A MERRY HEART
Proverbs 17:22 A merry heart does good like a medicine: but a broken spirit dries up the bones.
The position and well-being of your spirit man has a lot to do with your healing and every part of your life. You are a spirit, you have a soul, and you live in a body. When you were born again, your spirit became alive unto God. You didn’t come into existence physically; that happened in your mother’s womb. Since you are now born again spiritually and know healing is available, making sure your spirit is strong is vital to receiving your healing from the Lord.
The English Standard Version says, “a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” Understand this, that after you are born again, your spirit is in great shape; it has been made in the likeness and image of God. Your spirit is contained in your KARDIA, the center of you, and houses both your soul and spirit. Hebrews says that your soul and spirit are so intertwined that only the sword of the spirit can separate them. So, when you get down or crushed in your soul, it can affect the ability of your spirit to grab ahold and keep ahold of the healing that is rightfully yours. Your spirit man needs to be strong. How do you strengthen your spirit? Through the Word of God. It is the only spirit food available. You must feed yourself with the Word. You must meditate the Word. You should confess the Word. You must put the Word of God in your eye gate, ear gate, and mouth gate, so it gets deep into your spirit. That’s when it will drive anything away from your soul that is trying to discourage you, crush you, dry you up, or keep you from receiving.
The other thing you can do is get happy. You can cheer up. Right in the middle of the biggest storms of our lives, one of the best things to do is cheer up. Acts 27:22 says, “And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but of the ship.” Right in the middle of the storm, Paul told them to cheer up. Before the storm went away, he basically said, “The Lord told me we are all going to be ok, so y’all need to cheer up.” That is what today’s verse is saying. Cheer up, and you can because you believe God, and you know the outcome.
A merry heart or laughter does you good, and it will be like medicine released from your spirit man into your body. Laughter, or a merry heart strengthens your spirit and brings healing to your soul and body. What should you do? You should rejoice; you should dance; you should laugh. Ha Ha Ha!