I once thoroughly exhausted the allopathic medical world in a futile search for a cure for my symptoms. Then I discovered naturopathy and completely changed tactics. I tried a holistic approach, used herbal and homeopathic remedies, and ate a varied, healthful, and entirely natural diet made from scratch. I became wise in the lore of nature's medicine.
There is no question that I and the rest of my family made progress with our health concerns - slow progress at first, and then picking up to a cruising speed. Natural medicine has the mainstream medical world beat, hands down. It is a higher wisdom. For those who are willing to see it as simply a different kind of science, it has many amazing tools to offer. Not a single one is a magic bullet, but used together, they can get you quite far indeed along the road toward that elusive goal called "health."
But somewhere along the line, I began to look at things a little differently. I said I was wise in natural lore. Prov. 3.7 tells me to "be not wise in thine own eyes." Those of us who have been disillusioned by allopathy see how readily and completely most of the Western world reveres the medical field beyond all logic. Through a long, eye-opening process, I began to see that I was in danger of making a God of naturopathy.
There are those who claim that God gave us brains, and He expects us to use them to avail ourselves of all the tools of health which He has also provided for us in nature. It sounds good. I certainly bought into the idea. But lately the Holy Spirit has been bringing to light Scriptures which cut right across that theory.
The last time I went to the iridologist, she told me I was perfectly healthy. From here, we were just "being picky." But I know with certainty that this unprecedented level of health came from finally beginning to let go of the idea of the kind of health I think I need to have and learning to just be a sheep under the Shepherd's care. The doctor herself admitted that there was nothing in anything she had suggested or I had done that could account for such a dramatic change. Healing had taken place in the only way true healing can: from the inside out, from the spirit to the body.
I can thoroughly identify with the woman in Luke 8.43-4 who spent her life's savings on doctors. I had tried every resource, when what I really needed - what anyone needs - is to lay hold of the One with power to heal. The more I go on with Him and in His Word, the more reaching for answers anywhere else seems preposterous. Before, I ran around to every intelligent source I could find, incorporated their wisdom into my arsenal, and asked the Lord to bless this tool to my use. I was willing to expend most of my energy just to maintain a good, but not perfect, state of health. Now...
Now, I find myself unable to settle for anything that is less than what He, the Master Healer, the Great Physician, can give me. And to obtain that, I must leave all other answers, all halfway and three-quarter measures, behind me. "Who is among you that feareth the Lord," Isaiah asks, "that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light?" What is your darkness? Is it poor health? Depression? Your job or your marriage disintegrating around you? Where are you in the dark and so desperate for light that you will do anything? God gives us our answer in this passage: "let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God." Then He warns us of the consequences of trying in desperation to create a little light for ourselves, rather than waiting in the dark for Him. "Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand: ye shall lie down in sorrow." (Isa. 50.10-11)
I can no longer glibly view all these "tools" as gifts from the Lord for my use. They are starting to look dangerously like answers held up as a distraction from the One Answer that I need. "God hath made man upright: but they have sought out many inventions." (Ecc. 7.29) Man has become adept at seeking out inventions that will allow him to stand self-sufficient and apart from the One who created Him for a mutually fulfilling relationship with Himself.
By now my readers may have consigned me to the farm as a fanaticist or worse. "Oh," they say, "I see, so she's gone over to the _____ camp." You fill in the blank; there are many fanatical groups you could choose from. You will undoubtedly see me as someone who has backed herself into a corner by a misguidedly narrow interpretation of Scripture. I don't care. I am not writing this to bring converting light to others' errors, nor am I just parroting what many another has had to say on the subject of faith-healing. I am expressing, because I need to do so, what the Holy Spirit is saying to me through the Scriptures.
I don't know what exactly this means for me. I don't know if I will ever take another vitamin or herbal cleanse. I don't know if I will go to the chiropractor or not. I only know that I choose to bank all on God's Word and refuse to acknowledge by word or deed any answer that springs from another source. I am not binding myself to a new set of principles. I am not after a creed, I am after God Himself.
It is said of Moses, whom God "knew face to face" (Deut. 34.10), that when he died at 120 years old, "his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated." (v. 7) Caleb points out to Joshua that he is as strong to take Canaan at age 85 as he was 45 years prior, when Moses first sent him to spy out the land. (Josh. 14.7-11) These two men are the only ones from that first generation of Israelites (if we take Joshua to be a half generation younger) to have served the Lord with all their hearts and with strong faith. That their physical bodies were so beautifully sustained seems to me not so much a miraculous aberration, but the natural outworkings of a heart so in tune with the Lord's presence in their lives. "...fear the Lord, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones." (Prov. 3.7-8)
"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (I Cor. 3.16) It is His temple, His body. Can I suppose He will leave it to my paltry wisdom to care for? "Take no thought for your life... Consider the ravens... and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?" (Luke 12.22,24) "Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever enetereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man." (Mat. 15:17-18) Here Jesus makes it clear than I can leave what I eat, and the processing of it, to Him. My body is His temple, and I do not intend to fill it with nitrites; but if I must eat the nitrites, they cannot defile my body. It is the "many inventions" of my heart I need to beware.
That Jesus
can heal is never in question. That He is always moved to compassion to heal everyone with faith to receive it I no longer doubt. "I will; be thou clean." (Mark 1.41) "Thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace." (Luke 8.48) What is of far greater importance is that He expects me to let Him heal me, fill me, be my all-in-all. "And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all." (Eph. 1.22-23)
"Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?... Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health shall spring forth speedily..." (Isa. 58.6-8) Can I, through any resource of my own, myself loose the bands of wickedness, or let the oppressed go free, etc.? Of course not. But it has been done for me! All that remains for me to do is identify myself with the work that has been done. "And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it." (Rev. 21.22) The Lamb Himself is the temple, yet I am the temple. (I Cor. 3.16) In order to be His temple, I have to be completely unified with the Lamb. If I am in union with the Lamb, and everything in his temple "doth... speak of his glory" (Psa. 29.9), I cannot be leprous and diseased! Any evidence to the contrary is a lie of the enemy.
There is plenty of evidence. Since first beginning to come to this stand, I have changed many things. I have stopped taking supplements and medications. I don't know that they are wrong; I just want to be very careful to wait on His direction. I have lightened up considerably in what we eat. I have dessert occasionally. I eat pizza with the boys. I no longer look at food as something that can heal or kill me. And to the natural eye, a progression of natural consequences has appeared. I have begun, ostensibly, to slip back into a lesser state of health. But I really can't be bothered with the apparent consequences, tough though some of them are to bear. I would rather step up to the microphone to sing at my brother-in-law's wedding covered in acne (and praise the Lord - gulp! - that my vanity is being crucified!) than risk settling for less than what He can give me.
"Whoa, there, Kit," I hear some of you say. "A little moderation, please." To which I say, "Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise." (I Cor. 3. 18) I am ready to be a fool for Christ.
Like Abraham, I "consider not" my body. (Rom. 4.19) The Greek word means "to perceive thoroughly (with the mind)." No matter how thorough an examination I make with my mind, I can only "see through a glass darkly." (I Cor. 13.12) I just don't have the full picture. Neither did Abraham, and rather than trust to his own resources, he was willing to believe that the limitations of his body were not the end of the matter. He stood upon God's Word of promise, not on circumstantial evidence, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. (Rom. 4.20-22)
"But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall." (Mal. 4.2) The prerequisite for healing is that I fear His name. It is also implied that I need to stay under the shadow of those wings. If I do that, I shall grow up as a calf of the stall, well cared for, and "neither shall any plague come nigh [my] dwelling" (Psa. 91.1,9-10)
How to accomplish that is the question. And that is where I must be true to the light that I see in the Word. I choose, as I said, to bank all on God. How this will play out in my life remains to be seen. But let this article stand as my signed covenant before Him that I consider all my needs as having been met in abundant richness at Calvary. I will stake my life - quite literally, the quality of my daily life - on the claim that Jesus is sufficient for my physical needs. I will cast myself upon Him and walk softly before Him, lest in any way I deceive myself into looking unto other resources.
"Let us fall now into the hand of the Lord; for his mercies are great." (II Sam. 24.14)
Psalm 26
Judge me, O Lord; for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the Lord; therefore I shall not slide. Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart. For thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes: and I have walked in thy truth. I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers. I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked. I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass thine altar, O Lord: That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all they wondrous works. Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth. Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men; In whose hands is mischief, and their right hand is full of bribes. But as for me, I will walk in mine integrity: redeem me, and be merciful unto me. My foot standeth in an even place: in the congregations will I bless the Lord.
