Release
Your
Healing.
Testimony: Olivia Healed of Mono
Olivia went with me to Pawley's Island, South Carolina for a week beach trip with my two oldest brothers and their big families. It was incredible. We got pitted on some killer waves. Reality: My body board was pink-ish and had dolphins on it. Once we'd been in the water for 6 solid hours, our family-of-15 would trek back, get showered, and go for an evening dinner + ice cream. Rinse repeat everyday. Friday, the last day of our trip, Olivia started to feel funky.
Olivia is real sweet and goofy. When you're sick, your normal goes to the wayside. Her smiles turned into a worried face. She has dealt with debilitating sickness most of her life. When you go through life-stopping disease, fear of returning back into the void whispers in your ear with every cold and sniffle.
Olivia Shares
I began to feel shortness of breath, abdomen pain, nausea, extreme headache and had no appetite. Because of preexisting health conditions (POT Syndrome) fear began tell me something might be really wrong. I went to the ER and was diagnosed with mono. My heart sank. POTS causes normal sicknesses to last twice as long.
I started sleeping all day. I had no energy. My head was throbbing. I had vertigo. I was constantly on the verge of throwing up. My throat was purple. My spleen and liver were inflamed and pushed on my lungs to where I couldn’t take a deep breath. Five days after my diagnosis as I lay in bed with throbbing joints, John Mark calls me. He had been talking about healing everyday but I was annoyed by it. My heart was so closed off. I knew what to expect from my body. I knew that I was going to feel worse for longer than most people.
Something about this conversation pierced me though. I kept saying: “I’m really connecting with what you’re saying.” We talked about how our beliefs become our reality. By exalting the doctor's diagnosis over God's Word, I was allowing sickness to master my situation. My heart opened more and more and I began feeling energized. My mind cleared. A forty-five minute conversation later, I stood up in my kitchen and a warmth come over my whole body; head to toe. I got a huge surge of uncontainable energy and turned on John Mayer for a half-hour dance party. I had been healed!
Over a year later and I have had absolutely no symptoms. Plus, I have more energy than I normally ever do. I've been working all day at a consistent pace with no problems. I don't even have to sit or rest. When you open up your heart to His truth, let your own perceptions fall away, you can unlock the power He has readily available at all times. I understood it in a new way. It changed from being knowledge in my head to tangible faith in my heart. I know now that healing is fully possible in Jesus name. Amen!
Update: Olivia was healed of her incurable heart disease, POTS, when she got touched. Also: gluten intolerance. So pizza is a thing now.
Galatians 3:13
Christ paid the full price to set us free from the curse of the law. He absorbed it completely as he became a curse in our place. For it is written: "Everyone who hangs on a tree is doubly cursed."
Olivia is healed and it's awesome. Praise the LORD! Notice how she just opened up and received. Faith is restful receiving. I've seen her heart softening in a new, special way. Glory. She experienced, first-hand, the warmth of God. I could just stop here and say "Yay, God" but I want to share some of the truths I shared with Olivia.
The Atonement of Christ
I used to think God gave people sickness to teach them patience and what not. Turns out that the devil is the one oppressing people with sickness and then deceiving us with: "It was God." That's the #1 trick-of-the-trade. God has irrevocably stamped his seal of approval for our healing at the Cross. He, Himself, bore our sicknesses and diseases on the same tree that He bore our sins. Why would He pay for something that He doesn't want to take? If I'm buying a TV at Walmart I'm taking it with me. Give God what He paid for. God would no sooner advocate sin than He would advocate for you to be sick. When someone commits murder we don't say it's God. When someones sick we do though. We'll never believe for healing if we have the slightest inkling that God is behind it. I never persevered in faith when healing didn't come immediately. I'd just say: "Maybe it's not God's will" and move on.
What sealed the deal for me was: Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us on the Cross (Galatians 3:13). You can literally go see the curses of the law Jesus redeemed you from in Deuteronomy 28. Hint: all sickness is included. The Cross actually gives you a legal right in the courtrooms of heaven to be free from sickness. We've already got healing! We're not fighting for it, we're standing in victory from a finished work. This solid foundation is how faith becomes a rest. God wants you well more than you do.
As You Have Believed
Renewing your mind might be the biggest key to healing. I had to unlearn most of what I was taught. What you believe is what you receive (Matthew 21:22). This is the reality that shook Olivia. Agreement with truth opens the door of life. Agreement with a lie opens the door of death. What you agree with is powerful. Knowing truth sets us free (John 8:32). This was a nice, weak cliche when I was a bound Christian. And then I'd blame God for my crappy situations. Maybe the lack of abundant life is because what you're believing is actually bearing bad fruit and you need to repent (change your beliefs). Religious thought bears a resemblance to truth but is rotten and cannot produce healing. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:2). Your transformation is inescapably linked to your thinking.
You are three parts: spirit, soul, body. You've got all of God in your Christ-infused spirit. That's where your healing is. Soul parts: mind, will and emotions. The soul is the valve that releases all the goodies of Christ in us into our body. As your mind renews, the valve opens and Christ's life on the inside pours out. Every single thing Christ paid for us on the Cross is already ours in Him. We're not trying to move God. He's already moved. We're not trying to convince Him. He's trying to convince us! Renew the mind, release the Spirit.
Our Authority in Christ
I was completely unaware of the authority given me in Christ and I wallowed in death for my lack of knowledge. I waited on God to heal my entire Christian life because that's how I believed it worked. "If it be Your will, Oh God". Turned out He was working on me to believe I already had healing and just needed to release it by faith. I stopped asking God to heal and started telling sickness to leave. "You have no right in the temple of God. I know my rights." And I started seeing healing in my life and in others. As a co-Christ, you have been given His authority and you can enforce His laws to the powers that be. You have power of attorney. You can sign checks in His name and cash out the resources of heaven. In many arenas, we're waiting for God to express Himself when God expresses His nature through us! We've been submitting to sickness and allowing it to master over us when Kings ought not be controlled by a shady den of thieves. The Lord wants us to wake up to the truth of who He's made us in Christ and begin taking dominion. We have authority over our body, over our emotions, over sickness and over the devil. We're meant to reshape nations and transform culture by bringing heaven's heart to earth. All of creation is groaning!
Christ In The Scriptures
I have never been able to get this saying out of my mind: If you want to know what God is really like look at Jesus. He is the carbon-copy expression of God's heart and His life on earth was swimming with healings left and right. He would heal entire towns. He "went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil" (notice who the scriptures indict for sickness). Jesus never gave anyone sickness. "Here's some leprosy you impatient sack-of-potatoes." Dwelling on the loveliness of Jesus and His healing-nature ignites my heart both to receive and give healing. See the drama of the Scriptures. See yourself in the story and Jesus still wonderfully saying, "I am willing!".
Union with Christ
This might be the greatest mystery of the Gospel: We have been joined together as one with the Lord. We've been so lied to with self-righteous, religious doo-doo. The good news yells, "Done!" In your spirit-man, you are as righteous, holy, healed and free as Jesus Himself. That's who you are in Christ. (Mind set on unseen). This crushes the flesh; self-effort, man-made glory. It's all done. It's all Grace. You are complete in Him! As He is so am I in this world. He's bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. Christ is the head. We are the body. Christ is the vine. We are the branches. I used to think healing was out there somewhere. Actually, all the healing you'll ever need is inside you. We've got the eternal well of life in our Christ-infused-spirit! That life is dispensed to our mortal bodies through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. We've just got to open the valve! Christ in you: the hope (confident expectation) of glory (the manifestation of His goodness).
The more my mind is renewed, the more I can no longer identify myself apart from my marriage-union with Christ. Does Christ have sickness? Then I shouldn't either! (Sidenote: He's also free from addiction. You can be effortlessly set free by the Holy Spirit as you rest in Christ-truths). As our mind is renewed, we blossom grace-fully into the full stature of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Our thinking has been overwhelmingly Christ-less giving the Holy Spirit nothing to release and so we're eating the fruit of that stinkin' thinkin' and needlessly submitting to a defeated enemy. As soon as Olivia received real truth in her heart, the Holy Spirit bore witness to the truth and healing rushed her mortal body! Wake up to righteousness, oh you sleeper! You've been fused as one with your King-Husband. Let this union become real in your heart and mind and let Christ wonder-fully express His healing-nature in and through you.
Romans 8:11
But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Faith works through Love
I led worship at a small, outdoor event recently and heard the Lord say, "I want to heal lower backs." At the end of the night I asked anyone with back problems to come forward for prayer and three young ladies responded. I prayed for the first girl, "Pain, leave." It went from a pain level 9 down to a 5. She looked wide-eyed. I kept telling the pain to go until it was down to a zero. She was healed! Exactly the same thing happened with the second girl. I told the pain to leave and it left. Years of back problems gone in a few moments. I repeated on the third girl and: nothing. I tried a few more times and still no result. I took a moment to pray in the Spirit and then asked the Lord, "What do I do?" I listened and knew she needed to receive the Father's love. We chatted a good long while and by the end of our conversation the Holy Spirit had quickened her heart to His Father's embrace. She sobbed and sobbed, let go of her pain and received His love. I asked her, "Does your back still hurt?" She was completely healed.
Healing flows through relationship. You can know the principles of healing but only the Holy Spirit knows exactly what we each need. Lean into His heart and follow His every word. I've commanded pain to leave til I'm red in the face and it's all been from unrest. Frantic dead-works. Then the Lord settles me down and quiets me in His love. You just let everything else fall away and enjoy His affection. My heart is the storm that Jesus calms. It's from this sweetness that faith is effortlessly born. Faith works through love. If nothing else, let His love wash over you and everything else will fall into place.
These were the truths that bore the fruit of healing in Olivia's body. Sometimes it happens immediately. Sometimes faith bears fruit with patient confidence. Truth is like seed being planted in your heart. Little seeds grow into huge trees; big-fat fruit-trees with enough juicy-goodness for even other people to partake. Here are some simple practices you can exercise to release the healing Christ provided. These help turn the valve of your soul by richly dwelling on the word of Christ. You could spend copious amounts of time on each one. You could do just one. Or all of them. Try not to get formulaic or dogmatic. Foster your personal relationship with your heavenly Papa as you engage these. He wants you well. Start agreeing with Him!
Release Your Healing
Take slow, calming breaths.
Receive fresh grace. Let His love wash over you.
Just let your heart rest in Christ's Word: "Finished".
You are righteous in Christ.
See Jesus taking your sickness at the Cross.
See Him giving you His health.
Receive Communion.
Pray and sing in tongues.
Ask the Holy Spirit to show you how to receive what's yours.
Give the Holy Spirit space to speak to your heart.
Quiet yourself and know He's one with you.
See yourself in union with Christ right now seated in heaven.
See the Father's smile beaming over you.
Release your offenses.
Speak to the symptoms and sickness. Tell them to leave.
Dwell on healing Scriptures.
Cling to the verses the Holy Spirit quickens to you.
Sing songs of praise.