Why do some people receive healing, only to end up like they were before?  Is God unable to sustain their healing?  We need to explore this, for it is a common problem.  We know the problem obviously isn’t with God, so it means we have failed to take advantage of something God has provided us for our help.
   This week the LORD put in my spirit to explore the scriptures concerning LAYING SIEGE.  It’s something I hadn’t paid a lot of attention to, but there was something the LORD wants us to understand about it.  There aren’t a lot of scriptures about the subject but here they are:
Isa_29:3  And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee.
Eze_4:2  And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about.
Eze_4:3  Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.
Eze_4:8  And, behold, I will lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another, till thou hast ended the days of thy siege.
    What exactly does the term “siege” mean?  The dictionary defines it as:
1. the act or process of surrounding and attacking a fortified place in such a way as to isolate it from help and supplies, for the purpose of lessening the resistance of the defenders and thereby making capture possible.
2. any prolonged or persistent effort to overcome resistance.
3. a series of illnesses, troubles, or annoyances besetting a person or group: a siege of head colds.
4. a prolonged period of trouble or annoyance.
    Now we have something to work with.  If you are trying to attack a fortified city, the term “laying siege” would apply to it.  Let me apply this term from both the actions of the believer, and the way Satan works against us.  We will say you are sick and need healing.  Well, some people don’t believe it is always God’s will to heal in the first place, because they have been taught so by their teachers, and by their own experience that prayer for the sick doesn’t always result in healing.  So right off the bat, they aren’t convinced in their heart that God WILL always heal.  They may know He CAN, but can and will are two different matters altogether, right?  And yet, Jesus healed ALL the sick who were brought to Him, or who came to Him, and He said He only did what He saw His Father do, and said that He and His Father are One.  Shouldn’t that be proof enough it is always the heavenly Father’s will to heal the sick?  You might say God didn’t heal every sick person in Israel, did He?  True.  He only healed those who came to Jesus, or those who came to the disciples to be healed.  Bottom line?  If you don’t come to God for healing, you are on your own to seek healing however you can, by home remedies, doctors, medicine, or standing on your head and painting your fingernails purple and ringing a little bell while chanting this or that, or whatever else you can think will help.  But know this: healing is of God, for sickness and disease didn’t come from God, it came from the devil.  And Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, so that YOU can be healed.  Ok, so where does “laying siege” come into the picture?
   If you’re sick, the devil is laying siege against you to destroy your health.  He is going to attack you by any means he has available, up to and including what you believe in your heart.  Keep in mind that if you’re a disciple of Christ Jesus, you have a covenant with Him that not only includes salvation, but healing as well.  One of my favorite scriptures I’m about to share with you is what opened my eyes that healing is part of what belongs to me by virtue of my covenant with Christ Jesus, that being Psalm 103:2-3.  I’ve used this passage so many times you might think I don’t know any others, but I MUST keep using it until YOU get it.  I already got it, and as a result, I’ve been healed over nineteen years now without even one sick day, and YOU CAN BE TOO.  It is written,  Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits  Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases.  How many of your sins are forgiven?  ALL of them.  How many of your diseases are healed?  ALL of them.
   So, if you’re really healed, why do you feel so bad?  Simple, the devil is using his ability to put pain and symptoms on your body in an effort to make you believe you are NOT healed, to make you doubt the integrity of the Word of God.  And he does a pretty convincing job of it, too.  Often it’s enough to make people doubt not only that they ARE healed, but that it is even God’s will TO heal them in the first place.  The devil will continue to lay siege to your body and mind by surrounding you with people who will tell you they know someone (or ARE someone) who has been prayed for thousands of times, yet they aren’t healed because, can’t you see? it isn’t always God’s will to heal.
   People have five senses; sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell.  The devil uses those senses to convince you that God lied to you, you’re not really healed.  Your eyes might be giving you trouble where you can’t see clearly, and he will make sure you hear enough discouraging doctor’s reports that you have no hope of living in perfect health whatsoever.  Surely, if you were truly healed, you wouldn’t feel like this, the devil whispers in your ear.  He’s building his siege against you a day at a time, just like building a ramp up against your wall that he is trying to climb over so he can attack you in your safe fortress.  He isn’t in a hurry to destroy you, in fact, he’d really like you to suffer for a long time before he finally kills you, and along the way, rob you of all your money, your joy, your goods, your peace, and everything else you have.  And if you buy his lies, they are yours to have and to hold, forever, until death do you part.  And believe me, you WILL part, and it won’t be fun, the devil will see to that if you let him.
   But a siege can work both ways.  You could mount a siege against Satan, you know.  He doesn’t have to win against you.  It is written in 2 Corinthians 10:3-9,
2Co 10:3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
2Co 10:4  (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
2Co 10:5  Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
2Co 10:6  And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.
2Co 10:7  Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ’s, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is Christ’s, even so are we Christ’s.
2Co 10:8  For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord hath given us for edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed:
2Co 10:9  That I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters.
   This particular passage is very important, and perhaps it’s been overlooked, to our disadvantage.  Remember, our adversary the devil is a spirit being.  You can’t beat him up with a baseball bat, but you can sure cause him injury with the Word of God.  He knows the Word of God very well, after all, he was in heaven with God for ages before being cast out because of his rebellion.  Yes, he knows the Word alright, he just hopes YOU don’t know it and use it against him.  OUR weapons are mighty through God to the pulling down of the devil’s strongholds, and we are to BELIEVE the Word of God and act upon it, thereby casting down the devil’s lies, symptoms of sickness, depression, fear, worry, and every thought that exalts itself against God.  It is OUR job to cast down the lies of the devil, to lay siege against him, and bring our thoughts into obedience to the Word of God.  Verse 7 poses an interesting question: Do we look on the outward appearance?  Do we pay heed to the symptoms of sickness the devil lays upon us, and look in the mirror and say, I thought I was healed, but I guess I’m not after all?
   If we trust we are in Christ, let us think again, WE ARE CHRIST’S, even as the other disciples before us were in Christ, and we wield all the power the original disciples did. In doing so, we assert our authority against the devil, casting down his attacks against us, laying siege against him.  The LORD has given us much authority for our edification. But will we use it?
   In every war there is a winner.  The devil is out to win, and he is tireless, merciless, and unrelenting.  The odds are stacked in his favor against you, that is, until you lay siege against him with the one weapon he cannot defend himself against, and that is, the Word of God.  So there you have the strategy to stop the devil in his tracks, not only receive your healing, but to keep it.  God has given you His Word and He expects you to use it, not only to win YOUR battles, but to teach others how to win also.  You have a choice: you can hunker down behind your “shield of faith” saying, “If the devil shoots one more dart at me I don’t think I can take it.”, OR, you can grab those darts out of your shield and start hurling them back at the devil so fast that HE is the one ducking and hiding and trying to get away from you.  Your choice…but if you’re smart, you’ll go on the attack against the devil right now.  Keep in mind; no war has ever been won with a good defense.  They are always won with a good offense.
   Lay your siege against the devil today, and don’t get discouraged and quit if you don’t see immediate results.  If you were fighting an enemy for a couple days or a couple weeks, or a couple months and you weren’t winning yet, would you give up and go home?  Not if you really wanted to win!  No, you’d keep laying your siege and you wouldn’t quit until the enemy was absolutely defeated and powerless against you.  God has created you to be an OVERCOMER, not a loser.  So then, get to it!