Disclaimer
The information given on this website is for educational purposes only. Information and statements regarding
dietary supplements and natural products have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. . . . See Full Disclaimer
Village Healthcare
What Every Family in West Africa Should Know About Health and Healing
1.03 The Spiritual Side of Health
God's Word tells us that we have been created in the image and likeness of God. This means that we are much more than just a physical body, we are eternal beings. We had a beginning when God created us, but we will never have an end. Even after the physical body dies, we will continue living in spirit.
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness’
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
(Genesis 1:26-
Every person has both a physical body and a spiritual being. Physically we live in a physical world surrounded by things we can see around us. And yet, at the same time, we are actively a part of a spiritual world, surrounded by things we cannot see.
You are not just a physical body. You have a spirit as well.
If you want to have complete health and healing you need to care for both the physical and spiritual needs of your body.
But, before we can understand our spiritual being, we first need to understand some basic truths taught in God’s Word.
GOD MADE ALL THINGS
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1NIV)
“Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” (John 1:3NIV)
EVERYTHING GOD MADE WAS GOOD
REBELLION IN HEAVEN
SIN ENTERS THE WORLD
SIN HAS A PRICE
JESUS PAYS THE PRICE FOR SIN
EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES IN JESUS WILL BE SAVED
-
Understanding Your Spiritual Being
We are able to understand the needs of our physical bodies because it is something that can be seen. Scientists can look at the physical body and tell us how it works and what it needs. Our spiritual being can often be harder for us to understand than the physical body because it is not something that can be seen. And yet, God's Word tells us many things that can help us to understand what it means to be a spiritual being.
God Is Our Creator
God is the one who created the body, both physical and spiritual. Because God is the one who created it, He knows better than anyone how the body functions and what it needs. Because of this, we would be wise to look to our Creator and ask Him to show us the path of health and healing.
“Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the
ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,
and the man became a living being.”
(Genesis 2:7NIV)
Our Spirit is Eternal
God created us to be eternal beings. Even our physical bodies were never meant to die. It was only when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, that sin entered our bodies and God made it so the physical body would die, so that sin would not live in us forever. But our spiritual bodies will never die, and when Jesus returns to judge the world, our bodies will be resurrected, either to eternal life or to eternal separation from God.
This is made clear in the parable Jesus told in Matthew 25. Jesus tells how He will come again in His glory and will sit on His throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him and He will separate them the same way a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. It says that the wicked will "go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life"
We Are Children of God
“The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit
that we are God's children.”
(Romans 8:16NIV)
Our Spiritual Being Cannot Be Harmed by Men
“Stop being afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
(Matthew 10:28GWN)
God’s Spirit Lives Within Us
Paul says in Galatians 2:20, that he was crucified with Christ (that is, his sinful life has been put to death) and now it is not him who lives, but Jesus Christ lives in him. This is true for everyone who accepts Jesus, we should no longer live in our sinful flesh, but the spirit of God lives in us for righteousness.
“Do you not know that you are the temple of God and
that the Spirit of God lives in you?”
(1 Corinthians 3:16-
We Need to Govern Our Spirit
“Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”
(Psalm 42:11NIV)
“Praise the Lord, O my soul, all my inmost being,
praise his holy name.”
(Psalm 103:1NIV)
David talks to his spirit, soul, and heart, which shows we have some control over it. You need to control and lead your heart. Feelings of the heart may seem to just "happen" but we do have control over them. Anger, rage, jealousy, passions. . .we need to take responsibility for these feelings and not allow them to lead us to sin.
We Are Seated With Christ in Heaven
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is
rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even
when we were dead in transgressions—it is by
grace you have been saved. And God raised us up
with Christ and seated us with him in the
heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.”
(Ephesians 2:4-
Physical Suffering is Sometimes Needed for a Healthy Spirit
“If your right eye causes you to stumble,
gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you
to lose one part of your body than for your whole body
to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand
causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away.
It is better for you to lose one part of your body than
for your whole body to go into hell.”
(Matthew 5:29-
“. . .hand such a person over to Satan to destroy his sinful flesh, in order to save his spirit on the Day of the Lord.”
(1 Corinthians 5:5GWN)
“Endure suffering as a discipline. God is treating you
as His sons. For is there a son whom his father does
not discipline? While we are being disciplined,
it always seems painful, rather than joyful. But for
those who have gone through it, discipline gives a
return of the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
(Hebrews 12:7,11GWN)
We Do Not Belong to Ourselves
“You are not your own; you were bought at a price.
Therefore honor God with your bodies.”
(1 Corinthians 6:19-
We Are a Part of Christ’s Body
“For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”
(Romans 12:4-
“If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”
(1 Corinthians 12:26-
We Need to Grow and Mature Spiritually
Physically we grow from being a baby to being an adult. Our bodies and our minds grow and mature. In the same way, we also need to grow spiritually, in our knowledge of God and in governing our spirit to be obedient to Him.
"Therefore get rid of every kind of wickedness and deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and every kind of slander; and like newborn babies, thirst for the pure milk of the word in order that it may cause you to grow so that you are saved."
(1 Peter 2:1-
"But grow in God’s grace and in knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."
(2 Peter 3:18NIV)
"We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil"
(Hebrews 5:11-
We Have an Enemy
"Be self-
(1 Peter 5:8-
-
The Spiritual Side of Health and Healing
Because we spiritual beings, we can impact events in the spiritual world and we can also be impacted by them.
There are two powers at work in the world -
God is the Creator of all things. He made everything, including Satan. God has the ultimate power over everything. His power is the greatest!
Satan has some power or control, but his power is limited to what God allows him to have. Satan can do NOTHING without God's permission.
PRAYER AND MIRACLES
Prayer is when we call on God and His power. We call on God to ask Him to use His power to control things in either the spiritual or physical world.
Miracles are when God chooses to act outside what we consider to be normal or expected in order to do something that would have been otherwise impossible.
There are five very important things you need to know about calling on God's power:
1) God is the one in control. We cannot make Him do anything. God's tells us in His Word that He is our Father. Just as earthly fathers know how to give good gifts to their children, how much more will our Heavenly father give us what we ask for. But sometimes children do not ask for what is best, and in the same way we often ask God for things that are not best. We need to believe that He will answer us according to what He sees is best, and trust Him even if He chooses to do something different from what we asked.
2) Miracles happen more than we realize, but often when they occur they do not seem as amazing as we may have expected. This is because God often uses His control of natural things in order to bring about His purpose, which often makes the miracles seem natural instead of amazing.
3) When we ask God for a miracle, we need to resist trying to take credit for the outcome, or to reason it away. Instead, we need to acknowledge that in spite of how natural it may have seemed all of life is a miracle and nothing happens apart from God's will. All credit and praise belongs to God!
4) Water and fire cannot mix, and in the same way we cannot mix God's power with Satan's power. If you ask God to heal someone and then also go and put charms on them or have a witchdoctor do incantations over them, you are trying to mix two powers that cannot mix. <<picture of fire & water>>
5) There is no cost or negative effects from receiving help from God. But He does ask that, of our own free will, we would choose to honor him, acknowledging that He is God and living in the way that He has chosen for us to live.
GOD CARES ABOUT HEALTH
In the beginning, God created a perfect world. There was never meant to be sickness or suffering in the world. Man is responsible for bringing sin into the world and for messing up God's perfect creation. We should not be surprised, then, when we encounter sickness. It is all part of the curse of sin. Our bodies grow and mature and then they waste away and die. This is because of sin.
But it is not just Adam and Eve's original sin that effects us. In our sinfulness we even destroy ourselves, with bad habits and sinful desires. Our very nature is destructive. We need God's help if we are to overcome this.
In the Old Testament God gave clear instruction to his people about how they were to live, what they should eat, how to wash, how to respond to illness, and so much more. He did this because He wanted to show them the most healthy way to live.
We are not bound to the law because Jesus fulfilled the law on our behalf. But we should still strive to follow the principles laid out for us in the law. Many of the instructions that God gave to His people through the law were examples of the healthiest way to live. If we want to live healthy lives, we would be wise to look at God's Word to see how we should live. God knows what is best for our bodies, so it is when we obey Him that we can experience the health and fullness of life that He intends us to have.
God's Way Is Best!
In the Old Testament, God commanded His people not to eat food that had been offered to idols. When Daniel was taken into captivity, the king of Babylon gave Him rich food to eat and wine to drink. Daniel knew that the food had been offered to idols, so he refused to eat it. He asked the servant in charge of all the captives to only give him vegetables to eat and water to drink. After 10 days the servant looked and saw that Daniel was stronger and healthier than the other men who had been eating the king's food. By obeying God's commands, Daniel was blessed with God's favor and good health.
-
Just as there is much more to know about the physical body, so also there is much more to know about the spiritual being. . .but these are just the basics we need to know if we are going to understand sickness and the healing of our bodies.
-
Spiritual and Physical Connection
-