Removing Some Common Obstacles to Healing

I promised last week to write up some of the lessons we learned as we prayed for people for healing in Brazil. Please note that I write as a novice in all this; there is much that is still a mystery to me (and mystery will always be a part of our walk with God, of course). But there were five things that seemed to pop up a lot as we prayed for people which once addressed allowed God's healing touch to flow into people's lives. I want to share these briefly in the event that they may prove useful to you. I will list the five obstacles and then turn them around into positive things we can encourage people with as we pray for them.

The five hindrances we saw were 1) unforgiveness; 2) hidden, unconfessed sin; 3) idolatry (trust in something other than God or unrenounced allegiance to other entities); 4) curses put upon the person by someone else or even themselves; 5) unbelief (failing to recognize God's goodness). Now let's turn these into positive steps for receiving healing. I will put these in the second person because I am quite certain that some of them may apply to you :-)

First, forgive everyone you can think of--anyone who has ever hurt you. The Bible is quite clear that failure to forgive others hinders the flow of God's forgiveness to us (see, for example, Matthew 6:14-15, 18:21-35, Mark 11:25 and others) and surely this means that other things from God will be hindered as well. But many people have been hurt deeply and repeatedly by others and find it difficult to forgive. What do we say to people, for example, who were repeatedly abused physically and/or sexually as children? What I have discovered is that for severely hurt people, explaining that forgiveness is a process that can start now but will continue for as long as necessary helps them to see their first decision to forgive as just a first small step in a journey that God will faithfully take them on. Another huge help that I used often in Brazil was simply to pray for the person, asking God to heal their broken heart enough for them to start the forgiveness process. Time and again when I did this with someone, the Holy Spirit would come upon them, they would start weeping profusely and then reach a point of release where they were indeed able to forgive. This should not surprise us, of course, since Jesus will indeed always supply what we need to obey Him, so if He tells us to forgive others, He will enable us to forgive others.
Also in the area of forgiveness, be sure to include forgiveness for self. Anyone who hasn't forgiven him/herself for something can't possibly feel worthy of receiving any blessing from the Lord.
Try this, folks! It works. I cannot recount how many folks received physical healing or deep inner healing and deliverance after forgiving those in their lives who had hurt them.

Second, bring out into the light any unconfessed sin. Again, scripture speaks of this with clarity; see James 5:14-16. I have pondered this much--why do we need to confess our sins in order to be healed? Aren't we forgiven already? Yes, of course Jesus died for all of our sins, and they are all covered by His sacrifice (even the ones you haven't committed yet!). But when we fail to bring our sins out into the light they have a way of eating away at our faith for healing. Hidden stuff seems to cause a general sense of unworthiness to hang over people. And my experience with most folks is that, at least in the North American church, we don't really confess our sins at all--not even to God (as mentioned in 1 John 1:9). Thus we have this hidden backlog of guilt and shame that needs to be brought out into the light.
Again, try this! Especially in the area of inner healing and deliverance, and even for physical healing, we found that many people were healed once things were brought out into the light through confession.

Third, renounce any allegiances to "other gods." In Brazil this often meant having people renounce past involvement in various forms of witchcraft or the occult either personally or by a family member. Even in the US renouncing occult involvement is becoming increasingly necessary (I am sure you know this!). And beyond that, Paul even defines greed as idolatry (Ephesians 5:5), so I encourage folks to renounce anything that they have put their confidence in besides God (hmm, what am I really trusting in????). In this area especially, I encourage you to ask God for discernment when praying for people. Many times people don't know that great grandpa was a Freemason or that grandma used to dabble in the occult, etc., but the Holy Spirit knows and will reveal these facts as we listen to Him!
Again, untold numbers of times, healing came only when people renounced ties and allegiances with the occult, with witchcraft, etc.


Fourth, break any curses that others or even you yourself have placed upon you. In Brazil, many times we had to trust the Holy Spirit to reveal curses put upon someone by a relative, an enemy, etc. It is no different anywhere else. Even in the US, although witchcraft type curses may not be as common, I have discovered that many people were cursed repeatedly by words spoken over them (for example: "You are always sick!" "You are so worthless!" "You won't ever amount to anything!" etc.). Curses, regardless of their origin or type, do hinder the flow of God's healing (inner and physical), but they are easily dealt with. I wrote about one example of this in my longer Brazil report. My partner and I were getting nowhere in praying with a lady until she remembered that her husband's mother was a witch. Once she revealed that, we broke any curses off of her in Jesus' name, and she was very powerfully touched by God.

Finally, ask God to reveal His goodness to you! Most unbelief boils down to us not trusting in the love, kindness and goodness of God. And since someone's faith, at least, is required for God to release His gifts, it's important for us to eliminate unbelief by asking for a increasing revelation of the wonderfully blessing character of God. To the extent that a person is convinced that God truly is loving and totally good, to that extent that person will trust God for healing. If there's any doubt that God wants to bless, wants to heal, wants to reveal His goodness, then healing is usually hindered. Note, too, that this unbelief may not be on the part of the person receiving prayer. If the one praying is not totally convinced of God's goodness and God is requiring faith from the one praying (which He does!) then how will healing happen? Now here's the good news: God won't require more faith from you than you currently have, whether you are the one praying or the one being prayed for. And I have discovered that we can literally pray as I have suggested: "God reveal more of your goodness; Holy Spirit pour your love into his/her heart!" God always seems eager to answer that kind of prayer, and as He does, faith for healing rises to meet God's goodness and healing occurs.

Obviously, I could write much more about this (which in fact, I am doing), but my prayer is that this will be a good start for you in seeing some common hindrances to healing being removed from your life and from the lives of those you pray for. Let us hear from you, please, as to your experiences once you put these into practice--I know we will hear many good reports!

Until next time, stay lost in His love,

Tom, Abba's least child