Hindrances to Healing



Hindrances to Healing

Written by: Joseph Lyles

When teaching on healing, it is important to discuss what hinders people from receiving healing. If you are to receive healing, you will need to know what hinders you, so you can bring it before the Lord and ask him to help you deal with it. It’s also important to know what some of these hindrances are if you’re going to minister healing to the sick. The purpose of this article is to show some of the things that can hinder people from both receiving healing and ministering healing to others. As you read, ask God to show you anything that may be hindering you.

1. Not knowing God’s will (Lack of knowledge)

In order to receive healing, a person needs to know that God wants to heal them. If a person doesn’t know that it’s God’s will to heal them, they won’t have the faith to receive it. We must have an understanding that God wants to heal us. I believe we need to know that God has an intense desire to heal the sick. In John 8:32 we read these words that Jesus said, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” To receive freedom in an area of our lives, we need to know the truth that God wants to set us free and has already done it through Jesus’ death on the cross. It’s the same with healing: we receive freedom from sickness when we know the truth that “by His stripes we are healed.” I saw this in my own life: I had very little faith for healing at one time, and when I prayed for healing I would either pray “If it be your will” or I would pray in a way that was begging God and hoping He would do it. Basically, I was bound by unbelief and lack of knowledge in that area. Then, when I went to Bible school, the Lord used a “Divine Healing” class to reveal the truth to me that healing is part of salvation. When I learned that truth, the Lord began setting me free from my previous unbelief. I started praying for people, expecting them to be healed. I prayed, knowing that Jesus has already done it. Learning that truth brought faith to me.

2. Focusing on symptoms

2Corinthians 5:7 says, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” And yet how may people today, even Christians, find themselves controlled by what they feel? If we pray for someone and don’t see an immediate change we assume they didn’t get healed. If you are praying for a sick person and they don’t get an immediate healing and the Lord tells you to pray again, then by all means pray again if the person will let you, but don’t assume they didn’t get healed just because they feel the same as before. Faith is not based on what we see. “Walking by sight” is being controlled by what we see and feel while “walking by faith” is being controlled by who God is and what He says. For us to know who God is and what He says, we need to spend time with Him and read His word. I can’t stress enough the importance of spending time in the presence of God every day. If we would all do this more, surely our faith would rise to new levels and we would see the sick healed. I encourage you to decide now to believe in Jesus as the healer, regardless of any feelings or symptoms and decide now (without waiting to feel better) that no matter what, your focus will be on God.

3. An atmosphere of unbelief

Matthew 13:58 says, “Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” In Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth there was an atmosphere of unbelief. Many times, that atmosphere can be a hindrance to healing. I live in an area of the country where there is a lot of unbelief in the area of healing. There is a lot of “religion” in East Texas that has created atmosphere of unbelief for healing. The people we spend time with have an influence on us. If we spend time with people of faith, it will help our faith to grow, but if we spend time with people who always complain and speak doubt and unbelief, who will we find ourselves being like? This is why it’s important for us to go to church: spending time with other believers is something God uses to encourage us and build up our faith. I encourage you to surround yourself with people of faith, and as you do it will help you have faith for healing yourself.

4. Not taking care of your body

Galatians 6:7 says, “…whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” And surely that can apply in this case as well. It’s like a person who smokes praying for God to help them quit their cigarette habit, but they keep smoking. What is it saying if we pray for healing, but we keep eating foods that we shouldn’t eat? God has given us this body to take care of, not to abuse. What we eat isn’t the only thing, but not getting enough sleep or exercise are things we should look at. Yes, Jesus is the Healer, and He does have supernatural power to undo what we have brought on because of our mistakes, but that doesn’t leave us free to keep doing what we’ve always done. Its like my pastor frequently says: “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got.” When you receive healing, I would encourage you to prayerfully consider what changes you can make in your lifestyle to take better care of your body.

5. Past failures

What happens when you pray for someone and they don’t get healed? At that point, we have a choice: we can either let it stop us from healing the sick, or we can keep going. When Jesus came down from the mountain after His transfiguration, He encountered a man who had brought his son to the disciples to be healed, but they failed to heal him (Mark 9:14-28). That man had a choice: He could have decided to believe that since the disciples had failed God was either unwilling or unable to heal. But he didn’t do that. He went to Jesus and asked Him. I picture that father waiting at the mountain for Jesus to come down. This man refused to give up, even though he had encountered a failure. What happened then does not determine who God is or what His will is. If a kid is trying to learn to ride a bike and he falls off, the parent doesn’t say, “Well, I guess it’s not God’s will for my kid to ride a bike.” Instead, they encourage the kid to get back on and keep trying. If you have prayed for someone and they didn’t get healed, keep going. God will show you if there is anything you need to work on. Your job is to be obedient to go out and heal the sick. Don’t let anything stop you!

6. False teaching

In Mark 7:5-13, we read the account of how Jesus rebuked the scribes and Pharisees for exalting their traditions over the word of God. This is expressed in Mark 7:13 where Jesus says, “making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.” How many people have done this today with healing? There are doctrines stating that miracles and healing ended when the New Testament was written or that God sometimes uses sickness to teach us lessons or other such things. When we study what God’s word says about healing it becomes clear that healing is still for today and that God wants to heal, and yet there are all these traditions that have been exalted above God’s word. These false teachings are a hindrance to both receiving and ministering healing. This is why it’s important for us to know the truth, so when this hindrance comes up, we will be able to answer it from the word of God. In many of these articles, I have encouraged you to study the Bible, and the reason is that we need to be rooted and grounded in the truth if we are to be effective in ministering. What happens when the enemy tries to come along and whisper his lies in our ears to get us to doubt? Will we give in or will we stand on what God has said and say, “It is written”?

7. Not discerning the Lord’s Body

1Corinthians 11:29-30-“For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep”

The Scripture above is talking about taking communion. Is it possible that “not discerning the Lord’s body,” refers to not having an understanding of healing in Jesus’ atonement? When we take communion, something spiritual takes place. Once when I took communion, the Holy Spirit used it to close an open door that was allowing the enemy to come against me. And it happened as my pastor spoke about how every need we have has been provided for in Jesus’ sacrifice. This is also true for healing. Isn’t a lot of the Body of Christ today “weak and sickly?” Could it be because we have missed part of the benefit of Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf? It’s time to repent and take communion with a full understanding of all that He did for us.

8. Trusting in man instead of God

In 2 Chronicles 16:12-13 we read, “And in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet, and his malady was severe; yet in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but the physicians. So Asa rested with his fathers; he died in the forty-first year of his reign.”

It’s interesting to note in this passage how it says concerning Asa, king of Judah, that when he had a disease, “He did not seek the Lord, but the physicians. So Asa rested with his father; he died in the forty-first year of his reign.” The word “so” seems to indicate (to me) that the reason he didn’t get his healing was because he sought the help of man rather than God. I want to take a moment to be very clear that I am not against doctors or anyone in the medical field. I believe that doctors are a great blessing and that God uses them to bring relief to those who are suffering physically. But ultimately, sickness is a physical problem with a spiritual cause. The doctor operates only in the natural. It’s not wrong to go to a doctor, and if you take medicine, it’s not a lack of faith. It’s an issue of where your heart is and whether or not you’re being obedient (the Lord may tell you to go the doctor). However, many times, trusting in man and man’s methods can be a hindrance to receiving healing. If people had as much faith in God as they did in their medicine, imagine the supernatural healings we would see!

9. Waiting to believe

Mark 9:23-24 says, “Jesus said to him, ‘If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.’ Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, ‘Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!’ ”

In the Scripture quoted above, a father was bringing his son to Jesus to be healed (this is part of a passage referred to earlier in this article) after the apostles had failed to do so. Notice that the father didn’t say, “I’ll believe after you help my unbelief.” He said “I believe (present tense); help my unbelief.” He made the decision to believe at that moment, even while struggling with unbelief. It was then that he said, “Help my unbelief!” You may say, “I just don’t have enough faith to receive healing.” My response is that Jesus does, and you can ask Him for help. You can pray the same prayer this father prayed, and you will receive help. The Bible says (in Romans 12:3) that everyone has a measure of faith. God has put some faith in every person, enough to get started. Your faith grows after you believe with where you’re at right now. Notice also that Jesus said, “All things are possible to him who believes.” That is a word you can stand on for your healing. Jesus spoke that word to give the man a promise to focus on instead of the disciples’ failure.

This list is by no means complete, but I pray that this article helps you in identifying and dealing with those things that may be hindering your faith for healing. I believe that as you pray, the Lord will “help your unbelief” and your faith for healing will grow dramatically.

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