the bit ready to bind, loose and hammer the enemy down in prayer. Relax, there’s always time and opportunity for that. But let’s use Godly wisdom to see there are many avenues to our healing. Paul said to Timothy (1 Timothy 5:23)

23 Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.

Wine was actually safer than water back in those days before piped, chlorinated water came to each home. So even Paul used this wisdom that we speak of here. I’ll continue down the individual path to biblical healing in my next post.