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You might be wondering why a school on supernatural healing prayer is suddenly studying nutrition and healthy eating. The two may seem at odds to you because one is a natural way to work towards health and the other is a supernatural way. But the truth is that God heals naturally as well as supernaturally. God designed and created our bodies to be self- healing. He gave us an auto-immune system to resist and fight off germs and bacteria. He gave us the ability to heal when our skin is cut or torn. He gave us the ability to mend broken bones and to diffuse and clear away small infections. God had healing in mind when He created us, He designed our physical bodies with an innate ability to automatically repair itself and stay healthy.
And God has been interested in our eating from the earliest days of the law. He gave certain eating requirements in the law to protect people's health. For instance, pork has some unhealthy micro organisms in them that can cause serious health problems. That is why it is important to cook pork thoroughly to assure you have killed these micro organisms. They were not all that good at thoroughly cooking meat in ancient times, and that is probably why God made certain foods (like pork) unclean.. to protect His people's health.
The bible tells us that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit and that we are priests before God (Rev 1:6). Part of the priest's duties were to keep the temple grounds clean and in good condition, to keep the lanterns lit, etc. Just as God expected the priests to take good care of the physical temple, He expects us to take good care of the temple of the Holy Spirit. 1 Cor 6:19-20 puts it this way, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body." The passage is talking about abstaining from sexual immorality. But I believe that God also expects us to take physically good care of our physical bodies so that we can serve Him well.
God spent a long time training us, building His character in us, depositing and developing spiritual gifts in us .. all so that we can be used to work with Him in doing kingdom purposes. He wants us to take care of ourselves physically, to be good stewards of our health, so that we can serve Him for a long time. 1 Cor 4:1-2 says that we are "... servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful." God wants us to be faithful with the bodies He has given us. He wants us to take good care of them so we can use them to serve Him. Yes, He can heal us from sickness, but He doesn't want us intentionally making ourselves sick from improper eating and health practices.
Proper eating is a very important part of being good stewards of the Holy Spirit's temple that each of us lives in. So we will spend the next few lessons looking at nutrition and healthy eating and how to cooperate with God in our healing through our diet.
What is Healthy Eating?
When I was a little girl they had the four food groups and we were supposed to eat food from each group each day. And then somewhere in there they changed it to the food pyramid. I never really understood what the food pyramid was until I took some diet and nutrition classes at a clinic. I understood the general concept -- they wanted us to eat tiny amounts of fats, oils and sugars, small amounts of milk and meat products, moderate amounts of fruits and vegetables and substantial amounts of complex carbohydrates, like whole grain breads, cereals, pastas. But there were complexities that I did not realize, such as what they considered a serving. For instance, they count one ounce of cereal as a serving, but most of us would pour two to three ounces of cereal into a bowl and think we were just having one serving when we were really having two to three servings. The typical serving of spaghetti that most of us have is really three to four food pyramid servings. And many of us will have six to eight ounces of meat and think we have had one serving of meat (such as a "not so large steak" or what feels like a moderate sized serving of turkey). We don't realize that the food pyramid counts that "one serving" as several. Because of this, a lot of people who think they are following the food pyramid are really not getting the nutritional balance they are hoping for, because they don't understand the serving size and don't eat things in the proper ratio. Here are the serving sizes and number of servings that the fool pyramid recommends:
The concept of healthy eating turned out to be much more complex than I expected it to be, and I found out that I really did not have a clue of how to eat healthy in this day/age.
I still do not claim to be an expert in nutrition -- far from it. But I have learned a few things to survive, and I would like to pass those on to you so that you have a few tools and concepts of how to be a good steward of your body, the temple of the Holy Spirit. These are also things you might want to pass on to those who you pray with for physical healing, so they can be good stewards as well.
Some Eating Makes Us Sick
It is no surprise or mystery that we need to watch certain types of foods in order to stay healthy. Your doctor has probably already given you a lecture on cutting back on fatty foods and cholesterols. That is because of the physiology of the body. The way our system gets its oxygen and nutrients is to break them into tiny elements in the blood and the blood circulates them through our system. Obviously the heart pumps the blood through our system. But our arteries also play a role in this. Arteries carry blood with nutrients from the heart to the rest of the body and eventually branch into a network of capillaries that distribute the blood to all of the cells in your body. These blood vessels have a certain amount of flexibility or elasticity that helps the blood keep circulating when it gets a long way from the heart.
Too many oils, cholesterols and fatty foods are not good for our circulatory system because they cause two problems. First, they can sort of gather or collect on the blood vessels, sort of like rust on a pipe. This takes up space and restricts the flow of blood through the system, making it harder for your heart and body to get the oxygen and nutrients to all the parts of the body that need them. Second, these foods can make the arteries, veins and capillaries less flexible, so that they don't assist the heart in pumping blood through the body.. making the heart have to work harder.. and that can lead to heart problems.
Unfortunately, the things that seem to taste best to most people have a lot of the stuff in them that harms the circulatory system, leading to problems like heart disease and high blood pressure. This includes good tasting things like sour cream, salad dressings, butter and margarine, creamy sauces, potato chips, fatty meats, cheeses, chocolates, etc.
Sugar is a good thing in it's natural form, such as in an apple or in a bunch of grapes. But refined sugar is not all that good for us. If we eat too much refined sugar, the brain will send a message to the pancreas to secrete insulin. The insulin collects the sugar from the blood and stores it in the body as fat. And as the insulin clears the sugar out of our blood, we can get tired, weak, irritable and moody -- it effects us physically and emotionally. Eating a little sugar gives you more energy and you may feel a "rush" or a "high." But eating too much sugar will end up making you feel weak and tired about 45 minutes afterwards. And doing that repeatedly can also put a strain on your pancreas so that it becomes unable to produce insulin. We call that "diet induced diabetes" and it is definitely not a good thing.
Improper diet can cause a lot of different health related problems. Too much salt can raise your blood pressure. Not drinking enough water can lead to kidney problems. Potassium deficiencies can lead to muscle problems (and our heart is a muscle). Calcium deficiency can lead to bone problems. If we have inadequate levels of the B vitamins, we won't be able to manage stress in a healthy way. Insufficient levels of magnesium can cause heart palpitations. Obesity leads to a large collection of health related problems. And some nutritionalists tell us that eating certain foods and related products can lead to an increased risk of cancer.
Health and Healing
So many of us poison our bodies through unhealthy eating habits and don't even realize it. Then we wonder why we get sick. We cry out to God to heal us when we are sick. But as soon as He heals us, we go right back to whatever patterns we were in that made us sick in the first place.
When God gave the promised land to the Children of Israel, He sent them in to fight to possess the land. He was the One who gave it to them, but He had a role for them to play in the process. They had to fight to possess their promised land. God did not hand it to them on a silver platter, He did not make the occupants of the land just move away or disappear. He had a part for His people to do in receiving their destiny, in possessing their promised land.
God does not change. We know that from Malachi 3:6, which says, "For I am the LORD, I do not change," and from Hebrews 13:8 that says, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." So if the children of Israel had to do their part to inherit God's promises, and if God doesn't change, it stands to reason that God expects us to have a part to play in our health and healing as well. We know that faith is important in healing. But I believe that another part of receiving and maintaining healing is to change the wrong or unhealthy behaviors that contributed to the problem in the first place.
If God heals us, we need to eat right to keep from falling back into whatever physical problems that were caused by bad eating habits. In some cases, God will require us to change our bad eating practices to healthy ones before He heals us. God will always supply the supernatural part of divine healing. But He will give us a role to play in that process and often that role will involve changing the unhealthy practices that made us sick in the first place.
We will spend the next seven lessons looking at maintaining healings for certain diet-induced types of problems.