Dealing with Infirmity

Definitions - Various sources & interpretations including biblical texts

• Impurity
• Sickness
• Disease
• Monthly period
• Monthly discomfort
• Broken flowers
• Menstruation
• Bleeding

Man is made of Spirit Soul and Body.

The soul is that part of us that deals with our emotions, will, thought and mind. Your body is
the physical you and your spirit is that part that responds to God and the spirits. Your spirit
discerns God’s presence and it’s sometime said to be our heart (not the physical heart). Our
spirit affects our soul and body.

Essentially - Two types of Infirmity - Natural & Spiritual Infirmity

1. Natural Infirmity happens through the natural process. An example is when one
contacts a disease because of exposure to the cause and the person is not protected from these
elements. They are life changing as they affect our day to day living. These kinds one can
recover from naturally
2. Spiritual Infirmity - The source is spiritual, and this affliction is a result of exposure to
sin, rebellion, curse, disobedience, ignoring God’s word/commandment and witchcraft. They
are ailments that binds and torments people. We see the physical manifestations of these
sicknesses as they immobilise the affected person. The origin could be natural but can
become spiritual when it becomes ongoing and not ending or affected by natural or medical
treatment

This write up is going to focus mainly on the spiritual infirmity as we know that ailments that
are natural always response to natural treatments and over time, we have our desired results.
An example of a spiritual malaise is what happened to Mariam in the bible.
Mariam was Moses’ sister but got into trouble with her insubordination and running her
mouth against Moses authority, she was afflicted with leprosy instantly. This is a spiritual
ailment that came about from her behaviour. She was healed after intercession for her - Read
this story in Numbers 12:8 - 16

Proverbs 18:14 - The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can
bear?
⁃ State of our spirit will determine how we overcome infirmity/sickness

Most do not connect the state of their spirit to the recovery from illnesses and sickness but
now medical science (https://time.com/4866693/happiness-improves-health/) is now
supporting the bible that has made this clear all along in so many passages. See the following
texts

Proverbs 17:22
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
(Contemporary English - Being cheerful helps when you are sick, but nothing helps when
you give up.)
Proverbs 15:13
A joyful heart makes a cheerful countenance, but sorrow of the heart crushes the spirit.
John 5:13-13
“13 But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while
the crowd was there. 14 Afterward, Jesus found the man at the temple and said to
him, “See, you have been made well. Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to
you.” 15 And the man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
…”

What About The Spiritual Infirmity?

Spirit of Infirmity - Luke 13:11
“And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was
bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.”
Description of Physical traits of the person under this spirit influence
• Time involved - Build up distress/ discomfort/ pain/ suffering/escalating never going
sickness - 18 years. John 5:5
And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.
• It’s presence is obvious and cannot be hidden as the body is affected or distorted as a
result
• Bowed Together - The body broken/discomforting because of the debilitating disease
• Not able to live normally without aids - In no wise able to lift up herself (Bound by
the spirit)
• The woman took possession of the infirmity and was also known by the infirmity.
How? - By claiming what is her reality at the present. Her wretched or bowed over body or
sickness becomes her. People are found to say “my cancer”, “my arthritis”, “my ulcer”, “my
disability” etc

Let look at the way Jesus responded to the woman’s situation. He drew her nearer through his
compassion and then spoke words that disengaged her from the infirmity that she had taken
hold of.
Luke 13:12
“And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed
from thine infirmity.”
• He got her attention first
• Then spoke words that liberated her from the infirmity that she had taken possession
of.
Luke 13:13
13 “And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified
God.”
• Jesus lay his hands on her to actualised his words after speaking to her the desired of
his heart to loose her from the sickness. There was corresponding action to his affirmative
and conclusive words to her.
• The woman’s response to his words that she heard and the hands upon her was
immediate. She recovered from her infirmity and began to glorify God
To note how this spirit of infirmity came about weened to go further down the passage of
Luke 13 as Jesus was having a discourse with the religious powers at his time who opposed
his working on the Sabbath.
Luke 13:16 made it clear as to the source and cause of the prolonged infirmity
16 ”So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think
of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” 
• Jesus made t clear that it was Satan that bound the woman for 18 years and it was God
that loosed her through Jesus words and laying on of his hands
This is the evidence that we need to understand the spiritual aspect of some sicknesses. Read
Acts 10:38 - “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who
went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with
Him.”
The treatment Jesus meted out was basically
• Compassion
• Words that looses (that build up/ heals/ empowers and changes the hearer’s possibility
thinking)
• Touched her by laying His hands on her.
• She became whole immediately as a result of the words and the touch.

God still wants to heal people today but the same principle must applied for those seeking
healing
Principle 1 - We must be moved with compassion. Jesus was the one reaching out to her not
her seeking Jesus
Principle 2 - We must have the words of life to speak life to such situations. Jesus spoke what
he wanted to see in her. The woman received the words! Jesus was not doing this against her
will or believe in the God who is able to heal her
Principle 3 - He laid his hands on her - We must give what we have to people. Our helping
hand to lift up others that are down. Jesus laying his hands on her is giving her new health.
Virtue was flowing into her life from him.
Principle 4 - Satan had to let go of her because God got hold of her. She became a praiser and
glorified God.

What suffering people need today is still the same

⁃ Compassion from Christians
⁃ Affirmative Words they can believe in that makes them see themselves as loosed from
what they had. Jesus words in us are still words of life. He said his words are spirit and they
are life. John 6:63 - “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I
speak to you are spirit, and they are life.”
⁃ The Touch that connects us to them and makes the life giving spirit in us impart them
with the life of God that Satan can’t resist in the person. So the healed wants to glorify God

What Does The Lord Expects Of Us Today?

We can all do these acts as we are believers who have received power from God to be His
witnesses.
Acts 1:8 - “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you
shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the
earth.”

John 14:12 - “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will
do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.
He wants us to serve God acceptably as we are the salt and light of the world. We need to
maker life worth living for people by bringing them out of the dominions darkness and
misery to the kingdom of his dear son.

2 Corinthians 3:6
“And He has qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for
the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

We are qualified and commissioned to bring this new agreement/covenant or arrangement

that God has made with man that if we will believe and confess what Jesus has accomplished
for us we will see the Spirit confirming His word in our lives and time
Acts 14:3 - “Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who was
bearing witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their
hands.”

Mark 16:20“And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them,
and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.”

Romans 1:16“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto
salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”

Let’s Be Like Christ - Doing Good & Healing All That Are Oppressed By The Devil For
GOD IS WITH US!