A TALE OF TWO SINNERS
A few months ago, I had a very deep conversation with a very dear friend named Wanda. Wanda was calling regarding her friend Sally who was recently diagnosed with cancer. The reason Wanda called was to gain some insight into the spiritual aspect of her friend’s diagnosis. After all, Sally was a Christian and she was very confused as to how she got cancer.
Here is Sally’s story...
Meet Saved, Christian Sally
Sally is in her late 50's and was diagnosed with stage three lung cancer. Her diagnosis is terminal and she has been instructed to get her affairs in order. The only good news is Sally is saved and loves God with all her heart. On a side note, Sally had been delivered from her cigarette habit a few years after becoming saved in her late 30's.
Unfortunately, like most Christians, neither Wanda nor Sally have any understanding of the spiritual roots of disease. So, the next best thing was a prayer asking that God’s will be done as Sally felt hopeless and my friend felt helpless.
In my conversation with Wanda, I compassionately shared that just because Sally became a Christian in her 30’s, doesn’t mean that the demons from the sin of smoking couldn’t kill her.
I know what you’re wondering...How can they still kill her?
The demons still have legal grounds through other sins, such as unconfessed and unrepented rebellion towards God and her own body. The unclean spirit causing Sally’s addiction to cigarettes was initially caused by strongmen spirits like fear, rebellion, and pride. These demonic strongholds ultimately opened the door to the beginning stages of diseases such as hypertension, allergies, and asthma.
Unknown to Sally, cancer was gradually driving its hooks in through her continued sin of smoking. Keep in mind, that she didn’t just get cancer all of the sudden. This horrific disease, often referred to as a demonic spirit of infirmity, was simply lying dormant. The cancer was ultimately waiting for a more opportune time to manifest. In Sally's case, it happened after she became a saved Christian, a strategic and vicious play by the enemy.
Now, let me share a completely different story about a woman named Chanelle. Her story will give you another side of the spiritual realm.
Meet Unsaved Chanelle
Chanelle is an unsaved, ex-prostitute who finds out that the HIV virus she was diagnosed with during her years on the streets has ultimately, and not surprisingly, turned into full-blown AIDS. She was aware of this risk of AIDS because her doctor explained it can take many years to manifest from a lifestyle such as her own.
As in the case with Sally, unsaved Chanelle is also ignorant of the spiritual realm but she is not shocked by the drastic report of having only a few short months to live. In fact, she actually accepts it as her fate for her sinful life. She is also being severely tormented by demons that tell her she actually deserves to die and that she is going straight to hell as a result.
*** Here is the point: JUST BECAUSE YOU NO LONGER COMMIT THE SIN DOESN'T MEAN THE DEMONS CAN NOT TAKE YOU OUT FROM THAT SIN. ***
Unfortunately, satan and his demons do not care if you are a saved former smoker like Sally or an unsaved former prostitute like Chanelle. The spiritual realm plays by different rules.
While it might seem unfair that Christian Sally should not have gotten cancer after being faithful to the Lord for over 20 years, the devil, like God, is no respecter of persons.
This is exactly why ignorance of the spiritual realm can be deadly.
What Sally failed to realize is that "the wages of sin is death." It does not say that the "wages of sin in an unbeliever only is death" as in the case of Chanelle. It also doesn't say that "the wages of sin is only spiritual death" such as in Sally’s case.
Death can include all forms of death such as physical death, spiritual death, marriage death (adultery), relationship death (betrayal), financial death (debt), and even death of our destiny (by being ignorant of the spiritual realm).
(Please see the blog titled: “The Wages of Sin is Death”)
Dumbfounded, Sally doesn't understand how she was able to get lung cancer 20-plus years after she quit smoking. It doesn't make sense in her mind and heart because she is now a Christian serving God. Unfortunately, the same spirits of fear that caused Sally to smoke, begin to torment her again letting in other spirits such as unbelief, confusion, and hurt as she begins to question why God would allow this to happen after He helped her quit, to begin with.
Sadly, the doctor, and most of the medical community, don’t care that Sally is a Christian. All they can do is recommend medical protocols.
Feeling completely desperate and overwhelmed, Sally agreed to the aggressive treatment and whatever else the physician recommended. Ultimately Sally would die from complications.
The fact of the spiritual matter is that the enemy gets a demonic high killing Christians like Sally prematurely (like any adrenaline junkie) because he is fulfilling his agenda to steal, kill and destroy not only their lives but their faith and trust in God.
The ultimate outcome for Sally and Chanelle became a sad reality. Sally died without fulfilling her God-given purpose, leaving behind a husband, children, and grandchildren that now have an unhealthy perception about having put their hope in a God who stole Sally from them. And Chanelle chose to take her own life with a bottle of prescribed pain medication.
If there was such a thing as a spiritual autopsy report, the cause of death in both cases would read: Ignorance of the spiritual realm. Not cigarettes, not cancer, not AIDS, not even pain pills but ignorance!
Hosea 4:6 says that people go into captivity and are destroyed from lack of knowledge because they are ignorant of God’s ways. By default, most Christians are also ignorant of the enemy’s ways recited in Jn. 10:10
“Ignorance of God and ignorance of the enemy is why we are led into captivity and ultimately destroyed.”
Like Sally, if we continue to just become saved but never ever come to the knowledge of the truth regarding the spiritual realm, many of us will become casualties of war(fare).
This is where deliverance ministry (click here to learn more) becomes especially critical to the born-again believer as a spiritual weapon against disease, sickness, and premature death.
If Sally and my friend had only known about deliverance, things could have turned out differently.
Even if Sally's medical treatment could have prolonged her life, it is usually only an illusion creating a false sense of security in an imperfect medical system. The disease can simply go undetected for years after treatment. And if the spiritual roots are not dealt with, by casting out the demons that caused the original illness, they can rear their ugly demonic heads again later on.
Please keep in mind that doctors and their protocols cannot cure, heal or deliver a person from demons that are causing an illness or disease to begin with. Doctors only have the physical knowledge to treat and manage the disease.
These spirits must be cast out through the ministry of deliverance. Only God, Himself can cure and heal the disease and deliver the person from the spirits causing the disease.
It is not surprising that many years later, cancers often come back or spread to a different part of the body or manifest into other diseases or complications as a result of many of the aggressive and harmful treatments prescribed and also through fear and dread (spirits) of the disease re-occurring. (Job 3:25)
See the following article on the fear of cancer reoccurrence:
https://ascopubs.org/doi/full/10.1200/EDBK_100031
If only Sally’s church could have provided spiritual truth regarding the free gift of deliverance available to her as a New Testament believer, she might be here today instead of being prematurely murdered by unclean spirits.
The lack of understanding that sin can no longer impact the life of a Christian is why many people die needlessly, become sick, end up in divorce, or end up depressed, continually tormented, and backslidden.
We are paying a very high price for our ignorance!
Christians are clueless regarding the spiritual authorization they have given the enemy through the past, present, and continued unconfessed and unrepented sin.
Becoming saved does not guarantee stopping the collateral damage and effects of sin.
Prayer, as my friend so compassionately offered Sally, is also not the only answer. If prayer alone worked, then every single born-again Christian being prayed for would be physically healed, happily married, and financially prospering.
Prayer is a powerful starting point that can give us immediate, valuable access into Kingdom principles operating by spiritual laws. This includes healing through deliverance in order to expose the spiritual roots and pathways by which sin causing sickness can still legally operate in the life of a born-again believer.
It is time to become armed and dangerous in the spiritual realm by first becoming armed with the knowledge of God’s Word pertaining to deliverance.
This is why going through deliverance should become your first priority as a believer. You will learn more through your own experience being delivered than you will from any book or teaching.
There is a war for our destinies that we must be willing to fight for daily.
Our goal at Mountain Movers is simply to serve and equip you with the knowledge and power to become an effective soldier on the frontlines of any battle you will face.
As long as you stay committed to the process, God promises to remain faithful to heal and deliver you. Then you will likely be called to help others like Sally and Chanelle.
It’s time to go move some mountains!