Health & Healing

Question:

Answered on 09/21/06:

Most Christians just want rules. They want to be told, “Yes, you can do this” and “No, you can’t do that.” God doesn’t want that kind of relationship with you; He wants to satisfy the deepest need of your soul. And one of the things that you desire in your soul is the peace and the joy and the sense of euphoria that comes from hypnosis, yoga, or some other mystical activity. All of these things are alternative sources of power, and sources of power other than the Word of God need to be avoided. The general rule of thumb is that those things are unhealthy and unscriptural and will lead to further problems down the road in your life because they open you up to evil spiritual forces.

Question:

Answered on 07/19/06:

In the meantime, you need to stand on the Word for your healing, but you should probably get some rest also. And you have to use some wisdom. And I’m sure that Paul wanted Trophimus to use wisdom if he was dealing with symptoms in his body. Paul didn’t want Trophimus to go out in the cold because the very first next verse says, “Do thy diligence to come before winter.” We know that cold weather was coming and Paul and Trophimus had to walk everywhere they went. I’m sure that Paul wanted Trophimus to recover.

I don’t believe that when we say, “I’m healed by the stripes of Jesus” we should put the Lord to the test by saying, “All right, I’m sick, but don’t worry about it – I’m standing on the Word for my healing.” People need to use common sense in taking care of their bodies and not getting in a situation where they can worsen their condition by not getting better first. Paul just wanted Trophimus to get better first.

A lot of times people feel condemned when they don’t get healed. They feel condemned if their life isn’t perfect. And I want you to know that the church is not a place of perfect people. The church is a place of imperfect people. The church is a place of people who have fallen, people who have stumbled, people who have messed up. They should be able to find comfort, encouragement, and strength here. God is the God of second chances. The church ought to be a place of second chances.

Question:

Answered on 07/19/06:

So, we have to start with the basics in Scripture that Jesus healed everybody that came to Him by faith and that truly believed that He could do it. Everybody. There’s never a place in the Bible where it says that He did not heal them. Now, we have to look at it from that point of view. Secondly, we have to remember that according to Hebrews 13:7-8, the Bible says that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” So, if He healed everybody yesterday, then He is the same that will heal everybody today. So we need to believe that about Him.

Now, the better question to ask is “Why isn’t everybody healed? Why doesn’t every blind or lame person get healed? Why can’t we just walk through hospitals and raise everybody from the dead?” Well, everything has to be cultivated by seeds and things have to take time to grow sometimes. People don’t just automatically and all of a sudden have faith.

The Bible says, “Faith comes by hearing the Word of God.” For years, we’re trained to believe what we see and we have to be trained for years again to believe what God’s Word says. That takes time and takes us changing the way we think. It takes people around us to truly believe. And it takes the gift of miracles and the gifts of healing that 1 Corinthians chapter 12 talks about. These are gifts from God that we have to make sure that we’re asking Him for.

And we have to be humble enough and be willing to obey Him and not try to argue our way out of miracles or talk our way out of them and say, “Well, I don’t really believe.” Well, you’re not going to have anything. I’d rather believe and not see it happened than to not believe and not see it happen. If you want to have faith for healing or for a miracle, you have to “eat” the Word of God which is what faith is made of. Feed your faith and starve your doubts.

Question:

Answered on 07/19/06:

I would advise you to talk to the medical professionals that you know and that you trust. One of them that I know and trust is Dr. Mayer Eisenstein. He’s on Christian radio every Saturday. You can call his office at Home First Medical Practice I think in Rolling Meadows, IL. They have a lot of information about this subject that can help clear up some of this confusion. You need to hear from the other side of the fence also and then make an intelligent decision. The Bible says if you’re going to build a tower, to count the costs to see if you have enough to build it. So you need to count the costs. You weigh out the facts, examine both sides of an argument like that, something so essential and critical to the health of our children. It needs to be studied out; it needs to be evaluated appropriately.

But to answer your question directly, there isn’t any Scripture that I know of that speaks to that other than to search out for wisdom, to search out for knowledge, to search out understanding. Which it sounds like that’s what you’re doing. And when in doubt, side with what is going to be the safest and what is going to be the healthiest for your children and for your family.

Question:

Answered on 07/19/06:

And the next thing that I would say is Proverbs 18:20 says, “that a man’s stomach is satisfied by the words of his mouth.” A man is filled, his stomach is filled by the increase that comes from his lips. And so, one of the things that will satisfy you and fill you, just like when people say that when you drink a lot of water, if you drink a ton of water, you won’t eat as much because water will fill you up. In the same way, in a better way, the Word of God will fill you up. And so, as you speak the Word of God out of your mouth will curb your appetites for food, but you’ve got to make sure that the Word of God is coming out of your mouth all the time because Proverbs 18:20, “By the increase of the lips of a man, his stomach is satisfied.” So, I think that we just need to believe the Bible and speak those things out of your mouths.

The third thing that I would say is, don’t try to fix it overnight, but create a new lifestyle. It’s got to be a lifestyle of self-discipline, of adjusting how you live and how you operate as a person and how you carry yourself. It can’t be where you just go on a diet. It has to be a way of thinking and a way of living. You’ve got to think “lose weight.” You’ve got to think that you’re self-controlled. You’ve got to think self-government. And then you’ll exercise self-control and you’ll exercise self-government.

And another Scripture I would give you to meditate on is “God has not given you a spirit of timidity, of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind.” And that word “sound mind” is the word “Discipline.” God has given you the discipline that you need to be self- controlled and self-governed. So, speak the Word out of your mouth. Believe those things and you’ll have what you say. You’ll have what you say. But you’ve got to do it and you’ve got to believe those Scriptures and speak them forth and they will come to pass. But also, make adjustments in your lifestyle, not just go on a temporary diet.

Question:

Answered on 07/19/06:

When you take medication, here is the thing I encourage people to do. Number one, does it have a proven track record of consistent results in people lives that have the same condition?

Number two, does it have significant side effects? Because if it does, you need to weigh out and count the cost. Is it better to just endure the pain or rather to endure the side effects? Sometimes the side effects of something is far worse. You look at the list of some of the side effects of some of these pills and it goes on and on. It has so many side effects it is not worth putting yourself through that kind of situation. However the real key is Does it have a proven track record and that is what I would look for before I took medication? Is it something that your doctor highly recommends or is it something that he says you can take a chance and maybe this will work maybe it will not? Do not put anything in your body that you are not confident about.

That is my encouragement where medicine is concern or herbal medicine is concern. Again, anything that brings healing is a good thing and a Godly thing in most cases.

Question:

Answered on 07/19/06:

You need to find a specialist who has produced superb results in that situation. I also would encourage you to find practitioners who are Christian, not just in their Sunday religion but in their professional lives - approaching problems from a biblical world view. If they’re not, I would advise you not to use their services. Ultimately, the professional you use has to produce the results you need. If you can verify that capability, then he or she might be right for you. But always put your trust in God. Because men will not have all the answers, but God’s Word will.

Question:

Answered on 07/19/06:

Don’t worry if your child, or if a loved one that is not taking matters into his or her own hands. If they’re not doing it, you can do it for them. That’s what intercession is for. That is what prayer is about. It’s standing in the gap for somebody who is unable or unwilling to stand in the gap for themselves. People have prayed for lost ones. People prayed for me before I was saved. And I wasn’t wanting to be saved. I wasn’t wanting to serve God. But it was their prayers that opened my heart up, and opened me up to the Lord. And it’s your prayers that will help your daughter.

It’s your prayers that will help your daughter. Don’t worry about whether she’s responding or not. You have faith, and therefore your faith can be effectual and you can speak to the mountains, according to Mark 11 and say to the mountain, “Be removed,” and it will leave you. It will leave. So you have authority. Even more so, if your daughter in your household and under your care, you have even more authority. But even if she’s not in your household, you have authority to do something about it.

Question:

Answered on 07/12/06:

Question:

Answered on 04/26/06:

The other side of your situation is the root of your daughter’s desire for attention. She obviously feels like she doesn’t get that attention from God, and she’s not getting that kind of attention from her parents. You need to confront her about that and show her the difference between giving her the proper medical attention and lusting after other people’s attention. She’s not too young; she’s old enough to understand those things.

Question:

Answered on 04/12/06:

And so, God heals in progressive ways and He heals instantaneously. And one of the things that prevents an instantaneous healing is that our faith is not necessarily developed to the level where we can expect that instantaneous miracle. Or we are not exercising and walking in the gift of faith that 1 Corinthians chapter 12 talks about which is a specific gift that God distributes by the Holy Spirit. Some people are very proficient and well-developed in that area and others aren’t. I think that that gift needs to be present in order for something to happen instantaneously. In my life, I’ve seen instantaneous miracles but I’ve also seen many that are progressive. I think that we need to accept both and thank God for both. And if one’s not instantaneous, let’s work on the progressive one. And focus on that and make that the emphasis of our faith and our prayers and our study and our meditation and our efforts.

Question:

Answered on 04/12/06:

Outside of that, they didn’t prohibit people from eating pork. In the Old Testament it was prohibited. In the Old Testament, shrimp was prohibited. But Jesus declared all foods clean. And Paul said in 1 Timothy 4 that all things are sanctified by the Word of God and by prayer. And Jesus declared that all foods are clean. He said that it is not what goes into a man that defiles him but it is what comes out of his mouth that defiles him.

And so we don’t need to be as concerned about “is it lawful?” “Is it legal for us to eat the right or wrong foods?” But what we do need to be concerned about is, “Is it healthy?” Again, one of the cornerstone Scriptures of this program and this broadcast is 1 Corinthians 10 and 6 where Paul said, “All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by any. All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable.”

So is it lawful, is it okay, is it biblical for you to eat pork? Yes. Is it biblical for you to eat shrimp? Yes. Is it biblical for you to eat potato chips? Yes. Yes, it’s biblical for you to eat anything, but it’s not necessarily healthy for you. And what you have to do is you have to establish whether it is profitable? Is this going to be good for my body?

It’s not going to send you to hell, number one. It’s not going to make God leave you, number two. It’s not going to cause the Holy Spirit to jump out of your body and say, “Well, I’m not staying in that body any more because he ate some bacon.” No, it’s perfectly okay to eat bacon. It’s perfectly okay to eat an Egg McMuffin. But it’s okay to eat stuff like that from a biblical standpoint, lawfully. But it’s not necessarily good for you. It’s not necessarily healthy for you.

And therefore I want you to encourage you to do what is good for your body. Don’t do what feels good, do what produces good. Don’t do what’s going to feel good, do what’s going to produce good in your body and in your relationships and in your life. That’s how I respond to questions like that. But certainly you’re not breaking God’s Word by eating any food. There’s no food that you’re breaking God’s Word eating unless it’s sacrificed to idols.

Question:

Answered on 04/12/06:

So we need to be meditating on the Word of God. And somebody says, “Meditate on this” or “meditate on that.” The Bible tells us what we are to mediate on, and that is to meditate on His Word, what is good and lovely and honorable and of good report. And so, that’s what I would say about that.

Question:

Answered on 04/07/06:

As far as diet goes, the Bible isn’t as specific in the New Testament as in the Old Testament. And yet, the Bible declares all foods to be clean in the New Testament. However, it also says in 1 Corinthians 10, that all things are lawful for us, but not all things are profitable. And so we need to let that be our guide where food and diet is concerned. Where your question is concerned about nutrition and weight-loss, you have to look at that Scripture, 1 Corinthians 10, and decide if eating that food is going to produce profit in your life?

Another thing about weight-loss is that it says in 2 Timothy 1:7 that God has not given you a spirit of fear, but He’s given you power, love and a sound mind. And that word “sound mind” is actually the word “discipline” or “self-control.” You need to realize that you have self-control. God created you with self-control. You need to exercise that self-control. Scripture also teaches a lot about crucifying our flesh. And as you crucify your flesh, which is a way of thinking, then it will affect your body and your diet. A tape series I recommend that you get is called “Flesh, You’re Fired! We had a lady who got those and she said as a result of listening to those tapes over and over again, it changed her thinking so much that it actually helped her to lose significant weight, and for the first time in years, she had had her blood pressure became normal as well. So those are some of the biblical areas, biblical Scriptures and principles that I would give you for that question.

Question:

Answered on 04/07/06:

Medication shouldn’t be the first thing we think of whenever there are symptoms of sickness. We should be making sure we’re eating right, taking vitamins and putting the right things in our bodies on a regular basis. And we should be taking the medicine of God’s Word because Proverbs chapter 4 talks about how the Word of God is healing to our body and refreshment to our bones. It’s like medicine so we should be taking the Word into our heart, into our mind, into our mouth on a regular basis.

And if we’re taking the Word in our life and taking care of our bodies and we need medication, I think that then it has its appropriate place. But if we use that as a substitute to good health and to taking care of ourselves, then we are putting ourselves at risk. But there is nothing wrong with taking medicine for things. You be led by your heart and by your spirit. But don’t stay sick because you could have had the medication to be healthy but you didn’t do it because you stubbornly were holding on to your faith when, in fact, God gave us healing by giving us doctors as well.

Question:

Answered on 04/07/06:

Question:

Answered on 03/22/06:

But why don’t people recover, even though we pray and lay hands on them? First we need to ask, Are we asking God to do something that He told us to do? And are we rebuking that sickness, are we taking authority over that sickness and disease, or are we laying hands on the sick and then saying, “Lord, you heal them”? Because Jesus didn’t tell us to lay hands on the sick and then He would heal them. He said, “You lay hands on the sick and they will recover.” He said you pray in My name, you take authority in My name . . . heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you’ve received, freely give. We have to declare our authority.

Sometimes we say, “Lord, I pray for this person in the name of Jesus.” And we think we are praying correctly, when in fact, we are not because we are asking God to do something that He has asked us to do. Remember Elijah and what he did to stop the rain. He didn’t say, “Lord, will you make it rain?” He said, “I command the rain to stop.” In the same way, we have to command sickness to leave people’s bodies. And so maybe that is one of the reasons why people don’t get healed.

Maybe another reason is because people don’t want to fight the sickness and disease from their bodies. Sometimes people get to a point where they are ready to go home and be with the Lord. And they don’t want to put up a fight. The Bible says we need to resist the devil. But it’s not just me resisting the devil for you. Sick people have to resist the devil too. They have to resist that sickness, and if they lower their resistance, then that sickness can creep in and overtake their life. Paul decided when he was ready to go. He said, “I would rather go home and be with the Lord,” in Philippians 1, “but I need to stay for your sake.” Paul could have chosen to leave at the time.

Sometimes people just choose to go. And so I pray that you would understand that. I also pray that people really realize that it’s not God who doesn’t want to heal us. God has sent His Word to heal us. He sent Jesus to heal us. He’s not holding out on us. And once we are praying the way God wants us to pray and have knowledge about the situation and are resisting the devil, I believe that we can overcome anything. But if you’ve done all of those things and still there are no results, then I would have to stay that you are going to have to ask the Lord Himself when you stand before Him.

Question:

Answered on 03/22/06:

But I believe that all healing is from God, that God is the Healer. Exodus 15 says, “I am the God that healeth thee.” And therefore healing comes from Him. He sent His Word and healed us. But if we resort to any measures of healing that are outside of the Bible and outside of biblical parameters, that’s when I believe we encounter dangerous ground. Is medicine biblical? Absolutely. Is meditating on the Word of God about healing biblical? Absolutely. Are physicians, doctors, and professional medical care biblical? Absolutely. Luke was a physician. Paul talked about physicians and traveled with Luke. So we have to embrace the Bible’s boundaries and parameters for healing in our lives and not go beyond them.

That’s why when we get into mysticism and hypnotism, we’re going beyond biblical forms of healing. And what are those biblical forms? Prayer, confession of sin, other people praying for us, laying of hands on the sick, taking care of our bodies. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and we need to glorify God in our bodies. Eating right, drinking right, and avoiding sinful behavior that will hurt our bodies and our souls, getting medical attention, getting doctors to take care of our bodies. Even operations, when necessary, are biblical as are nutrition, vitamins, and supplements. But when you go beyond that, you get into some bad things.

Question:

Answered on 03/16/06: