By Mark Virkler

For many years I have known that emotional trauma is often the trigger for physical pain and illness. I have worked with two specific individuals who were both able to clearly trace the onset of cancer to unresolved emotional trauma in their lives. Traumas can leave us emotionally shattered, which turns off our immune system, which in turn allows disease and infirmity to take hold and flourish. Therefore it is crucial that we hear from God to heal all emotional upset, for emotions buried alive never die. The Lord told me in the midst of my infirmity, “For heaven’s sake, celebrate!” with the clear intonation that if I didn’t, I would be coming to heaven before my time. So yes, now I wear party shirts to remind me to live a happy lifestyle!

Yeah, but… have you seen my life?

Trauma can be caused by emotional clashes, traumatic events, and everyday existence in a world which appears unbearably corrupt. If you watch or listen to the news and don’t listen to what God is speaking about the news, you WILL be depressed. Jesus chose not to listen to the news coming out of Rome, but rather to listen only to what His Father was speaking. This IS the key to the joy and peace and power that He walked in.

The FOUNDATION of HEALTH is the emotion of PEACE because it turns on your immune system

Let the peace of God rule in your heart (Col. 3:15). A joyful heart is good medicine (Prov. 17:22). Do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. (Neh. 8:10).

Those verses are clear. God’s medicine is joy, laughter, merriment. It is HIS medicine for our bodies because it turns on our immune system which in turn effectively fights off disease. If you want to review scientific studies proving this, then do an internet search on “research laughter health”. Once you do, you will be convinced you need to be filled with joy, laughter, faith, love, and peace. The Bible also states that fear causes our hearts to fail (Lk. 21:26). So Kingdom emotions promote health and non-Kingdom emotions promote infirmity.

How exactly does the Bible say we get peace? “I will keep you in perfect peace whose imagination is stayed upon me” (Isa. 26:3). Yes, the Hebrew word in this verse is “imagination”, not “mind.” See this blog for a full explanation of the Hebrew meaning of this verse. What I am picturing produces the emotions I am experiencing. If I see Jesus in the traumatic scene and see what He is doing, I will experience His Kingdom’s emotions of faith, love, joy, and peace. My immune system will be turned on and running at full capacity. If Jesus is NOT in the picture I am looking at then my emotions are fear, doubt, sorrow, judgment and anger, shutting down my immune system and allowing disease to take root.

Many years ago I was fired from a job I loved and planned on working at for the rest of my life and I lived in anger for the following six months, by which time arthritis developed in my fingers and knee. Using inner healing prayer, Jesus showed up and gave me a brand new picture of how He viewed my firing. Here is what happened. In my morning devotions, I prayed about the event of being fired. I pictured the painful scene and looked to see where Jesus was in it and what He was doing. I saw Him standing there and laughing hilariously and slapping His knees. When I asked Him what was so funny, He said this firing was His doing and through it, He was now going to thrust me into the fulfillment of my destiny. He said I should be grateful because I would have never taken the step on my own because my fears of not being able to make it financially constrained me from stepping forward into my destiny. So to teach me that I could fly, He just threw me out of the nest I was so comfortable in (a weekly salary). Sure enough, I survived. (Incidentally, His voice is flowing thoughts and His vision is flowing pictures. We describe this in length at this link).

For the six months after the firing, I walked in fear and anger because I was gazing at pictures in my mind of the firing or my future, and I was not seeing Jesus in them. These emotions shut down my immune system and released toxins into my body so that at the end of six months, infirmity was taking over my body (arthritis). Within one day of the inner healing experience, 50% of my arthritic pain was gone and within a week it was all gone! The three simple steps of inner healing are taught in this blog. 

The principles we need to know concerning pictures, emotions, and health are…

  1. Emotions are byproducts of pictures – My negative picture of my firing produced the emotions of anger and fear. God’s new picture produced faith, hope, and gratitude. God used my boss to fire me and get me on the path God wanted me on so I could fulfill my God-given destiny.
  2. Perfect peace comes from gazing upon a godly picture (i.e. a godly imagination which I received as a vision during my prayer time) – As long as I saw Jesus there in the scene where I was fired, laughing and explaining it was all for the good of my future, my heart was at perfect peace. The rule here is, “ONLY look at the new picture Jesus gives you.” NEVER go back to gazing at the old picture (lie) which does not have Jesus in it, for if you do it will bring back all the old emotions.

We ask God in prayer to show us where He was in the painful situation and what He was saying. The pictures which then light upon our mind are visions (Acts 2:17). The flowing thoughts are His voice (Jn. 10:27). We write down both the flowing pictures and flowing thoughts as a record of His revelation which heals us. 

We choose to gaze steadfastly and only on this vision He grants us. His picture displaces satan’s picture. The result is that His emotions replace satan’s emotions. Satan’s emotions of fear, anger, and judgment, which turned our immune system off and allowed infirmity to wreak havoc in our bodies, is now gone. God’s emotions of faith, hope, and love turn our immune system back on which allows our body to effectively fight off infirmity. The battle is won. Health is restored.

One pastor was healed of the grief of her recent miscarriage by seeing a vision of herself in heaven with Jesus. They walked together to a bassinet where Jesus picked up the baby and handed him to her. She cuddled, nursed and loved on her child, then was able to give him back to Jesus and return to earth. This all happened in a journaling time at the close of a class as the group journaled together. Her hurt was healed.

Here is why we can always celebrate in the midst of painful situations

  1. We know God works ALL things out for our good (Rom. 8:28)
  2. We know His grace is sufficient to carry us through (2 Cor. 12:9)
  3. We see Him and His response to the situation, we take on His response, and we express our gratitude to Him (Jn. 5:19,20,30).

Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit (1 Thess. 5:16-19)

So NOW our immune systems are functioning at full steam, and the cares of this world do not crush us and steal from us God’s rhema, vision, anointing, peace and power.

Key points summarized

  1. “A hurt is healed when we can see the gift God has produced in our lives through the experience.”
  2. We now gaze only and always at this gift, and we feel gratitude, joy, and merriment.
  3. This turns our immune system back on and we walk in divine health.

Questions to Ask the Lord to Heal an Emotional Trauma – Listen and Write…

Lord, I come before You with thanksgiving in my heart and with praise on my lips. You indeed have been wonderful to me and I love You and give You my life.

  1. Lord, I know You are Immanuel, so You were present with me during this trauma. Could You show me what You were doing and what You were speaking? Thank You!
  2. Lord, how did You want me to respond to this situation?
  3. If I responded in the wrong manner, what would You like me to do now?
  4. What did You want me to learn through this situation?
  5. What gift do You want me to receive as a result of walking through this event?
  6. Have I learned what You desired and am I walking in the new gift You have provided?
  7. What do You desire me to be thankful for concerning this event?
  8. What am I to rejoice evermore about in light of this all?
  9. What new picture am I to walk in?

Cancer is restrained by a healthy immune system

I recall about 30 years ago being in a bookstore, examining books on cancer. The beginning of a large cancer book (about 900 pages), put out by the Western approach to dealing with cancer, had in its Introduction the statement that cancer cells are always present in our bodies, but a strong immune system keeps them at bay. So of course I was hoping that in the remaining 900 pages they would tell me how to create and maintain a strong immune system, but not a single word on that topic could be found in the remainder of the book. It was all about chemo, radiation, and surgery. Hmmm. Not really what I was hoping for. So the links below will provide you with many ways to strengthen your immune system.

Additional key foundation pieces of information…

We always pray for God’s miracle-working power to heal (Mk. 16:18)

We use soaking healing prayer
Victory Over Cancer – Discover Ways to Deal With Cancer

Hearing God’s voice is as simple as quieting yourself down,
fixing your eyes on Jesus, tuning to spontaneity and writing. 

Stillness – Vision – Spontaneity – Journaling

Disclaimer: None of the above is medical advice. You are responsible for your own health decisions. The above is simply research information.

This is the first of a series of blogs on this topic. I would love for you to email me your story of how addressing emotional trauma provided an ingredient in your healing journey. Send your written testimony to [email protected].