God is the ultimate source for all healing
By Dr. Wade Lachman
By Dr. Wade Lachman
A few years ago, I came across a woman that was struggling with a
blood sugar imbalance that was increasing menopausal symptoms. As I
talked with her, I mentioned that I knew of some dynamic nutritional
and herbal approaches that could bring her system into balance. She
responded curiously saying that she only wanted God’s healing. She did
not want to take anything nutritionally or use any herbs because it
would take glory away from God. She was standing believing for a
miracle. This stand did not allow her to believe that God may heal her
with a natural substance. She believed that if she recovered by taking
an herb, created by God for healing and health, somehow that would
take glory away from the miraculous power of God to heal.
Scurvy, beriberi, and pellagra are deadly diseases in which people
prayed and prayed for God to intervene and heal. God may have
miraculously intervened to restore some, but His true answer came when
it was understood that these diseases, among many others, are caused
by nutritional (vitamin) deficiencies. Beriberi, for instance, is a
nervous system ailment caused by a deficiency of thiamine (vitamin B1)
in the diet.
Thiamine was first discovered as researchers were seeking a cure for
beriberi. We did not see much beriberi until the creation of white
bread. God included dynamic whole vitamin complexes and nutrients in
grains. However, we stripped away these nutrients from the grain
(mainly found in the germ and bran) when we created white bread. White
bread seemed wonderful because it looks nice and clean, has a longer
shelf life and can rise easily. Yet, it became deadly because it
lacked thiamine and other nutrients.
Than man in all his wisdom decided not to simply replace the bran and
germ, which would again provide the wonderful host of nutrients first
put into the grain by God, but rather to “enrich” it with a handful of
fragmented and isolated chemicals called vitamins. This did cure
beriberi, but white bread remained deficient, which gave rise to
Candida, yeast infections, diabetes, obesity and many degenerative
diseases.
The point is that God provided us wonderful nutritional cures and to
avoid a God-given answer while seeking a miracle is, in my opinion, to
hold Him in contempt.
Does God still perform miracles and instant healings? Indeed yes! I
have witnessed very dynamic and miraculous interventions. When I was
in my teens, I played bass in traveling Christian music group. After
one concert, we were all praying for people in the crowd and a young
girl came up to me and held up her finger that was covered with a
bloody gauze bandage. I asked what happened and she said that she
smashed it in a car door that afternoon. With the boldness and
arrogance of youth, I said, “God can heal that right now.” Inside my
head I was thinking, “I must be crazy.” I laid my hand on the finger
and prayed. After the prayer, I asked her to take off the bandage. Her
finger was totally cured without even the trace of a wound.
On another occasion, we prayed for a blind lady that had not seen for
over 20 years. She had come forward to receive prayer for her sight.
After we prayed, there was no change. As she was being lead back to
her seat, one of the guys I was with said, “I believe you will see
before you sit down.” Being the great man of faith that I was, I took
a step away from my friend to distance myself from either the
lightning that would fall from heaven and “smite” him, or the rocks
that was about to fly from the crowd as they throw us out for being
charlatans. When she was about one foot from her chair she screamed
that she could see, she could see her son for the first time in 20
years!
As a naturopath, I believe we should take the advice of Hippocrates,
the Father of modern medicine who said, “Let your food be your
medicine and your medicine your food.” It just makes sense to use diet
and lifestyle as the foundation of health.
The bible also mentions the use of food and herbs to enhance the
healing process. Paul encouraged Timothy to use wine for his stomach.
The alcohol in wine would increase hydrochloric acid thereby improving
digestion. Leah and Rachel used Mandrake plants (which specific herb
and its use is not fully known, though many believe that it increases
fertility).
Herbs are the highest quality foods available, which contain naturally
and harmoniously balanced vitamins, minerals and trace elements.
Herbal medicine is the most ancient form of health care known to
humankind.
The bible has many examples of herbal use, starting in Genesis
1:29-30: “And God said, ‘See, I have given you every herb that yields
seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit
yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the
earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the
earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for
food’, and it was so.” In Revelations 22:2 there is a tree (not a
pharmacy) that brings healing to the nations. My father is a
pharmacist and a believer. He always encourages people to use natural
and herbal remedies.
The body is designed to be healthy and self-healing. When the natural
state of health fails with the onset of disease, one of two events has
occurred. We have become deficient in essential resources necessary
for maintenance and protection, or we have accumulated excess toxins
and irritants.
God is the ultimate source for all healing, therefore let’s both pray
for the miraculous and make common sense health choices utilizing
natural the remedies He has provided.
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