How To Eliminate Prayer Requests For Sickness

Go into almost any church in America today, as well as most churches in other countries of the world, and you will find that they all have something in common – some 90% of all prayer requests are for healing! Why is this so and what can be done to improve these percentages? That’s what I want to share with you now. At the age of 42, following my personal healing of colon cancer in 1976 as a result of making simple diet and lifestyle changes, I began to contemplate how we could reduce the increasing number of prayer requests for healing that is occurring in our churches. When I allowed my mind to dwell on that subject, I began to get really excited. Instead of spending most of our prayer time praying for the sick, imagine if there were no sick people to pray for? If there were no sick people to pray for, we could spend our time praying for lost souls, our missionaries sharing the Gospel around the world, for our leaders both in our church and government, and for so many other important things. And can you imagine, instead of spending our monies on drugs, doctor visits, hospital bills, etc. (because there would be no sickness), we would have more money to give to support our church’s ministry and to send missionaries around the world, as well as helping our fellow man in time of need.

Why Most Prayer Requests in Our Churches Are for Healing

The answer to that question is a simple one. It’s because so many people are sick! But why are so many people sick? Yes, the spiritual Christian is just as sick as the not-so-spiritual Christian, and Christians, in general, are just as sick and suffering the same physical problems as non-Christians. Let’s go down that road for a few minutes and see if we can determinewhy. In I Thessalonians 5:23, the Apostle Paul admonishes the Thessalonian believers with these words:

“And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Is the Church Failing to Preach the Whole Counsel of God?

You can go into almost church today and hear messages pertaining to the soul and spirit of man, yet when was the last time you heard a message regarding how to properly care for and maintain the physical body which is the dwelling place of the soul and spirit? You can sit in almost any Sunday school class or listen to preaching from almost any church pew until the cows come home, and you will not hear a message on how to properly maintain the “temple” — the physical body of believers. And yet, there are numerous verses in the Bible that admonish us to take care of these temples. Let me share just a few:

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world (in how you take care of these “BODIES”); but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:1-2) “Know ye not that ye are (your body is) the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple (the physical body) of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple (Physical body) of God is holy, which temple ye are.” ” (I Corinthians 3:16-17) “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (I Corinthians 6:19-20)

Where Can We Place the Blame for All This Sickness

Hosea relays the very words of God, summing it up with these words:

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6)

The Apostle Paul admonishes young preacher Timothy with these words:

“I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom: Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.” (II Timothy 4:1-5)

What kind of an example was the Apostle Paul to young Timothy and, for that matter, all preachers today? I will allow the Apostle Paul to answer that question in his own words:

“For I have not shunned to declare unto you ALL the counsel of God.” (Acts 20:27)

I know a number of preachers who have, through the ministry of Hallelujah Acres, learned how to eliminate sickness through a simple diet and lifestyle change. Yet they, themselves, fail to practice what they have heard and learned, and also fail to communicate these truths to their congregation. In so doing, are they failing to declare all the counsel of God? God will not hold a believer or preacher accountable for what they do not know, but I believe He will hold all accountable for what they do know.

“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin” (James 4:17)

Although God does not hold us accountable for what we do not know, this doesn’t protect us from suffering the consequences of violating natural laws that God has established.

Why Prayers for Healing Go Unanswered

In Genesis 2:7, we learn that God created Adam

“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.”

The following verses tell us what God did next:

“And the Lord God planted a Garden eastward of Eden: and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for FOOD...” (Genesis 2:8)

And in Genesis 1:29 God tells Adam what foods he should eat in order to maintain the physical body that God had just created for him in health. It is in this verse that I believe God is telling every human born after Adam what was to be proper nourishment for his or her physical body. Notice carefully who spoke these words:

“And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb (vegetable) bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.”

Any good concordance will reveal that the word “meat” here should be translated as “food.” Clearly, all the nourishment God designed these physical bodies to be properly nourished with were to be found in His garden foods. That is all that Adam and Eve consumed during their Garden of Eden experience and continued to consume after they were expelled from it. In fact, there is nothing in Scripture to indicate that man consumed anything other than these garden foods for the next 1,700 years, right up until the flood. It is obvious from Scripture that all garden foods would have to have been destroyed by that flood:

“And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth, and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.” (Genesis 7:19)

With all garden foods temporarily covered with floodwater and dying, was man to die also due to the unavailability of garden foods? Or, did God have a plan to keep man alive through the flood? Obviously He did, and God’s plan for the temporary sustaining of physical life during this time of flood is revealed in the Bible where we read:

“Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.” (Genesis 9:3)

While man consumed exclusively garden foods, there is not a single recorded instance of sickness, and the average age of the patriarchs at their death was 912 years. Sadly, once man got the taste of flesh, he could not leave it alone, So man continued consuming animal flesh foods in ever greater quantities beyond the crisis time when plant foods were not available. And he has continued to do so until today when animal sourced foods have become the primary part of a meal. Many do not feel a meal is complete without some animal flesh being on the plate. But that wasn’t the end of man corrupting the diet God had given in Genesis 1:29! Man began to change almost everything God intended him to be nourished with and has replaced most of the natural foods God designed with canned, boxed, jarred, and processed “non-foods.” Living sugar cane, which contains its life force (enzymes), has been replaced by refined sugar, having no living enzymes. Living grains have been replaced by processed flour, having no living enzymes. Cooking (including most food processing) destroys all life force, yet man now cooks practically everything he eats, whether cooked at home or processed before buys it.

Our Bodies Are Living Organisms

Our physical bodies are living organisms, comprised of living cells, and designed by God to be nourished with living (raw) food! All cooked food is dead food – and dead food cannot properly nourish the living cells that comprise our living organism. As our forefathers began to leave the farm — where they ate primarily garden foods and gradually ate more processed foods and ever greater quantities of animal sourced foods — sickness increased exponentially. It is interesting to note that animals in the wild, whether they are carnivores or herbivores, continue to this very day consuming their food in its natural raw state as served up by nature. Isn’t it interesting that animals in the wild rarely get sick until, that is, they get domesticated? Domesticated dogs and cats that are fed processed, cooked foods from cans and boxes (devoid of life force) develop the same physical problems as humans: arthritis, cancer, cataracts, etc. Yet, these same animals, when pet owners restore their animals’ diet to one of unprocessed and raw food, usually recover from their physical problems – even cancers.

Natural Laws Cannot Be Violated Without Consequences

We are all bound by God’s natural laws, Christians and non-Christians. Consider the law of gravity. Whether a Christian or non-Christian jumps from a high point, the natural law will affect them equally. I believe that God gave mankind another law in Genesis 1:29, a law that pertains to what is proper nourishment for the human frame: The human body is designed to be nourished with living, plant-sourced foods… exclusively... period! If we violate His natural law, there is a penalty for that violation. It’s called sickness. Indeed, almost all of mankind is in violation! The violation of God’s natural law is why Christians are just as sick as non-Christians. Interestingly, whether a Christian or non-Christian begins to observe this natural law and returns to a 100%, primarily raw, plant-based diet, most experience a restoration of their health. Could all of the prayer requests for physical healing in our churches be because we have been reaping what we have been sowing? I personally believe that is so. I find that most Christians who consume the Standard American Diet (SAD) — a diet that has perverted God’s original living, plant-based diet — get sick, while those who return to God’s original, primarily raw, plant-based diet restore their health... even without prayer. Violating God’s natural laws has consequences, and these consequences are seldom overcome with prayer!

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man (or women) soweth, that shall he (or she) also reap.” (Galatians 6:7)