Destroying Barriers To Healing

So let's get into the word, shall we?

Let's get our Bibles out and wave them around, as is our custom.

Wave them around and make Jesus glad and the devil mad.

Let's say this together say Heavenly Father, I look forward to Wednesday night because I'm hungry for the Word, I desire that my faith grows exceedingly.

And from the Word of God tonight I will draw revelation that will change my life, that will alter my landscape, and I'll give you all the praise and the glory for it in Jesus' name.

Amen, amen.

All right, let's turn in our Bibles to Matthew, chapter four, and also Mark, chapter six.

We'll start with Matthew four, 23.

And it says and Jesus went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

And then over in Mark, chapter six, it says in verse five keep in mind he's going all over Galilee.

And so he went to his own hometown.

And he verse five and he could there, in his own hometown.

He could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands on a few sick folk and heal them.

One version says, heal them of minor ailments.

And he marveled because of their unbelief and he went round about the villages teaching verse 12.

And then, so then he sent out the 12 and he said, and they went out and preached that men should repent.

And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them.

And then, finally, in verse 30, and the apostles gathered themselves together under Jesus and told him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught.

So they were accountable.

So tonight I wanted to share a message entitled destroying barriers to healing.

Destroying barriers to healing.

You know Jesus and his own hometown.

Here he's going about all of Galilee teaching, preaching and healing.

Yet there in his own hometown, where he grew up, he marveled because of their unbelief and so he could there do no mighty works because of that unbelief, and all he could do was just heal a few folks with minor ailments, and he needed help.

So he sent the 12 by two and two, and we read there in Mark, chapter six, how they preached and they taught.

They taught about the living God who never changes.

Praise God.

And you know, and they preached a simple message repent.

See, we're the ones that have to change.

Repent just means change your mind, change your direction.

And it says in verse 13 that they cast out many, many demons and that they anointed the sick with oil and healed them.

So when we see this, we see that the ministry of the 12 destroyed the barriers to healing.

You know, there's a barrier, there's a barrier up there, the barriers to healing.

And so I've got one, two, three, four barriers that I wanna talk about tonight that you have to deal with.

Number one you wanna deal with it in your own life.

If you want healing, or when you and you want someone else to come into healing, your ministering healing, then you've got to be, you have to be mindful of these barriers that you may very well have to overcome.

So, these four barriers, the first one, the obvious one, is unbelief.

You know, like Jesus on hometown, and so what did he do in his own hometown?

Well, he preached.

Preaching will destroy apathy and complacency.

That's part of unbelief, apathy, complacency.

You know, you just kinda you're not really motivated.

Some people are willing to live with a little bit of sickness, they're willing to live with things the way they are, and they're not, and preaching will knock that apathy and complacency off of them.

Preaching is so important and then teaching is a cure for ignorance.

Sometimes people's unbelief is born of ignorance of the word.

So it takes teaching.

Preaching is what got one purpose, teaching's got another and bye-bye.

And so the ignorance when they have this lack of honor.

You know, if you dig down there and Mark, you find out that in his own hometown they said well, who does he think he is?

We grew up with him.

Isn't he the carpenter's son?

So they had a lack of honor.

They didn't deny he had done mighty works, but they just didn't.

He just didn't have credibility with them.

They just didn't believe that.

And so the same thing happened to the disciples.

The disciples, when they went out there, not everybody opened the gates of the city and gave them the keys to the city.

Some people who are these fishermen?

What do they know about Healy?

What do they know about all this?

Why are they talking to us in this way?

And Jesus told them you know, if you experience a lack of honor, if people don't listen to you, then you just shake the dust off of your feet and go to the next town.

Don't spend any time there trying to overcome it.

Just move on, because there are people ready, willing and able.

They're open to the message.

Let's go into the ripe harvest, he told them in another place.

He said the fields are already white with harvest.

He said the harvest is plenteous but the laborers are few, which is why he decided to multiply himself.

You know, if Jesus would have had not have sent out the 12, and then later on we read that he sent out the 70.

So he needed help to get the message out.

He only spent three and a half years on the earth and his message was to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and so he sent them all out like that in order to increase the harvest.

But the laborers were few, and so you know, notice, he didn't spend any time.

He didn't build a seeker sensitive church, he didn't try to analyze what it was that was offending them.

I mean, if you're not gonna repent, if you're not gonna believe, we're gonna move on down the road and go to where they are, because we don't have time to spend with people that are determined to stay the way they are, and I think that's a valuable lesson I've had to remind myself a few times.

I think about the same thing, about Paul.

You know, when he had those disciples in Ephesus.

You know, he preached for a couple of months in one place and then there were people that didn't receive him and they started speaking evil against it.

Well, he didn't try to convince them, he just removed the disciples that did believe and moved to the school of Tyranus and spent the next two years.

You know, he just left the ones that didn't wanna believe.

He left them behind.

So so this barrier, unbelief, is a mighty barrier to healing.

You know, sometimes we have to overcome that barrier, not only in our own life but to those that we're attempting to minister to.

But again, you know, just move on to the ripe harvest.

I mean, sometimes people are just not gonna wanna believe.

I remember when I first got saved, I was so zealous and I had some results.

I laid hands on some people and I had a cousin that was a denominational man and he saw the difference in my life and he'd call me, say, hey, I've got some friends and he's got cancer.

Would you go over there and pray for him?

Well, I'd go over there and they looked at me like I was crazy.

They would politely listen to me, but it's like talking to the wall.

See, they weren't ready to receive their healing they did.

I had no credibility with them.

There wasn't a matter of me praying over them because they didn't believe anything.

And I did pray over them, but I mean, there was no results.

They went ahead, a lot of them.

I remember one of them passed away a few months later.

You know, you've gotta spend time on people that are hungry and thirsty and not on people that just don't wanna change.

So unbelief is one barrier.

Then you've got another one unwillingness.

Unwillingness, what is that?

Well, it's a little bit like apathy, it's a little bit like complacency that we mentioned under unbelief unwillingness to change.

What was their message?

Repent their message.

Jesus' message was repent, and repent just means to change direction.

You have to change.

You're the one that has to change.

God never changes.

God's word never changes.

God's opinions never change and he doesn't change with the times.

He doesn't adapt to society.

Society has to adapt to him.

And so this unwillingness to change, unwillingness to turn from sin, you know, you have to turn from sin, you have to turn from unforgiveness, you have to turn from iniquity, you have to turn from saying what you're saying about your sickness.

Sometimes people are saved, but what they've done is that they've decided to agree with pain.

And so all they talk about is pain, all they talk about is sickness, all they do is complain about their illness.

What do they have to do?

They've got to repent, they've got to change what they're saying, they've got to get on the side of the word of God and you've got to lead them to that place and change what they say.

I think about Jesus, you know, coming up to that man at the pool of Bethesda and he said to this man he said will you be made whole?

He said are you willing?

Are you willing to change?

You've been coming down here and you're still.

And he said, sir, I have no man to get me down in the water.

Somebody beats me in there every time when the angel troubles the water, somebody else gets in there before I do.

I don't have any man.

And Jesus is telling him will you be made whole?

I'm the man that you've been looking for.

You just didn't know it.

You know, and so he got his healing.

Will you be made whole?

Some people won't make the changes necessary, amen.

I think about Malachi 313, you know, the prophet was speaking for God, about the people that were robbing God of their tithes and offerings.

They were robbing God, and in Malachi 313, the prophet told them.

He says your words have been stout against me, so if we're not careful we can get on the wrong side of the word and our words can work against our healing.

Our words can be a barrier to our receiving our healing, and so we have to remove the barriers unbelief and unwillingness, another one that I see in these verses.

Another barrier is demonic powers.

Bible says that the 12 cast out many demons.

I think about Matthew, chapter eight, verse 16.

It says when the evening was come, they brought unto him many who were possessed with demons, and he cast out the spirits with his word and he healed all that were sick.

That it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Isaiah, the prophet, saying himself bear our sicknesses and took our infirmities.

Many times sickness and I know all sickness is indirectly caused by the devil and demon powers, but sometimes there are specific demons that have to be dealt with in order for someone to receive their healing.

A demonic power can be a barrier to healing.

That's why, in Mark, chapter 16, jesus said these signs shall follow them that believe in my name, they shall cast out demons.

Mark 16 · chapter mention

Well, that's what the apostles did the 12, did the 70?

Did you know when the 70 went out and they cast out demons and healed the sick, they came back and they were so overjoyed, they were so impressed with themselves and they said, jesus, even the demons were subject unto us in thy name.

And he said, well, don't get so happy about the demons being subject, yet be happy that your names are enrolled in heaven.

I mean, it's no big deal.

You get excited about swatting the fly.

Basically, that's what he was saying.

That's my translation.

But, to be sure, many times when we're ministering to people, these things, the demonic powers have to be dealt with and they have to be cast out, not counseled out, not discussed in detail.

They just need to be banished, they need to be cast aside before people can receive their healing.

I remember a number of years ago, on a Sunday night service, I had a word of knowledge about someone had pain in the right shoulder and there wasn't but one person that answered that altar call and she was sitting over to my left here and she came up and I asked her you know what's wrong?

And she said well, I had a car wreck and ever since the car wreck I hadn't been able to.

I've got a frozen shoulder, my right shoulder.

I can't move it.

It's in a lot of pain.

Well, when she told me that she'd had a car wreck, I mean, that is.

Sometimes it happens that when you have a severe car wreck, the airbags go off.

And even if the airbags don't go off, the impact of the wreck can daze us and put us into a kind of a state where we don't have defense against a fiery dart.

The devil will fire a dart.

And I found, through, you know, many years of dealing with these things, that sometimes you've got to pull these arrows out of people before they can get their healing.

She'd gone to the doctor, she'd sought medical help, but nothing was bettered.

She was hurting, and so I just I just pulled that arrow out of her shoulder and she was instantly healed, praise God.

I mean so.

Sometimes, you know, we have to deal directly with demonic powers.

That doesn't mean people are possessed, it just most of the time, most of the time when there are demons involved, most of the time it's because of what we call a familiar spirit, and those travel in families.

You know, just like your DNA you have.

Your DNA is the product of your mother and father and their DNA is the product of their mother and father.

So if you you know, if you have your DNA profile checked, you know you can go back and find out your ancestors.

Sometimes when you go to the doctor, they'll ask you your family histories.

Anybody ever died of cancer?

Anybody ever died of heart disease?

Whether they're trying to, they're trying to find your genetic tendencies that you might be subject to, and that's legitimate.

That's a physical characteristic that all medicine is based on.

Well, thank God, we've been born again.

We're in a new family.

We don't have to let the devil travel down our family line and give us what he gave our grandpa, or give us what he gave our mother, or give us anything that runs in our family.

You know we've got a brand new family, but these familiar spirits, see, they will travel down that and they'll try to gain interest.

They'll try to find a way in whether it's a car wreck or some other way.

They'll try to find a way in to afflict you the way they've been afflicted in the rest of your family for, sometimes, generations.

I hear people talk.

I heard a preacher one time just talking all about generational curses, and there's a whole teaching about generational curses.

I just don't bother with those because that's a symptom of a familiar spirit.

Why mess with the symptom when you can go to the source?

The source of a generational curse is a familiar spirit.

So we don't have to bother about dealing with generational curses if we deal with familiar spirits and cast them out and remove that barrier to healing.

And then the last one, the last barrier I'll talk about is one that's pretty common and that is the lack of patience.

The lack of patience.

You know, I've been preaching on prayer and Jesus said men ought always to pray and not to faint, turn coward, lose heart and give up.

And sometimes, when people are believing for their healing and healing doesn't come very quickly and they're still got some symptoms sometimes they just think, oh, I guess my faith wasn't strong enough, I guess I didn't receive, I guess it's not God's will, I guess, I guess, I guess, I guess.

Hey, listen, faith and patience inherits the promises.

Be followers of those who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises.

You know, mark 11, 24 says, therefore, what thinks whoever you desire.

When you pray, believe you receive them and you shall have them.

So you receive them when you receive them, when you say amen when you receive your healing, when the hands are laid upon you, you receive your healing right then.

But then you shall have it is later.

There's a time between the amen and there it is.

It's called seed time.

It's called seed time.

It takes time for the seed to grow.

The word is seed, your faith is seed.

It takes time for the seed to grow.

If we're looking for instant, well, instant seldom happens.

It does happen from time to time.

But let's not throw away.

Let's keep the switch of faith turned on.

Let's have patience until we get the final manifestation of our healing.

Hebrews 10, 23 says hold faster your profession of faith, without wavering, because he's faithful.

Who promised.

So you know, when you're standing for healing or you're encouraging someone else to receive theirs, always cover the idea of patience and the fact that you may not have any relief yet, but just keep the switch of faith turned on, keep praising God that you are healed and you have been healed.

You know I was reading about Brother Hagan and he was recounting a testimony of one time and it was in 1955, he gave the date 1955.

He was spending the night in a church parsonage.

They had a spare bedroom, so the pastor and his wife were in another part of the house and he had his own bedroom.

And he's preaching in this church.

And in 1955, and he awakened with what he described alarming symptoms.

Now, these alarming symptoms were the same symptoms that he had been healed of probably 20 years before that, when he was on the bed of sickness, paralyzed for 16 or 18 months.

He had all kind of blood diseases, he had a malformed heart, and so after all these years, I mean there are numbers of times that Brother Hagan had to stand in faith against symptoms.

And so this particular time I mean it had been a long time he had been healed for years he's preaching on the field.

He's no longer, he's no longer pastoring, he's teaching his people faith.

1955, I mean he is not a new Christian, he's not new to healing.

No telling how many thousands of people had been healed under his ministry.

And yet here he is in the middle of the night, awakened with alarming symptoms in his body, and the devil says this time you're not gonna get your healing.

Well, you know, brother Hagan just started laughing.

Ha ha ha.

Did he feel like laughing?

No, he had alarming symptoms.

But and let's just talk for a minute what could have the symptoms been Well.

I've had some heart symptoms and they could be shortness of breath, it could be angina, pain in the heart.

I mean, it's not easy to laugh if you're short of breath.

It's not easy to laugh if you're hurting.

These were alarming symptoms and yet he laughed Ha ha ha.

And he did that for 20 minutes.

And then the devil says what are you laughing at?

I'm laughing at you, mr Devil.

Ha ha, ha, ha ha.

And then he laughed another 20 minutes.

Finally, the devil came back and says why are you laughing?

I'm laughing at you, mr Devil, because you said this time I'm not gonna get my healing.

He said I don't have to get my healing, jesus got it for me.

Ha ha ha.

Now just gather up your symptoms and get out of here.

And that's what happened.

Those symptoms left him and the devil left him.

You see, he had to exercise patience and even after all those probably a couple of decades you know that he had been healed before and yet he had to have patience and he had to hold on to his confession of faith without wavering.

And so that's overcoming a barrier that he then lack of patience.

So let's let's catch up, let's check up on ourselves whenever we're facing sickness and disease and symptoms, and also let's help others that we're ministering to to overcome the barriers of healing.

Amen, let's lift our hands and receive.

Father, we thank you that we're overcoming every barrier.

We're gonna receive everything that God has bought and paid for through the blood of Jesus.

Lots of thanks and goodbye.