Text: Psalms 103:1-5
Memory text:
“But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Matthew 6:15
It’s unbelievable how some believers live in self-deception. They blatantly violate divine instructions, yet they go about praying and fasting! God has not promised to destroy the works of satan in the body while a person is clinging to the works of the devil in their soul. Though not applicable in all cases, there is a direct relationship between an individual’s sin and his sickness.
“Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. …” (Jam 5:16). It means any unconfessed sins, bitterness, or hurt will make a person’s prayer to be unanswered, ineffective and powerless.
David said, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear.”
(Psa 66:18). Sin in the heart will cause prayer failure. No one can play around it except to do what is right. Unforgiving heart or grudges in the heart will make your body to be insensitive to the move of God. If you are praying and fasting for healing while indulging in harmful and hateful practices, you may be counteracting God’s work in your life unknowingly. You may be the enemy of your own life that you are ignorantly praying against. These behaviours are harmful because they trigger other illnesses such as ulcer, high blood pressure, nervous tension, inflammation, arthritis, migraine, etc.
According to our memory text, if God will not forgive you because you have not forgiven others who offended you, it’s logical that He won’t heal you completely when you are sick because healing involves wholeness of soul, body and spirit. Your healing can’t be whole.
Another reason why God won’t heal you despite your prayer and fasting is because forgiveness often precedes miracles or answers to prayer. Jesus teaches that to forgive a person requires greater power than to perform a miracle. It means that if God can’t forgive you, He can’t heal you (Matt 9:5-6 ). Also and according to our text, God forgives before He heals.
Friends, emotional illnesses are the results of harmful emotions such as anger, wrath, hatred, bitterness, jealousy, envy, strife, and the likes. Two types of forgiveness are required for healing to take place; forgiveness from God and from man. Seek both today to prevent the failure of your prayer.
Prayer points
1. Father, I refuse to live in self-deception, and I receive grace to fully obey You, in Jesus’ name.
2. Father, I confess my sin of unforgiveness, and I release and forgive all my offenders, in Jesus’ name.
Today’s declarations
1. I won’t deceive myself by living in unforgiveness, hurts, and bitterness and still be praying and fasting.
2. I know that if God won’t forgive me, He won’t heal my body. So, I forgive my offenders to secure God’s forgiveness.
Contact: pastor@thf.org.ng