We Are Healers of History
Shouldn’t we stop and ask why, after decades, even centuries of trying, races and cultures still can’t get along with one another? Anywhere we go in the world, we’ll find members of different cultures who don’t get along. Blacks and Caucasians in America struggle. Tribes in Africa hate each other. Muslim factions kill one another. White Europeans often can’t get along with other white Europeans. British Canadians and French Canadians fuss and fume at each other. Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have been at odds for years. Many people hate the Jews. The tension and pain of the Great Crusades are still around centuries after they took place. And on it goes. Why does the pain linger in these relationships? Is it possible that in these cases, there is a spiritual poison flowing through history? Are there events in our history that become doors, gates, access points, and entrances for demonic influence to flow to a person or a group of people? If so, can it be stopped?
Scripture does indeed teach that the future is ongoingly impacted by today’s actions: blessings, curses, iniquities, and strongholds are passed along generationally (see Exodus 34:7; Numbers 14:18; Deuteronomy 7:9-11). The Lord clearly states that the offspring of our bodies can be blessed or cursed depending on our obedience to the laws of God (see Deuteronomy 28:4,18).
Daniel, in his day, knew that he and his fellow countrymen were suffering because his predecessors had “sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from [God’s] commandments and ordinances” (Daniel 9:5). Nehemiah knew this as well. He stated, “We have sinned against You; I and my father’s house have sinned” (Nehemiah 1:6). Though both Daniel and Nehemiah identified with the sins of their forefathers and mothers, repenting in the first person, it was their predecessors who had actually rebelled against God and His laws.
Isaiah 24:5-6 tells us that our sins pollute the earth and cause curses that devour. Numbers 35:33 says that the shedding of innocent blood defiles the land. Hebrews 12:15, in the New Testament, says that a root of bitterness causes trouble and defiles many. Indeed! Though we don’t often make the connection, we live with the fruit.
Yes, there are most certainly doors in history that have opened the way for strongholds and pain to flow from generation to generation. Someone must close them! However, when we try to deal with these roots and their fruit by natural means - legislation, dialogue, material retribution, laws, etc., we are only dealing with symptoms. We are focusing on the fruit, never getting to the root. Although we trim the tree, there is always the inevitable new growth of foliage and fruit.
Somewhere along history’s path, we must deal with the root, closing the door and stopping the flow of self-perpetuating pain and destruction. We must treat the cause. When that door is closed, the societal virus that causes social disease and death can no longer be passed on.
Ephesians 4:27 tells us to give no place or opportunity to the devil. The word “devil” comes from the Greek word diabolos, which means “one who falsely accuses and divides people without any reason; an accuser or slanderer.”(1) It is the term used to describe satan in Revelation 12:9-10, where he is also called “the accuser of our brethren.”
The word “opportunity” in Ephesians 4:27 (“place,” in the King James Version) is the Greek word topos.(2) You can easily see the English words “topo” and “topography” in this word, and they do originate from it. Literally it is a place, location, or piece of land. Figuratively, it also means an opportunity, as this verse indicates.
God is telling us that there is a devil, an “accuser who divides,” who is always looking for an “opportunity, a piece of ground” he can take ownership of in order to steal, kill, and destroy those who live there. Simply stated, our sins give satan legal grounds, a piece of turf from which he can accuse and divide. Until this legal ground is taken away from him through repentance and forgiveness, the pain and division will continue.
God heals history through the same instruments that dislocate it—people. When we confess the sins of past generations—as Nehemiah, Daniel, and others did—cleansing occurs and history’s dislocations are healed. Curses are broken and blessings return. Health, instead of pain, can then begin to flow through that historical joint.
These prayers of repentance play a part in healing history’s breaches because they are offered on the basis of the shed blood of Christ. History cannot be forgotten, but it can be healed. Romans 8:28 is the familiar passage that says, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” The personal application of this verse, of course, is that God makes failures and successes work together for good to those who love Him and align with His purposes. But this application can be broadened from an individual to a corporate or national level, as well.
The words “work together” come from the Greek word sunergeo,(3) from which we get our English word “synergy”! This means that all of our history, both the bad and the good, can be infused with God's amazing wisdom, purpose, and power until only good remains. Like ingredients in a cake, some of which wouldn’t taste good by themselves, the bad can be mixed with God’s purposes until they become synergistically blended into inexplicable good. A good, by the way, that God makes work for His eternal and benevolent purposes.
Through a remnant of people who will repent for the past, pray for and with humiity prefer one another, God can heal a nation. He can blend the tragedies with the triumphs, and propel a country forward into His original plans and purposes. Through repentance and healing, we can guarantee our destiny.
Pray with me:
Father, You said, “Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; You will raise up the age-old foundations; And you will be called the repairer of the breach, The restorer of the streets in which to dwell” (Isaiah 58:12 NASB). We are called to heal history’s breaches through our repentance and prayers. You are well able to heal wounds and breaches of the past, even those that exist between races of people. Government cannot do this, but You can.
We are Your methods. Increase revelation to the church, Your Ekklesia on earth, of our calling to be healers of history. Raise up many Daniels, Nehemiahs, who will repent and intercede on behalf of nations and races. Give us leaders who don’t exploit and divide, but heal and unify. We know those who sow discord among brethren are an abomination to You (Proverbs 6:19); remove them from their positions, cancel the influence of those who seek to divide us.
In the coming outpouring of Your Spirit, bring together Black Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Jewish Americans and Caucasian Americans. Make us the melting pot YOU had in mind for this nation. Unite us as one in the bond of love. This will require miraculous intervention, but You are a God who works miracles. We ask for this.
All of this we ask in the authority of Christ Himself. Amen
Our decree:
We decree that we are healers of history!
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James Strong, The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990), ref. no. 1228.
Ibid., ref. no. 5117.
Ibid., ref. no. 4903.
Amen and let it be so!! Praise the Lord!!
Powerful!
May history show we spoke His Story and submitted to His will to heal the history of divisions.