Autism Healing and Deliverance

Over my years of walking with the Lord, I’ve encountered a wide range of stories and testimonies involving children with disabilities. Some from Christians. Some from non-Christians. Shared online, in interviews, documentaries, or parenting blogs. And the overall belief says: “This is just how some children are.”

Because of lack of knowledge of God’s Word, instead of resisting what the Word of God calls oppression of the enemy, many parents have been trained by the world, by well-meaning professionals, and even by parts of the Church to embrace sickness as identity, as just how they are.

In one recent story I came across, a father shared about his seven-year-old son who has cerebral palsy. The child has seizures, cannot speak, wears diapers, and can only move slightly by scooting on his belly. He must be spoon-fed, etc. His life revolves around therapies, medications, and supervision. And yet, the father quickly followed all of this by saying, “But he’s such a happy child. He smiles. He laughs when he sees colorful toys. He’s happy in his own little world.”

And that’s the part that pierced my heart. Because I’ve heard that same line many times from well-meaning parents whose children are severely bound by the symptoms of sickness: “But my child is a happy child.”

But what if that laughter, those smiles…aren’t what they seem?

Let me speak very plainly.

What if those moments of laughter that those parents call happiness are not truly of the child at all, but rather a counterfeit manifestation, a demonic spirit producing laughter and smiles to distract the parents so they do not resist sickness because they believe their child is “happy just the way they are” as the smiles “prove”? What if the enemy, the source of the child’s suffering under seizures, paralysis, muteness, and complete dependency, intentionally stirs up surface-level smiles and joyful expressions in order to deceive?

It may sound out there to some, but I believe this deception is real.

Because what I’ve observed over and over is that parents, wanting to hold on to something good, to comfort themselves, begin to equate and interpret their child’s smiles with peace. But their smiles don’t negate the severe bondage of sickness coming against their bodies and souls. Sensory stimulation is not joy. Laughter does not equal liberty. Especially when the rest of the child’s life is surrounded by suffering, bondage, and infirmity.

And let’s be clear: this is NOT a criticism of the parent’s love. These parents love their children fiercely. They are just repeating the world’s report because they don’t know the Lord’s report (Isaiah 53:1). Sadly, most churches don’t teach His report and contribute to parents’ lack of knowledge of God’s truth. They’ve only been taught to see the entire diagnosis as who their child is, and any sign of sweetness or smiles as “proof” that “all is well,” “nothing to see here because the child must be happy because he smiles.”

“My child is mute, has seizures, wears diapers, can’t eat on their own, but they’re always smiling!”

Again, I’ve heard similar words from parents of disabled children before. But would the Lord have us define a child’s happiness and health by smiles and happy facial expressions alone. Children smile when they’re over-stimulated. People high on drugs smile and laugh too. But that doesn’t mean it’s joy from the Lord.

This is why Scripture warns us to guard our hearts.

Why Even Share This?

Because it would be easy to let other parents’ emotions pull you into agreement with something that isn’t biblical. Because the Word of God tells us to guard our hearts above all else. To guard our hearts includes never leaning on stories or sentiments, no matter how emotional, more than we lean on His truth.

“Keep your heart with all diligence,
For out of it spring the issues of life.”
— Proverbs 4:23, NKJV

There are countless “testimonies” floating around the Church and the world, stories that normalize paralysis, seizures, muteness, and brain damage as part of a child’s identity. But that doesn’t mean they’re in agreement with the Word of God.

Just because someone calls something a testimony doesn’t make it true.
Only the Word of God defines what is true.

“Let God be true but every man a liar.”
— Romans 3:4, NKJV

What Does the Word Say?

The Word says that Jesus healed children.
The Word says that He healed birth defects, paralysis, muteness, deafness, blindness, seizures. Every kind of affliction sickness and disease.

He NEVER once told a parent, “This is just how your child is. Go ye therefore and be sick and remain bound with sickness as a calling.”

“And great multitudes came to Him, having with them those who were lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus’ feet, and He healed them.”
— Matthew 15:30, NKJV

“And He healed them all.”
— Matthew 12:15, NKJV

Jesus didn’t turn people away. He didn’t call lifelong sickness a “ministry.” He didn’t say, “You’re going to be sick to glorify Me.” That is false theology. Lies from the serpent’s tongue. He said the opposite.

“For this purpose the Son of God was manifested,
that He might destroy the works of the devil.”
— 1 John 3:8, NKJV

And what are the works of the devil? According to Acts 10:38:

“…Jesus of Nazareth… went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”

Sickness. Seizures. Muteness. These are the oppression of the devil, and Jesus came to destroy them.

In Mark 2, when the paralyzed man was healed, Jesus made it very clear that healing is a witness to His power to forgive sins and redeem man:

“But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”
— Mark 2:10–11, NKJV

Healing proves the Gospel.
Sickness does not.
Sickness came with the fall. Healing comes with the Redeemer.

To embrace sickness as “part of who the child is” is to unknowingly agree with a different report – one that did not come from Jesus Christ, the Word.

Don’t Settle for Anything Less Than His Word

As believers, we must reject the world’s report that teaches us to accept sickness,including as identity. We must stop saying “Amen” to captivity. We must guard our hearts against the flood of stories that glorify captivity but reject Christ’s deliverance.

Jesus did not come to preach captivity. He came to set the captives free.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;”
— Luke 4:18, NKJV

There is only one report that matters.
There is only one perfect representation of the Father.

Jesus Christ who healed them all.