Spiritually Disabled

And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord…. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. Luke 4:17-19, 21 (KJV)

Most of us are aware of physical disabilities that impair people’s ability to do certain things. What we may not realize is that there are the spiritually disabled among us as well. Just as there are physical disabilities, there are spiritual ones.

And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. Matthew 13:10-16 (KJV)

In the physical, we may know of people who are blind and cannot see, deaf and cannot hear, lame and cannot walk, paralyzed and cannot feel, mute and cannot talk, and such. We see something very similar in the spirit realm.

That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, Ephesians 1:17-18 (KJV)

There are people who are spiritually blind. They do not see things from God’s perspective. They cannot see what God wants to show them. They cannot see that the path that they are on is leading to destruction. They are blind to spiritual truth. Satan has blinded their minds to the truth.

He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Matthew 11;15 (KJV)

Some people are spiritually deaf and cannot hear God speaking to them. As believers, we must develop our hearing to hear the voice of the Lord- by His Word, by prophetic utterances, by the Holy Spirit speaking to us through our spirit, and so forth. If we ask, God will talk to us to train us how to hear Him speak (John 10:1-5). Sadly, some do not believe that God speaks today, so they do not tune their ear to hear from Him.

The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. Matthew 11:5 (KJV)

There are those who do not know how to walk with God. The Bible called those who could not walk lame. So, there are actually spiritually lame people, but they do not have to remain that way. We must learn to walk with God by His Word, His Spirit, and making choices that align with them. Walking is a process that we do step by step. As a healthy child learns to walk physically, we too can learn to walk with God. Some people once walked with God but they got hurt and it hindered their ability to walk and must go to God and allow Him to heal them so they can walk with Him again. We are to follow the example of Christ to walk with God. He walked in the Spirit, doing what He saw His Father do. He walked in the fruit of the Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, the anointing and power. We can do the same.

That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Ephesians 3:16-19 (KJV)

One of the aspects of being physically paralyzed is an inability to feel in certain parts of the body because the nerves have been affected. The spiritually counterpart to this is when we cannot feel because our hearts are hard. We can get to the point where we have no compassion for others, no love for God, no sensitivity to the things of the Spirit. This can be brought on by hurts, disappointments, fighting battles. We must make the effort to keep our hearts soft so we have a heart for God and others. It is important to guard our hearts so we remain in an attitude of love. Forgiveness is key.

And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet; and he healed them: Matthew 15:30 (KJV)

There are some people who are unable to speak. Spiritually-speaking, we can be impaired in our speech as well. As we come to Christ, we have to learn how to talk. Our words must match up with God’s Word. As we mature in Christ, our speech matures and allows us to continue to mature so we won’t talk spiritual baby talk ( Corinthians 3:1-4, I Peter 2:1-3). We learn to avoid strife, gossip, slander, complaining, speaking defeat, and using harmful, idle words. If we yield our mouths to God, we’ll speak life and not death, blessing and not cursing. Our mouths are to wield the Sword of the Spirit; the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17).

We must pray that God gives us eyes to see, ears to hear, the ability to walk, a heart that feels and loves, and a mouth to speak the words of God. As we are healed and we mature in God, we will be made a whole person; whole with no spiritual disabilities, but living in the ability of God.

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I Thessalonians 5:23 (KJV)