Can People Lose Their Healing?

This is part of an interview I did with S.J. Heald for Heaven Connect. The entire interview can be found here.

SJH:
Can people lose their healing? If so, why?

Praying Medic:
There are two situations that allow symptoms to return after we are healed. In many cases the return of symptoms after healing is evidence that a little more warfare needs to be done. I had a chance a couple of years ago to help my sister in law obtain healing for an occluded artery in her leg. She had poor circulation in her leg for years and her foot was always cold and numb. Her doctor considered placing a stent in the artery to keep it open. One day, I asked if she wanted to be healed and she said “yes’.” I commanded the artery to be open and the circulation to return. She didn’t feel anything different until the next morning, when she woke up with a warm foot that had normal sensation and circulation. Later that day, her foot became cold and numb and she thought she had lost her healing. With a worried heart she asked me what happened. This is a classic case of  how sometimes our symptoms will return after we are healed.

I sat her down and explained that healing and sickness are a battle between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. I told her that God wants us to be healed and the enemy wants us to be sick. She immediately understood. I explained that the enemy brought the symptoms back to convince her she wasn’t healed and that we needed to do some more warfare. I commanded her leg to be healed again and in a few minutes the circulation returned. I told her that all she needed to do was to resist the enemy’s tactics if it happened again. With a smile of understanding she confidently maintained her healing and she’s had normal circulation since that day.

Some diseases and painful conditions are spiritual in nature and the return of the symptoms indicates a return of the spirit and a need to find out why it returned. The bible gives examples of people who had physical symptoms with spiritual causes (see Luke 13:10-13 as an example.) In such cases the spirit must be removed before the symptoms will leave. But when a spirit of pain or sickness returns, it’s often because it has a home in the person (See Luke 11: 21-26.) The key to preventing the return of the spirit and a return of the symptoms it causes is to remove the demonic home.

Demonic homes are created by things we believe about God, about ourselves or about others that are not true, or by sinful behaviors and attitudes that we allow in our hearts. These things give spirits opportunities to exert their influence over us. If you believe for example, that God the Father cannot be trusted, because your father abused or neglected you, the mistrust you have in your heart toward God the Father will allow an orphan spirit to influence your thinking. It will continually remind you that God the Father is like the abusive Father of your childhood and that He can't be trusted. Many people live their entire lives under the influence of such spirits. Evil spirits only have influence over us to the degree that we permit them, and most of what we allow them to do to us is permitted because of what we believe. A slightly different way in which spirits can affect us is through sinful attitudes we have. Allow me to illustrate with one of my own experiences:

I had been seeking permanent healing for chronic neck pain for a long time. I received prayer a number of times and the pain would always leave temporarily, only to return a few days later. One day, a woman praying for me asked if I had anger toward anyone. God showed me in a vision, a person I had been angry with for a long time. I knew that I needed to let go of the anger I had toward them. When I released the anger to God, the pain in my neck immediately left and never returned.

I allowed a demonic home to be created by my anger. When people prayed for my healing, the spirit would leave but it always returned because its home was still there. Identifying wrong views, attitudes and behaviors and renewing our mind to the truth about them (repenting) removes demonic homes. Once this is done, and the spirit no longer has a home, it can be removed and the symptoms usually will not return.

Removing Demonic Homes - To Bring Lasting Freedom

This message was originally published here by More Than Conquerors Deliverance Ministry.

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What exactly is a demonic home? A demonic home is a fleshly environment by which gives it access and ability to live in a person. This is not a physical home, but a spiritual home. A root of bitterness for example, will create an environment or place in that person's life by which demonic spirits can enter and dwell among. God's Word tells us not to give Satan a foothold or as the KJV says, "a place to the devil."

Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil. (Eph. 4:26-27)

If we go about casting out demons, but fail to remove the "place" that we've given to the devil (or his demons), then they still have a home within us. Jesus described a demon as a strongman who is armored and keeps his home, but by removing his armor (and take away his home), we can spoil his goods (the area of the person's life that was once held in bondage). Jesus went on to tell us that demons like to return to their homes:

When a strong man armed keepeth his palace [or home], his goods are in peace: But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.... When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith,I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.
(Luke 11:21-22, 24-26)

Demons cannot just come back and reenter a person without having a home there. That is why it is so important that we minister to the whole person, and figure out what is the root to their bondage, then minister to the root so that the demon has no home to return to.

While there are definitely spirits of lust, anger, and so forth, there are also fleshly homes that are created by which they dwell. A spirit of bitterness cannot enter and dwell by itself, it must have a fleshly 'hook' or 'home' by which it dwells.

Examples of Demonic Homes
Please understand that these are only examples, and not every case is the same. Some bondages may be different than the examples below even though the same demons may be at work. These examples are only here to give you an idea of how demon homes work.

Lust and Pornography
Pornography and lust are known to be rooted in a lack of love. If a person grows up not feeling loved, then there's a good chance they will turn to pornography or lust to fulfill that need which was never met by their parents or family. Let's say that we're about to cast out a demon of lust in somebody; let's first look at the flow of bondage here:

An unmet need to be loved and appreciated CREATED a fleshly bondage to pornography WHICH IS a demonic home THAT CONTAINS a nest of demons (lust, pornography, perversion, etc.).

First we need to minister to the root cause to the fleshly problem, then we need to clean up the fleshly problem itself (which is the demonic house), and then cast out the demons. The person must come to learn how they are loved, accepted, and appreciated by their heavenly Father. Then they need to repent and renounce their bondage to pornography, lust, and so forth. Then it is time to begin casting out the demons that have been holding the person in bondage.

Rejection
Next, let's take a young man by the name Joe. Joe has been rejected as a child by his peers, and today has a terrible bondage to rejection, thus making it difficult to create meaningful relationships with others. Joe feels all alone, and even when others aren't rejecting him, he perceives even a simple "no" as a form of rejection. Joe has difficulty receiving correction because he perceives it as an attack on him personally. As a result of feeling rejected, Joe naturally fell into a bondage to rebellion, which set him up for further rejection. Those are just a few of the things that Joe struggles with. We could go about casting out the demon of rejection, or we could minister to the root of Joe's problem. With Joe's situation, the flow of bondage looks something like this:

A deep wound that was created when others rejected him CREATED a fleshly bondage where Joe felt worthless and worthy to be rejected WHICH BUILT a stronghold of self-hate, self-rejection, and so forth WHICH WAS a demonic homeTHAT CONTAINED a nest of demons (rejection, rebellion, self-hate, etc.).

A similar flow of bondage may look something like this:

A deep wound that was created when others rejected him CREATED a fleshly need to be accepted and a stronghold of rejection (or a way of perceiving yourself as rejected) WHICH WAS a demonic home THAT CONTAINED the demons of rebellion, rejection, and so forth.

Bitterness
Let's take a woman by the name Susan who was molested by her father when she was a young girl. Ever since then, she's had a terrible time feeling clean inside, and establishing genuine and meaningful relationships. Such a bondage plays havoc with marriages all the time, as it makes it very difficult for the wife to truly bond and enjoy physical and emotional intimacy with her husband. We could start out by casting out the demons which entered in through the molestation, OR, we could minister to her in such a way that brings true and lasting freedom. Susan's flow of bondage might look something like this:

A deep wound and feeling "used" that was created because of the molestationCREATED a feeling of unforgiveness and hatred towards her father (and often men in general) WHICH IS a demonic home THAT CONTAINS spirits of hate, anger, resentment, and so forth.

Our first step is to deal with the wound, and let Susan know that she had a right to hate and be angry with her father for the terrible thing which was done to her. It is a right that God gives us, but He also asks us to yield that right to Him. God's Word tells us to let God avenge wrath (see Romans 12:19), for when we give Him that right, He says that He will repay. Much of the problem with unforgiveness is that we don't really believe that God will bring justice to that situation. Susan must realize that although her father is off of her hook, he's still accountable to God for his actions. Susan has also lost sight of what Jesus has done for her, and what a steep and terrible price that Jesus paid for her own sins. Dealing with the unforgiveness root will tear down the demon house, so that when the demons are cast out, they have nowhere to return to.

Exceptions
Sometimes you cast out demons first, depending on what the Holy Spirit leads. There are valid situations where it is best to get rid of the demonic factor first so that you can more clearly deal with the root issues. Sometimes demons must be cast out before the person can freely receive healing to their damaged emotions. However, use caution when going after the demons up front, as the they love to return when their fleshly house still exists. This is why I generally like to take the safe route (laid out in this teaching) as a default method, unless the Holy Spirit prompts me otherwise. However, be prepared for the Holy Spirit to lead otherwise, because there are times when I believe it is necessary.

In any case, when you're finished with the deliverance process, then both the root should be cleaned up as well as the demons cast out. Whatever steps are taken to get there may vary, but that should always be our goal when ministering deliverance and inner healing.

Understanding Bondage
Whenever you find yourself casting out the same demons from the same person over and over again, then there's a good chance there is a demonic home which the demon keeps returning to. I like how Charles Kraft describes demons as rats which feed off of garbage in our barn. We can keep on casting the rats out, but unless we clean up the garbage by which they are feeding, then they will keep coming back. Balanced deliverance ministry is typically focused on cleaning up the garbage even more than casting out the demons, because it is the key to ministering true and lasting freedom. I'm not saying that casting out the demons isn't important (it is VERY important!), but if we keep on casting out the same demons and they keep coming back, what good are we doing?

This is why I highly encourage every deliverance minister to take the time to study and learn the roots of the popular spiritual bondages. Make it your mission to understand what brings on various bondages to lust and pornography, anger problems, and so forth. Yes, there are demons involved in most of these situations, but there are also fleshly roots that we need to minister to, so that when we cast out the demons, they do not return. It is vital for deliverance ministers to take the time to learn and understand the bondages that are plaguing many people today so that we can effectively minister genuine and lasting freedom.

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