Will Thou Be Made Whole? Part I

One concept that is essential to the principles of health is the intimate relationship between the spiritual and the physical. Those who are in medical missionary work need to understand this.

Owner’s Manual

The Bible is the greatest medical book that has ever been written. “Know ye that the Lord he is God: [it is] he [that] hath made us, and not we ourselves; [we are] his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” Psalm 100:3. There are two schools of thought in this world upon which hinge all other philosophies, thinking, and modalities—either creation or evolution. We believe that there is a Creator God. At the same time, since we believe that God is the author, the manufacturer, the producer, and the inventor of this fearfully and wonderfully made body of ours, then we realize also that He has given us an owner’s manual.

Every automobile that comes off the industrial line contains an owner’s manual. Would you think it logical for the Ford manufacturers to ask General Electric to produce the owner’s manuals for their automobiles? No, because General Electric did not make the product. The one who made the product is more knowledgeable about the product than anyone else. So if your car broke down, you would not consult General Electric. The same logic applies with the body. Since God made the body, He knows more about the body than anyone on the face of the earth. Those with whom He entrusted gifts of ministry should get their direction from Him.

Do you trust the preacher or anyone else with your salvation? No. So why should you trust anyone else with your health? Even though God raises up men and women to preach, to do Bible work, and to work in the medical field, He has not given them authority, absolute power, over you. We have a personal responsibility for our own lives. God has given us an owner’s manual. Its purpose is to give us instruction on how to operate the product—even how to troubleshoot the product if something happens.

Read the Instructions

Before I became a Christian, the hardest thing I had ever done was learning how to dribble a basketball. I did not know how to use a hammer; I thought beans grew in a can, until God thrust me into this work, out in the country. Then I told my wife that we were going to build a house. She looked at me like I was crazy, because we had never done anything like that before.

Once we built our house, I began to learn a little bit about electricity. I did not know too much, but I began to install some electrical apparatus. This particular product had an instruction sheet with numbered steps. I assumed that I knew how to put a red wire with a red wire, so I saw no need to read the instructions. I thought I did not have time to go through all of the fine print, and that I was intelligent enough to put it together, until I began to blow out circuit breakers and so forth. There is an old saying, “When all else fails, read the instructions.”

We have tried everything else, except God. God has given us an owner’s manual, and in that manual He has given us some very basic instructions. “Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments.” Psalm 119:73. It is one thing to have knowledge, but we also need understanding—the ability to apply what we know. Sometimes we get a lot of knowledge, but we become spiritually constipated. We get overloaded, and we are not able to share that which we have received. Once we get knowledge, we need to learn how to make the right application of that which we have received. If we do not do that, it is all wasted.

God has given us principles, laws, and with those He wants to give us understanding. These principles are trust, air, exercise, sunshine, rest, water, temperance, and nutrition. All of these anyone in this world can afford. They are so simple that we do not see their impact. In my 25 years as a medical missionary, these principles have been all that I use.

As Thy Soul Prospereth

There is a favorite text of many Christians that is quite significant. It says, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” 111 John 2. Notice the phrase, “even as.” What does that mean? It means to the same extent, proportionate. That text tells us that, as we grow spiritually, our physical awareness and willingness to preserve the integrity of these bodies will develop proportionately. No one who walks in the Christian life and grows in grace will neglect the house that God built for the dwelling of His Holy Spirit. If we say we are spiritual yet we are not conscious of our health and the house in which we live, then there is something wrong with our spirituality. This text tells us that, as we learn to know God, we will become more conscientious about our bodies. Health is not an option; it is an integral part of our walk with Jesus. Keeping the Sabbath, eating the right things, drinking the right things, or wearing the right clothes will not save us, but these are evidences of our love for Jesus, of our relationship with God. If anyone says that health is just a matter of fact, something is wrong with his or her spiritual barometer!

Mental, Spiritual, Physical

You cannot separate the gospel from the health message. No ministry or church can be successful without the health message. The health message does not take the place of the gospel. It is the very means by which the gospel finds entrance into the heart. God wants us to become awakened to this health message. The Bible tells us that since we grow spiritually and our health grows proportionately, then we need to know what God wants us to be like.

God took dirt, and He exalted that dirt by making it into His image. From that dirt He formed a man into a specimen of Himself. We are nothing but dirt, but we have been exalted by God’s grace. With the molecules and the atoms that God placed into the earth, He constructed a house. “And the Lord God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Genesis 2:7. Man is made up of three aspects: mental, spiritual, and physical. The social and emotional are inclusive in those three aspects.

Made Whole

Do you want to be made whole? That sounds very inviting. The Bible says, “There was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep [market] a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time [in that case], he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?” John 5:1–6.

What does it mean to be made whole? The Bible answers that question: “[Jesus] saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Mark 2:17. Wholeness is the very opposite of being sick. This wholeness not only involves the physical aspect, but the spiritual, because Jesus is associating repentance with wholeness. Most medical missionaries focus primarily on the physical, but no one can be physically well unless they realize what Jesus is saying in Mark and in Deuteronomy 6:5: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart [that is mental], and with all thy soul [that is spiritual], and with all thy might [that is physical].” Again the Bible validates that man is physical, mental, and spiritual.

We can define whole as being complete, entire, and total. The word salvation means to save—to preserve from destruction, to heal. “That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.” Psalm 67:2. To heal, to make whole—Christ came to restore the whole person.

The Blueprint

There is a wonderful book that transformed my life 25 years ago, before I even knew who wrote it. Some of you are familiar with the book—it is called The Ministry of Healing. Another title for it is Health and Happiness. If you do not have the book, please get it. If you have it, blow the dust off of it and read and study it. It is the blueprint. Inspiration says that that book contains the wisdom of the Great Physician. (See Testimonies, vol. 9, 71.) On the very first page of the very first chapter in that book, we are given our example. Christ came to restore the whole man, to bring him health, to bring him peace, and to bring him a moral regeneration. Christ came to restore the whole person.

Whole or Holistic

“They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” Matthew 9:12. Again Jesus raises the question, wilt thou be made whole? True health is wholeness. The New Age community uses the word wholeness too—they say holistic. The devil does not come up with anything original; he always counterfeits. He speaks enough truth mixed with his error to make it all error. In the New Age philosophy, we find that they believe man is a unity, that he is departmentalized—his spirit is over here, his mind is over there, and his body is somewhere else. God says man is not a unity, man is a unit; he is complete.

If the world has mental problems, they consult a psychiatrist. When a person is physically sick, they see a physician. When they have a spiritual problem, they go to a preacher for counsel. We know, in a general sense, people trust their minds to psychiatrists, their bodies to physicians, and their spirituality to preachers. Do these professionals agree with one another? No, not usually. That is why people are still sick, because they put their minds in one area, their bodies in another, and their spiritual lives in another. The doctor does not agree with the preacher, and the preacher does not agree with the doctor; the psychiatrist does not agree with either one—and we wonder why we are still incomplete.

A true minister will be a medical missionary. A true physician will be a preacher. “The minister will often be called upon to act the part of a physician. He should have a training that will enable him to administer the simpler remedies for the relief of suffering. Ministers and Bible workers should prepare themselves for this line of work; for in doing it, they are following the example of Christ. They should be as well prepared by education and practice to combat disease of the body as they are to heal the sin-sick soul by pointing to the great Physician.” Medical Ministry, 253. “The presenting of Bible principles by an intelligent physician will have great weight with many people. There is efficiency and power with one who can combine in his influence the work of a physician and of a gospel minister. His work commends itself to the good judgment of the people.” Counsels on Health, 546. Any preacher who is not a medical missionary cannot be as effective as he should, and a physician who incorporates the gospel in his work is more effective than without it.

Do you think that God would lead me to give you a Bible study only, when you are sitting there with a headache, or with tumors? No! Jesus is the primary example. His ministry was more involved with teaching and healing than with preaching. Preaching is only the beginning for a minister. His work is outside of the pulpit; it is with the people; it is in their homes. Jesus is our example.

Humanism

Let us return to the pool of Bethesda (John 5). Here was a pool of water with impotent folk lying around it. Think of yourself in this position. You are lying beside this pool with a debilitating disease, and you know that if you get into that pool you might be healed, if you are first once the angel stirs the water. If that were a reality, would you do it? Yes, many of you would. So if there were 1,000 people around that pool, it would mean that only the strongest survived. Because we are so desperate, when we take our eyes off of Jesus, the world presents something that we think is better. The pool of Bethesda is what I call the pool of human philosophy and the pool of human message.

Humanism leads us to believe that we can solve our own problems. We go to human beings; we can solve our financial problems; we can solve our marriage problems; and when we have children who are going astray, we do everything we can to try to solve their problems. We cry; we weep; and we wonder what we have done to fail them, instead of trusting them to the Lord. Wipe those tears away. If you have given them to God, He knows how to care for them. He had a child who went wild, so God can relate to us. The pool of Bethesda is humanism—trusting in self, trusting in man, trusting in man’s inventions.

The Bible tells us, “For thus saith the Lord, Thy bruise [is] incurable, [and] thy wound [is] grievous. [There is] none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing medicines.” Jeremiah 30:12, 13. Man has no healing medicines; even in the medical field there are no healing medicines. The medicines may give some temporary relief, but there is no true, healing medicine.

At our lifestyle center in Tennessee, the majority of our guests are cancer cases. Prior to a recent session, a friend of mine was desperate to attend. Over a year before she had been diagnosed with cancer. She had had a year to come to the lifestyle center, but she chose not to come; she decided to go the traditional medicine route. Yes, sometimes surgery might be necessary, but she went through chemotherapy and radiation, and now she was dying and wanting to come to the center. If we do not seek God, before we take human action, things do not work out; then we want God to perform a miracle for us. If He does not perform a miracle, then we say that His Plan did not work. There are no healing medicines.

“The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black;”—He is touched with the infirmities of every suffering soul—“astonishment hath taken hold on me. [Is there] no balm in Gilead; [is there] no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?” Jeremiah 8:20–22.

God Heals

Who makes you whole? “Peter said unto him, Aeneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole.” Acts 9:34. “I [am] the Lord that healeth thee.” Exodus 15:26. Keep this in mind, no matter what—God is the one who heals you.

I used to be a professional athlete. God had to get my attention, because I would not listen to Him, so He allowed King Arthur to rule my life. King Arthur is arthritis. I was diagnosed at the age of 17, and it lasted until I was 27. It ruined my career, but it kept me out of the United States Army during the Vietnam War, for which I am eternally grateful. I could not have lasted a week in boot camp. My knees and joints were so bad, even steroids did not work anymore, and I began to take street drugs just so I could continue playing basketball.

My team physician looked in my eyes and said, “Tom, you are a good basketball player, but you will never be able to overcome arthritis.” He was a medical doctor, so I accepted what he said. He told me, “You are going to be on drugs the rest of your life.” He also told me there was no known cause for it. As I look back on this I ask, How do you prescribe a remedy for something you do not understand? Sometimes the remedy is worse than the cure.

Different Team

But God got my attention, and He told me He wanted me to trade my basketball for a Bible. Instead of going down the hardwood court, He coached me to go up and down the earth court, to be on a team that will never lose. For 25 years I have been on that team, and I have the best Coach. The pay is wonderful, and the retirement plan is out of this world.

When I picked up the Word of God, I was not a Christian. I grew up in a single-parent Baptist home; and I had a very loving, Christian mother who instilled biblical principles in me. “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6. The child may go out of the way, but when he is old, he will return. My mother saw her youngest child return back to the Lord. I am 54 years of age; it has been 27 years, and I have no traces of arthritis. I realized that it was Jesus who had the answer to every disease, to every cause, when man did not know. I went first to the Word of God.

“And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and [I pray God] your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23. What does that say? Spirit, soul, and body. When we are talking about holy flesh, about this flesh becoming perfect, we are talking about this body becoming a fit vessel so that it can run the race. We are not going to get new bodies until Christ breaks the clouds of glory, but at the same time, that final church, the 144,000, will be health reformers. Each one of us has the privilege to be part of that elite group, whether we are young or old. God’s grace is sufficient. God said, “As thy days, [so shall] thy strength [be].” Deuteronomy 33:25.

No Healthy Sinners

Man is made up of three aspects—mental, physical, and spiritual. Jesus asks, “Wilt thou be made whole?” We cannot enjoy true physical health without mental and spiritual health. Many medical missionaries might do a little praying and talk a little about Jesus, enough to say they are Christians, but their whole focus is on the physical. Why is it that a man will gain the whole world and lose his soul? Why is it that a man can be healed of cancer of the body but still have cancer of the soul, so he dies, to just die again? God is not in the business of producing healthy sinners. I am not in the business, as a medical missionary, to get you well so that you can turn a gun on me. My point is this: The business of a medical missionary is to prepare people for eternity, and a Christian should not fear dying. If I have cancer, I am going to go God’s way, and if I die with cancer in the Lord, I have been victorious, because healing continues in the resurrection. If my focus is only on giving the person the physical therapy apart from the spiritual and mental, I have done nothing but contribute to Satan’s army.

Only God can teach us His true message. I thank God for the way that He led me. Before I read any other man’s book on health, I read the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy. I challenge every medical missionary to spend more time studying the principles from the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy, for then you have a barometer by which to interpret or decipher all of the other things that you read from other books. I challenge every medical missionary to go back to the Manual.

To be continued . . .

Thomas Jackson is a health evangelist and Director of Missionary Education and Evangelistic Training (M.E.E.T.) Ministry in Huntingdon, Tennessee. He may be contacted by e-mail at godsplan@meetministry.org or by telephone at 731-986-3518.

Wilt Thou be Made Whole? Part II

Recently someone asked me about a book which promotes that the ability of our body to absorb different foods and handle stress is dependent on our blood type. For instance, the book says things like if your blood type is “B” you cannot be a vegetarian because you have to have beef. People actually buy into that stuff!

The Lord’s messenger, Ellen White, wrote: “While we do not make the use of flesh-meat a test, while we do not want to force anyone to give up its use, . . . if in the face of the light God has given concerning the effect of meat eating on the system, you will still continue to eat meat, you must bear the consequences. . . . The Lord is calling for reform.” Medical Ministry, 279.

She also counseled that “The system must be nourished. Yet we do not hesitate to say that flesh-meat is not necessary for health or strength. If used it is because a depraved appetite craves it. Its use excites the animal propensities to increased activity, and strengthens the animal passions. When the animal propensities are increased, the intellectual and moral powers are decreased. The use of the flesh of animals tends to cause a grossness of body and benumbs the fine sensibilities of the mind. . . . The intellectual, the moral, and the physical powers are depreciated by the habitual use of flesh-meats. Meat-eating deranges the system, beclouds the intellect, and blunts the moral sensibilities. We say to you, dear brother and sister, your safest course is to let meat alone.” Testimonies, vol. 2, 63, 64.

Then people read another book, Fit for Life (Harvey and Marilyn Diamond, Mass Market Paperback, February 1987), that says you do not need to eat breakfast, you can just drink fruit juice. But the Spirit of Prophecy says that we need to eat breakfast: “It is the custom and order of society to take a slight breakfast. But this is not the best way to treat the stomach. At breakfast time the stomach is in a better condition to take care of more food than at the second or third meal of the day. The habit of eating a sparing breakfast and a large dinner is wrong. Make your breakfast correspond more nearly to the heartiest meal of the day.” Counsels on Diet and Foods, 173.

People believe the secular writers, so they add barley green (which is good) in the juice in the morning, eat a salad for lunch, and ingest a heavy meal in the evening, because that is what some nutritionists and doctors say to do.

Use the Manual

Many people on a juice diet have told me they will be on it for life. They may be diabetic, have cancer, or suffer from another malady. I could give case after case, testimony after testimony, contradicting such a diet, but what does the Word say? We must have a barometer to interpret everything we read. I have hundreds of books, but I know what is right because of the Bible—to the law and to the testimony. If you have never read the law and the testimony, you will buy into everything.

I challenge every medical missionary to go back to the Manual [the Bible]. I deal with Adventists who are off into all kinds of modalities such as acupuncture, reflexology, crystals, and iridology. They claim these things work. The devil believes also; he works and performs miracles too. “Satan is working with everyone who is not under the control of the Spirit of God. It is the lying wonders of the devil that will take the world captive . . . . He is to work miracles; and this wonderful, miracle-working power is to sweep in the whole world. It is now just beginning.” Selected Messages, Book 2, 51.

How are you going to know what is what unless you know the Word of God? Show me iridology in the Bible . . . it is not there. Be straight, be plain. Anything that is mysterious is not of God. God’s Plan is simple. He takes the simple things to confound the wisdom of the world. One rock felled Goliath; eleven unlearned men turned the world upside down.

Faith is Vital

Jesus says, “And He entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into his own city. And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.” “But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.” Matthew 9:1, 2, 6. Jesus first said, “Son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven.” Then He said, “Arise, take up thy bed, and go into thine house.” As Jesus healed, He included the three aspects of mental, spiritual, and physical.

Notice in verse 2 it says, “Seeing their faith.” Whose faith?—when Jesus saw the faith of those who had brought him! Ellen White tells us that we should speak of such faith to those in our care: “You can speak often to the sick of the Great Physician who can heal the diseases of the body as verily as He heals the sickness of the soul. Pray with the sick, and try to lead them to see in Christ their Healer. Tell them that if they will look to Him in faith, He will say to them, ‘Thy sins be forgiven thee.’ It means very much to the sick to learn this lesson.” Medical Ministry, 196, 197. [Emphasis supplied.]

The story is repeated in Mark 2 with more details: Jesus was in a place where there was no room for a sick man to get to Him. This man had four friends who knew that Jesus was the Chief Physician, but they could not get their friend near Jesus. What did they do? They climbed up on the roof and tore open a hole! They actually removed the roof to let their sick friend down into the room where Jesus was. The roof was separating the Saviour from them. Are there any roofs in your life that are separating you from the Saviour? If so, you need to tear them out!

When Jesus saw the young man with palsy, and He saw their faith, He said, “Son, thy sins are forgiven thee.” (Verse 5.) What do those words mean to you and me? Does it mean that we can bear someone up in the arms of our faith to give Christ access to their hearts? Yes, it does. We can bear our children up; we can bear our spouses up; we can bear the church up; and we can bear souls up in our faith! That is why we must be sure that our faith is not spotted with the world. We want to be sure that when we pray to our heavenly Father that our prayers do not go up to the ceiling and drop back down. That is why we do not want to regard any iniquity in our hearts. “If we regard iniquity in our hearts the Lord will not hear us. He can do what He will with His own. He will glorify Himself by working in and through them who wholly follow Him so that it shall be known that it is the Lord, and that their works are wrought in God.” Counsels on Health, 378. “If we regard iniquity in our hearts, if we cling to any known sin, the Lord will not hear us; but the prayer of the penitent, contrite soul is always accepted. When all known wrongs are righted, we may believe that God will answer our petitions.” Steps to Christ, 95.

That is why I want to walk the talk. I deal with too many suffering people, and I want God to hear my prayer in behalf of those souls. I want God to access their lives through my faith.

If you have faith, God can touch someone’s life. That is what these Scripture passages are telling us. They also show us that mental healing precedes physical healing.

Be of Good Cheer

As soon as we are diagnosed with a dreaded disease, such as cancer, the mind begins to go through depression. It shuts down. But Christ repeatedly exhorts us to be of good cheer: “Be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.” Matthew 9:2. “Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.” Matthew 14:27; Mark 6:50. “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33. The opposite of good cheer is fear. Fear occurs when false evidence appears real. Some of us handle problems by faith, with good cheer. Others handle problems with fear. God says that perfect love casts out that fear. When we can rise above the fear, we can live. “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:18.

The Bible goes on to tell us that in Him we can have peace. John 16:33 says, “In the world ye shall have tribulation.” We must come to the conclusion, as a Christian, that we are going to have trouble. Once we resolve that we are going to have trouble, we do not have to focus on it anymore. Man is born into trouble. Do not worry; do not dwell on it; do not look for it; know it is there—it is going to come. We might have financial trouble, children problems, sickness problems, but do not worry about them, because God says, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome.” Ibid.

Ellen White wrote that “there are many who desire to love and serve God, and yet when affliction comes upon them, they do not discern the love of God in it, but the hand of the enemy. They mourn and murmur and complain; but this is not the fruit of love to God in the soul. If we have perfect love, we shall know that God is not seeking to injure us, but that in the midst of trials, and griefs, and pains, He is seeking to make us perfect, and to test the quality of our faith. When we cease to worry about the future, and begin to believe that God loves us, and means to do us good, we shall trust Him as a child trusts a loving parent. Then our troubles and torments will disappear, and our will will be swallowed up in the will of God.” Sons and Daughters of God, 193.

Shift Your Focus

Once we shift our focus from the trouble to the solution, then we can go on to live the Christian life.

The biggest challenge in dealing with sick people is to help them shift their focus from their sickness to the Healer. If a person wants to lose weight, all they do is focus on losing weight. Stop dwelling on losing weight, dwell on being healthy. Stop dwelling on gaining weight, dwell on being healthy. Stop dwelling on diabetes, dwell on being healthy. Stop dwelling on the problem! If we will do that, watch the endorphins start kicking in; watch the immune system boost up. Our biggest challenge is to stop dwelling on the negative circumstances.

“The mind will strengthen by dwelling upon elevating subjects. If trained to run in the channel of purity and holiness, it will become healthy and vigorous. If trained to dwell upon spiritual themes, it will naturally take that turn. But this attraction of the thoughts to heavenly things cannot be gained without the exercise of faith in God and an earnest, humble reliance upon Him for that strength and grace which will be sufficient for every emergency.” Testimonies, vol. 2, 408. We should understand “how closely body and mind are related and show the need of keeping both in the very best condition.” Medical Ministry, 263.

Body and Mind Relationship

“The relation that exists between the mind and the body is very intimate. When one is affected, the other sympathizes. The condition of the mind affects the health to a far greater degree than many realize.” The Ministry of Healing, 241. Have you ever gotten up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, without a light on, and stubbed your big toe on an object? The brain begins to tell the mouth to say, Ouch! The brain says, Hand, grab that toe. Have you ever had that experience? The reaction is automatic! When one is affected the other sympathizes. Therefore, we find that the condition of the mind affects the health to a far greater degree than many realize. “Many of the diseases from which men suffer are the result of mental depression.” Ibid.

When we were in Thailand, we had one stop on our way to another meeting, and I picked up a newspaper to take on the plane with me. An article in this paper stated that 50 percent of the people in Bangkok suffer from mental depression. If we add together the populations of New York City and Los Angeles and multiply that number by 1,000, we would have the population of Bangkok. The reasons they are mentally depressed are the traffic, the noise, the pollution, and the economics. Fifty percent! One out of every five Americans are suffering from depression. Even those of God’s professed people suffer from depression.

Inspiration continues, “Grief, anxiety, discontent, remorse, guilt, distrust, all tend to break down the life forces and to invite decay and death.” Ibid. “Doubt, perplexity, and excessive grief often sap the vital forces and induce nervous diseases of a most debilitating and distressing character.” Healthful Living, 48. God did not say it is a sin to go through these emotions, but He does say that if we continue under their burden it is going to wipe out our vital force. Such a thing could happen even to someone like Elijah, a mighty prophet of God. “In the desert, in loneliness and discouragement [after his mountaintop experience on Mt. Carmel], Elijah had said that he had had enough of life and had prayed that he might die. But the Lord in His mercy had not taken him at his word. There was yet a great work for Elijah to do.” Prophets and Kings, 228. Was he depressed? Yes, he was. But God had not forsaken him; He said, What doest thou here? What are you doing under this depression? Instead of being under the circumstances, you need to be master of the circumstances. Elijah’s “petulance was silenced, his spirit softened and subdued. He now knew that a quiet trust, a firm reliance on God, would ever find for him a present help in time of need.” Review and Herald, October 23, 1913.

Jesus was not a depressed man, but depression shrouded Him in Gethsemane—so much so that He sweat great drops of blood. (Luke 22:44.) But Jesus looked through that depressed moment and saw the glory of His Father.

Grief, emotional suffering, disaster, unfortunate outcomes, anxiety, if any of these are chronically part of your life, wearing out your mental, spiritual, and physical vital force, look to Jesus. You cannot get physically well unless you hear Him say, “Be of good cheer.” God’s grace is sufficient.

These mental states can affect the whole body, but God wants us to be on top of the circumstances. He does not want us to carry the world on our shoulders—the whole world is in His hands. The mind has a definite affect upon the body. God has given us the mechanism—the biological and physiological mechanism—to deal with emergency situations short term. Heart rate accelerates, breathing increases, blood vessels constrict, fats are dumped off into the body—this gives us the fight or flight syndrome. That is all right in an emergency. But if it continues two days, three days, weeks, months, and years, it would have a devastating impact upon us.

Attitude of Gratitude

Emotional distresses can cause any disease, but God has the whole world in His hands. Courage, hope, faith, sympathy, and love promote a long life. A contented, cheerful spirit is health to the body and strength to the soul. “A merry heart doeth good [like] a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.” Proverbs 17:22. So if a merry heart does good like a medicine and a broken spirit dries the bones, that means that when we have an attitude of gratitude the immune system is strengthened. Every time we praise God, every time we count our blessings it has a physiological effect on us. Let us praise God! Let us think of His goodness.

One day take a sheet of paper; draw a straight line down the middle, and on one side list all of your blessings and on the other all of your curses. I will guarantee that your blessings will out-weigh your curses. God is good.

“How often those who are in health forget the wonderful mercies that are continued to them day by day, year after year. They render no tribute of praise to God for all His benefits. But when sickness comes, God is remembered. The strong desire for recovery leads to earnest prayer, and this is right. God is our refuge in sickness as in health. But many do not leave their cases with Him; they encourage weakness and disease by worrying about themselves. If they would cease repining and rise above depression and gloom, their recovery would be more sure. They should remember with gratitude how long they enjoyed the blessing of health; and should this precious boon be restored to them, they should not forget that they are under renewed obligations to their Creator. When the ten lepers were healed, only one returned to find Jesus and give Him glory. Let us not be like the unthinking nine whose hearts were untouched by the mercy of God.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 315.

Wilt thou be made whole? Physical healing follows mental and spiritual healing. I pray that God gives you this healing; and may you shift your focus from your problems to the solutions and connect with Jesus. Do not just get theoretical knowledge, but obtain an understanding of how to apply the grace of God to your life so you can enjoy true health and happiness.

Thomas Jackson is a health evangelist and Director of Missionary Education and Evangelistic Training (M.E.E.T.) Ministry in Huntingdon, Tennessee. He may be contacted by e-mail at: godsplan@meetministry.org or by telephone at: 731-986-3518.