We seem to have been plodding along for a long time wondering whether God is in all that we do. However, in the last few years as we have been exploring and seeking out what Biblical Health Care is, we have sensed His guiding and leading in a new way. It is a new path and one that we haven’t travelled before but we now find that we have lots of company on the journey.
“I [the Lord] will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.
Be not like the horse or the mule, which lack understanding, which must have their mouths held firm with bit and bridle, or else they will not come with you.” Ps 32:8-9 (Amp)
The Lord gave me this scripture many years ago as I meditated on a rocky hillside in Fiji in the middle of a sugar cane plantation. Below me at the bottom of the hill, I saw a mule tethered to a rock. As I looked, a man came out of a small hut and approached the mule, which immediately turned its back on him. The man was not perturbed even after the mule repeatedly stamped his hooves and turned his back on him. After gently and calmly stroking the animal for sometime, he eventually managed to quietly lean down and remove the rope from the rock. He then proceeded to lead the animal up the slippery, shaly hillside taking particular care that the animal didn’t loose its footing. I had never seen such loving care and concern as he showed to this mangy looking animal.
As he came up the hill towards me, I was amazed– it was no longer mangy but sleek and healthy; it was actually a rather handsome horse. The transformation was amazing and as I sat there the Lord dropped those verses into my mind. I was preoccupied with my thoughts and didn’t see where he disappeared to. However, a few days later as I walked into Nadi, I saw him in the distance on a barren hillside in the only patch of green anywhere in the vicinity. Even away in the distance, I could see a fine horse – he wasn’t a mule any more!
At the time, I was on a short term mission trip after a term at Faith Bible College in New Zealand. I was looking to the Lord about my future and this experience impacted me greatly. It was a tremendous encouragement. From time to time, the Lord has brought me back to these scriptures and now as we are looking to the Lord for the way forward with Biblical Health Care, I again find them both encouraging and challenging.
Bill Johnson in his book, “The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind” (page 82), said that we define understanding as “nothing more than cognitive reasoning, coming to conclusions, fully comprehending.” However, he says that from a Biblical worldview, “understanding is an experience. It means engaging in activities that involve our five senses…it means to practice in real life what one has come to know by revelation.”
This makes sense to me, as God has been revealing His heart for Biblical Health Care, we have been looking to transcribe this into clinical practice. We have come thus far but are so aware that God has a great deal more to reveal. It will take the dedication and commitment of all of those working on this around the world and the generations who follow to fully put this into practice and see health care transformed. It is daunting and only possible because God is in it.
I am reminded of the Israelites standing at the edge of the Red Sea, with the Egyptians closing in on them and no obvious escape route. God knew the way that they were to go (Ps 77:19), but they were oblivious to it until God made the way through the sea. At the Global Prayer Summit in Jerusalem in 2005, we prophetically walked through the sea to the Promised Land as the leaders stood on either side symbolizing the waters being held back.
Chris Steyn said that we would meet giants in the land but we needed to enter in. Just as the Israelites couldn’t have gone back because the Egyptians were there, we had no other way to go but forward because God has shown us that His plan is for Biblical Health Care, to bring back His Lordship and presence into health care.
Bill Johnson continues (Page 82-3), “To understand also means yielding to something before you can explain, define or describe it... A normal Christian is one who obeys the revelations and promptings of the Holy Spirit without understanding. Understanding usually unfolds in the experience.”
That passage gave me understanding as I have marveled at the commitment we feel to Biblical Health Care even though we struggle to “explain, define or describe it”! We have crossed through the sea or climbed the slippery, shaly hillside but haven’t as yet begun to take the Promised Land or reach the grassy field. However, we have sensed that God is already transforming us on the journey.
The way forward has to be on our knees in prayer. If we pray, God will facilitate our journey – there is no other way – we can’t proceed without Him. We need to pray specifically that God will impart His vision and calling to the next generation.
At Shalom there was a call for a commitment to prayer globally. Dr George Chandy (CEO of CMC in Vellore, India) called health workers to pray each day at the same time around the world (EST in Australia is 8.30pm for QLD, NSW, Victoria; 8.00 pm in SA & 6.30pm in the WA).
We are also linking with VO Cherian from HCF India who has been challenged by the Lord to begin a Global Prayer Network to see Biblical Health Care birthed. It is now possible to gather across the world in prayer online and it is time to do so. Please contact the HCIC office for information.
We intend to begin workshops on Biblical Health Care and will let you know when we are ready to do so. This newsletter contains reports of the conference at Shalom and we will continue to publish some of the proceedings in subsequent newsletters.
Arul Anketell in his welcome letter to the Shalom conference quoted,
Arul wrote, “Today the health fields have been infiltrated by a humanistic worldview. While we thank God for all the amazing advances in health care, we also lament the erosion of Biblical values and truths in health care. Millions of patients pass through our health care institutions. They need wholeness and Shalom that only Jesus Christ can give. Yet very few are genuine dispensers of this truth. Can we rise up like David with these words? Is there not a cause?”
Ros Curry
Health Care in Christ
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