For many years I have known that emotional trauma is often the trigger for physical pain and illness. I have worked with two specific individuals who were both able to clearly trace the onset of cancer to unresolved emotional trauma in their lives. Traumas can leave us emotionally shattered, which turns off our immune system, which, in turn, allows disease and infirmity to take hold and flourish. Therefore it is crucial that we hear from God to heal all emotional upset, for emotions buried alive never die. The Lord told me in the midst of my infirmity, “For heaven’s sake, celebrate!” with the clear intonation that if I didn’t, I would be coming to heaven before my time. So yes, now I wear party shirts to remind me to live a happy lifestyle!
Yeah, But … Have You Seen My Life?
Trauma can be caused by emotional clashes, traumatic events and everyday existence in a world which appears unbearably corrupt. If you watch or listen to the news and don’t listen to what God is speaking about the news, you WILL be depressed. Jesus chose not to listen to the news coming out of Rome but rather to listen only to what His Father was speaking. This IS the key to the joy and peace and power that He walked in.
The Foundation of Health is the Emotion of Peace Because it Turns on Your Immune System
“Let the peace of God rule in your heart” (Col. 3:15, ESV). “A joyful heart is good medicine” (Prov. 17:22). “Do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength” (Neh. 8:10).
Those verses are clear. God’s medicine is joy, laughter, merriment. It is His medicine for our bodies because it turns on our immune system, which in turn effectively fights off disease. If you want to review scientific studies proving this, then do an Internet search on “research laughter health.” Once you do, you will be convinced you need to be filled with joy, laughter, faith, love and peace. The Bible also states that fear causes our hearts to fail (Luke 21:26). So kingdom emotions promote health and non-kingdom emotions promote infirmity.
How Exactly Does the Bible Say We Get Peace?
“I will keep you in perfect peace whose imagination is stayed upon me” (Isa. 26:3). Yes, the Hebrew word in this verse is “imagination,” not “mind.” See this blog for a full explanation of the Hebrew meaning of this verse. What I am picturing produces the emotions I am experiencing. If I see Jesus in the traumatic scene and see what He is doing, I will experience His kingdom’s emotions of faith, love, joy and peace. My immune system will be turned on and running at full capacity. If Jesus is NOT in the picture I am looking at, then my emotions are fear, doubt, sorrow, judgment and anger, shutting down my immune system and allowing disease to take root.
Many years ago I was fired from a job I loved and planned on working at for the rest of my life. I lived in anger for the following six months, by which time arthritis developed in my fingers and knee. Using inner healing prayer, Jesus showed up and gave me a brand new picture of how He viewed my firing. Here is what happened. In my morning devotions, I prayed about the event of being fired. I pictured the painful scene and looked to see where Jesus was in it and what He was doing. I saw Him standing there and laughing hilariously and slapping His knees.
When I asked Him what was so funny, He said this firing was His doing and through it, He was now going to thrust me into the fulfillment of my destiny. He said I should be grateful because I would have never taken the step on my own, because my fears of not being able to make it financially constrained me from stepping forward into my destiny. So to teach me that I could fly, He just threw me out of the nest I was so comfortable in (a weekly salary). Sure enough, I survived. (Incidentally, His voice is flowing thoughts and His vision is flowing pictures. We describe this in length at this link.)
For the six months after the firing, I walked in fear and anger because I was gazing at pictures in my mind of the firing or my future and I was not seeing Jesus in them. These emotions shut down my immune system and released toxins into my body so that at the end of six months, infirmity was taking over my body (arthritis). Within one day of the inner healing experience, 50% of my arthritic pain was gone and within a week it was all gone! The three simple steps of inner healing are taught in this blog.
The Principles We Need to Know Concerning Pictures, Emotions and Health are…
- Emotions are byproducts of pictures — My negative picture of my firing produced the emotions of anger and fear. God’s new picture produced faith, hope and gratitude. God used my boss to fire me and get me on the path God wanted me on so I could fulfill my God-given destiny.
- Perfect peace comes from gazing upon a godly picture (i.e. a godly imagination which I received as a vision during my prayer time) — As long as I saw Jesus there in the scene where I was fired, laughing and explaining it was all for the good of my future, my heart was at perfect peace. The rule here is, “ONLY look at the new picture Jesus gives you.” NEVER go back to gazing at the old picture (lie), which does not have Jesus in it; for if you do, it will bring back all the old emotions.
We ask God in prayer to show us where He was in the painful situation and what He was saying. The pictures which then light upon our minds are visions (Acts 2:17). The flowing thoughts are His voice (John 10:27). We write down both the flowing pictures and flowing thoughts as a record of His revelation, which heals us.
We choose to gaze steadfastly and only on this vision He grants us. His picture displaces Satan’s picture. The result is that His emotions replace Satan’s emotions. Satan’s emotions of fear, anger and judgment, which turned our immune system off and allowed infirmity to wreak havoc in our bodies, is now gone. God’s emotions of faith, hope and love turn our immune system back on, which allows our bodies to effectively fight off infirmity. The battle is won. Health is restored.
One pastor was healed of the grief of her recent miscarriage by seeing a vision of herself in heaven with Jesus. They walked together to a bassinet where Jesus picked up the baby and handed him to her. She cuddled, nursed and loved on her child, then was able to give him back to Jesus and return to earth. This all happened in a journaling time at the close of a class as the group journaled together. Her hurt was healed.
Here is Why We Can Always Celebrate in the Midst of Painful Situations
- We know God works ALL things out for our good (Rom. 8:28).
- We know His grace is sufficient to carry us through (2 Cor. 12:9).
- We see Him and His response to the situation; we take on His response; and we express our gratitude to Him (John 5:19,20,30).
“Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thess. 5:16-19, MEV).
So now our immune systems are functioning at full steam, and the cares of this world do not crush us and steal from us God’s rhema, vision, anointing, peace and power.
To read more of this article, click the link here. {eoa}
Mark Virkler, Ph.D., has authored more than 50 books in the areas of hearing God’s voice and spiritual growth. He is the founder of Communion With God Ministries and Christian Leadership University, where the voice of God is at the center of every learning experience. Mark has taught on developing intimacy with God and spiritual healing for 30-plus years on six continents. The message has been translated into over 40 languages and he has helped to establish more than 250 church-centered Bible schools around the world.
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