“God blessed them & said to them, be fruitful, multiply, & fill the earth, & subdue it [using all its vast resources in the service of God & man]; & have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, & over every living creature that moves upon the earth.” Gen 1:38 AMP
Ken and Ros Curry of Health Care in Christ report:
During the past months the Lord has spoken very clearly that we are to press in & continue looking to Him for the transformation of health care.
Our western worldview struggles with the concept of transformation because we don’t rightly discern the Kingdom of God in our midst & we have put aside the creation mandate to fill all things & subdue it. Health care is positioned in the spheres of creation in an amazing way as it is founded on the healing work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The city of health care is an integral part of His Kingdom & we need to work towards affirming & reinstating His Lordship to see Him glorified in & through it.
What happens in transformation is up to Him as He is Lord. We don’t really know what to expect but we may see many saved & healed; we may receive amazing revelation about the prevention & treatment of disease & see the dead raised to life. Miracles of healing are occurring now although they are usually not acknowledged as such.
Although we are not yet seeing transformation, Godly change is occurring in health care. Ken’s article in this newsletter documents the growing acceptance of the relevance of spirituality in health care, which is evidence of this. Ever since the enlightenment when science & spirituality were divorced from one another, there has been a coldness in health care to spiritual things. From the 70’s on, we saw the new age have increasing influence in health care but the door remained closed to Christianity. However, there is now a growing awareness of the benefits of looking at spiritual aspects for our patients & the clinician. It is opening the door for us to discuss spiritual things with our patients.
The term, spirituality, is often looked at with suspicion by many Christians. The ABC program, Compass, recently had 2 programs on faith-to-faith dialogue, which promotes acceptance & incorporation of other forms of religion. This universalistic approach that all roads lead to god is gaining acceptance in some parts of the church & reminds me that even the elect will be lured away in the times that we are living in.
However, acceptance of the relevance of spirituality in health care is something that we have been looking & praying for. It allows us to discuss spiritual things with our patients from an evidence based platform. It is an open door for Biblical health care.
God is also leading clinicians to adopt Biblical principles in their practice & workplace. Chris Hayes has been applying principles of Biblical health care to the management of chronic pain. His article is a discussion of his contribution to the Shalom conference at Vellore.
The Lord reminded us recently that this new ‘door’ is only influencing health care in the western world. Nations that have a non-western worldview, which is closer to a Biblical worldview, already enjoy an ‘open door’. A friend from PNG told us of the church that he has established in his ward. He preaches every Monday morning & leads many of his patients to Christ. He says that the environment in the ward is different to other wards & they experience fewer untimely deaths. They are very aware of the spiritual warfare in their workplaces & that God is at work in their midst.
Let us continue to pray that His name will be exalted & His power released in the health systems of our nation & the world.
“Seek the peace & prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” Jer 29:7
Ken and Ros Curry
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