SPIRITUAL AUTOIMMUNE DISORDERS

SPIRITUAL AUTO-IMMUNE DISORDERS:
By Mary Ann Wray

According to “Medicine Plus” website, an autoimmune disorder occurs when a person’s immune system attacks  and destroys healthy body tissue. When you have an autoimmune disorder, your immune system does not distinguish between healthy tissue and antigens (a harmful substance including cancers that causes the body to produce antibodies). As a result, the body sets off a reaction that destroys normal tissues in ‘self-defense’. In a sense, the immune system becomes confused and causes organs and tissues to turn on itself rather than attack the real enemy-the antigen. There are more than 80 types of autoimmune disorders which can result in the destruction of body tissue, abnormal growth of an organ, and changes in organ function.

A body may have more than one autoimmune disorder at the same time. Common autoimmune disorders include but are not limited to: Dermatomyositis, Graves' disease, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, Multiple sclerosis, and Type I diabetes to name just a few. Symptoms may vary based on the type and location of the faulty immune response. Common symptoms include: fatigue, fever, general ill-feeling (malaise), joint pain and rash. 

Through understanding some of the basic biology of the human anatomy we can gain some very valuable spiritual insights on how this relates to our spiritual relationships within the Body of Christ. We know that internal organs are obviously not visible, but yet vital for our health. There are some organs and limbs that a body can function without such as tonsils, appendix, gallbladder and internal reproductive organs i.e. ovaries, uterus and the prostate gland et al. Often times, they become diseased and have to be removed. However, heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, the brain, and other vital organs are necessary to sustain life. Without these, the body cannot function and will die. If they become diseased they must be repaired or replaced if possible, which is very risky. Organ replacement carries its own set of problems. We know that our God can fix any and all of our diseases, but I am just using this as an analogy to bring across a point here in just a minute…

You see, as individual members of the Body of Christ, we are part of the whole Body with Christ as the Head. How we interact with each another will determine the overall health of the Body of believers that we are attached to and are in relationship with. In 1 Corinthians 11 Paul addresses the issue of taking the Body and Blood of Christ (in the sacrament of Communion) in an unworthy manner (1 Cor 11: 27-31). For this reason, Paul stated, many are sick and weak amongst us and some have fallen asleep early (premature death). This comes about because they did not properly discern the Lord’s Body. In so doing Paul says that we eat and drink judgment upon ourselves. 

The word discern here means: discriminating (in a good sense) and recognizing with due appreciation. Could it be that if I do not recognize and appreciate your value as a member of the same Body I am attached to in Christ Jesus, I may be causing myself harm? Could it be that I open myself up to the wrong antigen (enemy). By not loving and regarding you as part of myself no matter the color of your skin, outward appearance, idiosyncrasies, or socio-economic status, can I remove any possibility of you offsetting any spiritual attack and malaise against me through our association as members one of another?

Likewise Paul states the following in Galatians 5: 15, ‘If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.”  Paul is saying that we can actually destroy each other in terms of our function within the Body of Christ if we are not careful with our mouths (biting and devouring) much like an autoimmune disorder! The Amplified Bible explains it a bit further as follows:” But if you bite and devour one another [in partisan strife], be careful that you [and your whole fellowship] are not consumed by one another.”

That’s a pretty strong admonition, saints of God! What I believe the Apostle is saying is that by taking sides and/or creating strife within an assembly we are literally consuming ourselves by creating an auto-immune disease effect within the church! Could this be one reason why we don’t see as much spiritual maturity taking place or the number of miracles and healings we long to see in our churches? Could it be that members of that very assembly are guilty of strife, division and/ or favoritism causing a rift in the body; where the healthy organs are being attacked by others but the real (antigen) enemy of our souls goes undetected? This is something to really ponder soberly, saints!

Spiritual Maturity requires putting off of the old and a putting on of the new. Paul told the Corinthians in Chapter 3….”Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?

Then he went on to say in 1 Corinthians 13 (commonly referred to as the Love Chapter) “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.”

You see, spiritual maturity demands putting off childlike behavior and attitudes and putting on Christ-likeness. One reason why a child suffering with physical maladies has difficulty growing in stature physically is because of inward stress. Any disease, particularly in a child, causes the body to focus on healing itself rather than multiplying healthy tissue and organs for growth. This was not part of God’s original and divine design. Due to the fall, disease and death set in but in the fullness of time, God sent His only Son, Jesus, the Second Adam to redeem it all back!

Likewise a church will have difficulty growing and gaining momentum when/ if its members are focusing on child-like negativity and strife rather than coming together in unity with one vision and purpose under the Lordship of Jesus Christ – the Head! It’s a sad thing to see an older Christian (beyond youth) who should be walking in love with the Armor of God not doing so because of immaturity. Sometimes immaturity is a result of a wound that has never been healed and causes a dwarfed spirit. However, we still have a choice to remain in our pain or childish thinking and attitudes or put on Christ likeness. 

For example, at some point in time our mothers demanded that we begin the exchange of diapers for potty training. This compelled us to stop relying on her and take personal responsibility for passing our own excrement and putting it where it belonged-in the potty, not on the carpet or in the house somewhere or in the all familiar diaper for her to deal with. Pardon the vivid picture here but I think you get the point and I believe it drives it home well.

“Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth …Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” Ephesians 4: 14-16

Jesus calls us as believers to assemble together (Hebrews 10: 25). It has been the practice for the Body of Christ since the Church’s (ekklésia-called out ones) birth on the Day of Pentecost. Granted, we may not have church services exactly as they were conducted in the early days with mostly home churches due to persecution. But the practice of coming together weekly and breaking bread from house to house has always been the pattern for worship despite its inherent challenges. Its purpose is to build a family first, a body of believers, in real koinonia fellowship because it makes the Body grow and mature together in agape love. Through this mutual practice we can accomplish God’s will and purpose in the earth. Praise and worship, sacrificial giving, good works, helping the poor and needy, taking care of the widow and orphan and evangelism are difficult at best and sometimes nearly impossible unless a Body of Believers in Christ purpose to come together under God ordained leadership (Spiritual Fathers and Mothers) as the Holy Spirit emplaces each member together…

“For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.”  1 Corinthians 12: 13-14

You see brothers and sisters, if we are not attached to a body, we become a ‘thing’ much like the Thing on the Adams Family! As weird and creepy as that is, there are many in the Body of Christ who have been wounded and have detached themselves from fellowship. As a result, they make a vow to never be hurt again and wind up doing their own ‘thing’. You can never be as effective alone as you can together with a body. That is how God designed us! To attempt to do otherwise goes against Jesus’ creative design!

You see my friends, the fact that you ARE a part of the Body of Christ makes you valuable in whatever your function may be. Don’t sever yourself from the rest of the Body and at the same time be careful to discern others in love for Christ’s and the Body of Christ’s sake! Jesus calls us to prefer one another in love! (Romans 12: 9-10)

“Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. And yet I will show you the most excellent way. 1 Cor 12: 15-29 & 31