Healing Part 4 of 6

There is a second way that the enemy keeps us captive. In addition to encouraging addictions that can persist long after people accept Christ, Satan also blinds people to truth, effectively keeping them prisoners of the dark. But Christ wants to release us from the captivity of darkness. This forth aspect of His ministry, "to proclaim release from darkness to the prisoners",is what we will now consider.

Scripture states that Satan has the power to blind unbelievers (2 Corinthians 4:4) and does so very effectively, preventing them from seeing the truth about Christ and His Kingdom. But at salvation, Satan's power to keep people in the dark is removed. In addition to be set free from the dominion of Satan, we are also set free from the darkness of unbelief. Now, we have the capacity to see things clearly.

But Satan's blinding activities continue to exist and can remain effective even after people accept Christ. These activities occur directly through spiritual attacks, and indirectly through a world system of lies that Satan retains control over until Christ returns. These strategies are intended to confuse and mislead Christians, keeping them away from Christ, and in effect, prisoners of the evil one. Over time they evolve into belief systems, strongly held emotional convictions that shape our view of the world, others and ourselves. Though believers now have the capacity to recognize these lies, they often fail to because they have not "trained themselves to discern good from evil". Jesus came to lead us out of the darkness into the light. The light is the truth. It is the truth that sets us free. Part of the process of healing the damages of sin involves increasingly replacing wrong beliefs with the truth.

When I first studied these verses in Isaiah for healing I realized that everyone had all these needs, and were in need of healing in each area. If we are all honest with ourselves, there are things in our lives that we need healing from.

Everyone needs Christ for salvation, and for forgiveness and deliverance from sin. Everyone needs to process unresolved pain and learn how to deal with emotions correctly. Everyone needs God's direction and power to deal with the addictions and unhealthy defense mechanisms they use to deal with pain. Everyone also needs help replacing wrong beliefs with the truth.

Isaiah 61:1-2 describes the recovery Christ brings to all people, and His ministry is designed to provide healing in all areas.

Built into Christ's ministry was a recovery process that heals the damage of sin. During His early ministry, Christ introduced a restorative process that roughly parallels the early stages of human relational/emotional formation identified by many childhood development specialists. This restorative process, carried out into a small group that imitates many of the dynamics of the family-of-origin, provided a safe environment for dealing with wounds and reinforcing the tasks associated with healthy development.

We must remember that Jesus does not deliver us from all of the damage instantaneously. Though forgiveness is granted at the moment of salvation, it may take time for people to fully realize it or appreciate it. The other areas (unresolved pain, addictions, defense mechanisms, and false belief system) may take even longer to correct. In truth, some of these may be so ingrained that we struggle with them for the remainder of our time on earth. But for sustained spiritual growth to occur, we must continue to heal from the damages of sin in these areas.