THE DIFFERENT CAUSES OF SICKNESSES & DISEASES! (Part 1)

Today, I am speaking on “THE DIFFERENT CAUSES OF SICKNESSES AND DISEASES!” Many people are suffering from one sickness or the other because of ignorance (Isa. 5:13; Hos. 4:6). Sicknesses don’t just appear. Something caused that sickness in your body.

To understand the causes of sickness, we need to have the knowledge of the makeup of man. Man is made up of three parts (a) spirit-man, (b) soul and (c) physical body.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 says, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole (1) spirit, (2) soul, and (3) body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

a) Your spirit-man is that part of your being that is conscious of the spirit realm. With your spirit-man, you contact the spirit world.

b) Your soul is that part of your being that is conscious of what your five physical senses are telling you. With your soul, you contact the intellectual (soulish) realm. The soul is an integral part of the human spirit. They always move together.

c) Your physical body is the house (earth suit) in which the real you is dwelling. It is that part of your being that is conscious of the physical realm. It is conscious of the things around us. It can feel hot or cold. With your physical body, you contact the physical (material) world.

This physical body is like the space-suit. The space-suit enables a person to function in space because it is equipped with everything you require to survive in space.

Each part of man can be afflicted with sickness.

1. Sin afflicts the spirit-man. When your garment of righteousness is spotted with sin, your spirit-man is said to be sick. Once your garment of righteousness is stained or spotted by sin, you are said to be spiritually sick.

No wonder the Bible says, “Let thy garments (of righteousness) be always white (spotless)….” (Eccl. 9:8).

There are also sicknesses that occur because of the sins of your ancestors: Because of the sins of ancestors generational curses follow their seed. Therefore, some sicknesses come as a result of generational curses (Ex. 20:4-6; Deut. 28:15-25).

Such sicknesses include repeated, chronic, re-occurring or seasonal sicknesses especially without any clear medical diagnosis, miscarriages, mental and emotional breakdown, memory lapses, unexplainable fatigue, headaches (migraines), confusion and indecision, alcoholism, insomnia (disturbed sleep in the night), hampered breathing, mental illnesses, physical illnesses such as sugar diabetes, cancer, stroke, and heart attacks.

The most striking example is the death of King David’s son as a result of his sin of adultery with Bathsheba.

So David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." And Nathan said to David, "The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die. 14 However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die…” (2 Sam. 12:13-14).

2. There are sicknesses that afflict the soul. These are sicknesses that afflict your feelings (emotions). Anger, worry, hatred, bitterness, resentment, depression are all emotional problems in that they depend on how you feel.

One thing about emotional sicknesses is that once they afflict the soul, the result manifests in the physical body.

Look at worry: We must remember that worrying is choosing not to trust God. But if you dwell (focus) on the promises of God concerning that which you are worrying about, you will find peace. Yes! The Bible says that we should not be anxious about ANYTHING (Phil. 4:6; Jn. 14:1).

What are the effects of worry? Anxiety in your heart will weigh you down (Prov. 12:25). Worry can damage your health. Worry can cause the object of your worry to consume your thoughts. Worry can disrupt your productivity. Worry can negatively affect the way you treat others and worry can reduce your ability to trust in God.  

Anxiety in your heart will lead to hypertension, and eventually stroke. Dr. Charles, H. Mayo, co-founder of Mayo Clinic said, “Worry affects the blood circulation, the heart, the glands, the whole nervous system, and profoundly affects your health.”

This reminds us of what Jesus said in Luke 12:22-23, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.”

He said, “Let not your heart be troubled…” (Jn. 14:1).

“Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Phil. 4:6).

Bitterness is another emotional problem? Proverbs 14:30 says, “A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones.”

Proverbs 17:22 says, “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.”

What is bitterness? Bitterness is anger that has settled in for the long term. Bitterness is a feeling of deep and bitter (resentful, unbearable) anger and ill-will. It is an anger that has birthed resentment, the feeling that we have been treated harshly, unfairly, or carelessly.

Left to eat its way deep into your mind, and emotions, bitterness can turn you into a hostile, hardened person. The poison of bitterness, left unchecked, can destroy you. And the most dangerous thing about bitterness is that it renders forgiveness inactive, which puts your relationship with God and others on hold. Bitterness against someone who has wronged you is an evil cancer within you and will eventually destroy you.

No wonder Jesus said, “Don’t let a ‘bitter root’ grow in you because it will trouble and defile you” (Heb. 12:15).

Here is the point: Bitterness of the heart triggers off the release of some free radicals in the body. And free radicals will cause cancer in your physical body.

3. There are also sicknesses that afflict the physical body only. These are called PHYSICAL SICKNESSES. They include malaria. By means of stethoscope, medical doctors can diagnose this type of sickness. 

Concerning sicknesses that afflict the physical body the Bible gives only four reasons:

         i.            For the glory of God to be made manifest,

        ii.            Due to un-confessed sin,

      iii.            Due to the violation of natural laws, and

      iv.            Demon-inspired sicknesses - Spiritual causes.

a) For the glory of God to be made manifest (Jn. 11:1-4; Jn. 9:1-3). This man’s blindness was for a purpose: It’s like so that Jesus could heal him, and by so doing call attention to Himself, who He is and to the Father who sent Him.

Apostle Paul had an infirmity that fits into this category (2 Cor. 12:7-9). If this happen to be your lot, and you have a sickness for the glory of God to be made manifest, then you should learn to say as Paul did, “For I have learned that in whatever state (situation) I am, therewith to be content” (Phil. 4:11).

This is true: No amount of prayer will remove an affliction that is for the glory of God.

b) Due to un-confessed sin: In 1 Corinthians 11:28-32 we read about weaknesses, and an early death coming upon believers when they would not confess their sins, and God had to judge them (1 Cor. 11:30-33).

Sickness that came because of that sin in your life is a judgment by the LORD. However, such a sickness can be removed if you make things right with God.

If you have made things right with the Lord and the sickness persists, then the sickness is likely due to the violation of God’s natural laws or it is demon inspired.

c) The violation of God’s natural laws: There are some natural laws that God put in place concerning your physical body. If you violate any of these laws your physical body will breakdown and your whole body will suffer for it.

Look at what the Bible says:

Matthew 21:12-13 says, “And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, 13 And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.” 

Jesus drove away all the people that defiled the temple. He was simply purifying the temple.

As a child of God, you are that temple of the living God.

2 Corinthians 6:16 says, “And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

You are the temple of the living God because the Holy Spirit dwells in your spirit-man.

1 Corinthians 3:16-17 says, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”

Here is the hard truth: God will destroy anyone that defiles His temple.

1 Corinthians 3:17 says, “If any man defiles the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”

In what ways can one defile the temple of the living God? The temple of God can be defiled in two ways:  1) Sexual Immorality, and 2) by violating the natural laws.

Sexual Immorality defiles the Temple of God: Sexual immorality is the only category of sins a man commits against God, the society, his spirit, his soul and his own body.

Sexual Immorality affects your physical body negatively. 1 Corinthians 6:18 says, “Flee (run away) from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the (physical) body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body” (NLT).

Sexual immorality will create a doorway through which evil spirits will enter and live in your soul and body (Eccl. 10:8). It will bring sexually transmissible diseases like AIDS, Mycoplasma genitalium (MG), Gonorrhea, Syphilis, Herpes etc., into your life (Prov. 5:11-14).

d) Demon-inspired sicknesses. These are physical sicknesses that are inspired by demons. Doctors cannot diagnose this type.

Next Sunday, we are going to look at how one can violate the natural laws.

Watch out for the next edition of Good news from the Pulpit!

• Your friend: I. I. MADUBUNYI (Senior Pastor)                                        24.09. 2017.