Christian Deliverance and Healing in Physical Health Areas

CHAPTER 8: PHYSICAL HEALTH - SUB-TOPICS:
- Food as Medicine, a Natural Defense & Natural Cure
- Artificial & Natural Detoxification: Fasting as Top a Method
- Overcoming the Craving for Unhealthy Carbohydrates & Sugars
- Dealing with Food Intolerance and Food Allergies
- The Sun, a Natural Source of Health: Disadvantages from Overexposure
- The Sun, a Natural Source of Health: Advantages from Modest Exposure
- Alternative Medicine and Other Natural Cures
- Supernatural Physical Health, God's Part for Our Health Care

There are plenty of scriptures on physical health deliverance and healing. More direct scriptures focus on physical health healing than on social and material deliverance and healing.

For example, fewer scriptures discuss directly on deliverance and healing from a marriage crisis or a financial crisis. Most of what we have in these areas is drawn from digging deep into the context and meaning of particular passages.

This should be great news for those seeking deliverance and healing in physical health areas. The bible affirms that being in good health is important. Desiring to be healthy physically is not wrong. It makes it harder to effectively do God's work in the harvest field if one's body is not in a healthy state. Jesus called physical healing is “the children's bread,” Matthew 15:26.

It is a gift from God intended for his children in their everyday lives. However, this needs to be seen in its context to avoid making it a “health and wealth gospel.”

There are two main sections in this chapter: 1) natural physical health, and 2) supernatural physical health. Natural physical health is the realm of physical health that is in our hands. It is in the realm of our responsibility, not God's. The natural health is in our hands while the supernatural provision is in God's hands.

Food as Medicine, a Natural Defense & Natural Cure Against Diseases

Eating and drinking what's good for the body serves two functions for our physical health: 1) it acts as a defense against avoidable illnesses, and 2) it is a natural cure against many diseases. Simple dietary measures can be natural cures against common illnesses.

Nearly 2,500 years ago, Hippocrates, who is regarded as the founder of modern medicine, said, “Leave your drugs in the chemist's pot if you can heal the patient with food.” But today dashing for medicine is the norm even over the slightest problem.

Good food increases or maintains our immune system. Our immune system is our natural, God given, defense mechanism against illnesses. It's often said that if the body were a nation, the immune system would be its army against foreign invasion. The foreign invaders are the millions of pathogens that threaten our bodies daily. Pathogens are disease-causing agents that include bacteria, fungi, parasites, protozoa, and viruses.

That is why diseases that compromise the immune system or cause it to malfunction win their battle in attacking the body. Dr. Lorraine Day, a physician (medical doctor) and advocate for natural alternative therapies for diseases, says “The best and only way to avoid all infectious diseases is to have your body in a maximum healthy state with a properly functioning immune system. If the body's immune system is working properly, it is virtually impossible to contract any infectious disease!” (Lorraine Day, GoodNewsAboutGod.com).

Does medicine boost the immune system? Dr. Linda Page says, “Drugs aren't the answer for immune enhancement. The immune system is not responsive to drugs for healing. Even doctors admit that most drugs really just stabilize the body, or arrest a harmful organism, to allow the immune system to gather its forces and take over.

“Each one of us has a unique immune response system. It would be almost impossible to form a drug for each person. Antibiotics used to fight infections actually depress the immune system when used (in the) long-term. Long courses of tetracycline and erythromycin are some of the most common and some of the worst for immune health.

“But natural nutritive forces, like healing foods and herbal medicines can and do support the immune system. They enhance its activity, strengthen it, and provide an environment through cleansing and detoxification for it to work at its best.

“I believe the only way to stay healthy during high risk times is to prepare your body for the defenses it's going to need. Even if you've improved your diet, take another look at it because a super nutritious diet is imperative when you're under attack,” (Linda Page, HealthyHealing.com).

This does not mean it's not healthy or beneficial to use conventional medicine. It can be unhealthy when medicine is used on a prolonged basis or overused. Page says, “Three unwanted things often happen with prolonged drug use: 1) our bodies can build up a tolerance to the drug so that it requires more of it to get the same effect. 2) The drug slowly overwhelms immune response so the body becomes dependent upon it, using it as a crutch instead of doing its own work.

“3) The drug misleads our defense system to the point that it doesn't know what to assault, and attacks everything in confusion. This type of over-reaction often happens during an allergy attack, where the immune system may respond to substances that are not really harmful.

“Most of the time, if we use drugs wisely to stimulate rather than over kill, if we “get out of the way” by keeping our bodies clean and well nourished, the immune system will spend its energies rebuilding instead of fighting, and strengthen us instead of constantly gathering resources to conduct a “rear guard” defense. The very nature of immune strength means that it must be built from the inside out,” (Linda Page, HealthyHealing.com).

A) What to eat and drink

What to include in your diet. Lot's of home-cooked greens and some garlic. Some greens like fruits may be expensive for some. There are collard greens, lettuce, spinach and cabbage which are quite cheap. They are of great nutritional value as well as being helpful to the digestive system with their rich fiber levels.

In his book, The China Study , T. Colin Campbell, Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University says, “So, what is my prescription for good health? In short, it is about the multiple health benefits of consuming plant-based foods, and the largely unappreciated health dangers of consuming animal-based foods, including all types of meat, dairy and eggs,” ( The China Study, p. 21).

Greens are actually cheap in most third world countries where they can be grown on vast extra land. In Kenya lettuce is called “sukuma wiki.” In Swahili it literally means extend the week. It implies the greens help you afford to stay alive for another week.

The vegetables are seen like manna the Israelites had in the wilderness –just enough to live by the day. Understanding the health benefits of sukuma wiki and its cheap green relatives could lead to giving it a better name. Sukuma wiki is great with any non-pork meats in moderation to keep you healthy for decades ahead.

Meats other than pork are good if you can afford them but not in excess. Eliminating meats altogether is not wise. Two extremes, one of excess and another of abstinence are equally unhealthy. Unless occasional eggs are taken to supplement the for needed protein.

Red meat and processed meats are foods worth taking some precaution. Note the word processed meats. Processed foods are foods that are processed or prepared by adding or mixing them with other foods and additives (including chemical additives). More will be covered on processed foods ahead in this chapter.

Fox News Network on December 11, 2007 covered on sad research findings about eating a lot of red meat and processed meats. The study was done by Amanda Cross and colleagues at the National Cancer Institute (USA). The full study can be found at the website of the Public Library of Science (PLoS). It is titled, “Meat Consumption and Cancer Risk.”

The topic on health risks of red meat and processed meats has been around for decades, ever since cattle rearing introduced cheaper but unhealthy rearing methods. Food processing also introduced cheaper but unhealthy processing methods (including unhealthy chemical additives). The finding by the National Cancer Institute are therefore not new to many that are aware of such information.

“People who eat a lot of red and processed meats have a higher risk of developing several types of cancer, including lung cancer and colorectal cancer, according to a new study from the National Cancer Institute.

“People who ate the most red were 25 percent more likely to be diagnosed with bowel, liver, lung and esophageal cancer during the eight-year study, compared to those who consumed small amounts of this type of meat.

“The researchers also found that people who ate the most processed meats, including bacon, ham and lunch meat, had a 20 percent higher risk of colorectal cancer and a 16 percent higher risk of lung cancer,” (Fox News Network, “Large Study Links Red, Processed Meat to Certain Cancers”).

Next Part What type of water is most healthy?