The creation story tells Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel, in beginning their family. It is also apparent the LORD made known a desire to receive offerings as Cain brought fruit from his farming while Abel brought the firstborn of his flock and fat thereof (Genesis 4:3,4). It would also seem the LORD had indicated the type of offering which was acceptable as Cain’s offering was deemed as not as acceptable as that of Abel’s, leaving him angry with a downcast countenance.
“The LORD said to Cain, Why are you angry? And why is your countenance fallen. If you do well, shall you not be accepted? And if you do not well, sin lies at the door.” Genesis 4:6,7
Here we have an early explanation as to why things often do not go well in our life. Failure to obey the revealed will of God opens a door to demonic influence which is lying in wait at the door of our lives in the form of a kingdom under the rule of Satan as described by Paul in Ephesians 6:12.. It was so earlier when God gave a command for Adam to not eat fruit from a tree of the knowledge of good and evil so things might go will. Adam disobeyed, and sin had an opening to intrude into the life of Adam, his children, and all men thereafter. “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed to all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12).
Adam was created in the image of God without fault, but nonetheless having free will just as did the angels as well as us today. And when Adam disobeyed and ate of forbidden fruit, feelings of fear, guilt, and shame that had not been in his thoughts at the time of creation entered immediately. So it is that when God came to walk in the cool of the day with Adam, the latter was hiding among the bushes. God then asked a very important question. “Who told you that you were naked?” (Genesis 3:11). Not how did you realize that you were naked, but “Who” was it that told you. Manifesting through a serpent, Satan had inserted thoughts and emotions of guilt and shame through the spirit of Adam into his mind. Thoughts had entered from a kingdom under Satan’s rule and became experienced as Adam’s own thoughts and feelings, not recognizing their origin and how they had been birthed.
God’s warning to both Adam and Cain predated the warning of Peter many years later: “Be sober; be vigilant: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion walks about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). When we disobey the revealed will of God, we open a door in our spirit to receive thoughts and messages from a kingdom under the rule of Satan. So it is Peter tells us to be sober, a word translated from the Greek nepho that means to abstain from wine. Alcoholic drink serves to reduce vigilance in being on guard against the enemy at the door. I can attest to this, being a recovered alcoholic who suffered with distorted thinking from the effects of alcohol for many years.
Fear is another tactic of the enemy. For much of my life, I was ever anxious about the future. At times, stress about tomorrow absorbed as much attention as did what was taking today. For decades, worry was responsible not only for high blood pressure but an irregular heart beat eventually leading to congestive heart failure. It did not occur to me that anxiety was sin, totally contrary to faith, and that I was being disobedient to Jesus’ command to avoid taking thought (worry) for tomorrow (Matthew 6:34). Once realizing I needed to take responsibility for not obeying the teaching of Jesus about worry and repented, resisting thoughts of worry, my blood pressure began a return toward normal in a fairly short period of time.
Family backgrounds bring generational iniquities or mindsets as we find described by God in the first commandment given Moses at Sinai. “For I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of them that hate Me” (Exodus 20:5). I am aware that many believe Calvary took away the curse of consequences for sin including generational iniquities, but they are in grave error. Many diseases pass from one generation to the next, even among believers, and often are associated with chromosome defects identifiable in successive generations. These diseases manifest in believers as well as non-believers as seen, for example, in both cancer of the breast and depression. In both instances, there can be inherited what are known as markers associated with high risk of disease and there is no evidence whatsoever that these marked quietly disappear upon coming to the Lord. But they have been found to disappear from repeat chromosome analysis when the spiritual roots are dealt with following salvation. That much of the contemporary church refuses to accept this reminds me of insistence for centuries in the past that the world was flat.
I can bear witness to generational iniquity. My mother’s father was orphaned shortly after birth in Sweden, becoming a charge of the state. Passed from family to family, he lacked nurturing and developed feelings of being unloved and rejected. He did not accept the idea of a loving God, and was unable to show affection and love to his daughters. So my mother experienced rejection and depression her entire life and required psychiatric medication in spite of being a committed Christian, and serving as a church organist and choir director her entire adult life.
The same mindset of feeling unloved and rejected from my grandfather and mother passed to me as an iniquity, causing me to struggle with rejection even after coming to the Lord, being baptized in the Holy Spirit, and blessed to be used for divine healings and miracles. Eventually rejection manifested with autoimmune diseases as my body began to attack itself. My first symptoms were those in early childhood of rheumatic fever. Then there was Crohn’s disease during my years of schooling. Finally there developed lupus followed by rheumatoid arthritis, and eventually symptoms of multiple sclerosis. Little did I recognize that thoughts of rejection could manifest in diseases which were a reflection of the body rejecting itself.
By divine providence I became aware of a ministry spearheaded by Dr. Henry Wright in Georgia called Be In Health Global in early 2010. It marked a turning point in my life when I began to appreciate and rejoice in having a Father in heaven who loved me, and was making me into a new creation by the indwelling and empowering of the Holy Spirit. For years I’d watched the power of Holy Spirit touching others in miraculous ways. Now I began to appreciate the love of God for me, and now years later the autoimmune diseases that destroyed my quality of life are in near complete remission without need for daily medication.
The ministry at Be In Health has identified spiritual roots associated with many scores of diseases ranging from cancer to allergies. Addictions have their root in feeling unloved and manifest by ‘looking for love in all the wrong places.’ Whether alcohol, drugs, overeating, sexual immorality including pornography, greed, lust for possessions, or striving for the approval of others with perfectionism, addictions can become non-issues when dealt with spiritually. With some diseases, the problem is bitterness due to real or perceived offense. As a result of unforgiveness, resentment, desire to retaliate, and anger, it has been found that several types of fatal cancers can result. The same is true for diseases related to fear, and remarkable results are seen consistently at this ministry. As a retired physician, I have been amazed at the healing results of this ministry which stresses sanctification in thousands of lives.
Knowing the kingdom of Satan operates by inserting thoughts into the mind is a key to learning how to resist attack. The mind is a battlefield of great iimportance when it comes to spiritual warfare. But God has not left His sons and daughters without defense when they are confronted with evil, be it generational iniquities or trials of many kinds experienced in everyday life. There are weapons available to us as will be discussed in the last two lessons. Remember that our Savior, the Lord Jesus, has promised to never leave or forsake us. It is a promise intended to be a source of incredible comfort for every single twice-born person without exception.
