Strongholds and Divine Healing
in the Body of Christ

By Jim Lynn, Copyrighted 2007

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Background:

The bodies of many people (both in and out of the Church) are being ravaged by sickness and disease, which the Christian Church seems helpless to counteract. This is troubling since sickness and disease are strongholds of Satan: They are not of God. As Christians, many fail to connect the dots between sickness, disease and evil (unclean spirits or strongholds).

Many Christians accept sickness and disease as normal. And we fail to see how the saving (healing) Gospel of Jesus Christ has authority over unclean spirits and evil strongholds today. This is most costly to the mission of the Church.

Our Body is One Flesh With Christ’s Body:

When we were baptized into Christ Jesus, our fleshly (soma) bodies were also baptized to become one flesh with His fleshly (soma) body (Romans 6:3ff). This is a great mystery and explained by Paul, who using the illustration of marriage, wrote:

 And again to the Church in Corinth, he wrote:

This is also why Peter quoted David on the Day of Pentecost:

These verses affirm our fleshly body is one with the fleshly body of Jesus Christ, who overpowered death and all our infirmities through His suffering, death and resurrection. – Isaiah 53: 4-5; I Peter 2:24

 So what does this truth have to do with sickness, disease and healing of our bodies in the Church today?

To begin...the Church IS His Body (Eph.1: 22). We became members of His Body through the act of baptism (Romans 6:3-4).

 In explaining the concept of One Body with many parts, Paul wrote,

So does it make sense to anyone that God accepts or is pleased to allow disease and sickness within His Body? If so, it is like saying Jesus is sick in body, because we are sick in body. After all, if our body is part of His Body, then His body is also part of our own body. This is what the concept of two bodies’ of flesh dwelling (fused together) as one means (both physically and spiritually).

Disease and sickness are strongholds of Satan, not of God. Why else did Jesus heal the sick at every opportunity? Satan’s purpose is to weaken our faith and our service in the Body of Christ. What easier way is there for him to do that then through inflicting our bodies’ with disease?

 Can we not see that when one member of the Body suffers with illness and disease, it affects the whole Body? Can we not see that when one member suffers, Christ suffers? But Christ overcame suffering. So by ignoring or disclaiming Christ to heal our body through divine power, do we not mock all that Jesus suffered in body for? Have we not erased half of the Gospel? The answer to that question is, “Yes!” to both questions.

 That many of us hold to a doctrine that teaches divine healing ended with the coming of perfection (interpreted as the completion of the New Testament) in I Corinthians 13:10 has devastated the healing power of the Gospel. It has caused many to lose faith in God, and has robbed God of workers by sending many of them to an early grave.

 Any doctrine that teaches divine healing is/was temporary flies in the face of everything else the inspired Apostle, Paul, penned. Why else would he write:

What was the life of Jesus? What two things did he do over and over again in His Ministry? He healed the sick and preached of the Kingdom! So how can His life be revealed in our mortal bodies? Through doing the same things: By healing the sick in His name and preaching the Gospel!

And again...

Disease and sickness are Satan’s strongholds. And what does Paul say of the weapons we are to use to defeat strongholds? The weapons we use are not of this world, but have DIVINE POWER to destroy strongholds!

 Divine power! That means you and I have access to DIVINE POWER through faith in Jesus to heal us, confession of sin, anointing with oil and prayer to overcome sickness and disease: This through the sacrificed, healing, saving Body of our resurrected Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

 Jesus knew it would be His human, fleshly body that would overpower death and all evil strongholds for our benefit. This is why when he read from the Scroll of Isaiah 61:1-2 saying, “He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed…” that He said aloud to everyone, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

 So why do Church elders and Church leaderships today counsel the chronically ill to seek out secular medicine and ungodly physicians, as though it and they can demolish spiritual strongholds that threaten the sick? I am speaking of allopathic medicine, which is directly responsible for killing millions of people every year. No one has a good answer to that question because there is no good answer.

 You see the question is not about secular medicine, but about the Church? Why has the church (the Body of Christ) divorced herself from her divine mission of healing (saving) the sick through the DIVINE POWER of the Gospel of Christ? That's the question!

 The Apostle Paul wrote; “No one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church.” – Ephesians 5:29

 Today the Church is engaged in many ministries, all designed to support growth and expansion of the Gospel of Christ. This is all good, but I ask the question: Where are the healing ministries to care for the Body? Why has this essential ministry been locked away and forgotten? 

The mission of God’s Healing Word ministry is to put God back into healing and healing back into the Church. Our hope is that God will raise up men and women in the Body to teach the healing (saving) Gospel of Christ: We seek brethren willing to care for the Body of Christ, by ministering to those being held captive in sickness, by using DIVINE POWER to defeat enemy strongholds in the body.

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God’s Healing Word ministry seeks Churches to train and equip members for the healing ministry. To learn more, email: lynngroup@inwave.com