“You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit!”.
Acts 7:51
Stiff-neck is common ailment. In America 30% of the population will experience neck pain with 50% experiencing frequent neck pain in any given year. There are 19 verses in the bible pertaining to this common ailment. Acts 7:51 is one that explains it well. There are other verses in both the Old and New Testaments where the condition was used to describe people’s stubbornness to accept God’s words or follow His commands. According to God’s word, we have been rebellious children throughout the ages.
Occasionally, we all get a stiff-neck or experience a “pain in the neck”. When this common syndrome occurs, we often will feel tension build in the neck and it sometimes accompanies a clicking sound when we roll our head around. It can sometimes produce headaches when we do not find relief. Neck pain can last for an hour or for months. What I intend to present is, that this type of pain may be a symptom of a larger spiritual problem at play, and God may be trying to warn us.
Early in our marriage, my wife had this same neck condition become so severe that she had to receive chiropractor treatments frequently to help her deal with the pain. It was both expensive, since our medical insurance didn’t pay for the frequent visits, and ineffective, as the pain always returned over time. She had these frequent chiropractic adjustments over a period of months during the short time I thought I was an atheist. We eventually found the cure to relieve her constant neck pain when we returned to follow our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We just did not recognize this truth at the time.
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30
Word of Knowledge
I sometimes get a pain in my neck where I noticeably feel pops in the joints of my vertebrae. My neck will feel so tense that it becomes a challenge to turn my head. At many times in my life, I thought this pain was stress related or perhaps that I was not taking proper care of my body. After the Holy Spirit baptisms I experienced in the fall/winter of 2018, I was taught that the root cause of stiff-neck was actually a spiritual issue and most importantly, it is one that can be healed. It is a condition likely caused by sins of being rebellious, not having a heart able to hear God’s truths, or obeying His commandments.
A stiff-neck, similar to other pains I will explore in other blog posts, can be a word of knowledge about a spiritual injury a person has. With the stiff-neck example, it can signal that the person is being stubborn and not obeying God, but it can also mean the person is not giving up their burdens to the Lord. We all can fall into sin through temptations of the cares of this world, taking after idols, or not listening to what God commands us to do. Heavy burdens are no longer yours to bear once you have taken up your cross to follow Jesus. In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus says to take up his yoke and His burden, for they are easy and light. We no longer need to shoulder ungodly burdens by our own strength, we must use His. We also must not take after idols. The love of money is a dangerous thing and God showed me many times that men can easily get stiff-necked when they begin to worship other gods instead of Him.
Spiritual Discernment
God’s Word never fails. He will always heal you if you dare to believe Him. Men are searching everywhere today for things with which they can heal themselves, and they ignore the fact that the Balm of Gilead (Jeremiah 8:22) is within easy reach.
Smith Wigglesworth
These days, when I experience pains in my neck, I recognize them not as my own. When I do experience the pain symptoms, it is the Holy Spirit speaking to me about the condition of someone around me with a spiritual problem, sometimes manifesting with physical pain. The pain often fades away just as quickly as it began when I recognize what the Holy Spirit is telling me. Some prophets I have me have called this “data” or information to act on in the spirit. It is more common than many realize and it quite useful in ministering to people.
Since I received this knowledge in the gift of discerning of spirits and I feel my neck pop or crack or I feel a stiffness, I predetermine that the pain is usually not mine. It is almost always another person in the room, on the phone with a person in the room, a person who sent an e-mail, a person who drove by, or someone who walked by me in a park. It’s a real gift, it’s called spiritual discernment and it’s a way to engage with people to deliver messages that most never hear. These Holy Spirit delivered messages are critical for proper identification of spiritual problems for healing, encouragement and the building of faith in others. God wants people healed and delivered!
While some readers of the post will scoff at the idea that this is discernment and while it may sound crazy to some, this is how I found the Holy Spirit to work with me. God’s ways are above ours and I no longer have any doubt. This is the gift and I use it exactly how the Lord has trained me to use it. I have prayed for many people using this gift and even had other ministers experience the same gift in my presence. Through prayer and laying on of hands, I have ministered healing to people to overcome their pain, injuries, and infirmities. None of this is possible unless it is by the Holy Spirit, which is the spirit of God. Jesus Christ will always get the glory. With Him, anything is possible for those who believe.
So, the next time you experience pain in your neck or a stiffness, especially one that comes on quickly, explore this with the Holy Spirit. Ask:
Why do I have this pain?
Am I kicking against the goads or not listening to God?
Is someone around me suffering from this?
Who is it?
Finally, ask Jesus, “how can I minister to this person?” If we have our eyes, ears, senses and hearts open, Jesus is willing to teach us a whole lot more!
Now that this knowledge and wisdom has been shared with you, you will be amazed how often opportunities to discern will occur for you. God is willing to work with you to minister to others, if you give ourselves completely over to Him. When you do, you too can see Jesus Christs gifts manifest in your life.
There are people who are experiencing pain right now in the world. We are the hands and feet of God created to help them and with or without discerning gifts from the Holy Spirit, you are still commissioned as a Holy Spirit-filled believer in Jesus Christ, to minister healing too. Mark 16:17-18
Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff–necked any longer.
Deuteronomy 10:16
“Are You Kidding Me?!” Naysayers…
This blog post was not written to take people away from the medical community. They have their place and purpose, especially with traumatic injuries and other defects. I am speaking from the spiritual side of our existence that God has shown me for the past 21 months. Yes, there will be naysayers. I’ve heard a lot of it these days. People who I have met, both believers and unbelievers alike, who have questioned what I have experienced and chose unbelief instead of accepting that God’s powers are many and they are subtle too, just like His still small voice that some are able to hear.
To be clear, I’ve also been a naysayer for a great deal of my life too. A stubborn, rebellious, uncircumcised ear, donkey-headed sluggard who likely caused much of the pain in my wife’s neck in the early years of our marriage, when we weren’t running to God with our problems. Thankfully, she has been healed for nearly two years. Whenever she has pains in her neck, especially when I am around, I repent and pray against it. Then, she too repents and prays against it. The pain goes and we are obedient. It keeps us both healed and stiff-neck pain free.
I know now that I have experienced the glory of God’s healing and the powers of Jesus Christ. It has been an ongoing adventure and one that I want to share with others. While I know some will never experience the truths I have found, I know that I have tasted His goodness. No one can reduce my belief in Him or instill unbelief that I have worked so hard, with Him, to cast away.
May God give grace and mercy upon your life in this hour. May this teaching bring understanding and wisdom you need to see the millions ways that God works in our lives and in the world to help us, guide us, and heal us. Why? Because He loves us.
In Christ,
Darrell B. Jones