The Eight Steps to Spiritual Healing (One and Two)

Close observation of salvation allows us to isolate eight steps to spiritual healing. We could also call these the eight confessions of the sinner. They stand out as vital personal revelations to one’s journey from spiritual sickness to the spiritual cure. Everyone must traverse through each one of the following steps.

1. “I am sick.” =Repentance
2. “Nothing is working.” =Renunciation
3.  “My sickness is terminal.” =Reality Adjustment
4.  “There is a cure.” =Recognition
5.  “I can be cured.” =Receptivity
6.  “I will accept the cure.” =Regeneration
7.  “I will follow through with the cure.” =Reconciliation
8.  “I will live in spiritual health.” =Responsible Living

The number eight possesses nothing magical. Some scriptural significance may lie in that the number eight is often used in the Bible to set forth a new order of things. For the purpose at hand, eight steps simply seem logical in moving toward spiritual healing. An analysis of actual cases in the lives of many people makes this evident. While scriptural terms exist to describe each step, it helps to see salvation in the context of healing. Every candidate for salvation from sin must come to these points of admis­sion. Since each one consti­tutes a profoundly spiritual act, we may refer to these admissions as confes­sions.

First Confession: “I Am Sick.”

A man of God once said that there are two greatest things that a man can know. The first is to know that he is a sinner. The second is to know he is saved. The second is impossible to know without the first. When people admit that they are spiritually sick, it indicates that they have worked through denial. Nothing good starts to happen until a person admits sin.

“Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  Romans 3:19-23

Confession of sin and repentance signal the move to God’s grace and favor. They deliver a deathblow to pride. They bring a person out of the fog of half-truths, speculation, human reasoning and lies into spiritual reality and truth. They put one into right perspec­tive in terms of eternity and the Judge of All the Earth. They give a concrete definition to life and death, divinity and humanity, and heaven and earth. Unless a person says, “I am sick,” he/she is both unable and unqualified to deal with anything else on a spiritual level. “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” Proverbs 28:13

Survey this list of confessions of men of the Bible. They did not make excuses for themselves. They did not justify their wrongdoing. God’s brilliant and revealing light exposed their sin. They knew that open confession was the only way to reconciliation with the Almighty.

• “Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned. I violated the LORD’S command and your instructions. I was afraid of the people and so I gave in to them.” -I Samuel 15:24
• “Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” Nathan replied, “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.” -II Samuel 12:13
• “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” -Isaiah 6:5
• “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” -Psalm 51:1-5
• “When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” -Luke 5:8
• “I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.” -Luke 15:18
• “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.” -I Timothy 1:15

Second Confession: “Nothing Is Working.”

The second step to spiritual healing is to renounce every other answer to the sickness as a false cure. If another cure to sin existed in the universe, God’s sacrifice for sin would have been in vain. Only the blood of Jesus will suffice. Yet, there appear to be many other means. A person must deal directly with these pseudo-cures, and say no to them all. Neither alcohol, drugs, carnal pleasure, wealth, position, posses­sions, novelties, the occult, wrong relation­ships nor any other substitute for true salvation will perma­nently erase the pain of sin.

A person who desires the true cure may confront some of these false cures with great difficulty. “Just say no” is easy to say, but hard to do. Alcohol and drugs cause extreme addiction. Carnal pleasures tempt the flesh severely. False religions sink their roots deeply into one’s heritage. Many habits resist change regardless of how heroic the efforts are to break them.

One of the miracles Jesus performed involved a woman with severe hemorrhaging problem. When the opportunity finally

“And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. “She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.” -Luke 8:43-44

From a spiritual standpoint, people must not seek relief from the pain of sin from any source other than Christ. Anyone who tries an eclectic approach and attempts to take the best of all worlds faces certain failure. We must not mix the blood of Calvary together with the wisdom of the world. Many fall into this trap because it plays into the process of human reasoning. It seems wise to try a little bit of everything. Only a total renunciation of all this world’s feeble efforts to find an eternal cure, however, will satisfy Christ. To put it plainly, the sinner must confess that nothing else has worked or will work to take away sin or the effects of sin.

• Alcohol has not worked.
• Drugs have not worked.
• Wild living has not worked.
• Materialism has not worked.
• Education has not worked.
• Friends have not worked.
• Philosophies and ideas have not worked.

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” -Acts 4:12

Not only do attempts to find a cure to sin from sources other than Christ fail, they impede the true cure from moving forward in one’s life. Physically, as long as the body is simply fighting infection, healing cannot progress. When the infectious agent is driven out, however, repair and regeneration can take place. Spiritually, deep and genuine repentance cuts out the infectious agent of sin. Christ did not come to save us in our sin. He came to save us from our sin. The deeper the repentance, the deeper the cure.