Emotional Healing is Often Neglected

When the Holy Spirit was poured out at Pentecost, Peter quoted Joel in Acts 2:17-21. Verse 17 went as follows:

17 “‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.

Young men see visions because they have the energy and strength to fulfill them. Old men dream dreams about things that will come and things pertaining to glory, but they don’t always have the strength to fulfill them.

Now, I’m not yet an old man, but I’ll share with you that I don’t think I could do some ministry I did as a young man with the inner-city homeless. That was a vision and God gave me strength to fulfil it. Yes, there is still strength today, but for other types of ministry.

When I was a young man, I approached healing energetically, looking for those with pain, cancers, diabetes, and the dying. I was young and strong and had vision. I’m still looking for them now, but I’m also more sensitive to those with emotional hurts.

At that time, I didn’t see emotional or even spiritual hurts, just the physical. That’s young and energetic for you. I have since learned that emotional hurts and sickness can be every bit as terrible as physical sickness.

We go to crusades and look for wheelchairs and are excited when cancers are gone and the crippled walk, but we should also attend to the emotionally sick.

There are those who are demonically oppressed, those who are simply emotionally hurt and sick, all of whom need deliverance and/or healing. We need to be sensitive to them though their healings are not always spectacular, because Jesus died for their emotional hurts and sicknesses, just as He died for their physical sickness.

There are those who are so emotionally devastated they can no longer function. There are those tormented by distressing thoughts and memories, and there are those filled with debilitating regret and pain from wrong decisions taken in the past.

Can the Lord heal them instantly? Yes. Will He? It is a little bit complicated, but I remember the Lord telling a pastor who was ministering to an emotionally sick person the following (and I’ll paraphrase):

“The layers of emotional issues this person has are so many and so intertwined that if I undid all the issues at once, it will kill them.” And so the pastor had to go slow, layer by layer of spiritual and emotional baggage.

Over the years, I realized that while we all look for instant healing (and should expect it), certain people – not all, but some – got in their situations through years and years of sin and bad decision making. It can often take time to unravel them and get them healed.

I have prayed for people with cancer, seen the cancer gone and them, see the person light up a cigarette on leaving the church. Were all the issues dealt with? No.

I have seen drug addicts gloriously met by the Spirit of God, but leave church and go and use. Human beings are complex, fearfully and wonderfully made. It’s not always about laying hands on their heads and running off to the next meeting in another town.

Some people need continuous ministry for a period of time in order to be completely healed. This is so whether we are a fast food society or not. It is also that way, because their will, their souls, and their decision making mechanisms are involved.

So, as ministers, be more aware of emotional hurts and sickness and remember that you will need time and dedication to see the work of healing perfected in many of these believers.