Letter to Jane on Health and Healing

Here we'll get a grasp of what God says about sin and sickness, whether He uses sickness to discipline people, and ways to be healed.

Sickness is the sequel to sin, and the prologue to death. It is not popular to say that certain sins lead to certain kinds of sickness as a consequence. I believe certain types of illness give clues as to what sins to look for to confess. For example; feasting and over indulgence lead to weight problems. Drinking and bodily lust is self-abuse and leads to other problems. Suppressed anger brings out physical discomfort. In short, pain. Our body merely displays what is going on in our spirit and soul. It makes our spiritual problems visible.

Our Lord Jesus is our Great Physician or Doctor. Just as He has power to destroy and completely erase our sins so they will not be held against us in the Day of Judgment, so He also has power to heal our bodies and undo the ravages of our sinful decisions in the past. He is not all-powerful in one area and handicapped in the other.

Some day in Heaven God intends to give us new, glorified bodies of another dimension. They will never decay and will have wonderful transport features, and oh, much-much more!

This is given by God to some believers to prompt them to evaluate and judge their own spiritual state and clear up mistakes. However, it generally happens only to mature believers. If you are an immature baby Christian chances are low that you'll be allowed to receive illness or disease as a warning to stop sinning. Many people fear this however,, and it upsets their faith in God.

There are other Christians who use the story of the blind man in John chapter 9 to insist up and down that sickness is NEVER God's chastisement due to sin. Jesus did not said that. He only told His disciples not prejudge or condemn someone as if they were despised of God because they were sick.

Sometimes the infirmities of those born imperfect in body or mind are not due to their own sins, but those of their parents and grandparents. Even then, God gives them special grace and puts loving people in their lives who can be blessed for taking care of the helpless.

Those who are chastised by sickness (by God's permissive will) usually are the holiest of Believers. Like Job, when they get right with God, their sickness clears up. Blessings return.

Detect what has come between you and God, confess and renounce that, and if others have been harmed to make restoration to them. Then simply believe God has accepted your repentance and offer yourself afresh to God, fully disposed to obey Him. Ask for healing, and most often the illness will be removed.

Evil and adversity reveal our true condition. They do not add sin, but reveal what sin is in us. Sickness allows us to see how much we really live for ourselves.

God chastens after love's persuasion has lost it's effectiveness. When He permits sickness, it is for a purpose; to break down our self-love, which has a special relationship to our body. We never know how much we love ourselves until we become sick!

Strong-willed or self-determined people don't give up their will until they are at the gates of death. Very often, the more ill they get, the more they dwell on their symptoms, and get anxious to find a cure. Some become bewitched by their illness and dwell on it day and night. How much it hurts, what kind of care they are getting, or not getting - it becomes an obsession.

Rather we ought to become engrossed with God. Love Him and spend as much time as you can tear away from other things to be with Him, praise Him, and listen to Him speak to you through His Word. This is not groveling in shame and repentance any more. This is sweet fellowship with our God and our King! If we attain that kind of intimacy with God, it would be the height of tragedy if we failed to also claim the healing He promises to give us. All we need to do is ask and receive it by faith! Like a loving, tender human Daddy, our Heavenly Father delights to give us gifts, and He certainly wants us to be well, and able to praise and serve Him even more!

God sometimes uses intermediaries to show off His power and glory in our lives and bodies. But in the last 100-200 years almost everyone, including Believers, has come to trust and ascribe more power to heal to various medicines than they do to God.

Some are able to use medicine without harming their spiritual life. They give all the glory to God. Believer may ask God to bless the drugs to be cured, - they may also thank God, and regard themselves as being cured by Him. However, is that quite the same as taking the life of Jesus Christ to be the power that heals? It might be enough if "cure" was the only goal of God. He has other goals for us like maturity in faith and obedience.

Although I have not fully attained to this, I do believe that healing that comes by depending only on God and trusting His promises has spiritual benefits that last much better and longer.

When a Believer denies human means and trusts the Father for healing, that Believer's faith will wax stronger. If healing is instant, praise God! If symptoms grow worse - look to God and furnish no occasion for self-love. God may be using this health crisis to extinguish our last drops of self-love.

Some want to stay stick because they feel closer to God when they are helpless and leaning totally on Him. Then it is time to learn to love Him while well; it is better to be healed!

If God does not remove infirmity after it is no longer need, it may be because we have not asked for healing. ASK Already! :)

Ah, but then God wants us to be sensible and to use the resources He has provided all around us. So very often God delights to teach us to use some natural means to help our body - such as eating the right nourishing foods, drinking much more water to flush out toxins and wastes, becoming physically active and energetic. Nutrition has an important place.

Our bodies are one of His most marvelous inventions. I think God is as thrilled as any parent when they see their healthy toddler learn to walk across the room and enjoy their legs and arms and also shriek for sheer joy at being alive; he wants to see us, not worship our bodies, but care for them and use them as they were designed to be used. Remember, in eternity we will still be recognized for the body we have now, even though it will be transformed and able to do much much more!

So yes, let's look at natural, healthy means of caring for our bodies and if certain symptoms linger even after we've prayed for healing, then learn how to solve those problems. God doesn't want to forever carry mature Believers around in His arms like newborns! He wants to see us grow up and be mature.

Just don't begin to worship natural health and alternative therapies, and get into an imbalance in the other direction. I know that I have done this. My pendulum of interest has swung back and forth to both extremes. I like to think i keep it to a happy medium now, and only study healthy care for myself through good foods, vitamin/mineral supplements, and herbal remedies from plants as a side interest. More and more I see marvelous little miracles God has tucked into these areas. It's almost like a child getting to hold and explore Daddy's big strong hand. You still trust Him, but it is fun to have a closer look at how He has provided medicines in the very weeds that crowd in on us!

Okay, Jane, maybe your eyes are glazing over with all that lofty spiritual talk. You want something practical you can DO while you wait for God's healing touch to take effect. Right?

Let's go one more page, because it's a long list of suggestions.

Or, would you like to to go back to the Index of Articles about Friends and Friendship?