Removing Barriers to Healing

Often, issues within the hearts and lives of God’s people act as barriers to healing. Seven common such barriers are:

1. Ignorance of God’s Word (see Isaiah 5:13; Hosea 4:6);
2. Unbelief (see Hebrews 3:12–13);
3. Unconfessed sin (see Proverbs 28:13);
4. Resentment and unforgiveness toward others (see Mark 11:25–26);
5. Occult involvement (see Exodus 23:24–26);
6. Unscriptural covenants, i.e., Freemasonry (see Exodus 23:31–33); and,
7. The effects of a curse (see Deuteronomy 28:15–68).

Sometimes sicknesses are caused by, or associated with, the presence of evil spirits. Let’s look at just one example from the gospel of Luke.

“When the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them. And demons [evil spirits] also came out of many, crying out.” (Luke 4:40–41)

When the supernatural power of God comes into operation, evil spirits cannot stand it any longer; they have to come out.

There are different ways in which evil spirits are associated with sickness. There are spirits of infirmity, pain, crippling, and death, to name only four. Jesus encountered a woman who was bent double and could not stand up straight. Rather than treat her condition as a physical ailment, He said that she had been bound by a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years. Then, He loosed her from the spirit, and she immediately straightened up (see Luke 13:11–13).