I want to discuss a topic that can be a bit tough for some people to hear and many will flat out tell me I'm wrong.
I have noticed that many people make mind medicine and natural medicine an extension of God.
However, I am worried that many of these people (my friends) who believe they are consulting God for healing by taking natural medicine, are not doing what they think they are doing. I worry they are being lead astray and I wish to share my thoughts on "what is" and "what is not" seeking healing from God.
It is Entirely About Humbling Yourself Before God
Some have come to the conclusion that seeking healing from Jesus or God is a combination of
mind medicine (thinking your way to better health) or
natural medicine (using a diet, supplements and naturopathic ways to better health)....This is not true at all. This kind of thinking is actually based on New Age, mind cure ideals that focus on self and not on God at all.
God can go above and beyond the natural and make a person whole without them having to do some sort of treatment, detox, diet plan or even have a surgery!
For me when I say that I am seeking healing from God it is about
humbling myself. Getting down on my knees and telling God I repent for trying to make myself my own doctor and my own god. God, "I messed up and thought I could do this on my own, but I am wrong. There is no cure for my illness and I need Jesus".
1 Peter 5:6-7
“God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble."
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
Seeking healing from God is saying it isn't about YOU. It isn't about your research. It isn't about your diet plan. It isn't about a detox program. It isn't about taking a specific assortment of vitamins for blocked pathways. It is about completely and totally accepting in your heart and in your mind what Jesus did for you on the cross.
2 Chronicles 16:9
"For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His."
Many will find it a challenge to get to a place like this because it requires you to really let go of
control. It requires you to actually believe that God wants to heal you out of the goodness of His heart and not from something you are doing in your life. It also requires you to give up any pride or ego you have associated with things you are doing in the natural. Understand that this is not something that I can talk you into. It is also not something that happens overnight for most people. It may take a week, 6 months, a year, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years down the road where your desperation is finally great enough that you hand it all over to God. The great news is that God loves a desperate heart and even if we have turned our backs on him for most of our lives, his arms are always open ready to take us back! :)
Seeking healing from God actually requires you to turn away from things you once did. There has to be a change in your heart, which in turn causes a change in your actions. You can't go back to doing what you had done for years and then try to say that this is now your way of seeking God for a healing. There is supposed to be a transformation in your life when you give yourself to Jesus, so this makes no sense and it shows that we really don't understand how God promises healing to us. Below I will talk more about this!
How Does God Promise Healing to Us?
When it comes to seeking healing from God, we have to understand how God gave us healing. It's not because something is natural or because something is found on earth.
It is entirely based on the grace and love God has towards us. He sent us his only son Jesus (who was actually God himself in the flesh), was brutally beaten and died for us on the cross. It was His perfect sacrifice that destroyed the works of Satan and enabled us to reconcile with a clean conscience back to God. Jesus took our sin, sicknesses and fulfilled the Law, so that we may be free!
Jesus died, rose again and he now sits with our Heavenly Father in heaven. After Jesus went away to Heaven, the Lord sent us the precious Holy Spirit in his place. Holy Spirit lives inside of born again, spirit-filled Christians and he is our comforter and our healer. It is through His power that we are able to see healing on earth.
Without Jesus none of this would be possible,
so that is why I believe natural medicine and mind healing has absolutely nothing to do with seeking healing from God. These things give no Glory and have no bearing on what Jesus did.
If you aren't born again, then this is a great time to make that decision to proclaim Jesus as your Lord and Savior. I found this clip on Youtube from Joyce Meyers and she will lead you into a prayer of salvation. If you listened to the clip and gave your life to Jesus, then Amen and Praise God! Please email me and I will pray for you and invite Holy Spirit into your life! If you need a healing, I will also pray for that as well. :)
So remember that healing being available today is not because "something is natural on earth". The earth is under a curse due to our sin, so not everything on earth is good or a reflection of God's perfect and holy will. I know many people (including my husband) who has injured themselves using something "natural". Satan will do whatever he can to keep a person sick and that includes him getting us to focus on things that will distract us away from truly knowing the Lord. He does not want us to know God and wants us to remain blinded to his lies and in darkness.
2 Corinthians 4:4-6
In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 5:8
Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
Here are some scriptures that talk about Jesus healing people.
Matthew 8:16-17
When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word
, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “
He Himself took our infirmities And bore our sicknesses."
In this verse, we are told very plainly, that Jesus fulfilled the scripture found in Isaiah. It was Jesus that took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses and believing in Him is how we receive healing in our bodies.
Here's the verses in Isaiah that this is referring to:
Isaiah 53:4-5.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
It is by Jesus stripes (the beatings of his body) that we are healed. We have to get this foundation of what Jesus did in order to understand how God promises healing for us today. It is about our surrendering to, having faith in and following the Lord Jesus Christ along that journey.
Whenever a person says they are believing God for healing, their journey should lead them into prayer in their own home and in churches. There should be a hunger and love for the things of God and for His Word. They should have other believers praying over them in Jesus name (if possible), commanding the sickness and spirits to leave their bodies. The reality is Jesus did not send people to doctors nor did he tell people to take a supplement in order to get healed. Jesus did not tell a person to look within themselves to be healed either. He was always bringing people's attention away from themselves and onto God. None of them were healed by their works, but instead by their obedience to God. There is a difference between obedience to the Lord and trying to do works to be healed.
The woman with the issue of blood for 12 years had gone to many doctors, spent tons of money and they were unable to make her well and
only made her worse. Out of desperation she saw Jesus and pushed her way to him believing that if she touched him, she would be healed. When she touched him, she was indeed instantly healed! Jesus was able to heal this woman in a moment's time! She had exhausted every other thing available to her, but it was going and reaching out to Jesus that made her well. (
Mark 5:25-34) :)
Just as people in Jesus' day came to get prayer or get touched by Jesus, we are to do this as well. Since Jesus isn't walking around on earth now, this means it is about a personal relationship and journey with the Lord. When a person is born again, they have been reconciled to God, given the Holy Spirit and their sins have been forgiven. It is with this knowledge and understanding of what Jesus did for us on the cross, that we can begin our journey with the Lord to be healed.
With this understanding, we may also get prayer from other believers to encourage us in our walk with the Lord.
The woman with the issue of blood could have just ignored Jesus that day, but she violated the law in her land, stepped out of her comfort zone and touched Jesus. By surrendering your life to the Lord and being born again and decide to go and get prayer from others, you are demonstrating to God "I believe in your son Jesus for my healing!"
The Bible does in fact tell sick people to get prayer for healing.
James 5:14-15
"Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and
let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the
prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up."
This verse pretty much tells us exactly what we need to do in order to seek healing from God.
We are not told to seek after natural supplements nor to do mind medicine practices. None of this can be done 'in Jesus name' because Jesus never displayed this in his life and it is not demonstrated within the Bible.
Having faith in God's healing is about believing in His son Jesus and getting prayer!
You Must Be Willing to Change and Turn Away From the Old
Humbling yourself isn't an easy thing to do especially when it's an area or a community where you have been built up and established in for years. It took me a good 5 months after believing Jesus was a healer to finally give it all up.
Right in the midst of God calling to me, I was neck deep in discovering genetic SNP's for people. I spent every waking moment looking at my 23andme genetic data. I created the Yasko methylation spreadsheet, which got shared on A LOT of websites. I began writing my series on how to use your 23andme raw data. I started to become "popular" in these movements. My blog for the first time started making some adsense money. I was asked to be interviewed by a reporter at Bloomberg for my thoughts on genetic information and chronic illnesses. It was scary turning away from all of this, everything I knew to be comfortable, but the call and love of God in my heart was
stronger than continuing to follow what
I wanted to do. I had to step out of my comfort zone.
For some people it can also mean giving up a website that funds you financially. I know there are a lot of chronically ill bloggers who make some extra cash with their blogs that solely focus on their sickness and the [natural and conventional] things they are doing to overcome it. Even if you aren't making money, but you've created a website surrounding your sickness (ahem...me), then this is something you will have to go to God about. For me I knew I needed to delete a few articles that were bringing me too much attention and I also needed to change the URL and topic of the blog. Since making all of these changes, I have been at peace about it. :) My blog has now put me in touch with other sick people who are not getting help with natural medicine and are looking for another way.
Lastly, I know from personal experience that many of these natural health communities are rooted in fear. Fear is from the devil and not of God! Some of you may need to turn away from these groups and start anew.
2 Timothy 1:7
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
With time most who are in the natural medicine communities become very judgmental and look down on others who aren't following a specific diet or for instance eat fast food from time to time. There is very little love and compassion in these groups especially towards those who don't agree with your eating or living practices. These groups can become toxic to you and be prepared to leave them while seeking Jesus for healing. I know I had to!
Many will not understand your decisions! I know many told me I was nuts for deleting some of my posts, but these are the types of things you have to be willing to change and turn away from.
Turning away is a step of faith.
With Natural Medicine, Who Is Getting the Credit?
This is an area that I think people need to really look within themselves. Whenever you seek healing through natural medicine or mind medicine, who or what in the end will get the glory or the credit?
For years when I was researching treatments and making myself a guinea pig, I thought when I finally got better then I would be able to "help others" by telling them what I discovered! That never happened, but I know I would have promoted some method for years and scoffed at those who said it did not work for them. Natural medicine quickly becomes about self-promotion or promoting a diet, treatment or supplement that you have made your identity.
If the end result of "seeking healing" consists of promoting a diet, supplement or treatment program, then there is no Glory to God in your journey. This is a hard truth for many to hear, but let that settle in your heart and really see what or who it is you are seeking in your healing. I don't believe God is offended if we use supplements, but
I do believe his way of healing us is through the sacrifice of his son Jesus!
When I say I am seeking healing through God,
it is all about praying for healing and believing in Jesus for a miracle. There will be no glory to me. There will be no glory to doctors. There will be no glory to any supplement, treatment plan or detox program. It will be ALL GLORY TO JESUS!
Healing From God Really Is Supernatural
Seeking healing from God really is a supernatural event. It is not something that has to be done by natural means. None of Jesus' miracles in the Bible could have possibly been done in the natural, so this is great news for those who have been trying things on their own with little to no success! There is hope, but you have to look beyond yourself and what you are doing.
God isn't expecting us nor he is making us suffer for years doing detoxes, taking pills and whatnot in order for us to be healed. A miracle cannot be reasoned out through natural ways.
In the Bible there were many sicknesses that were caused by an evil spirit attaching themselves to a person. There are probably some of us who are sick because of a spirit. There is no amount of natural knowledge or mind medicine that will be able to overcome that. You need the delivering power only found in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God!
Luke 13:11
And there was a woman who for
eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit; and she was bent double, and could not straighten up at all. 12 When Jesus saw her, He called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your sickness.” 13 And He laid His hands on her; and immediately she was made erect again and began glorifying God.
For any of you, you have to let go of the scientific thinking and just accept that we will never be able to understand how it all works or how it all happens. If we could, then believing in Jesus for healing would not be by faith, but it would be by sight and by worldly knowledge.
Jesus is able to heal you in whatever place you are emotionally, physically, spiritually and mentally. Just give your life over to Him and allow him to begin to renew your mind about what you believe of Him and about yourself. You don't have to have it all figured out to come to God with your troubles and sicknesses. Just ask the Lord.
Watch for the New Age Healing Teachings
Another problem with the natural medicine community is that it is full of new age, occultist and energy healing methods. Christians need to be careful with what we get ourselves involved with because not everything is safe or OK in the spiritual realm. We can easily fall victim to new age healing methods because we think to ourselves, "well since it's natural, it's ok", but this is not true! Many new age healing methods go hand in hand with the natural medicine and it's totally normal to see people talking about it on forums or in FB groups. These methods include yoga, acupuncture, reiki, muscle testing, energy machines, retraining programs, chakra balancing, EFT tapping, crystal healing and soo much more.
When a person takes part in new age healing methods, you may be inviting demons and other unclean spirits to come into your life. Many Christians don't understand why these things are dangerous and this is the reason. It's not about what your intentions are or even about what you think about a practice, it is the fact that these methods are aligning you with false gods and demonic spirits.
Out of my ignorance, I tried energy machines, EFT tapping, muscle testing and other things! I'm simply warning you that these practices have more to them than just some harmless "energy". These practices knowingly or not summon or seek other spirits that are not of God even if they sound scientific.
The bad spirits associated with these therapies can attach themselves to you. They can
cause more sickness in your body or they try to influence you in other areas of your life. Demons LOVE to deceive people, so they will do anything in order for you to accept them in your life. As you continue down this path you may find yourself getting sicker and sicker OR the spirit moves and causes new health problems to crop up. Here's the vicious cycle though, as you get sicker from the spirits, you then run back to the new age treatments! You have to break away from those practices and renounce them!
If you have done any New age practices then pray about it. Let the Lord speak to you and see what you need to do. Some people may need delivered from these spirits, so that's why it's good to consult Holy Spirit on this. I've repented for the things I did and I am clean in my conscience about it now. I will never touch any of these therapies ever again.
Reasons Why Many Fall for New Age Healing methods
There are three main reasons why some Christians fall victim to new age teachings.
1) Most of the time it is out of ignorance. We don't even know that something is new age or we don't realize that it summons spirits outside of God's kingdom. Many people are just looking for something to give them relief for a condition they have in their body. Unfortunately the enemy doesn't care if you made a mistake, he uses opportunities like this to latch on to you.
For further study, I recommend these two things.
This video may help you to get a better understanding of how the New Age is like web.
http://youtu.be/0ei_tU9cKYw
This article talks specifically about Yoga.
https://www.cai.org/testimonies/spiritual-deception-yoga
2) Most of today's churches (Cessationists) do not teach about the
spiritual gifts of Holy Spirit, so instead of being able to search and find the real thing, we get caught up in following other spiritualities. The Holy Spirit in doing the will of God gives gifts to each believer as He chooses. Apostle Paul tells us to desire the gifts earnestly, so ask God to show this aspect of Christianity to you.
For further study
Here's a video of Sid Roth's story of delving into new age before he found Jesus. I'm sad to say that I believe Sid Roth in recent years has gone back into many new age ideals, but his testimony here is very good.
http://youtu.be/0vRQxvblgFc
3) Lastly, most in the church don't really understand how healing is available to us today or some simply just do not believe at all. This is where it is good to study your Bible and get involved with other like minded Christians who believe that Jesus is still a healer today.
Medical Treatment While Standing For Your Healing
While you are in the midst of standing for your healing, it is completely acceptable to see doctors, take ongoing prescriptions and supplements if they help you. If it's time for that checkup at the doctor, there is nothing wrong with going! I still go to my cardiologist when he wants to see me and I still go to my eye doctor regularly too. I still take potassium and other random vitamins as I see fit, but
this is not Jesus and it is not how the Lord will ultimately heal me.
I am NOT telling anyone to stop seeking medical treatment. I took hydrocortisone while getting prayer for my healing of adrenal insufficiency. God healed me of this condition while taking medication and I was able to come off of it without any side effects! I took the pills so I wouldn't die because this is a serious medical condition. I had to live to fight another day and I don't think that God is offended by things like this.
- You can be going for healing prayer and also go to doctors at the same time.
- You can be going to doctors and still seek healing prayer at the same time.
You don't have to be doing one or the other. However, we must remember and understand that doctors ARE NOT GOD. I don't believe that the church should ever be associating themselves with medicine, supplements or any other natural health treatment plans. We are ambassadors of Christ and our call on this earth is to tell people the Good News of Jesus. If we tell someone to take a supplement or to try some treatment, what happens if they are injured by the treatment? How do we rectify that?
The one thing that sick people have to keep in mind is that the devil will try to harm you given any chance at all. He can use a doctor to do it. He can use a medication to do it. I know more people harmed (or dismissed) by doctors than people healed by doctors. This is where my hesitation comes from in offering advice and telling people to go to doctors as a Christian. It is a decision only you can make.
If you are purposely choosing not to believe in God or not pray at all for healing, then this is when a person needs personal ministry. Sometimes the enemy can come into our minds and tell us we aren't worthy of being healed. Please seek help if this is what is happening to you. I am more than willing to chat with you, so feel free to contact me.
Despite where you have come from and what has happened in the past, Jesus is willing and able to make you well. He can overcome sickness when nothing else in the world can! This is WHY Jesus is such good new and why my focus is always on Him! It's freeing and gives me peace.
God Can Show Us Something In the Natural
If you have a personal relationship with the Lord, then it is entirely possible for him to speak to you about things in your life that you can change. I don't want people to think that I am trying to "put God in a box". I want to open people's eyes up to the idea that God is bigger and better than we could even imagine. He IS NOT limited to natural treatments, diet and thinking positive.
I wanted to share a story of God showing me something in my life that was causing health problems. It's kind of a weird thing, but I'm completely open and honest with people, so here it goes...haha
For a long time I had a lot of burning and pain in my bladder. It wasn't always a urinary tract infection (UTI) because I wasn't experiencing the right symptoms for those. Sometimes though the burning would develop into a UTI which was so annoying. Whenever the pain came on, I'd pray against it and nothing would happen. It was very frustrating. Sometimes I'd sit in the bathtub because the burning was really painful. It would come and go and I could never figure out why.
Well I had this for years (even before I was born again) and during this time, I realized that a little bit of baking soda in a glass of water would usually give me relief within 20 minutes. I started using this a lot because the pain was terrible.
Well probably about 2 months ago, I went to use the bathroom and while I was peeing, God said. "Dana, you aren't emptying your whole bladder when you use the bathroom." I was dumbfounded. "Really God, I'm not?!" Well of course God was right. I'm not sure why, but I wasn't letting out my full bladder, so small amounts of urine were constantly sitting in my bladder causing pain! I'm happy to report that I haven't had bladder pain since that day and I haven't had to take any baking soda or anything at all.
This is an example of where God can tell you something in the natural to help you out. I just don't think that we can make this a formula of some sort though!
This is why we need to tell people to actually seek JESUS in their healings, so that
if the Holy Spirit feels the need to talk to you about something like this, he can.
If you tell people to just seek natural medicine, then there is no relationship there at all. It's completely about the supplements and not about Jesus at all.
I'm Settled On Jesus and Jesus Alone
When I say I am seeking healing through Jesus, this means I am not taking supplements or herbs for my healing. I am not going to reiki healers and I'm not getting acupuncture done. In my heart, I have settled that a supernatural healing is the only way it will happen. I am no longer focusing on researching diets, supplements or some other theory. I am no longer trying to take herbs. For 8 years of my life, I went from doctor to doctor; specialist to specialist; naturopath to naturopath. It did not bring me health at all. I probably spent like 30k dollars in a course of a few years, so I can definitely relate to the woman with the issue of blood. All of that time, money and energy was for NOTHING. All I did was make myself my own god, get sicker and have adverse reactions to drugs and supplements. It was terrible.
Nowadays I am reading the Bible and praying to hear from the Holy Spirit more and more! I'm no longer living in guilt and shame and I am excited to see what God has planned for my life. I go to local events whenever possible to be in fellowship with other believers. I get prayer from ministers and others who believe in healing. My husband and I also pray for each other too. Is my health perfect? Nope, not yet. Every day is a battle, but I know that Jesus is Lord and that he will take my sicknesses from me. All I do is just keep chugging along, getting prayer and not give up.
Do not let the devil come in and wipe you out. You put on the
Armor of God and batten down the hatches if it ever gets to that point.
I recommend reading the story of
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego in Daniel 3. King Nebuchadnezzar had set up a gold image and was telling people to worship this idol. Anytime he played his trumpets and flutes, he ordered people to bow down to it. Well Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego wanted nothing to do with this false god because they believed in One true God. The King got so angry he threatened to throw then into the fiery furnace if they did not bow.
This was their response to the King:
“O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 If that is the case, our God whom we serve is
able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and
He will deliver us from your hand, O king. 18
But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that
we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”
This is powerful! Many may never come to this point of surrender and trust in their Christian walk. No one can bottle up this level of faith and give it to you. No one can talk you into believing like this. No one can give you a formula or a 9 step program to get you to submit to God like these three men. You have to come to this point on your own and settle in your heart that no matter what happens, that this is where you draw the line in the sand and hold on to God.
I am at this place when it comes to healing. I have no other game plan. I know that Jesus is my healer and I believe he will heal me, but even if it does not happen for some reason, I will not abandon my beliefs and start to look for other ways to gain healing. You can't get to a place like this by faking it or pretending or even reciting scriptures over and over again. You have to be completely, 100% surrendered and sold out for Jesus!
Let's actually believe in what Jesus did instead of trying to find the answers ourselves! Jesus already paid the price for our healing, so let's trust him for it.
