This will possibly be the most controversial Health Tip of the 700+ Health Tips I have written in nearly 14 years. My reason for writing what I believe will be a controversial Health Tip was prompted by the poll that appeared on my Health Tip site during the month of June. The poll question was: “What Do You Think Offers The Best Hope In Dealing With Cancer?” Then followed six possible responses: (1) Changed diet and lifestyle (2) Prayer (3) Good doctors and cancer hospital (4) Chemo, radiation, and surgery (5) Health insurance (6) No idea Following are the results from the 1,930 people who took the poll:
- Changed diet and lifestyle (76% with 1,474 votes)
- Prayer (22% with 416 votes)
- No Idea (1% with 17 votes)
- Good doctors and cancer hospital (1% with 16 votes)
- Chemo, radiation, and surgery (less than 1% with 5 votes)
- Health Insurance (less than 1% with 2 votes)
Health Insurance
This was probably the most unexpected response. The huge hullabaloo for years has been regarding health insurance and the government's attempt to force everyone into a national health care insurance plan. Yet this poll regarding what offered the “best hope in dealing with cancer” revealed that having health insurance came in dead last with only 2 votes. Apparently the readers of this Health Tip do not believe having health insurance offers a lot of hope in overcoming cancer.Chemo, Radiation, and Surgery
These medical modalities which are paid for by health insurance didn’t fare much better than “Health Insurance” – only 5 votes. And like health insurance, our subscribers didn’t feel that “chemo, radiation, and surgery” offered a lot of hope in overcoming cancer, either.Good Doctors and Cancer Hospitals
This response with only 14 votes was barely enough votes to register 1%. Apparently very few subscribers to this Health Tip still believe doctors and hospitals provide the best hope when dealing with cancer.No Idea
The number of responses to this was no surprise to me with 14 votes and 1% the same response we got to “Good Doctors and Cancer Hospitals”. There is so much confusion out there today as to what one should do and what offers the best hope after a cancer diagnosis. One of the primary reasons I have dedicated so much of my life to writing these Health Tips is my burden to help people, especially God’s people, realize that there is a better way to deal with cancer, along with all other physical problems, than the “World’s way” of health insurance, doctors, hospitals, and the medical modalities of drugs, chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. I call this far better, alternative way of dealing with the physical needs of our glorious God-created bodies as “God's Way.” Interestingly, God's Way almost totally eliminates any need for the World’s Way of health insurance, hospitals, doctors, drugs, chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. It is interesting to note what the Bible has to say about the “World’s Way” in I Corinthians 3:19“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.”Another verse I find very interesting in this regard is found in Romans 12:2:
“And be not conformed to this world: 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.”And that leads me to the next response which many no doubt will find what I write surprising, and for some possibly upsetting...
Prayer
Prayer came in second as offering the best hope in dealing with cancer with 21% (359 votes). Indeed, there are many Bible verses that tell us that when we pray, God hears and answers our prayers:“And in all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” (Matthew 21:22)Does the “all things” in this verse mean prayers for healing?
“And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, HE HEARETH US: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.” (I John 5:14-15)Another verse which indicates God not only hears but answers prayers.
“Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up. . . “(James 5:14-15)The Reality... In most churches, requests for healing of physical problems is the dominant prayer request. I believe most readers will agree with this statement. Now I have a question for you: Do we ever see people for whom we pray not receive healing in response to prayer? The answer to that question brings me to the subject of this Health Tip. For nearly 20 years of my life I pastored Bible believing churches. I still believe that the Bible is the very word of God (II Timothy 3:16-17). I also believe that the God of the Bible is also a prayer-answering God. “Call unto me and I will answer thee . . .” (Jeremiah 33:3). As pastor of both large and small congregations, numerous people asked me to pray for their physical needs and problems or those of a loved one. Not only would I earnestly beseech God in prayer on their behalf for healing, but I would also share these prayer requests with the congregation. Sadly, there were numerous times when I and the congregation would pray for someone’s healing, especially someone with cancer, and yet in spite of all the prayers offered, the person did not receive healing, and I had to perform their funeral. I sadly recall a precious 23-year-old Christian mother with three children and a Godly husband who was diagnosed with cancer. Oh how we prayed, and yet she died after incredible amounts prayer and all the medical community could do for her. At the funeral I had the task of trying to comfort the bereaving friends and loved ones. I remember a little 12-year-old girl who had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. We prayed earnestly and sincerely for this young lady, yet to no avail. And once again I had to try and comfort friends and loved ones at her funeral. I remember praying along with millions around the world for John Rice and Bill Rice, two outstanding evangelists. They were seriously ill, yet they still died after abundant prayer for their healing. I remember all the prayers for Bob Jones Sr. regarding his senility, yet his mind continued to deteriorate after so many prayers. I remember while attending a Jack Hyles Preachers Conference, when on the last night of the conference Jack Hyles asked us to pray for Bob Hughes, a 45-year-old missionary to the Philippines, and pastor of a church of some 20,000. Bob had been diagnosed with cancer and given less than six months to live. That evening over 1,200 preachers got on their knees and prayed for this brother's healing. We were then admonished to take this prayer request for healing back to our churches. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Christians around the world prayed for Bob Hughes healing. Yet, HE DIED shortly thereafter.
Where Is God In Time Of Sickness
These and other examples of unanswered prayer for physical healing began to really bother and then upset me. I began to ask myself (and God), “Where is God in Time of Sickness?” At Age 42 I'm Told I Have Cancer The answer to “Where is God in Time of Sickness” did come. But first let me share some of the experiences that led to the answer: In 1976, while pastor of a very successful church in Glens Falls, New York, a church that had grown from just my family of six to over 600 members in six years, I was told I had colon cancer. Of course I prayed and the people in the church prayed. But instead of experiencing a miraculous healing in response to these prayers, these prayers led me to an evangelist in Texas by the name of Lester Roloff. Brother Roloff was known not only for his love for the Lord and for great preaching, but also for his attempts to get people, especially preachers, to change their diets. We used to call him affectionately “Ol' carrot juice Roloff.” Sadly, his health message was for the most part not only rejected by the majority of preachers in his day, but criticized, and he was encouraged to stick to the preaching of the Word and to stop meddling with the diet of others. I was not seeing healing of my cancer taking place as a result of prayer. Nor did I have faith in the medical community because my mother had previously died following years of medical treatments (I felt these treatments had ultimately caused her death). So, I made contact with brother Roloff and shared my concern regarding my cancer. Not wanting to end up like brother Hughes (and watch my ministry terminate at age 42), I was willing to seek counsel and wisdom from my elder brother in the faith concerning my cancer. What brother Roloff encouraged me to do was so simple — and as I have since learned — so profound. He encouraged me to not go the medical route with my cancer but rather to do something simple: change what I ate from the world’s meat-based, sugar-laden diet, to the diet God gave Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden over 6,000 years ago. The diet God articulates in Genesis 1:29. I made the diet change brother Roloff recommended overnight. Within days the rectal bleeding from my colon cancer had stopped. Within a year, my baseball-sized tumor under my left rib cage had disappeared... all without any medical intervention. My personal experience with cancer took place in 1976 at the age of 42. I am writing this Health Tip 35 years later, just two years shy of my 80th birthday. I am still alive and well on planet earth, extremely active, experiencing a healthy body and sound mind, still serving my Jesus, and trying to help others realize that they don’t have to be sick.Stay Tuned...
Next week, the good Lord willing and if the creeks don’t rise too high, I will share how God revealed to me the answer to: “Where is God in Time of Sickness?” I will share WHY, though we know we have a prayer-hearing God (John 5:14), often our prayers for healing of self, friends, or loved ones go unanswered. I pray that you will join us, because the information I share in next week’s Health Tip has the potential of possibly saving your life or that of a loved one.“Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up. . . “(James 5:14-15)
