The 5 baby steps to disease free living can be done one at a time, by adding one of these health builders each week. Simply add one new step each week and read the corresponding blogs that support that baby step.
Or… you can just take the leap and join the wellness gospel team by applying all 5 of these baby steps for the next 40 days. See for yourself how true the word of God is when it says that God will “remove all sickness from you and give you a full lifespan.” Deuteronomy 7:15 It has been our experience that people who jump in with both feet are more likely to succeed than those who try to ease into it.
Where to get started? You can just follow the 5 steps listed below, or if you want to know why your doing them, you can read the blog posts attached to each item as well.
Baby Step #1 “Foods To Avoid”
When Shary read her first book on nutrition, Eat Right and Live Longer, it told her to go to her kitchen and throw away anything that is on the list below. (These things are poison, they destroy your immune system and feed disease producing entities, like cancer and bad bacteria). So, Shary did it, and we have never looked back.
If you are serious about getting and staying healthy, go to your kitchen, read all the labels and throw away anything that contains the things listed below. No cheating, you have to get them out of your car, bedroom, work space etc. If you can’t see them you are less likely to poison yourself with them. Do not give any of this to the local food bank, it is poison. If you want to ship it to an ISIS training camp that would be the only alternative to throwing it in the garbage.
Sugar, brown sugar, corn-syrup, high fructose corn syrup, malted corn, maltose, sucrose, dextrose, fructose, lactose, dried molasses etc…)
The easiest way to do this is to post the items below on a calendar and check them off as you eat them. Get someone to keep you accountable and help you remember. Every time my wife Shary got pregnant, I would fill a quart jar with milk each morning. I would write on the jar, “for mom only”. This was an attempt to protect her milk from the older kids. Then I would make sure Shary finished it before we went to bed. I would also make sure she had eaten her eggs as well. So below you will find the foods that have been sanctified by the Word of God.
Two eggs per day, (poached, soft boiled, scrambled in butter, soft fried in butter low heat)
Longevity, three Biblical keys to a very long, enjoyable life.
Tomoji Tanabe at 113 years old.
Longevity, in 2008, Tomoji Tanabe was the oldest man alive and he had the necessary papers to prove it. At 113 years old, he lived on the island of Kyushu, Japan with his fifth son, who was 68 years old. Reporters wanted to know if Tamoji was tired of living, so they asked him, “How much longer do you want to live?”, thinking that he can’t possibly have much quality of life at 113. Tamoji simply replied “I don’t want to die.” Tomaji was still getting enjoyment out of life. Tamoji said that he drinks milk every day. Actually, he was known to “guzzle” milk. He credited his diet with extending his life. There are a lot of “experts” that warn people of the dangers of milk. Evidently, milk didn’t hurt Mr. Tanabe too much, since he out-lived all the non-milk drinkers in Japan and the rest of the world. Tamoji also said he ate fish and did’t smoke or drink alcohol. He had eight children — five sons and three daughters. He also had 25 grandchildren, 53 great-grandchildren and six great-great-grandchildren. He passed away in 2009.[1]
Somebody’s going to live sickness free and happy past 100, might as well be you!
Exodus 23:25-26 says God will… “take away sickness from among you” and he will… “give you a full life span.”
So, what is a “full lifespan”, according to God?
Genesis 6:3 says… “And the Lord said, ‘My spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” NKJV
Deuteronomy 34:7 “Moses wasa hundred twenty years oldwhen he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone.”
After the flood of Noah, God said that people would not live as long as they had before the food. Longevity, according to God, is 120 years, and even at that age you can enjoy life with good vision and strength. So, what does God say you have to do to acquire a full and enjoyable lifespan?
Deuteronomy 6:2b-3a “so that you may enjoy long life. Here, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey,”
Exodus23:21, 25-26 “Pay attention to him (the angel of the lord) and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him…Worship the Lord your God and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span.”
Over and over again, Moses tells the people that the key to longevity is to worship the Lord and obey God’s commandments. Moses says that if they do they will enjoy a full lifespan. One of the key words here is “enjoy”. There are a lot of people in nursing homes, who are not enjoying their lifespans. The above passages are just two of many, that repeat the same idea. Moses also says over and over, that long life will be in a land flowing with milk and honey. So, according to God, what are the keys longevity that is enjoyed?
Key #1 If you and I are going to enjoy 120 years of disease free living, we will have to obey God and eat what He says to eat and abstain from the foods He says not to eat.
You can find a complete list of those foods in chapter 2 or our book “God’s Guide To Biblical Health and Healing”. http://tinyurl.com/zvkbfau In that book we also share the Bible verses and the science that backs up these claims. For now, here is a good starting point, one food God recommends over and over again is milk. Tomoji Tanabe drinks milk every day.
I read an article years ago, about an Indonesian man who was claiming to be over 140. I think his name is Mbah Gotho. As I remember the story, he did not make it into the Guinness Book of World Records, because he did not have the proper paper work to prove his age. His longevity was pretty believable though, he had a son who took care of him that was over 100 years old. Mbah Gotho remembers watching a local sugar factory being built when he was about 10, that factory was built in 1880. Gotho had a burial vault made for himself with a cross on it, over twenty years ago, but so far has not needed it.[2][3] All that to say this, it is very likely that he is way over 100 years old and he claimed to drink close to a gallon of goats milk every day. Evidently, the milk didn’t hurt his longevity either.
Mbah Gotho at 147 years old.Mbah Gotho’s burial box which he prepared many years ago but has not needed.
I had an experience a few years ago that had me doubting my milk consumption was helping me. I went to the dentist to have my teeth checked, I was told that I had a lot of cavities and that it would cost thousands of dollars to have them all filled. I told the dentist thanks, but no thanks. During that checkup, the dentist seemed a little incompetent and I didn’t have that kind of money at the time anyway, so I waited. Later, a friend told me that dentist wasn’t altogether honest either. When I had saved enough money to do one or two of my teeth, I went to a different dentist, one that was recommended by a friend, who is a dental hygienist. I told the new dentist what the other dentist had said, and explained to him that I only had enough money for one or two of the worst teeth. He looked at my teeth and then did some x-rays. He brought the x-rays in to the examining room to show me what he had found. I once again explained my financial situation, he turned to me smiling and said, Chris, you don’t have any cavities. I was in shock, I ask him if he was sure. He said, you could use a good cleaning, but no cavities and not only do you not have any cavities, the x-rays show the calcium in your teeth and jaw bones is unusually dense. Why are my bones and teeth so dense? The doctor said it was especially unusual for someone my age. You guessed it, I drink a lot of milk, milk loaded with calcium.
Other symptoms of a calcium deficiency are joint problems, insomnia, poorly functioning immune system and irritability, to name a few. According to Dr. Joel Wallach, 85% of hypertension is due to a calcium deficiency. [4] The calcium in milk helps protect us from all of these common ailments.
I drink milk every day, lots of it. If you have been told that milk is for kids, just say you would like to feel like a kid again and are going to start drinking lots of milk. Seriously, If you don’t drink milk, what do you drink? Most people drink soda pop, fruit drinks, coffee or tea. All that stuff is going to make you old fast, especially the soda pop. Soft drinks contain phosphorus, and prosperous leaches calcium out of your bones. Even if you replace milk with good clean water, you will not be meeting your calcium needs. Some people believe that cows milk was only made for cow babies, and goat’s milk was only intended to be consumed by goat babies. But what does God say about that?
I Corinthians 9:7 “who tends the flock and does not drink of the milk?”
So, according to the Bible, goats’ milk and cows’ milk is for the humans that tend the flocks and herds. There is one caveat or exception to this; if you happen to be lactose intolerant or have some kind of food allergy, but there is a solution. It is fairly common, when people eliminate bad food, stress, or put some other essential nutrient back into their diet, like omega 3 fatty acids, the allergy will go away. Under normal circumstances, milk is undoubtedly the best longevity producing drink on the planet.
Our daughter Leah developed an allergy to milk while going to college. She had an athletic scholarship at Oregon State University. Her sport was crew, which required many, many hours of rowing and many hours away from school to compete. Getting good grades was super important to Leah, and competing at the Pac 10 level created a lot of stress for her. As soon as she graduated, her allergy to milk disappeared. She now tends a herd of goats, and she and her family drink a lot of milk. She is soooo Biblical!
Leah, and her son Alex with their herd of milk goats.
Key #2 You will need to find a way to regularly and effectively, worship the Lord.
Worship the Lord your God and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span.”
One of the habits required for exceptional longevity, that is to enjoy 120 healthy years, is time spent worshiping God. Reverend Otis Clark did not wear glasses, had all of his own teeth, and was still driving a car at 105. He spent time each day worshiping God by himself and attended church each week to worship God with others. Spending time with our creator has a measurable effect on our health and happiness.
Otis Clark at 109 yeas old.
T. M. Luhrman, a professor of anthropology at Stanford, reported in the New York Times, “one of the most striking scientific discoveries about religion in recent years, is that going to church weekly is good for you. Religious attendance, at least – religiosity – boosts your immune system.” [5]
Some suggestions for effective worship.
Attending a Bible believing church each Sunday is a great start. A good church loves God and loves people. A good church doesn’t just sing, they worship God though music.
Take some time each day to stop, relax and talk to God.
Take some time each day to read or listen to God’s word, it will calm you down.
Key #3 don’t cut your own throat. Gluttony will shorten your life.
Proverbs 23:1-2 When you sit to dine with a ruler,note well what[a] is before you, 2 and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony.
Gluttony is simply eating more food than you can burn off. I used to secretly hold a friend in contempt because he was always shoveling food, then I started doing it, too. It is embarrassing, especially when I eat popcorn. I really love that stuff, and stuff is what I do. The grand kids and I really make a mess at the theaters. I think it is called gluttony and gluttony will dramatically hinder your longevity.
Don Pellman flying over the pole vault bar at 100 years of age.
Don Pellman had something to say about gluttony. At 100, he still has a sense of humor. Don says, if you want to live long and healthy (he is still pole-vaulting at 100) the most important exercise you can do, is to push yourself away from the dinner table. That is still hard for me, though I do find that when I am busy I rarely think about food. It is when I am bored that I struggle to stop eating. In Proverbs 23:1-2 we are told that if we have too big of an appetite and are given to gluttony, we might as well cut your own throats.
Jack LaLanne at 70. Handcuffed, shackeled pulling 70 boats one mile.
Jack LaLanne, remember he is the man who at 70, towed 70 boats more than a mile against the wind? Jack LaLanne has been called the founder of the modern fitness movement. He is one of the most famous health and fitness gurus of our time. He was the first to produce a fitness television program, the first to open a fitness club. The jumping jack is named after him. Jack LaLanne says that you can’t trick the laws of nature; you have to burn more calories than you consume. God made the laws of nature and unless you can get Him to suspend those laws, you and I will have to consume less, or burn more, if we want to maintain a healthy weight. Yes, some people’s hormones help them rev up their calorie burner, and maybe that doesn’t seem fair. Even so, at the end of the day, you and I will still have to burn those calories we consume. If you need to lose weight in order to achieve God’s idea of longevity, then you will have to exercise more. If you are going to eat a lot, you are going to have to move a lot, it is just simple physics.
Reverend Otis Grandville Clark at his 104th birthday.
Otis Clark at 104, felt that chewing more helped him enjoy his food and eat less. He recommended we chew our food more than 20 times per bite, his daughter says he probably chews each bite more than 30 times. I have found that when I do this I enjoy my food more, and eat less.
Cautionary note. The Bible does not say being skinny is a positive trait. As a matter of fact, it commends a reasonable amount of reserve fat. Proverbs 13:4 NKJV “The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing; but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat“. Too bad God didn’t give us the perfect body/fat ratio. Suffice it to say too skinny or too fat is not healthy. God created fat as a reserve, we need a little to survive, during lean times.
Summary of key #3 Stay busy and eat slowly.
Remove all snack food from your house and work.
Don’t take food with you in the car or your pockets.
Eat small portions, chew a lot on each bite and avoid seconds and thirds. (my wife is such a great cook, seconds and thirds are my biggest problem, so maybe it’s her fault I struggle with this)
Once again, somebody’s going to
live a sickness free, happy life past 100, might as well be you!
If you believe God knows best what will produce optimal longevity, join us and the Wellness Gospel team; register for our weekly newsletter, then spread the word by sharing this with your friends on social media and may God bless you richly.
If you want to keep improving your health, and enjoy this kind of biblical scientific information, then I would like to recommend three must-read books.
What do you do, when God doesn’t? When you pray for something good, and believe with all your heart that it is going to happen, and then……. nothing; what do you do? Most believers go through something like this in their spiritual journey. How you handle that experience can make you or break you! Most people I have talked to broke when it happened to them. Consequently, they stopped believing and settled in for a mediocre faith in God, or gave up on God all-together. I am going to share with you my journey of faith. Eventually it increased my faith and brought me closer to God, hopefully it will do the same for you.
New believers honeymoon period.
It doesn’t always happen, but it is very common for new believers to get almost everything they pray for. We had a couple in our church that had recently dedicated their lives to Christ. Virtually everything they prayed for happened, it was disgusting, it made us older Christians look bad. I’ll give you an example. They began to pray for some home decorations; the very next day, at a local store, they found a framed picture they really liked. Unfortunately, it was kind of expensive, more than they could afford, so they left the store without the picture. On their way home, they saw something on the side of the road that had evidently blown out of someone’s pickup. They stopped to see what it was. It turned out to be the identical picture in a frame, undamaged. All that to say this, that kind of immediate answer to prayer doesn’t usually last. Kris Vallotton, a favorite speaker of mine, calls that beginner’s luck. I think it is just God confirming his love for new believers, but eventually they need to mature a little… Here’s how it happened to me.
New believers, Disney Land experience with faith healing, eventually comes to an end.
Disney Land with Leslie, Peter, Daniel, Nathan and Maria.
When Shary and I started attending the Philadelphia Church of Hammond, Oregon, we saw some amazing miracles. I talked a little about it in last week’s blog “Faith Healing Part 1”. We saw many healings and miraculous answers to prayer. About this same time, Shary approached me about wanting to attend a wedding in Sacramento and then fly from there to Disneyland with the kids and I. We were literally living from paycheck to paycheck at the time and my first reaction was no way, we don’t have that kind of money. Shary was not giving up that easily, she asked me to figure out how much it would cost, then she told me she and the kids were going to pray for the money; if that amount of unexpected money came in, could we do it? I said sure, but it won’t. just to prove it to her, I sat down and crunched the numbers. Shary told me what the new clothes would run us, I added in the cost of gas for the trip, I even added in wear and tear on the car. I figured out what I would lose in wages. I got paid by the hour and had no sick leave or vacation pay. Then I added the airfare and Disney tickets. Needless to say, the grand total was impressive. Shary began to pray anyway, and to my total amazement, money started to come in, little by little from many unexpected places. When we got closer to the grand total she started giving me that look. She didn’t say it out loud, but you know that look. It’s that look, the one with the little sparkle in the eyes, that says, “see I told you God would do this”. So, being the big-hearted guy that I am, when we got within ten dollars of the grand total, I gave in and said she could buy the tickets. The story doesn’t end there however, the night before we left, someone left a plate of cookies wrapped on our front porch. We found them the next morning and inside, with the cookies, was a ten dollar bill. God had answered her prayers to the penny!
I learned three major lessons from that experience: 1) God loves us enough to let us enjoy life. 2) He sometimes does it in such a way as to make sure we know he did it. And Finally, 3) I learned that God had no problem helping my wife to prove I was wrong and she was right. (If you ask me the two against one seemed a little unfair though, just sayin’.)
OK, so because of all these things, Shary and I really started embracing this new area of faith. At our former church we had received faith concerning salvation and Biblical advice about marriage and family. But, at our new church, we were adding onto that faith for everyday miracles and healing.
We were so excited about God that we began praying in earnest for our families to get saved. We had been praying for some of Shary’s family and wanted to see them come to the Lord, and our trip to Sacramento was going to give us some opportunities to talk to them about Jesus. But when we got there our witnessing seemed to be falling on deaf ears. The day before the wedding we were hanging out playing basketball when Shary’s brother had sprained his ankle quite badly. We felt that this was an opportunity to show him the reality of God and his love, through faith healing. We asked him if we could lay our hands on his ankle, because we believed God would heal it. He said we were nuts. He said faith healing wasn’t real. But he was stuck in a chair with his leg up and finally agreed to let us try it. In faith, we laid hands on his ankle and asked God to heal him in Jesus’ name. We had no doubt that God was going to do this, but… nothing happened; at least nothing that her brother (or we) saw. He openly ridiculed us. An opportunity we felt would bring him closer to God had seemingly ended up moving him further away. We went home feeling discouraged and let down by God.
So what do you do when God doesn’t? When faith healing doesn’t work, or anytime God doesn’t answer your prayers, then what do you do?
In Hebrews Chapter eleven, we are told, “without faith it is impossible to please God.”
Our ultimate goal was for Shary’s brother to make peace with God. But what ended up happening was I became less zealous for God. Like so many Christians who have had similar experiences, my desire to pray and witness dropped off dramatically. Have you ever experienced anything like this?
Shortly after that experience I was reading the story about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Something they said went deep into my heart. I believe it is the secret to consistent faith and pleasing God. It is found in chapter three of the book of Daniel. In that chapter, King Nebuchadnezzar orders everyone small and great to bow down before to an idol of his own creation or be thrown into a fiery furnace. These three young men told Nebuchadnezzar that their God was able to deliver them from the fiery furnace, and that he would save them, but even if he did not save them from the fire, they still would not bow to any so called God but Jehovah. Ultimately, they were thrown into the furnace, and God showed up and was in it with them. As the story goes they came out of the experience without even the smell of smoke on them. Even though God didn’t stop them from being punished, he was with them in the punishment and turned defeat into victory.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace and someone who looked like a God was with them.
In a nutshell, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego said…
“The God we serve is able to save us” (They possessed faith in God’s ability)
“and he will rescue us” (They possessed faith in God’s willingness.)
“But even if he does not” (They were more concerned with pleasing God than pleasing the king or saving themselves)
Once I got a hold of that concept, and shared it with others, there was no stopping us. We determined that when we prayed we would confess that the God we serve is able to answer our prayer, that he will answer our prayer, but even if he doesn’t do it immediately we will continue to act in faith, if for no other reason then to simply please him. I believe there are three basic levels of faith.
Level one is to believe that God is able. This is a huge step for many people in our society. Our schools and society in general have been teaching us that the only world that exists is the physical world.
Level two is to believe that he will answer our prayers. A lot of Christians believe that God is able to heal and do miracles, they just don’t believe that he will. For them the next step is to believe that he wants to and that he will. One man, speaking to Jesus, put it this way, “I believe, I believe, help my unbelief.” Mark 9:24
Level three is to continue to act in faith, even if God chooses not to answer your prayer in the way you want. Many people, like me, got to level two because it was easy to believe. But when it got difficult we stopped believing and, more importantly, stopped praying for miracles.
Walking away from God when he doesn’t answer your prayers.
The real key to all of this was in Hebrews chapter eleven. Paul states that “without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently (working persistently to) seek him.”
There apostle Paul also states that many of the great people of faith did not receive in this life, all the things God had promised.
13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised;they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance,admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one.Therefore, God is not ashamedto be called their God,for he has prepared a cityfor them.
Paul then goes on to give many examples of people who got what they prayed for. Then, in verse thirty-five, he starts sharing about people who didn’t get what they prayed for, people who were tortured, sawed in two, people who lived in caves and holes in the ground. Paul said that the people who prayed and believed God, but didn’t immediately get what they asked for, would get it in heaven and get more. Paul says they were going to get a better resurrection.
So my conclusion was this: If we share Jesus with people, regardless of how they respond, and if we pray for people, regardless of the immediate outcome, it pleases God. If we get what we prayed for then we have our immediate reward. If we don’t get what we pray for God is still pleased with us and will do something to reward our faith, either in this life or the one to come. Armed with this new insight, we can’t lose.
So what has become of our faith healing?
Now we pray for almost everyone who will let us. We realize it is not our responsibility to heal them. We know that God is able to heal them, and we know that, ultimately, he wants to heal them. We now understand though that if this isn’t his time we are not going to just stop the process simply because we can’t see the immediate results.
Since adopting this three-point approach to faith, which focuses more on pleasing God, (without faith it is impossible to please him) we are seeing blind eyes opened, the lame walk, captives to sin set free and people receiving Jesus as their Lord and Savior more and more each year.
I recently went to Thailand with Craig Demo and Ambassador Ministries. One day we prayed for tribal people who lived way up in the jungle, virtually every person we prayed for got healed. They lined up for hours to be prayed for. One man was blind in one eye, his brother had thrown a knife at him and hit is eye. He had been blind in that eye ever since. After we prayed for him, with his good eye covered, he read the letters on a pickup truck across the street.
The final outcome to all of this is that we are not discouraged when our faith seems to fail. Oh, about Shary’s brother; he eventually received Jesus as his Lord and Savior, and soon afterward he quit a very high paying job and went to work, for a very low wage, as a full-time children’s church director at his church. We feel that our prayers for him were ultimately answered and in a way that was beyond anything we could have asked or imagined.
Jesus said, “As you go, preach, saying,’ the kingdom of heaven is near. ‘Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. . Freely you have received, freely give.”(Matthew 10:7&8)
Jesus also said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” ”And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. “If you ask anything in My name I will do it.” (John 14:12-14)
Jesus shed his own blood so we could be healed!
“But he (Jesus) was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5 KJV
When the Roman soldiers were whipping Jesus and cutting great bloody stripes across his back, he could have said “that is enough” he could have stopped the whole thing. Instead, he took it so that we, and the ones we love, could be healed. It is a tragedy of the highest form not to receive this love gift from him. Faith healing is one of the ways that we are to honor him among unbelievers. Listen to the apostle Peter.
“Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.” Acts 4:8-10
Faith healing concepts!
YOU CAN DO THE WORKS OF JESUS, YOU CAN DO GREATER WORKS THAN JESUS, IF YOU SIMPLY BELIEVE JESUS!
If you would like to see people receive Christ, if you would like to see God do miracles, you should join me this March on a trip to Thailand, with Craig Demo and Ambassador Ministries. Openings for this trip are limited, so don’t wait. Contact me by leaving a comment in our comment section and I will get back to you. Just include the word Thailand.
“I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:18-19
Our purpose for writing each week is to obey Matthew 5:19, providing you with biblical advice on the care and feeding of your body. We do it because this advice is so rare. We also do it, because we see thousands of good Christians, whose lives have been cut short, simply because they were never taught what the Word of God and the Law of God had to say about health and wellness.
If you believe God knows best, join us and the Wellness Gospel team; register for our weekly newsletter, then spread the word by sharing this with your friends on social media and may God bless you richly.
If you want to keep improving your health, and enjoy this kind of biblical scientific information, then I would like to recommend three must-read books.
Faith healing, is it real? Is it the ultimate answer to long life, or is faith healing just sleight of hand and a lot of hype? We do not believe it is the ultimate answer to long life nor do we believe it is sleight of hand. Here is my journey from disbelief to faith.
Chris, Shary and Leslie, when our ideas about child-rearing and health weren’t working.
When Shary and I started going to church back in 1977 we attended Forest Grove Baptist Church and loved it. They had Bible classes for every age. The first class we attended was a class that focused on what the Bible said about raising children. We had one daughter at the time, we were miserable and so was she. The class was awesome, it is a big reason we have thirteen children instead of one. We then took a class on marriage, it is the reason we have been together for 45 years instead of 5. But… that church did not believe in faith healing and neither did I.
When we moved to Astoria, Oregon, we had a lot of friends who attended the Philadelphia Church. It was a Charismatic, Full-Gospel church that believed in faith healing. We started attending, but I was not convinced.
We were very poor at that time, I was planting trees for a living and it was tough. In that job you get paid by how many trees you plant, and there were no paid sick days. On a Friday I started having flue symptoms and by Sunday I was deathly ill in bed. Between services, a group of men from the church came to the house and said they were in a big hurry to get back to the next service. Could they pray for me? They said it probably wouldn’t work but were willing to give it a try. I got out of bed, every move I made hurt, they surrounded me, prayed a quick prayer in Jesus name and left. I slowly started to walk back to bed, because a minute ago any movement was agonizing. Then I noticed that there was no stiffness, all the pain was gone; I had been instantly healed. Since then I have literally seen God heal people thousands of times. Have I seen God heal every time we pray? No, but I will discuss that next week, stay tuned, subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
For six months I have been making the case that divine health is God’s plan for you and I. I’ve been showing you what you need to do to appropriate divine health. Some people who have embraced faith healing have argued, “We don’t need doctors nor do we need to go back to the law to find Biblical principles for healthy living. We believe in faith healing; every day we go to the cross and claim healing, ‘by his strips we are healed’.” In response to this, I would have to point to the apostles Paul and Peter. Paul healed people by faith, but he also obeyed the Law of Moses. Peter believed in faith healing and he also obeyed the Law. Jesus healed people by faith and he obeyed the Law of Moses. Jesus was not willing to eat shellfish, seagulls or any other thing the Bible forbids, just to prove he could heal himself. The Devil tried to get Jesus to jump off the pinnacle of the temple in order to prove how strong his faith was, or prove that God can heal and protect.
“Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. ‘If you are the Son of God,’ he said throw yourself down. For it is written “’He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus answered him, “It is also written Do not put the Lord your God to the test,’” Matthew 4:5-7
Just because God could send angels to protect Jesus, didn’t mean that Jesus should do something foolish or against the word of God just to prove he had faith. To disobey God’s word concerning divine health and then expect God to heal us is foolish at best, and disobedient at worst. One pastor put it this way “who gave you permission to disobey the commandments of God”?
Just because God is in the faith healing business, does not mean we should disobey his commandments concerning divine health.
I have seen high profile “Faith healers” who ignore God’s advice about health. When they get sick they sneak off to Allopathic doctors. Then they begin to build hospitals and train their faith disciples to be Allopathic physicians. They do all of this without first following God’s instructions to see if the promises of God concerning the law are true. To jump from faith in God, to faith in Allopathic doctors, seems to be quite a leap. Why not faith in all of God’s word? “All scripture is God breathed and useful”
Then, there are those who deny faith healing altogether and believe that it passed away with the apostles.
Jesus gave us this command.
“He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands’ and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all’ they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well. After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.” Mark 16:15-20
Jesus said these signs will accompany those who believe. Are you a believer? If you are, then you are commanded by Jesus to lay hands on the sick, and when they get healed it will confirm to unbelievers that God’s word is divinely inspired. (If you would like a list of scriptures that reinforce this truth, make a comment in our comment section, and I will give you a list of more than twenty-five passages from the Old and New Testaments that tell us miracles help people believe the word of God.)
Students in Harare, where we saw many healings, including a nurse who had been suffering for many years. We also saw thousands pray to receive Christ as their lord and savior.
So, if we teach divine health, why do we need faith healing?
After giving a talk at a large hospital in Harare Africa, a nurse approached me. She had been prayed for the year before, and had been healed of a serious, lingering disease. She asked me, “If, as you say, we obey all God’s commandments, he will remove all sickness from us, why then do we need faith healing?” The answer is quite simple. Who other than Jesus ever obeyed, or will ever obey, all God’s commands? No one! Jesus is the only person who never needed faith healing. The rest of us need it in the worst way.
Occasionally I will disobey God and go for weeks without a day off. Or I will eat foods the Bible says not to eat, like cake and ice cream. We have 22 kids, counting spouses, and we have 40 grand-kids, so, we average a birthday party almost every week. And you think I can resist all that tasty food? Yes, I know it is not good for me, but hey, I’m weak. I believe that without Divine healing we would find ourselves in a very sad place.
We need faith healing because people have accidents!
First of all, no one but Jesus has listened carefully to, paid attention to, and kept all God’s commands and decrees. Secondly, people have accidents. Until we get to heaven and see Jesus face to face we will always need divine healing. Paul had to heal a boy who fell asleep while listening to Paul preach on and on, this is so typical of us pastors. The boy fell out of an upper story window and died. It was what we call “faith healing” that brought that boy back to life.
I would like to say, “Every time I pray for people they get healed”, but that’s simply not the case. Some Christians would say that if you pray and the person doesn’t get healed it is because you didn’t believe or you didn’t have enough faith. I would agree that if you don’t believe and if you have no faith that you can’t expect God to answer any prayer, but…in Mark 6:4-6 it is recorded that even Jesus couldn’t do many miracles because of the people’s lack of faith. Jesus said…
“Only in his hometown and in his own house is a prophet without honor.” And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith. Matthew 13:57-58
Even Jesus did not heal everyone.
Just because people don’t get healed every time we pray for healing, does not mean that faith healing is somehow illegitimate. Jesus did not heal everyone he prayed for. The Bible says some did not get healed because of THEIR lack of faith. Jesus would not let the scoffers in when he prayed for the little girl who was dead. He first removed all the doubters and only let her parents and his closest disciple in the room. Then he prayed for her and raised her from the dead. I believe that the people he let in believed with their hearts and souls because they loved the little girl so much.
So, how much faith do we need for divine healing to work?
”I (Jesus) tell you the truth if you have the faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, move from here to there and it will move”Matthew 17:20
Mustard seeds are some of the smallest seeds in the world; yet they can grow into a large bush, big enough for birds to live in. Thank God, Jesus didn’t say that we need coconut seed faith.
Lewis and Clark Bible Church, located near Astoria Oregon. The site of an amazing miracle of God.
One of the greatest miracles, I have had the privilege to witness came with faith the size of a mustard seed. Our church had a large choir of about sixty members. Shary and I sang in the choir when it was performing the “Alleluia Chorus” written by Bill and Gloria Gather. We traveled around our small community singing in many different venues and had a great time glorifying God and seeing people drawn closer to Him. Our church is fairly demonstrative in worship; we often lift our hands praising God. Sometimes we praise God in English and occasionally we praise him in tongues (See Acts chapter 2). The Pastor from Lewis and Clark Bible Church asked us if we would come to their church and perform. But; he requested we refrain from lifting our hands or praying in tongues, since this was not something their church believed in. We discussed it as a group and agreed that if it would be a stumbling block to their church, we could refrain; no lifting hands, no speaking in tongues, not a problem.
In the musical, the Gaithers had masterfully inserted places for testimony with the songs. One of the best was the song “The Longer I Serve Him The Sweeter He Grows.” Orby Galloway was a part of our choir and a pastor from another local church in our area. Orby was in his late 60’s and very feeble. Orby was so feeble that he had to be helped up on the platform; and those who sang with him had to listen carefully, slowing down and speeding up to match his feeble yet anointed singing. Did I mention he had a bad heart? Well he did; and according to doctors it wasn’t going to serv him much longer. When Orby sang “The longer I serve him the sweeter he grows”, he would share how his wife had recently passed away and how he loved her and Jesus. He testified that he was looking forward to heaven, seeing Jesus face to face and being reunited with his wife. Every time he sang and testified, people were so touched, there wouldn’t be a dry eye in the place.
After the performance, we were invited to punch and cookies in the basement of the church. As I headed for the king’s dainties, (cookies and punch) I heard a scream. I looked over by the stairs and saw Orby lying on the floor. We all rushed to him, the choir surrounded him. Someone went to call an ambulance (this was before cell phones). People were weeping and praying all around us. I knelt on one side of Orby and our pastor knelt down on the other side. Orby was having a hard time breathing, people where praying all around. Then it happened, our worst fears, I heard Orby breath out a very long last breath and then lay still. It was at this point we forgot our promise; many of us began to pray in tongues and lift our hands to God. A woman in the choir who was a nurse checked for a pulse on his neck. Another man who had been a medic in the military checked for a pulse on his wrist. They both agreed he was gone. Not really thinking about what I was doing but simply doing, I laid my hands on his chest and said “Dear God, if this is Orby’s time to go home to be with you and his wife, let him go in peace, but if you have more for him to do, please bring him back.”
I confess that I only said it as a sort of a last rights kind of a prayer. My faith was no bigger than a mustard seed. When I had spoken my last word over him, what a surprise, he sat up and asked us what we were all doing. We tried to tell him how serious his condition was and that he should lie down till the ambulance came. He said he didn’t want to lie down because he felt fine, that is when it became a little comical. He got angry about the ambulance because he said there was nothing wrong with him and he couldn’t afford an ambulance ride. We assured him that we would pay for the ambulance and he should be quiet and lay down like we said. He would sit up and we would gently push him back down. We fought about this till the ambulance arrived. A few days later we got the report from the hospital. Something miraculous had happened. Orby’s EKG indicated that all the old scar tissue on his heart was gone and that he had what seemed to be a brand-new heart. The rest of the story is that Orby’s new heart gave him a new lease on life. He remarried and lived another 20 years, preaching and teaching in his own church and occasionally at ours. It never hurts to pray; even mustard seed prayers can surprise us.
Is faith healing just for especially gifted people?
In James chapter 5, we are told “the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well” It also says that we don’t have to be anybody special, because – “Elijah was a man just like us, he prayed and it did not rain then he prayed again and it rained.”
Jesus said that whoever believes the gospel and is baptized will be saved, and signs and wonders would accompany those who believe. If you are a believer then you have the backing of God when you pray in Jesus name. Jesus also said that when people get healed it would make God’s word more believable.
A few years ago, I was witnessing to a group of teens who quite frankly didn’t believe that there was a God and didn’t believe a word of the Bible. So, I told them about a young man that they all knew, and how God had healed him.
Columbia Memorial Hospital cafeteria, where we prayed for Kelly.
The story went something like this. A young high school student named Kelly had found out that his girlfriend had cheated on him. He was very upset and decided to get drunk. He figured that this was the best way deal with the problem, but he went a little too far. He consumed a large container of hard liquor with only a little bit of help from his friends. He said that before he passed out he lost feeling in his mouth and throat. When they got him to the hospital he was in a coma and the doctors said he probably would not live and if he did survive, he would have brain damage. At the hospital we met Kelly’s mother and a friend in the cafeteria. Shary and I prayed with them that God would heal Kelly, in Jesus name. When we entered his hospital room, he was sitting up in bed talking normally.
At this point in the story one of the teens I was witnessing to challenged me. She said that it was impossible for anyone to drink that much hard liquor and live. Fortunately, a boy next to me confirmed my story, saying he had watched Kelly do it. To add to the seriousness of this event, a girl from the same school at the same location had recently died doing the same thing. All of a sudden, I had about six very attentive teens hearing and receiving the Good News about Jesus Christ. Kelly is now a father himself, and sends his little girl to our Christian school.
Not only has it been our experience that prayer works, but it has been proven through numerous, scientific, double blind studies.[1][2]
God confirms his word by signs that accompany it!
God’s word is also confirmed by the very fact that it is so scientifically and medically accurate.
Next week we will discuss; what to do you do when God doesn’t heal you? Why not? What does it mean?
Jesus said…
I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:18-19
Our purpose for writing each week is to obey Matthew 5:19, providing you with biblical advice on the care and feeding of your body. We do it because this advice is so rare. We also do it, because we see thousands of good Christians, whose lives have been cut short, simply because they were never taught what the Word of God and the Law of God had to say about health and wellness.
If you believe God knows best, join us and the Wellness Gospel team; register for our weekly newsletter, then spread the word by sharing this with your friends on social media and may God bless you richly.
If you want to keep improving your health, and enjoy this kind of biblical scientific information, then I would like to recommend three must-read books.
Baby Step #2 “What You Need To Eat”
Baby Step #3 “Rest And Exercise Is A Must”
Baby Step #4 “Vitamins and Minerals”
