Pastors and leaders need to be aware of the condition of God’s people. It is not hard to look out at our congregations and see that most of them are in poor health.
There has been a tendency to not want to address the issue of health with God’s people. We don’t mind addressing the spiritual and emotional health and even healing for the physical body, but that’s as far as we have been willing to go. It is difficult to venture into new areas because we might be concerned about how the people will respond.
Let me assure you, God’s people do not like to be unhealthy, sick and dying. At the last conference where I spoke at about health, I asked the people, “How many of you like to be unhealthy, tired and sick?” Not one raised their hand. I then asked, “How many of you like to be healthy?” And all raised their hand.
Our thinking has been the church takes care of the spiritual things of God’s people and the world will take care of the physical things regarding their health. After all, we have a health care system that takes care of them.
The truth is, we don’t have a health care system; we have a disease-management system. We become unhealthy and sick, and then we go to the doctor for treatment to manage the problem.
We’ve all seen the ads on television where the pharmaceutical companies advertise their latest drug that will help our problem if it doesn’t cause at least a half- dozen side effects, one of which might be death. Then the next commercial might be from attorneys who can represent you in a lawsuit about those very same side effects that are not supposed to happen.
The root cause of the unhealthy condition of God’s people comes from what we put in our mouths. Our food system is profit-driven, not health-driven. We are eating processed food that is filled with sugar, causing people to be addicted through a craving that drives product sales. A prolonged sugar craving can lead to obesity and Type 2 Diabetes.
Some statistics show that the percentage of the American population with diabetes and pre-diabetes is approaching 50 percent. It is common knowledge that we have a pandemic of obesity in America. The Washington Post put out an article recently that, for the first time since 1993, life expectancy in America has declined. We have become a nation of unhealthy people. Pastors and leaders must realize that the world’s system isn’t helping us to become healthy.
God’s Word on Healing
We have brought God’s word on healing to His body. We pray for the sick to be healed and are having a measure of success. The problem is that those who receive their healing often become sick again. We didn’t realize God’s goal wasn’t healing, but what healing produces—a body that isn’t sick; a healthy body.
As Director of Healing Rooms Ministries, I became concerned that we were trying to bring healing to sickly bodies, and it wasn’t working well. Those who received their healing were becoming sick again. God began to show me that if we combined our spiritual immunity with physical immunity, we could develop an immune defense against disease.
Our approach has been to wait for people to become sick so we could pray for healing, rather than supporting them in health so they wouldn’t become sick.
God’s Word on Health
God want His people healthy. He tells us this in Proverbs 3:5-8:
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your body, and strength to your bones.”
This Scripture tells us the Lord will direct our path, and it will lead to health. It is His desire that we prosper in all things and be in health, just as our soul prospers (3 John 2).
God didn’t create us to be sick; He created us in His image and likeness to walk in health. He created us to be like Him, as fathers and mothers who will do everything to keep our children from getting sick. We want our children to walk in health. God put this desire in us because it is His will for all His children to be healed and to walk in health.
Jesus came as our Redeemer to set us free from sin and sickness. If this is true, then we can live free from sin and sickness. Jesus bore our sickness so we would not have to.
The Temple of the Holy Spirit
If you think about it, the Bible tells us we are the body of Christ. He is our head, and the same Holy Spirit who raised Him from the dead dwells in us. If this is true, then why can’t that Holy Spirit power shield us from the attack of sickness? Isn’t this the full armor of God that enables is to stand against the schemes of the devil? (Eph. 6:10-11).
About eight years ago, when I wasn’t walking in health, I had a heart attack. The Holy Spirit said to me, “Stop messing with My body. You only have one body, if you keep messing it up, we will both be out.”
Then He said, very clearly, “What? Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God, and that you are not your own? You were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor. 6:19-20).
This was a wake-up call; I did not realize I had a responsibility to steward God’s temple. No one ever told me this. I was bought with the price of Jesus’ blood and am required to keep the temple of God healthy so God can be glorified on the earth.
The Message and The Church
God created His people to live a long and healthy life. We each have a future and destiny to serve Him with our life. The enemy knows that and will bring not only emotional trauma by physical trauma to steal our destiny.
Jesus, through redemption, destroyed this work of the enemy. Being filled with the Holy Spirit gives us the power to receive our healing and then walk in health. Our message to God’s people should bring life and health, both spiritually and physically.
We don’t seem to have a problem in the church ministering to the drunkard, but we overlook those who have physical weight issues because of gluttony. God desires that we minister love to both. “For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty” (Prov. 23:21).
The drunkard and glutton are both in need of God’s help. Pastors and leaders are looked to as ministers of truth who can bring God’s will to those in need. They must not allow themselves to be intimidated by those who may not believe God has a message of health. We must remember that everyone is interested in being healthy. If our society cannot bring health to God’s people, we can; by bringing God’s word on healing and health.
We must create an atmosphere where people can be supported and encouraged for their whole person, spirit, mind and body, to receive healing and health. {eoa}
Cal Pierce is director of Healing Rooms Ministries and an author and conference speaker. He is the President/CEO of Garden’s Best, a supplement company producing a superfood green powder for Biblical-based nutrition. You can contact him at [email protected].
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