I Thought I Was Healed.  Why Did the Symptoms Just Start to Return?

This can happen for various reasons.

First, the fact that you believe that you have received your healing does not mean that there will be no more symptoms from that point on.  If you go by “symptoms,” the fig tree had the symptoms of being alive after Jesus cursed it!  Jesus did not panic and say, "Oh, no!  My faith didn’t work!  The tree is still showing symptoms of being alive.  I thought I was in faith but I guess I wasn’t!  Maybe I need to do this over."  Jesus was simply not moved by the fact that the tree still looked alive immediately after He cursed it.  He knew that He had declared something in the spirit realm that would surely happen.  Likewise, you need to stand firm in what you believe and not be moved by apparent circumstances to the contrary.  If you could never have symptoms after praying in faith, all it would take to receive healing would be faith.  However, the Bible teaches that you need faith and patience to receive God’s promises (Hebrews 6:12).

Second, whether you have realized it yet or not, there is a personal devil out there who is out to steal from you, kill you and destroy you.  One of his tricks is to put symptoms of things on people so that they accept the illness by saying out of their mouths that they have it.  He loves to try to get you to accept a sickness back after you’ve already been healed of it.  Chances are, the symptoms are accompanied by some depressing thought such as: “See, you didn’t really get healed after all” or “It’s back and you won’t get healed this time.”  If you will resist the symptoms just as you would resist the devil and command them to leave your body in the name of Jesus, they will go.  You may even be surprised how suddenly you get healed – probably about as suddenly as you felt sick again.

We tend to think of sickness as something that just happens to us without Satan’s direct involvement.  While that is often true, Satan could try to harass you with lying symptoms to get you to accept them, given that he is the author of sickness in the first place.  If there is a sickness (or symptoms), Satan is the ultimate source.  Whether it’s direct or indirect, sickness is still “the oppression of the devil” (Acts 10:38).  This is proved in the topic Who or What Causes Sickness?.

Third, you may have been around the anointing and experienced relief without actually receiving your healing.  Once you got out of the anointing, you felt crummy again.  See the discussion The Difference between “The Anointing” and “Your Healing” for a further discussion of this matter.

Fourth (you might not like this one), you may not have believed that you received your healing at all.  You might have just experienced some temporary relief for entirely natural reasons.  If you prayed and took aspirin, maybe the relief you felt was from the aspirin!

One thing that should help you when symptoms return is to realize that you are perpetually, legally healed by the stripes of Jesus.  You always have the right to declare yourself healed.  You are always agreeing with God when you do so.  No matter how often or how long symptoms return, you always have the right to say that you are healed and that the sickness is no longer yours.  In fact, you should keep saying this until every symptom is gone.  (I don’t mean that you should be unable to function at your job because you have to keep saying you’re healed.  Say it to yourself if you’re in public; don’t make a scene or make your boss think you’re a weirdo.)  You do NOT have to pray “the prayer of faith” again to re-receive your healing!

You are not a sick person being lorded over by Satan.  You are a healed person defending your legal right to be and stay healed.  You have a right to demand that sickness leave your body and stay out in the name of Jesus.