HOW TO REMAIN HEALED!

We have seen that there are two causes of sickness: (1) Natural Causes due to the violation of natural laws, and (2) Spiritual Causes due to demonic possession. In the case of sickness due to natural causes, simply avoid violating the natural laws. But for sicknesses due to demonic possession, a number of things have to be put into consideration.

One thing is to be healed, another thing is to remain healed. So, today, we want to see from the Scriptures - “HOW TO KEEP YOUR HEALING!”

Colossians 1:13 says, “Who hath delivered us from the power [dominion] of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:”

Which darkness? Ephesians 6:12 says, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

The Bible says that we have been delivered from the power or dominion of darkness. It is an accomplished fact.

However, many Christians mistakenly think that the battle is all over once they have been healed. You must realize that the devil never gives up on you. He will come back and do everything in his power to reassert his control over you. You must therefore be prepared for his counterattacks.

Jesus knows you could lose your healing. That was why He told us saying, “But hold fast what you have till I come” (Rev. 2:25). Why hold fast to it if you can’t lose it? There is an enemy arrayed against you who is doing his best to bring you back into bondage if you allow him.

In view of this fact, the Bible warns us saying, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Gal 5:1).

Remember that it was for the sake of freedom that Christ made us free. How can anyone desire to go into prison again?

Friend, the battle to keep away the demons from your life and you remain delivered (healed) will be eight times fiercer than it was to get them out in the first instance. Hearken to the warnings of Jesus: the demons that have gone out of any man will seek to return (Matt. 12:43-45).

If therefore, you have been delivered from the spirit of infirmity and you don’t stop doing the very thing that broke your hedge of protection (Eccl. 10:8), and gave the spirit of infirmity the legal right to come into your life to put that sickness and disease upon your life, that same spirit of infirmity will come back eight times stronger and that sickness will be eight times worst.

This was why Jesus said to that man who had an infirmity for thirty and eight years that He healed, “Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee” (Jn. 5:14).

Realize that Christ did not just set us free. He made us free. What is the difference between “setting free” and “making free?” Now listen, when you are set free, you are simply released from the prison the way you are. The crime that took you to prison in the first place is still with you. The door of the prison is opened and you are asked to come out. If you have been a criminal in your prison room, you come out of the prison still a criminal. But when Christ makes you free, He first of all transforms you right inside your prison room, imparts divine nature into you, opens the prison door and asks you to come out a totally different (changed) person. Christ then advises you to go and keep standing firm, staying away from anything that could bring you back to that prison room again.

Once the devil is driven out, you should immediately rebuild the broken walls of protection around you.

Therefore, to remain free from demonic bondage you should:

1. Be genuinely Born Again (Jn. 3:3-7; Rom. 10: 9-10). To have victory over the spirit of infirmity you must be born of God. You have to make the God of heaven your very own father.

In 1 John 5:4-5 the Bible says, “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world (lust). And this is THE VICTORY THAT HAS OVERCOME THE WORLD — our faith. 5 Who is he that overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

In 1 John 4:4 the Scriptures say, “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them because He who is in you is greater than he (the devil) who is in the world “.

2. Confess and forsake any known sin as soon as you are aware of it (1 Jn. 1:9; Prov. 28:13; Prov. 16:6; Isa. 1:18-20; Isa. 43:25).

3. Give thanks to God. You should adopt an attitude of thanksgiving and gratitude for what God has done. Even if you are not sure yet of all that has happened, you can express your faith by thanking the Lord. Go ahead and thank Him for healing you of your sickness and disease. Go ahead and thank Him for making you free.

Appreciate God for what He has done for you. A good example is the story of the ten lepers (Lk. 17:11-19). In verse 15, the Bible records that it was only one person out of the ten that came to give thanks to God for healing him of leprosy. Leprosy is a very awful (bad) skin disease.

4. Testify. In Revelations 12:11 the Bible says, “And they overcame him (the devil and his demons) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”

You ought to testify of what the Lord has done for you before the congregation of His saints. With this testimony you overcome Satan and his demons.

The Bible says, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hands of the enemy” (Ps. 107:2).

As you testify about what Jesus has done for you, three things will happen: (a) Your faith will become stronger and you’ll of a truth not weaver from what the Lord has done for you, (b) The faith of those that hear you will also grow to the point that they would also want to give Jesus a chance to make them free too, and (c) God will be glorified by both the person that received the deliverance (Lk. 13:13; Lk. 17:15), and also by the people that got to know what the Lord has done (Mk. 2:12; Lk. 7:16).

5. Know what to do when the symptoms reappear. Realize that you got healed (i) on someone’s faith, or (ii) by the manifestation of the Spirit of God. Yes, you could be healed by a special manifestation initiated by the Spirit of God (through the Gifts of the Holy Spirit like the Gifts of Healings, the gift of working of miracles etc.) operating in the life of the man of God.

But then, after you get back on your own, Satan can take advantage of what you don’t know and begin to put the symptoms back on you.

It is your responsibility to resist the devil by vehemently refusing to accept those symptoms. When you get back home, you are not surrounded by faith any longer because you are empty of the Word of God (Isa. 5:13; Jn. 8:32). Faith is based on the Word of God you know and believe. The more the Word of God you know the greater your faith.

God guarantees you victory in every area of your life, including victory over the devil, only insofar as your life is directed and controlled by the Word of God. It is only with the Word of God that you can resist Satan (Jam. 4:7) when he comes with his suggestions.

Probably, the moment the signs of those symptoms showed up you said, “I thought the Lord healed me. I guess He really didn’t, because if He did, I won’t still be feeling this way.” And when you say that, you have just succeeded in opening the door for the devil to come in to release a new set of sicknesses and disease to your body.

Please realize that those symptoms are simply the devil knocking at your door for you to open the door for them to come in. Remember that the devil has no legal rights to force you to open your door. Therefore, he can never force you to do that. If you don’t open the door, he can never force his way through. But whosoever breaks the hedge, the serpent will come in and bite (Eccl. 10:8).

If the symptoms re-appear, the devil is simply camouflaging your sickness. If you accepted it, he will immediately put the sickness back on you good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over (Matt. 12:43-45). But if you don’t accept it, you’ll be like the man that built his house on the rock.

For you to remain healed, you must get to know the Lord personally through His Word. When you know that by His stripes you were healed some 2000 years ago; when you know that surely He has taken away not only your sicknesses and diseases but also the pains they cause; when you know that He Himself took your infirmities, and bore your sicknesses and diseases; when you know that in your spirit-man as well as you know in your head that one plus one is equal to two [1+ 1 = 2], and you accept it as the truth and nothing but the truth, then the devil has really lost all his power over you, because you have known and believed the Truth and the Truth has completely made you free, and if the Truth has made you free, then you are free in deed (Jn. 8:32, 36).

What then do you do when the symptoms reappear? When the symptoms re-appear, don’t fret; don’t be filled with fear. Recall the appropriate promise of God and simply laugh at the devil.

You must learn to say, “Devil, you can’t put that back on me!” The Lord has healed me so I won’t accept the sickness back. Devil, get behind me and get lost with the symptoms you brought with you. Devil, have you forgotten that Jesus whipped and defeated you some 2000 years ago? (Col. 2:14-15). Have you forgotten how Jesus twisted your neck on the Cross at Calvary? Now, you leave my body and get lost in Jesus’ name.”

If you say this, the devil will disappear immediately because he is a very big coward, a trespasser, a stranger in your body and a stranger must go. One thing you must know is that the devil can never resist the Word of God.

So to resist the devil whenever the symptoms reappear, you MUST learn to stand in faith by standing on whatever God has promised us in His Word.

6. Live by the Word of God. Beloved, no one can keep his/her healing without the Word of God being the primary factor in his/her life.

Why Romans 1:16 says, “…the power of God unto salvation [deliverance, healing], to all that believe….”

Memorize the Scriptures and be a doer of the Word (Jam. 1:22). This is very important for everyone both before and after deliverance. It is important before deliverance because it helps you to overcome passivity (indifference). To be passive about something is to be inactively involved in that thing. To be passive is tending not to participate actively, and usually letting others make decisions.

7. Maintain right and regular fellowship with other serious-minded Christians. You should watch your association! Who are your friends? What type of people do you associate with? If you sincerely want to keep your deliverance (healing), you MUST immediately break off relationships that have a negative influence on you and begin to build up friendship with people of like mind who can influence you positively.

You should immediately depart from the old crowd. Why? Because that is the will of God (1 Cor. 15:33; 2 Cor. 6:14-18).

Listen beloved, it may be painful to severe ties with that your girl/boyfriend, family members whose influence on you is negative, but you must do that anyhow.

In Matthew 5:29-30 Jesus said, “If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.”

8. Control your thought life. You must control your thought life because sin begins in the mind. You should keep your heart (mind) with all diligence. How? By giving no place to impure thoughts. Cultivate spiritual thinking (Phil. 4:8).

“As a man thinketh in his heart so is he” (Prov. 23:7).

In Matthew 12:34 the Bible says, “For out of the abundance of the heart [mind] the mouth speaks.” Listen; if you think about something long enough, sooner or later you are going to do it.

Once you control your mind, you behaviour will be under control. So the moment a forbidden evil thought comes to your mind, flush it off your heart immediately. How? Condemn it as sin and utterly reject it. You should say out aloud, “I refuse to entertain that ungodly thought .It is wicked and dishonoring to the Lord. So I will not traffic with it.”  As you expel this stray ungodly thought, immediately fill your heart with the Truth by meditating on the Word of God. 

Isaiah 26:3 the Bible says, “God will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Him.”

Beloved, stay your heart continually on the Word of God.

9. Crucify the flesh (the traits you inherited from your ancestors; your old Adamic nature; your sinful nature; your carnal nature).

In Galatians 5:24 the Scriptures say, “And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affections (passions) and lusts (desires).”

If your fleshy desires, appetites and lusts are not brought to the cross, a way for the demons to re-enter your life will be wide open. Therefore to keep the demons away, you must die to self.

In John 12:24 Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”

You must bring self to the Cross. Why? Because the works of the flesh (Gal. 5:19-21) can only be crucified on the Cross.

Hence Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Lk. 9:23).

11. Continuously (always) be filled with the Holy Spirit. Be Spirit-filled! You ought to be baptized in the Holy Ghost. Thereafter, you ought to be continuously Spirit-filled. Here the Bible is not talking about a one-time experience, but about a lifestyle.

In Romans 8:1-2 the Scriptures say, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”

When you walk in the Spirit (when you walk according to the dictates of the Holy Spirit), you’ll not obey the commands (promptings, dictates) of the flesh (Gal. 5:16). Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, let the Holy Spirit fill and control you. When you are always Spirit-filled, you’ll also always be Spirit-led, and demons can therefore not find any vacant area in your life to occupy. There will be no room for the suggestions of the flesh, because the flesh has been crucified [put under, by waiting on the Lord].

12. Locate and fulfil your function in the Local Assembly where God has planted you. Be committed! Seek the Kingdom of God! Get involved in the work of the Lord in your Local Assembly where God has planted you. Don’t be a stranger in your own house! Don’t be a waste – a spiritual exhaust pipe in the house of the Lord where you have been healed. Being fully involved will get you busy enough in the right direction and keep your heart free from satanic assaults.

In Matthew 6:33 Jesus said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added [given] to you as well.”

In Ecclesiastes 9:10 the Bible says, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.”

13. Totally surrender (yield) to Christ. If your members are yielded to God, they will not be the captives of sin. Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to its lustful desires. Do not let any part of your body become a tool of wickedness, to be used for sinning. Instead, give yourselves completely to God since you have been given new life. And use your whole body as a tool to do what is right for the glory of God. Sin is no longer your master, for you are no longer subject to the law, which enslaves you to sin. Instead, you are free by God’s grace. So since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does this mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! Don’t you realize that whatever you choose to obey becomes your master? You can choose sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God and receive His approval (Rom. 6:13-14).

Do not use parts of your body to sin. Don’t use your hands to steal or to commit toucheology. Do not use your mouth to lie or slander people. Do not use your eyes to seduce or hypnotize people. Do not use your eyes to watch pornographic pictures. Do not use your genitals [your instrument] to commit immorality. Surrender your emotions, your desires, your will, your time, and your money to God.

14. Put on the garment of praise. Live a life of praise. It drives away every atmosphere of darkness. It drives away the spirit of heaviness. How? Praise invites God. It is written that God indwells [inhabits] the praises of His people (Ps. 22:3).

Isaiah 61:3 says, “To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified."

What is the spirit of heaviness? This is the spirit of depression. Depression is caused by the spirit of heaviness. When you praise God, the spirit of heaviness will not come near you. When you sincerely praise God the spirit of heaviness that is already affecting you will depart with immediate effect because praise rushers in the presence of God. In His presence there is healing, deliverance, promotion, needs are met because His presence carries the irresistible anointing that breaks the yoke. This brings in fullness of joy to the recipient.

It is therefore necessary that for you to keep your healing you should develop a lifestyle of praising and worshipping God. When you praise God in spirit and in truth (Jn. 4:23) you trouble the devil more than he can ever trouble you. When you praise God you torment the devil with His presence. This forces the devil to stay away from you.

Praise ushers you into the presence of God. No demon can stand the presence of God because our God is a consuming fire. Praise silences the devil and his demons. Praise is not an attitude of the heart; it is rather an expression of thankfulness to God for what He has done for you, for what He’s doing for you right now, and for what He will do for you in the future. This is adoration and joy by speaking, singing, shouting, dancing, leaping, playing musical instruments, clapping of hands etc. In Psalm 34:1 the Psalmist said, “ I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.”

Psalm 100:4 says, “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.”

When you thank God, His gates will be opened unto you for you to enter. But that does not bring you into His presence because you are still outside His courts. But when you begin to praise God, the very gates into His courts will be opened unto you to come right into His presence to obtain whatever you need, because in His presence there is deliverance; in His presence, there is healing; in His presence there is breakthroughs in every area of your life. In His presence, no sickness can attack you. So when you develop a lifestyle of praising God, you keep the demons that cause sickness and disease away from you.

15. Put on daily the whole armour of God. Now that you are wearing your garment of praise, God offers you a complete set of armour to put over it. Particularly the helmet of salvation, which protects [guards] your thought [your mind].

Demons seeking to re-enter you send fiery darts [in the form of suggestions, thoughts which lead to vain imaginations] into your mind. Therefore be watchful of any thoughts that are negative any thoughts that do not agree with Philippians 4:8. Resist the devil at this first sign of his attack. Give him no room to stay by your refusing to dwell on vain imaginations.

In Ephesians 4:27 the Bible says, “…..nor give place [room] to the devil.”

1 Peter 5:9 says, “Resist him [the devil], steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.”

How do you resist the devil? James 4:7 tells us how to do that. It is written, “Therefore (1) submit to God. (2) Resist the devil and (3) he will flee from you.”

16. Come under discipline: Keep yourself under authority. We can come under God’s protection only when we place ourselves under His authority. Jesus’ last orders to His disciples was to “go” and make disciples of all nations.

In Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.

A disciple is one who is under discipline. Jesus never instructed anyone to make “church members.” James 4:7 says, “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

2 Timothy 1:7 says, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind [self-discipline].”

You must therefore discipline yourself to have personal communion with God through His Word and in prayer.

16. Confess positively: Negative confession characterizes demonic influence. Every negative confession is a self-imposed curse, which automatically opens a door for the enemy to come into your life and torment/harass/intimidate/oppress you. As long as you confess negatively, you empower the demons to dominate you. You shall have whatsoever you say (Mk. 11:23-24).

If you have broken your hedge of protection and opened a door to demons by saying the wrong things, you need to cancel those negative things you said by saying the right things. The right thing is the Word of God – what God has said concerning that particular situation. Peter denied the Lord three times, but later on he unsaid the wrong things he earlier said (Jn. 21:15-17).

Confess what God said about your situation in His Word. Fill your mind with the spiritual truths (Col. 3:16; 2 Tim. 2:15). Confess these spiritual truths regularly [daily], and allow them to build up your spirit-man. They will produce spiritual strength and faith in your life.

17. Ensure that you have gone through water baptism since you got Born Again (not before you got Born Again):

In Mark 16:15-16 Jesus said, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”

Baptism is an outward manifestation of an inward reality. If you are not baptized by immersion, you have not completed the process of salvation. Water baptism makes your salvation complete. We are saved from the world by faith in the blood of Jesus. But we are separated from the world by passing through the water of baptism. Water baptism cuts you off from the kingdom of Satan.

The demons have no legal grounds to follow you through the water of baptism; else they will be tormented and destroyed like Pharaoh’s soldiers (Ex. 14:1-31).

Beloved, taking the above seventeen steps will help you to stand firm in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free for if the Son makes you free you shall be free indeed (Gal. 5:1; Jn. 8:36). Hallelujah!

Watch out for the edition of Good News from the pulpit

• Your friend, I. I. MADUBUNYI (Head Pastor).                                19.11.2017