Christians and mental illness and diseases

[christbased]

Now he is in the midst of a second. Schizoaffective disorder. What the Lord has given me in this time is that we each have a life to give to Christ, spend ourselves as he spent himself for us. So the family prays and we lift up the precious one who is so ill and present them to the Savior who sees all: the one who is so sick and the ones who carry them. It would be a great kindness if there are people who would join in prayer for those who are afflicted. I am willing are there others?

Hi Warrior Mom,
God Bless you, um... I am one of those sons, who has had issues.
In MY option, your son needs:
- Prayer (ask angels to surround your son, now and forever)
- a good doctor, pray about it, let our Lord direct you. Your son is going to need Psychotherapy. That is nothing special, it will just be his doctor asking him lots of questions, getting to know his personality and issues as the medication get into his body
- watch him, make sure he takes his medication, period. Don't worry, yes there a major spiritual components of mental illness. There is NOTHING wrong with dealing with BOTH issues at the same time. But, IMHO, your son needs medication, now, to stop his phycosis.
- relax, tonnes of folks have metal illness, including paranoid schizophrenia. It will take at least three months before the anti-psychotic medication takes effect. Your job is to keep him calm, wait, give him time for the phycosis to break. Physical work outside seems to help alot, at least it did with me
- in six-eight months, request if they can give you son a SPECT scan to look inside his brain. That will give you a better idea what his issues are, truely a schizophrenia disorder or a bi-polar disorder
- ENSURE YOUR SON IS IN CHRIST . Now he might have drifted due to his illness, believe in aliens, talking to himself, paranoid of everything, belief there are aliens or things around him, etc. Relax, pray in Christ name. There is more power in one drop of His Blood, than anything else. Just quietly pull yourself away, and pray Remember who you are talking to. DON'T give in to anxiety, even though some of this stuff is scary. It's all happened before, in many many others. Don't be afraid.

If he stepped away from church, when he is better, and ready, you will probably see him return right back to church when he feels better as he probably draws strength from church. He will probably be concerned what others think of him, I would say, don't push him to go back to church too early. You and he will know when it's right. Relax, don't judge him, talk to others who have family members with mental illness.
- Surround him with other friends who can help him embrace a more normal life. It will take a while before he will be fine
- If he currently works, try to keep him working! Try to get him to only talk to you, family and others outside of work about his issues so he can retain his job. Having a job for him will greatly help his self esteem.

May our Lord Bless you, your Son, and your support group which includes family, friends, doctors and nurses. Amen
and keep talking on this forum!

 

[Chad]

My Christian friend and I slightly disagree on things on one is this. She believes all mental illness comes from the Devil and that Christians can not get cancer. I know they can and I also know mental illness is a real illness? Anyone care to add further debate to this please?

My brother is paranoid schizophrenic and does much better on tablets than without them.

This is a portion of a gotquestions.org article that may answer your questions/concerns

This does not mean sickness is always from God or that God always inflicts us with sickness to teach us a spiritual lesson. In a world tainted by sin, sickness, disease, and death will always be with us. We are fallen beings, with physical bodies prone to disease and illness. Some sickness is simply a result of the natural course of things in this world. Sickness can also be the result of a demonic attack. The Bible describes several instances when physical suffering was caused by Satan and his demons (Matthew 17:14-18; Luke 13:10-16). So, some sickness is not from God, but from Satan. Even in these instances, God is still in control. God sometimes allows sin and/or Satan to cause physical suffering. Even when sickness is not directly from God, He will still use it according to His perfect will.

It is undeniable, though, that God sometimes intentionally allows, or even causes sickness to accomplish His sovereign purposes. While sickness is not directly addressed in the passage, Hebrews 12:5-11 describes God disciplining us to "produce a harvest of righteousness" (verse 11). Sickness can be a means of God's loving discipline. It is difficult for us to comprehend why God would work in this manner. But, believing in the sovereignty of God, there is no other option than suffering being something God allows and/or causes.

The clearest example of this in Scripture is found is Psalm 119. Notice the progression through verses 67, 71, and 75 - "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word...It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees...I know, O LORD, that your laws are righteous, and in faithfulness you have afflicted me." The author of Psalm 119 was looking at suffering from God's perspective. It was good for him to be afflicted. It was faithfulness that caused God to afflict him. The result of the affliction was so that he could learn God's decrees and obey His Word.​

So do I understand correctly here? You're all saying that God heals some and chooses to leave others sick? Are you saying that GOD chooses to keep some sick to teach them something? Are you saying that GOD takes some people’s lives and brings them to heaven?

I still cannot find one instance where GOD told someone to stay sick or where HE refused healing. Can you show me one?

I'm hearing impaired, born that way. Been a Christian 11 years, prayed for healing over the years and had people lay hands on me in prayer for healing. Still not healed. Am I not a Christian? I go to a church a few times a week. I here of other strong believers in faith getting all sorts of diseases and their relatives too. Some get healed, some do not. Are they not Christians?

Where in the Bible does God guarantee healing if you pray for it? No where.

I read the post above by Boanerges and see where he says GOD takes people home...That usually says HE took their physical lives so HE could take them into heaven.
ALL sickness is a result of sin. If the WORD says we are the healed then we are the healed. Unbelief is sin.

We cannot see the promises of GOD fulfilled in our lives until we believe HIM for what HE says

By his stripes we are healed. That refers to our spiritual condition (sin, separation from GOD) which Christ remedied on the Cross. The physical body is temporary. The spirit is eternal and that was the sickness Christ was referring to.

Quote from another Gotquestions.org article that should help you

God uses sickness and other evils to bring about His sovereign purpose, to glorify Himself, and to exalt His holy name. At times, He miraculously heals sickness. Jesus went through Israel healing all manner of sickness and disease (Matthew 4:23) and even raised Lazurus from the dead after illness killed him. At other times, God uses sickness as a method of discipline or as a judgment against sin. King Uzziah in the Old Testament was struck with leprosy (2 Chronicles 26:19-20). Nebuchadnezzar was driven to madness by God until he came to understand that “the Most High rules in the affairs of men” (Daniel 4). Herod was struck down and eaten by worms because he took God’s glory upon himself (Acts 12:21-23). There is even at least one case where God allowed disease—blindness—not as punishment for sin, but to reveal Himself and His mighty works through that blindness (John 9:1-3).

When illness does come, it may not be the result of God’s direct intervention in our lives, but is rather the result of the fallen world, fallen bodies, and poor health and lifestyle choices. And although there are scriptural indicators that God wants us to be in good health, (3 John 2), all sickness and disease are allowed by Him for His purposes, whether we understand them or not.

Sickness is certainly the result of the fall of man into sin, but God is very much in control, and He does indeed determine how far evil can go (just as He did with Satan and Job's trials—Satan was not allowed to exceed those boundaries). He tells us He is all-powerful over fifty times in the Bible, and it is amazing to see how His sovereignty unites with the choices we make (both bad and good) to work out His perfect plan (Romans 8:28).​

You said that your friend believes that Christians can't get cancer. That implies that she writes off all cancer patients as being non-Christian, unsaved or rejected by Christ. That's all I was saying. Seems awfully mean spirited. The best, most loving, Christian woman I have ever known is a cancer survivor. The best Christian man I ever knew died from cancer. To state that they in fact were not saved and therefore rejected by God, through no fault of their own, is cruel no matter how you cut it.

I have to agree with this, it is true. It is not loving for someone to say or imply even indirectly that someone is not saved or a Christian if they are sick. That's a lie of the devil.