Autoimmune Disease: The Body Should Not Be Attacking Itself!

A friend recently shared what I thought were two distinct issues she was dealing with.  First she discussed an ongoing physical problem she has with an autoimmune disease.  In her frustration she blurted out, “The body should not be attacking itself!”

My spirit rose up about the injustice of it all, one’s body created to protect itself, now turning against itself and causing illness.

I found this definition of autoimmune disease online:

“Your body's immune system protects you from disease and infection. But if you have an autoimmune disease, your immune system attacks healthy cells in your body by mistake.  No one is sure what causes autoimmune diseases. They do tend to run in families… “ (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/autoimmunediseases.html)

Later in our conversation my friend described another attack she had experienced, another incident of the body turning on itself.  But this one involved the Body of Christ.  My friend shared in honor, naming no person nor any specific details about the incident, about how she had been wounded by friendly fire – by a brother or sister in God’s family!  

I could not help myself and blurted out the phrase my friend had shared earlier, “The Body should not be attacking itself!”

I felt God getting my attention in the natural to speak to me about something he wanted me to notice in the spiritual, with the understanding that I was not to put up with either situation.  How should I cope with these two incredibly unjust situations?  1: One’s immune system attacking healthy cells instead of fighting off infection and disease, and 2. The disease that infects the Church, the Body of Jesus Christ and causes members of one Body to attack each other.

I’m learning to pray for physical healing.  I make it a point to reject the familiar diseases that seem to have a right, an excuse to attack us, since they are “in the family”.  No more excuses to accept an illness or deficiency in our bodies because my mother, my father, my uncle… had that disease.  Not when Jesus’ stripes paid for all our diseases.  I cling onto the promises of God’s Word and if I don’t see the healing I am seeking, I pray some more, and don’t give up.

Nor do I have to accept the rifts and offenses in the Body as “normal” consequences when people are involved in each other’s lives.  I love how my friend gave no details when she shared about being wounded in her Church, no foothold for the accuser of the brothers out of this girl’s mouth!  I pray for the healing of my friend’s heart, that she would not be discouraged to trust again, to share her beautiful self in the Body for fear of being rejected or attacked once more.  I saw her recently, praying over people in the House of Prayer, no trace of autoimmune disease in her spirit.  I pray that healing in her physical body will follow soon, on earth as it is in heaven.