Big Healing Book - Does Sin in My Life Stop Me from Getting Healed?

Does Sin in My Life Stop Me from Getting Healed?

If having sin in your life could stop you from getting healed, no one would ever get healed, because all people have sin in their lives. There are no perfect Christians on the earth.

When people came to receive from the anointing on Jesus, there were many instances where all were healed. Don’t you suppose that these people had sin in their lives? Nobody had to get pre-screened to see if there was sin is his life before he was allowed to touch Jesus’ clothing and be healed. Jesus was noted for being around people who were considered the dregs of society, yet they were experiencing the blessings that the Kingdom of God had to offer while the self-righteous religious crowd stayed on the outside looking in. Anyone could receive from Jesus, but healing had to be received on a grace basis, not a personal merit basis.

Because you are forgiven as a Christian, you have the right to be healed independently of your merits. See Forgiven People Can Be Healed for more discussion along that line.

In James 5:14-15, we see that if a sinner has sinned and is sick, and he then calls for the elders of the church to come anoint him with oil, he will be both forgiven and healed. (A believer can call for the elders, too, but he would already be forgiven by virtue of being a Christian, as pointed out elsewhere in this book.) In other words, God will set aside the fact that he deserves sickness for his sin in response to his faith and the faith of the elders. So sin will not stop the person from getting healed even if he is a sinner. Why should it stop you, then?

So on a legal basis, sin does not stop you from getting healed. As a Christian, God deals with you according to your righteousness. See You Are Holy and Worthy to Receive Healing for more on this.

On the practical side, if you are knowingly resisting the will of God in your life, it will be very difficult for you to receive healing even though it’s free. Trying to receive from God while you are in effect pushing Him aside at the same time is not a good recipe for healing.

Also, you want the real you – your spirit man – to be calling the shots in your life. If you keep indulging the flesh, you will be used to walking by sight instead of walking by faith, which is not helpful when you want to overcome sickness. Still, you don’t have to be perfect or even really good to receive healing because it is provided by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s provided for you whether you sin or not.

Here is where sin can be an issue. If you are in known sin and you refuse to repent, your conscience will convict you. You will not feel able to receive from God because of this area in your life where you have not judged yourself. Hence, you will not have any assurance that you will receive anything from God when you pray (1 John 3:21). You will have to deal with your conscience before you get that assurance. There are two ways of dealing with your conscience. If your conscience bothers you because of PAST sins that you have repented of, you need to renew your mind with the Word, which says that you are completely forgiven for those sins. Then you can be “sprinkled from an evil conscience” (Hebrews 10:22) and forget about those sins – just as God does! If your conscience bothers you because of sins you’re aware of but refuse to repent of, you need to change your mind – repent! Then you will have more confidence to approach God to receive whatever it is you need. If you are in sin, but you aren’t aware that what you’re doing is a sin, your conscience won’t bother you and you can still receive freely. Of course, that is not a reason to deliberately ignore the Word so that you don’t know what’s a sin in an effort to try to keep a clean conscience! But at least much of the time, even an unbeliever knows deep down when he’s sinning, so how much more should you now that the real you – your spirit – is born again! When you sin, you get an “icky” feeling on the inside. Now please understand that God NEVER condemns believers for their sins (Romans 8:1), He corrects them for their benefit because He is FOR them (Romans 8:31) and He LOVES them. If you feel condemnation, it’s either the devil or your guilty conscience – that awful “I’m a loser because I blew it” feeling does not come from God.

While Scripture does not teach that you can’t receive from God unless you always do the right thing, it DOES warn you not to violate your conscience, because you can make shipwreck of your faith if you do that (1 Timothy 1:19).

God doesn’t heal you because you’re good. He heals you because HE’S good!