As I sit down to write this article, my heart is very heavy.
It is heavy because although the Christian community has learned how to take care of the spiritual part of man through faith in Jesus Christ, (which of course is of greatest importance because it determines where one will spend eternity), sadly, most of these same folks are in gross ignorance and almost complete darkness when it comes to the physical part of man!
This was brought vividly to my attention a few years ago when a dear Christian brother and friend who had been diagnosed with colon cancer, told me the doctors had informed him that his cancer was now terminal and that he would die without surgery.
When this brother was first diagnosed, I encouraged him to change his diet, but the doctors told him diet couldn’t help, so he made no diet change.
So, this dear brother listened to his doctors!
Rather than changing his diet he allowed the surgery which removed a large section of his colon, and left him with a bag to collect feces, while accepting all the other medical modalities.
Not long after the surgery the doctors told him that in spite of the surgery he was going to die!
Thankfully, he knew the Lord, and was prepared spiritually to die, but physically he was only 60 years old, and too young to die. He should still have had many years left to serve the Lord, but he couldn’t continue to serve the Lord if he died – which he did.
The Importance of the Spiritual
“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul! Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:36-37)
On May 29, 1957 at a Billy Graham Crusade rally in Madison Square Garden, in New York City, though I had been brought up in church, had been baptized and was a member of the church, for the first time in my life I realized I was a sinner, that I was spiritually dead and in need of the Saviour who would make me spiritually alive.
It was on that very evening, listening to Billy Graham, I made the most important decision of my life, because it was on that night I opened my heart to Jesus Christ, asked Him to forgive me for my sins, invited Him into my heart, and in so doing, took care of the spiritual part of me, establishing my future spiritual destiny – which was now heaven. (See Romans 10:9-13)
For the next 20 years of my life, I was totally involved with the spiritual – I saturated my life with the spiritual – studying my bible daily, going to church every time the church doors were open, going to school for 4 years in preparation for the ministry (where the Bible was our textbook), and then pastoring for almost 20 years.
During those years as a pastor, I read through the entire Bible annually, while preparing and delivering over 5,000 Bible-based sermons. The spiritual was my passion, not only personally, but I had also dedicated my life to trying to help others spiritually, by accepting Jesus Christ as Saviour and then growing spiritually.
But… There Is Another Part of Man: The Physical
In 1976, at the age of 42, after totally saturating my life with the spiritual for nearly 2o years, I was suddenly brought to the realization that there was another part of me – a physical part.
While being very careful to take care of the spiritual part of me, I had almost totally neglected the physical part.
As a result, in 1976, I was told I had colon cancer.
For some unknown reason, I guess I had felt that if I took care of the spiritual part, the physical part would take care of itself.
I felt that, because I had dedicated my life to the Lord and had saturated my life with Him and in the helping of others, there was no need to be concerned about the physical.
Subconsciously, I believed that if I put God first, and dedicated my life to serving Him and helping others spiritually, God would protect me from any physical harm.
Boy, Was I Wrong!
However, God used that cancer in my life to awaken me to the importance of not only taking care of the spiritual part, but also the necessity of taking care of the physical part if I wanted to live long on this earth and continue the spiritual ministry God had given me.
Sadly, I was not alone in this neglect of the physical.
I have since learned that most in the Christian community, including most fellow preachers, are also in gross ignorance, darkness, and neglect, when it comes to the physical.
Sadly, the average Christian can sit in the average church their entire life and never hear a message from the pulpit regarding how to take care of their physical part.
Or they can sit in their Sunday School classes their entire lives without hearing a lesson on how to take care of their physical body so they can serve the Lord longer and with more passion!
Deep down, you know what I am saying is true!
While we are devoting almost all our time in church to the spiritual part of man, at the same time, 90% of the prayer requests in our churches are for PHYSICAL problems.
Why?
Because God’s people have never been taught that if they neglect the physical part, no matter how spiritual they are, the physical part will break down.
These physical breakdowns can cause physical problems that will affect their ability to serve the Lord and fulfill their spiritual mission and ministry!
Consider what God has to say about the physical part of your life:
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your BODIES a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. and BE NOT CONFORMED TO THIS WORLD [pertaining to what? – how you take care of those physical “BODIES”]. . .”
~ Romans 12:1-2a
“What? know ye not that your BODY is the temple of the holy ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price [the shed blood of Jesus]: therefore glorify God in your BODY (physical part), and in your spirit (spiritual part), which are God’s.
~ I Corinthians 6:19-20
“Know ye not that ye are the TEMPLE of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile [bring harm to] the “TEMPLE” [physical part] of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, WHICH TEMPLE YE ARE.”
~ I Corinthians 3:16-17
In the above verses we learn that because of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, and through our acceptance of that sacrifice, our body has literally become “the temple of God.”
Thus: “[we] are bought with a price,” and because we have been purchased by God, we should “glorify God in [our] body.”
And if we fail to “glorify God in [our] body,” and if we “DEFILE” [bring harm to] this “TEMPLE” [physical part], God will “DESTROY” it!
God Did Not Design You To Be Sick
In Genesis 1:31, after the six days of creation had been completed, during which time God made all things – including man – we read: “And God saw everything he had made, and behold, it was very good . . .”
Friends, God made no mistakes in creation or in the creation of our physical bodies!
In the New Testament, in III John 2 we read: “Beloved, I wish above all things that you mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”
God wants Christians to be just as healthy in their physical bodies as they are in their spiritual souls.
Why Christians Get Sick
From the above verses it is clearly evident that sickness was not a part of God’s original design or plan for His human creation? And if that be so, and obviously it is, why do we humans get sick – especially Christians?
That is an easy question to answer. In Galatians 6:7 we read:
“Be not deceived, God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
Sowing and reaping is an irrefutable natural law established by God!
Sowing and reaping can have many applications, but in keeping with the subject of this article, we get sick because we are not taking proper care of our physical bodies.
We get sick because we are putting things into our bodies that cause it harm.
And even though it is often done in ignorance, we create physical problems! Thus: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” (Hosea 4:6)
Christians Are Just As Sick As Non-Christians
If you were to go into the average church of today, you would find that some 90% of all the prayers requests of the people in that church are for physical ills.
Statistically, we find that Christians are just as sick as non-Christians, suffering the same physical breakdowns, to the same percentages, in spite of the many spiritual prayers being offered to God.
How Do Christians Deal With These Physical Problems?
Sadly, except for spiritual prayer, the Christian community deals with their physical problems in the identical manner the non-Christian community deals with theirs.
Both groups go to the same doctors.
Both take the same toxic drugs.
Both allow themselves to undergo the same radiation and same surgeries in an effort to remove their physical problems.
This is what I call the world’s system of health care.
Is There A Better Way?
Absolutely! God build self-healing into each of our bodies.
Although God did not design us to get sick, in His infinite wisdom, He apparently knew that we would get sick because we would not nourish our bodies properly or take proper care of our physical bodies as He intended.
Thus, He built self-healing into these physical bodies we each possess.
We clearly see this self-healing manifested when we cut ourselves – the bleeding to cleanse the wound, the scab to protect the wound while underneath the scab it is knitting the skin back together, and ultimately the self-healing abilities of the body are clearly evident when the scab falls off.
When God created those first two humans, Adam and Eve, He placed within their genetic coding the ability to self-heal.
This same self-healing has been passed down from generation to generation and ultimately to you and me in our genes!
Yes, you heard me right!
Built right into each one of us is the ability to correct almost any physical (or even psychological) problem that comes our way during our entire lifetime without doctors, drugs, or the use of radiation or surgery!
As we learn ever more about this incredible physical body temple that God has provided each of us, how can we fail to exclaim words similar to those of the Psalmist in Psalm 139:14:
“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made…”
How long will it take for the Christian community to heed the warning God gave us in Mark 5:25-26 as to the inability of the world’s health care system to heal our physical problems?
“And a certain woman, who had an issue of blood for twelve years, and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse.”
How many more Christians will have to suffer, be sidelined, and die needlessly and prematurely at the hands of “modern” medicine before the Christian community realizes that God has not only made provision for the spiritual part of man, but also the physical?
How much longer is it going to take the Christian community to realize that there is a better way than the world’s way of dealing with physical problems?
My dear friend, that better way is what I call GOD’S WAY!
How You Can Improve Your Physical Health
The easiest and fastest way to improve your health and lower your health care costs is to stop doing those things that are creating your physical problems and thus increasing your health care costs.
A simple change in diet and lifestyle to LIVING foods and daily exercise is that simple change I made almost 40 years ago that made such a profound difference in my health and my health care costs, and can no doubt make the difference in yours also. It’s no fun being sick!
If you are not already on God’s predominantly LIVING foods Genesis 1:29 diet, may I encourage you to give it a try!
Hallelujah Acres is a Christian ministry that teaches health from a Biblical perspective — the Hallelujah Diet!
Multitudes have made this diet change that we teach here at Hallelujah Acres, and experienced normalization of weight, as well as the elimination of almost all their physical and psychological problems.
Next week, the good Lord willing and if the creek doesn’t rise too high, we will return with another exciting issue of the Hallelujah Health Tip. Trust you will join us and that you will share these Health Tips with friends and loved ones.