There is great wisdom in this current article from Ben Peters for the Body of Christ.
Yes, God always want to heal us, His Body, so that we can be made whole and do the greater works Jesus set before us.
If you want to learn how to experience healing and wholeness, and corporately, too, I encourage you to really dig into this article from Ben Peters and receive the revelation he offers to us today. (To Subscribe to the Elijah List subscribe here.)
This past August, God gave me an unusual prophetic message just before being called up to speak to a hungry group of Believers in Calgary, Canada. The unusual word God gave me for the Saturday afternoon service was "Holistic Health," and I knew He was talking about the Body of Christ. I knew only a little about natural holistic health, so I checked the internet for more detail. Here's one explanation from WebMD:
"Holistic medicine practitioners believe that the whole person is made up of interdependent parts and if one part is not working properly, all the other parts will be affected. In this way, if people have imbalances (physical, emotional, or spiritual) in their lives, it can negatively affect their overall health. A holistic doctor may use all forms of health care, from conventional medication to alternative therapies, to treat a patient."
The Holistic Approach
Then God spoke to me, "The Church needs to take a holistic approach to the health and healing of My Body on the earth, and I am raising up leaders who will understand and implement these truths and applications to prepare for My great harvest, which will be funded by a great transfer of wealth.
"I will not allow past and present deceptions and distractions to keep My people from experiencing the total health I wish to bring to them as members of My Body in these days of harvest." (Photo via Unsplash)
That word was a big "WOW!" to me. What would that look like? The more I meditated on the subject, the more excited I got about it. Looking at the above definition, I was reminded of Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 12 about the Body of Christ and how interdependent we all are on one another, and how "when one member suffers, we all suffer" (1 Corinthians 12:26). Thus, I knew God was confirming this prophetic word.
In natural medicine, we have General Practitioners and we have specialists for every aspect of health. The GPs, as they are called, are the doctors we visit first when we have a health issue. If it's not a simple fix, they refer us to a specialist.
On the other hand, the holistic doctor will investigate other aspects of our health, such as nutritional deficiencies, lack of sleep or exercise, stress from relationships or careers, psychological issues from our past, environmental factors, guilt or loneliness, etc. He or she will then potentially recommend various lifestyle changes, including diet and exercise and nutritional supplements and/or specialized counseling, etc.
The problem with the non-holistic approach is that we often are just given medicine to treat specific symptoms without ever discovering the root cause of the condition. The drugs then can cause other long-term health issues because they can affect our chemical balance.
Taking Paul's illustration of the Body with many members, each of us being one member, let's compare the ministry leader usually called "Pastor" with the General Practitioner. The Specialists could be marriage counselors, inner healing practitioners, deliverance ministries, etc. Thus, if a member of the Body of Christ has a problem, the pastor will try to bring healing to that problem. If it's too deep a problem, he will send him or her to a professional Christian counselor or an inner healing or deliverance specialist.
The "Holistic Approach," on the other hand, looks at the whole Body; the overall health of the Body, soul and spirit. This is where God is shifting our mode of operation. (Photo via Unsplash)
In the past, we have had very few "Holistic Healers" in the Body of Christ, but today, God is raising up many strong ministries who are looking at the bigger picture and seeing the whole Body of Christ and its needs. Whereas pastors and other ministry leaders are focused on their many local responsibilities and goals; they don't always have a passion or a call for the larger community of Believers in their city or region. But God is orchestrating a convergence of apostolic and prophetic leaders who are administrating the holistic healing of the Body of Christ.
Many influential Kingdom leaders are breaking down denominational walls and calling for deeper intimacy with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They are networking and praying together and holding huge gatherings to pray for national and international revival. They are calling for repentance for national sins against minorities and native people groups. They are repenting for religious pride and prejudice. They are repenting for apathy, materialism and lukewarmness. Huge crowds are filling stadiums in agreement with their calls for repentance and revival.
At the same time, as the larger gatherings are happening, thousands of smaller groups are meeting in homes and houses of prayer to pray for the same things. We are personally experiencing people gathering together to receive the passion of the heart of God as He expresses His love for His Body and His desire to see it revived.
"Many Shall Run to and fro"
Using electronic media as well as traditional communication methods, other powerful ministries are being raised up by God to spread prophetic words and encouraging news to millions throughout the nations of the world. All of these non-traditional Christian ministries are playing a wonderful role in providing holistic health to the Body of Christ.
Today, five-fold ministry leaders can reach people in virtually every nation and denomination through modern technology and travel. As Daniel prophesied, "Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase" (Daniel 12:4b). People are very mobile and information is accessible almost everywhere.
The result of this modern-day phenomenon is that some root causes of disease in the Body of Christ are being dealt with like never before. These include strong religious spirits and the spirit of competition and control that was rampant during the Reformation. They include a misunderstanding of the Father and His love for His children, as well as an unhealthy attitude towards money.
Today, people of all denominations and movements are learning about intimacy with God and the power of the fruit and gifts of the Holy Spirit. (Photo via Unsplash)
They are experiencing heavenly encounters and visitations. They are hearing the Father's heartbeat and their own heartbeats in sync with His. They are hearing Jesus praying again for unity in His Body, like He prayed before the Cross in John 17. They are learning about the depth of the Father's love for His children and He is writing His law in their hearts as was prophesied in Jeremiah 31:33 and Ezekiel 36:26-27, thus producing true holiness that truly pleases Him.
The result is a decrease in religious competition and spiritual jealousy. This enables an increase in spiritual maturity and true spiritual ministry, which glorifies God and builds His Kingdom rather than man's.
Local pastors and leaders need not be under such heavy pressure to meet every need of every person themselves. They can employ the available resources to teach their people regarding finances, marriage and family relationships, spiritual fruit and gifts, evangelism, physical healing, personal victory over addictions, etc.
Learning Interdependence
We must learn, as leaders, to be more interdependent on other ministries rather than independent of them, so that we're not trying to do it all ourselves. We should know what we are good at and what we're not. My ears have lousy vision, but they weren't designed for sight. My feet don't complain that my hands aren't helping them walk. Every member of Christ's Body should know his or her function and learn to do it well. And as we learn to specialize more and more, we can offer our expertise to other ministries who lack what we have.
If we take the holistic approach to Jesus' Body, we won't be worried about losing members or finances. We'll be excited to be building the Body of Christ and making it whole so it can be effective and useful to our Head, Jesus Christ. (Photo via Unsplash)
When Jesus' Body on this earth is given a clean bill of health, because of the great move of the Holy Spirit on the planet, God will release an awesome and amazing transfer of wealth into the Church for the sake of the harvest.
This article just scratches the surface of this important subject, but I believe that God, our Father, will help us to hear His heart about the condition of the Body of His dear Son, Jesus.
Let's remember, it's His Body, not ours. Will we be willing to let Him coordinate the healing of His own Body using His holistic approach? I pray we will. Those who do, and truly seek first His Kingdom, will be powerfully used in the great harvest which has begun around the world. (To Subscribe to the Elijah List subscribe here.)
Ben R. Peters
Kingdom Sending Center
Email: ohmint@gmail.com
Website: www.kingdomsendingcenter.org
Ben and Brenda Peters have said "YES" to the call of God to challenge, equip, and send dedicated lovers of Jesus into the harvest fields of the earth, including the seven mountains of society. Together they have ministered to tens of thousands of individuals in several countries of the world. After establishing and serving churches and Christian schools for almost thirty years, they began a traveling ministry in September 1999 under the name Open Heart Ministries. This ministry consisted mainly of speaking, teaching, preaching, and prophesying in conferences, camps, retreats, churches, ministry schools, and homes. More recently, they also founded an Illinois-based ministry called Kingdom Sending Center. Ben began writing revelatory books in 2000, and has published over 23 of them since then, including his most recent, The Marriage Anointing. Ben and Brenda now live near Sacramento, California, close to most of their five children and twelve grandchildren.
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