Is it possible to lose the healing that you received from God? Could you have been healed from a disease, a physical ailment only to have it come back? This is perhaps a vexing question to some. Yet the fact that those who have been healed may subsequently suffer the same ailment is not as unforeseen as some may think.
Let us consider some possible reasons. For example, if you suffered from a bad flu and God healed you supernaturally. You may be fine until you next succumb to a flu virus. Just because God heals you from a disease does not necessarily mean you become immune to it. Being healed and becoming immune are quite different altogether. Becoming immune may require the continual suspension of the natural laws of nature that God put into place. Something which I believe God is reluctant to do at this time.
Another case is when God healed you from a broken leg, making it totally whole. To test out the strength of your healed leg, you may decide a jump off a small cliff only to find that you break both your legs. The healing of a broken leg does not make you resistant to breaking your leg again. Again, to do so requires the suspension of the natural laws of physics. Your bones only have a certain limit to its flexural strength. Once exceeded by hitting a hard object with sufficient force, it will break.
Consider another possibility where God heals you from brittleness of the bones due to your old age. Yet 5 years later, it returns. Did God’s healing lose effect? Unlikely. What has happened is simply the natural process of aging leading to the deterioration of your bone structure and brittleness. As we grow older all kinds of deterioration occurs in our bodies and subsequently we become more vulnerable to all kinds of ailment. God may have restored your bones’ strength, but age simply catches up eventually. Age catches up with every human being because God has ordained it to be so.
Frivolous examples, you might say. Well, let’s progress to more complex examples. What if you had a certain genetic defect that makes you go blind eventually? Let’s assume you were partially blind before God healed you of the blindness. God may restore your sight, but unless God changed your genetic makeup, the deterioration in eyesight will continue again. God can change our genetic makeup, particularly if it is a genetic defect. But keep in mind that our genetic defect is part and parcel of the effects of sin in humankind which includes ageing and death itself. Some things God will only tackle fully when we are resurrected with glorified bodies.
Once we have received healing from God, there are 2 main areas we have to maintain.
The first is an appropriately healthy lifestyle.
If God heals us of diabetes and we continue to eat excessively, we will eventually have obesity problems and face diabetes again. If God healed us of high cholesterol but we continue to eat fatty food and lack exercise, then the high cholesterol will return. If God healed us of back problems and we proceed to exert ourselves physically in a way that overstrains our back, we may well develop back problems again. So it is crucial that we take personal responsibility to maintain a healthy lifestyle with by eating appropriately balanced diets, exercise appropriately and so forth.
The second, is maintaining a healthy spiritual lifestyle.
A significant contributor to poor health and sickness is a defective emotional and spiritual state. It is well known that continual stress can cause various kinds of medical conditions. In fact, our emotional and spiritual state affects our bodies. When we are emotionally unhealthy, our bodily functions may be thrown off kilter and if it continues over the long-term can lead to permanent damage.Unforgiveness, bitterness, discouragement, fears are some key triggers of ill health. For example, some arthritis may be triggered by bitterness. God may heal us but if we continue to harbour bitterness, the arthritis may return. Further, continual harbouring of sin in our hearts can open the door for demonic oppression. Once this occurs, the complexity increases as we now have the added component of the demonic involved.
When we are spiritually healthy, we are filled with joy, peace and love. Our soul and spirit are being cleansed and the effects will be reflected in a healthier body.
Maintaining our healing is our responsibility. By living a responsible and healthy lifestyle both physically and spiritually, we will enjoy the healing God has given us.
Written by Dr Wilson Lim, Hope Church Brisbane