Counterfeit Healing

I used to believe that all paths to healing were spiritually legitimate.

My rationale was simplistic and ignorant: sickness is from the enemy, so anything that heals the body must be from God.

I was absolutely right on the first point, and absolutely wrong on the second. 

Because I was operating under a flawed and dangerous assumption, and because I was functioning as a holistic health coach, I was open to learning anything and everything about “natural” healing modalities.

Let me state emphatically right now before I go any further: “natural”, “holistic”, “alternative”, “chiropractic”, “integrative”, “complementary,” “functional”, “biological”, “naturopathic”, “energetic”, “magnetic”, “intuitive”, “Eastern”, “New Age”, and even “conventional” approaches to health and wellness have OCCULT roots. 

Using these methods of healing is idolatrous. 

Why?

Because it’s turning to man’s remedies for healing and restoration rather than to the Creator.

God already revealed himself back in Exodus 15:26 as Jehovah Rapha, one of his covenant names. It means, “Jehovah, who heals you”. 

Throughout scripture He reveals aspects of His nature and character through His names. By telling His chosen people that his NAME was ‘Jehovah, who heals you’ he was explicitly stating that it is ALWAYS in His character and nature to heal. 

The one time in scripture it was recorded that Jesus was asked if He was willing to heal (Matthew 8:1-3), He said that He was willing…and the word He used, ‘thelo’, also implied that He was ALWAYS willing because it was His pleasure to do so.

But, because many Christians have been 1. taught that miracles, signs, wonders, and divine healing ended with the apostolic age, 2. physical sickness is disconnected from spiritual causes, and 3. conditioned to seek doctors and other health practitioners rather than God for divine healing, here we are.

If the root is evil, then the fruit is too.

Like me, you may be thinking that you’ve outsmarted the enemy by avoiding conventional medicine. You MAY be avoiding physical side effects by doing so, but I can tell you first hand that you are certainly not avoiding the spiritual ones.

I have a working theory that God intentionally uses the dumbest sheep among the flock to demonstrate his grace and wisdom in Heaven’s courtroom.  My biblical basis is this: 

1 Corinthians 1:27-29, “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being[d] might boast in the presence of God”.

I just didn’t know for the past few years that I had been serving in the role of God’s Exhibit A. 

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I’ve already accepted the fact that I am a case study in Heaven. 

It is what it is. I’m just grateful that Jesus snatched me out of the mouth of the roaring lion before I got totally devoured.

Once again, the enemy must have been howling with laughter when my very ignorant self got entangled with just about every healing modality on the planet.

Because I am one of those people that like to know a little bit about everything, I studied and/or tried out lots of different approaches to healing. 

As a health coach, I didn’t want to recommend to others approaches I wasn’t personally familiar with…and that was how I entered into agreement with the enemy to open the doors wide to demonic oppression.

I’ve said this before and I will say it again. Satan could not care less if you wander into his clutches unintentionally. Spiritual ignorance is spiritually deadly.

Another sad truth is that in case after case, I was introduced to most natural approaches by other Christians. I don’t believe for one second that any of them intentionally led me down the wrong path. 

It is simply a great tragedy that the people of God do not know any better.

So, I want to share my experience with counterfeit healing as a warning to others. 

Here’s how it started:

I used to follow this one Christian family that had a toddler diagnosed with advanced stage cancer. Through the application of various natural healing modalities, this child’s cancer was completely reversed.

This family carefully documented their routines and approaches, and I was keen to understand what they did to help others with their own natural healing journeys.

Repeatedly, they referenced ‘energetic’ healing in their emails. 

Since energy is ‘natural’, ‘scientific’ and part of the created order I figured no issues there. I had purchased a book on the topic of magnetic healing months before that I’d never read and I had been having really strange headaches for quite a while.

Unfortunately, experiencing strange, undiagnosable symptoms, or odd aches and pains that move around are a dead giveaway that the real problem is spiritual in nature. 

I didn’t know that at the time.

So, I read this book. 

It sounded simple enough. There was a step by step guide of how to apply the principles. I ordered the necessary supplies, a pair of oddly shaped magnets off of Amazon.

One day, I put everything into practice. 

I am not going to share the specifics of what I did. Now I know that I was practicing a type of divination, a form of witchcraft and a serious crime against God which was punishable by death under the Mosaic law. 

Suddenly, my entire body heated up like an oven and I felt nauseous. Sprinting to the bathroom, I made it to the sink just in time before what appeared to be several gallons of water came spewing out of my mouth. 

In an instant, the headaches I’d had for nearly a year disappeared.

Though ecstatic about the result, at the same time I was freaked out by how it happened. I could not shake this unsettling feeling that maybe I shouldn’t have done what I did.

However, I soothed my consciousness by telling myself that I felt better so it must have been God that healed me.

I talked to a few mature Christians to share what I had done and ask for their opinions, but no one had any insights or thoughts to share. I kept telling myself that I had just tapped into the supernatural realm of God.

I had in fact tapped into the supernatural alright, but it was the realm of Satan, not of God.

It was so unusual of an experience that I decided not to do it again for a long while.

Four or five years later, while here in Switzerland, I came across a book called “He Came to Set the Captives Free” by Rebecca Brown. I don’t know how I found that book, or why I felt compelled to read it except that I was being led by the Spirit in preparation for what was about to be revealed in my own life. 

The book was about spiritual warfare, and a Christian woman’s fight to get a patient of hers free from Satan’s clutches. 

I wasn’t sure if I even believed what I was reading.

But that was the first time I’d ever heard of the term “counterfeit healing”. 

The moment I read that term, I immediately thought of what had happened with those magnets years before…and I had a gut level reaction that somehow that term “counterfeit healing” applied directly to me.

A few weeks later, I was casting demons out of myself.

When it comes to healing for Christians, the only spiritually safe bet is to stick with what the Bible explicitly states.

Anything beyond that is treading on dangerous territory.

If you have participated or practiced any form of natural healing I would strongly suggest that you stop doing it immediately. Repent, renounce the practice, then ask God if you need deliverance as a result of what you’ve come into contact with.

A helpful resource for understanding the occult roots and dangers of these practices can be found here: https://rb.gy/1nn1zk or at the website https://www.christiananswersnewage.com/