Why Christian Health Care

These are exciting times.

In 2016 the Australian Prayer Network reported on the Watchman Prayer schools being initiated around the country. People were coming from everywhere, driving for hundreds of miles to learn how to pray for our nation and for our world. It was said this hadn’t happened in the past, and there was incredible joy in seeing this move of the Holy Spirit in the land. Exciting times, indeed! And we have exciting times too in the church.

Healing belongs under the auspices of the church.

Healing at every level, under the local living church. Historically, the Levitical priesthood of the old covenant had oversight of all areas of disease. They were involved in the diagnosis of disease. They taught the people which were the clean, or acceptable, foods. They clarified the principles of hygiene and sanitation. They taught truths on nutrition and cleansing. All this was in addition to their spiritual and temple ministry. The priests were the teachers of the old covenant era. They oversaw the teaching of the 613 spiritual laws, statues and commandments. About one third of these precepts had to do with health, nutrition, hygiene, sanitation and diet.

We are born and we die.

Jesus came to give us eternal life. When we pass from this mortal body into the heavenly life promised; that will be a celebration! The most exciting time of my life to look forward to. I want to be fully cognisant of everything that is happening while my physical body finally gives it last breath. I want to see Jesus and pass over to His loving arms. If my brain has been dulled with medications, or my brain has been missing the nutrients it needs and I can’t think, or my memory gone, I may not experience that indescribable joy of the destination of this life here on earth. Moving from here, through the veil, to our Lord, our God in Heaven. What a future for us all to aspire to.

There is nothing new under the sun.

God is uniquely the Author of every truth, the Creator of all things. All teaching is from revelation, there is no new knowledge. There is a direct connection between the natural and the spiritual dimensions of creation. In order to understand one, we must acknowledge the other. Because God created both the physical and the spiritual realms, both dimensions are important, and both are equally appropriate for attention by the church. Some of the healing we and our children need is spiritual, some of it is emotional and some of it is physical and nutritional. We need to tackle the entire subject if we are to get to an optimum level of health. The church has the responsibility to propagate healing and teaching to minister to the whole man. Our challenge is to separate the wheat from the chaff, the gold from the dross, to ensure we build on a strong foundation.

Health may not be your thing of interest.

It is the passion and the gift and interest and purpose the Lord has put on my heart. What are the other talents he gives: intercession, worship through song, or dance or writings, administration, pastoring, and much more? How are we to carry out His purposes for us if our bodies and our minds are not fed the best nourishment? We feed the best nourishment to our spirit – we read His Word daily, we attend in fellowship, we hear the word from our pastors, we worship together to keep our spirit in good health. We need to add in health care for our created body which includes our minds. Once upon a time it wasn’t as necessary as our food chain and our world was not so polluted with destructive factors. Now it is imperative to be aware, be informed to be able to be well.

A worldwide health crisis of unprecedented proportions is upon us. Every succeeding generation is getting sicker and more prone to health problems than the preceding one. What we do in moderation our children take to excess. Somehow, we must stem the tide and stop our downward spiral into disease and premature death. What can you and I do about this growing dilemma? Where do pastors and other leaders fit into this crisis?

Are they part of the problem or part of the solution?

To begin with, it’s important to understand that a loving God set up all the natural laws of the universe. This means that there is a direct connection between the natural and spiritual dimensions of creation.

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse. Romans 1:20

This scripture was an eye opener for me when I first understood what it meant. The apostle Paul clearly teaches here that the natural creation is a lighthouse, a beacon that points us to spiritual truth. Pastors, parents, teachers and other leaders are to understand and help teach this interrelationship between the natural and the spiritual.

The answer is not to emphasise the spiritual but to raise the level of emphasis and awareness of the natural so that the two are in proper balance. The Bible often uses natural realities to represent spiritual truths.

The bible contains thousands of references to nutrition, farming, plants, animals and agriculture, sanitation and cleanliness. The pharmaceutically oriented medical profession will not teach biblical nutrition and health. Neither will our humanist’s schools and universities. They oppose these empirical truths. Teaching this important spiritual connection is our job. The final piece of the puzzle is diligent study to personally firm up the truths for ourselves so that they will be our truths and not somebody else’s.

God created both the physical and the spiritual realms. He created us as spiritual beings in physical bodies. Both dimensions are important, and both are equally appropriate for attention. People are in physical and spiritual bondages due to the false premises of our society. Who will expose these false premises and their deadly effects? Are we in denial? Moses taught extensively on these subjects as did the Levites. It was part of their job description. Will we skim over these scriptures as being irrelevant to our new covenant relationship with Christ, or will we take them to heart?

Will we apply them to today’s false news?

Daniel, a godly man, had it figured out. Daniel was expected to eat all the same rich food that the king ate so that he would be “healthy” to serve the king well. Daniel knew better. He knew that only the proper foods he had been taught to eat in accordance with the laws of his God would sustain his health. Daniel acted”

“And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king’s meat and of the wine which he drank. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself ... (with these foods) ...and he requested pulse* to eat and water to drink to prove to the king that he would be of better countenance than those who ate the king’s food. He asked for just ten days in which to prove this. At the end of the 10 days their countenance appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king’s foods. Daniel 1: 5, 8, 12-15.
*. Pulse: "seeds" of any kind: grain of any king e.g. barley wheat, millet, vetches, legumes, beans and also includes vegetables, eaten for ten days.

It’s time we became as wise as Daniel was in recognising the link between food and our physical emotional, mental and spiritual health. It took great courage, commitment and conviction to do what Daniel did. Daniel was bucking the system. But his good conscience gave a good return. In time he was reckoned by the king as ten times wiser than the establishment (see Daniel 1:20). It is time we became as wise as Daniel was in recognizing the link between our diet and our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health.

Diets

The Genesis diet, the Mediterranean diet, the Traditional diet, the 5:2, Atkins, Cochrane, Wahls, Changing Habits, No Grain diet, DASH, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Macrobiotic, and the list goes on to Paleo (promoting evolution i.e. what humans ate 40,000 years ago, not 4000 years) then to Keto and on to veganism which is a form of altruistic belief that eating only plant foods will save the world. Which completely counters the Christian belief that it is Jesus who has come to save the world.

If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. John 12:47

The food direction used in Christian Health Care is based on bible foods which go beyond Paleo, and uses the science of blood types, the only chemical difference in the created body. Intuitively we eat to blood type if we listen to the still small voice within. But these days that still small voice is overridden with masses of mind coercing worldly media conditioning to eat, drink or do something other than eat the real foods

Three Biblical principles that will change your diet and improve your health:

1) Eat the foods God created for you,

2) Don’t alter God’s design, and

3) Don’t let any food or drink become your God.

Ref: Rex Russell M.D. What the Bible Says about Healthy Living

This Christian Health Care Workshop course presented in 2015 and 2016 focused on the great variety of healthy things that we can add to our diet and so replace that which does not serve us well.

This website is to inform and will encompass the principles as taught in the Workshops and more as we progress along the path of information overload which is happening today. You may be pleasantly surprised at how simple and powerful God’s Food and the Bibles’ direction is on these things.

Words by Lesley Parker ND ANPA. 2.9.2016, revised 2. 12. 2019