The Apostle John once wrote in one of his letters:
“Dear friend, I hope all is well with you and that you are as healthy in body as you are strong in spirit.”
3 John 1:2 NLT
What does it mean to be healthy in the body and strong in the spirit?
This is basically the sign of divine prosperity. Every aspect of your prosperity is aligned with the state of your spirit, soul and body. You can’t have true prosperity without being whole in your spirit, soul and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
You can’t also possibly be healthy in the body and strong in the spirit, without being healed in the body and sound in the spirit of your mind, because as a child of God you do have the mind of Christ.
The thoughts of Christ and His way of life on the earth are what should be saturating your mind day and night as a child of God. You are to be thinking and meditating about how to act and live like Jesus, every day of your Christian life.
That’s what it means to have the mindset of Christ and of the Kingdom of God on this earth.
The Bible says:
“For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.”
I Corinthians 2:16 NKJV
Soundness of mind goes hand in hand with a strong Christian spirit within you. This is the sign of a fruitful Christian life. A life that is fruitful, abounding and prosperous with the blessing of the Lord.
God’s wants everyone of His children to be fruitful in this way.
But unfortunately, it’s not every child of God who is actually prospering in this manner.
It’s possible for a child of God to be prospering in the soul and in the spirit, but not necessarily in the area of good health for the body. And there are many wonderful Christians in such category today.
You may be healed in the body, but it’s another thing to be using your faith in God, to be cultivating a healthy lifestyle to sustain that healing.
This has nothing to do with God’s ability in our lives as Christians. It has everything to do with the choices that each believer in Christ Jesus is making with the faith of God in their individual lives.
The Bible says that:
“Now to Him who is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly more than all that we dare ask or think [infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams], according to His power that is at work within us,”
Ephesians 3:20 AMP
God’s ability in us cannot be measured by any human standard. God can do anything for anybody at any given time. He can supernaturally move to heal the people, who don’t even have the faith in Him yet for healing at any time. He knows us more than we think that we do know ourselves.
That’s why He can do anything for anyone of us at any time, if He chooses to do it.
That doesn’t however mean that if you’re not yet healed, then it automatically goes that God doesn’t want to heal you.
No! God wants you to be able to have the faith in Him for everything on this earth. That’s the lifestyle that you were called into as a Christian.
He will never override our personal will to give us what we don’t want. In most cases there is nothing that God can do to change our personal will, especially when it comes to the prosperity of our spirit, soul and body. He will however work with us at the level of our faith to give us what we want.
For example, do you think Jesus would have done anything to change the will of the man by the Pool of Bethesda, if the man had chosen not to do as Jesus had commanded him to do (see John 5:1-9)?
That was why Jesus had asked him: “Do you want to be made well?’ (verse 6).
Jesus respected and honored the personal will of this man. It was his personal choice to desire to be made well, by obeying the instruction of Jesus to him. Or he could had gone back to waiting for the next movement in the water by the angel of the Lord.
The man would have gone back to waiting for the moving of the water, without anyone to help him to get into the water.
But when he decided to obey Jesus by believing and acting on His word of command, he was healed. God will never override our personal desires in life; but He will always work with us on the level of our faith to heal and to deliver us.
There are many who are already healed today, but who are still struggling to maintain and sustain their healings. They are struggling to cultivate a good health habit to sustain their healing.
Being able to cultivate a good health culture is a sign of divine prosperity. And without a lifestyle of faith divine prosperity is not sustainable.
Divine prosperity is not just about money and material things. Good health and long life are part of your prosperity package. It’s a blessing to be in good health and to live long on the earth (Psalms 91:16).
Sicknesses and diseases are part of the curses from hell, just as poverty is a curse from hell also.
But it’s always good to be healed and to be in good health. It’s a sign that you are prospering in your spirit, soul and body.
That was why the Apostle John made that opening statement above at the beginning of his third letter (3 John 1:2).
Wholeness is for your spirit, soul and body.
The Apostle Paul also said this prayer for the Thessalonians:
“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
I Thessalonians 5:23 NKJV
God is very much interested in the wholeness of our spirit, soul and body.
To be made whole means to be complete with no part of the spirit, soul and body lacking in anything. It also relates to the soundness of the spirit, soul and body.
The Lord knows that we are only effective in carrying out His command on the earth when the spirit, soul and body are whole and healthy. He does not want the enemy to have a leverage over us in anyway. He wants you to be ready to meet Jesus in a good spirit, and also with a healthy and sound mind.
If a person is not sound in the mind, then the body will negatively react to it. That’s why the devil is always working hard to attack the thoughts of every mind with evil.
But as the people of God, we had been commanded to be:
“Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,”
II Corinthians 10:5 NKJV
Bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ helps the mind, to get aligned with the promises of God for the healing of the body.
Your spirit, soul and body as a Christian must therefore be preserved “blameless” to meet with Jesus. “Blameless” here means to be without spot or wrinkle.
As the scriptures says again:
“So that [in turn] He might present the church to Himself in glorious splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy [set apart for God] and blameless.”
Ephesians 5:27 AMP
You are the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27). Jesus wants you to be wrinkle or spot free, when He comes back for you. He wants you to be made whole in the spirit, soul and body. This means that you are to be blameless – without any spot or wrinkle.
Your spirit, soul and body must be preserved to meet the Lord in glory without spot or wrinkle.
Of course, you will receive a new body when you meet Jesus in glory. But your earthly body must be free of sicknesses and diseases to meet the Lord.
That’s wholeness in the body. It’s soundness in the body. It’s the way that the body glorifies Jesus on the earth.
You will notice in Ephesians 5:27 above that Jesus is responsible for making His Bride ready in this way. But the Bride (you) must be willing and ready to work with the Groom (Jesus) about this. And being willing to work with Him means that, you are ready to do whatever He tells you to do.
The devil will do everything possible to make it impossible for you to get yourself ready for the Lord. He does not want you to be healed and healthy in the spirit, soul and in the body. But it’s your personal Christian duty to be faithful to the Groom (Jesus) in this matter.
It’s your personal responsibility to take care of your spirit, soul and body for this very purpose. Jesus needs your cooperation with Him on this matter. You must therefore be willing and obedient to Him.
You don’t need to be like the five unwise virgins, who were not ready to meet the bridegroom in the Parable of the ten virgins (see Matthew 25:1-13).
Be vigilant, be ready! Separate yourself from the ungodly practices of the world around you. Live in your spirit, soul and body to glorify the Lord.
You do know that what the world is doing is ungodly. So why are you joining your hands with them in their ungodly and wicked practices? Participation with them in their ungodly practices will only drain you of your spiritual strength in the Lord.
It will sap you of the healing anointing over your life, so that you are no more able to pray for the sick and see them recover.
That’s where the devil and the people of the world want you to be. But you must make up your mind to break away from their ways.
And if you refuse to break away from them, those ungodly practices will eventually get entangled with your physical body to make you sick, because the truth is that you are not of the world. You are of God! And everyone who is born of God’s Spirit is separated from the world to live for Him alone.
You’re in the world, but not of it.
Don’t put yourself out of the will of God, just because you want to please the world. That’s what will put you in more trouble than you are already in right now.
When Christians are getting sick it’s mostly due to the things that they are doing in their bodies, but which they are not supposed to be doing.
Their bad health habits are kicking in on them. So, they will begin to get sicker and weaker in their physical bodies.
You see a Christian cannot be possessed by the devil or his demons. But a Christian is possessed by the Holy Spirit.
However, if that Christian begins to do what a Christian is not supposed to be doing, the devil will exploit such an opening in his life to torment the mind and begin to influence his thoughts with evil.
Demonic influences manifests in this way with other spiritual torments, that will eventually make him sick in the body.
This is how a Christian can get oppressed by the devil, from the outside of the body without necessarily being possessed with evil.
In many instances when Jesus healed the sick, demonic oppressions were often involved.
The Bible says on one occasion they brought a dumb or mute man to Him in His hometown of Capernaum and:
“As they went out, behold, they brought to Him a man, mute and demon possessed. And when the demon was cast out, the mute spoke. And the multitudes marveled, saying, “It was never seen like this in Israel!””
Matthew 9:32-33 NKJV
Note that this man was mute or dumb as a result of demonic possession. The demon had completely possessed this man, who evidently was not even a follower of Jesus.
The demon had held his tongue in complete captivity and prevented him from being able to speak.
Even though the man was not a believer, but He (Jesus) was still able to get the demon out of him, because of the faith of the people who had brought the man to Jesus. The faith of those people was honored by Jesus to save the man.
And as soon as the demon was casted out the man began to speak, without even praying for him to be able to speak.
This reveals to us the extent of control that demons do have over the bodies of those whom they have possessed.
There is a very thin line between demonic oppression and possession. No person ever wants to be close to either of them.
Being equally yoked with the world can open up a Christian’s life to demonic influences or oppression.
That’s why it’s dangerous for Christians to backslide away from following Jesus. The descent into the abyss of the devil’s hell is a place of no return. And the devil is looking for company there with him.
It’s not a good place to spend eternity. By turning your back on the world to follow Jesus, you are saying bye to the devil and his company.
And again, on another occasion the Bible says:
“And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.” Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.”
Matthew 17:14-18 NKJV
This second incident is an example of demonic oppression. The father of the boy was a Jewish believer, who was being prevented by the unbelieving crowd around him to act in faith for the healing of his son.
We can see here how being equally yoked together in unbelief with the world, can prevent anyone from believing in the power of God to heal the sick.
That was a major reason why the disciples could not cast the demon out from this man’s son.
There is nothing you can do to help those who don’t and can’t believe in divine healing. In fact, Jesus Himself could not do much in the town where He grew up (Nazareth), because of their unbelief (Mark 6:5-6).
But notice that as soon as the crowd was coming to the scene with their unbelief towards Jesus, He immediately rebuked the demon, and the boy was healed.
Jesus never prayed for the boy to be healed. He only got rid of the demonic oppression that had caused the epileptic seizure, and the boy was restored back to complete health.
You will notice that in both incidents of demonic oppression and possession, Jesus never prayed for either of them to be healed. He only casted out the demons and both of them got healed and were made whole.
The casting out of demons goes side by side with the laying on of hands for healing.
Many times, the Holy Spirit will expose the demonic influence or oppression. And sometimes He will prompt us to do as He says, so as to get rid of the devil. When we are obeying Him, people will be healed and delivered.
Peter once made this statement about the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Man like you and me, who was anointed by God on the earth for miracles, signs and wonders.
He said:
“How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”
Acts 10:38 NKJV
Jesus healed all the people of their sicknesses and diseases, who were oppressed by the devil.
The devil uses demonic oppression or possession to prevent wholeness in the spirit, soul and body. He doesn’t want any human being to be blameless before God.
Note here that a person can be oppressed by the devil, but it’s the anointing of Jesus that brings healing and deliverance, from the demonic influence on the person’s mind.
This opens the way for the Christian to be healed, as the demonic influence is removed.
The enemy will always look out for those things which you are not supposed to be doing, in order to find the pretense to attack your body with sicknesses and diseases.
He is the accuser who stands before God, to accuse you of those things (Revelation 12:10).
If he could approach God for the permission to afflict the righteous man – Job; there is really nothing stopping him from accusing you before God, because of your negative health habits.
However, you do have the Man – Jesus in Heaven; pleading your case for justification by His blood before God (1 John 2:1-2).
You are not alone without a defense. Jesus is interceding for you always before the Father.
The devil will work with any bad habit that you are tolerating in your life as a Christian to make you sick.
It may be through the bad breathing, eating or drinking habits. He knows how to engineer those unhealthy habits in attacking your physical health.
That’s why as Christians we must be careful to be living our Christian lives in accordance with the word of God.
As Paul said:
“Don’t give the slanderous accuser, the Devil, an opportunity to manipulate you!”
Ephesians 4:27 TPT
The devil is a master manipulator. He will always devise a slander in accusing you of the things, that you know nothing about through your daily unhealthy habits. That’s what he does.
And there are a lot of people in the world today who are working for him to target you as a Christian. They are sniffing around your life for something that they can bring up against you.
Be therefore watchful. Be careful of the world around you and their ploys.
Live in the body to please God alone. Don’t get equally yoked with the world. You are anointed and separated unto the glory of God alone. Live to glorify Him in your spirit, soul and body.
