POE – CLR

Paths of Encouragement

Good early morning. Praying all of you made it through the 2021 edition of Noah’s Ark – scaled back edition. ☺️

I have a few things on my mind this morning on faith (in divine health, divine healing, and miracles), vaccines, and mask:

As Christians, I think we try to operate in divine health (God’s revealed will to us regarding abiding in a state of health-which is the grounds for having faith) with ZERO actions or obedience to the kingdom laws that govern our body (faith without works is dead). The Holy Spirit has “been told” many of us to stop eating this or that because it’s bad for us, or to cast your worries on Him and stop worrying about whatever that thing is because stress and your mental state breeds sickness and disease. The Word says that God tells us to do or not do things for our good always to preserve us alive, (Deut 6:24) – but we disobey anyway. Just like there are revealed laws in the earth that man discovered over time like the law of gravity, the law of seed time and harvest, etc, there are also laws that govern our body in order to walk in divine health.

We then make the error of telling folks (under the name of faith), which have been violating these laws that govern their body (folks who have poor diets, don’t exercise, stressed out all the time, overweight, immune compromised, etc), “hey don’t mask AND don’t get vaccinated-just believe God” in the middle of a pandemic that has killed or has been the catalyst for expediting death to almost a million people in the US and several million people worldwide. That’s not faith that’s foolishness.
God knew that many of us were not going to do what we needed to do regarding our bodies whether through disobedience, ignorance, or just because we live in an imperfect polluted world. Many of us don’t follow the diet he gave the children of Israel who had no weak or feeble amongst them (Psalms 105:37). So I have GOOD NEWS, God saw ahead and provided DIVINE HEALING, so when you are not operating under the laws that govern your body, or things happened that you had no control over, yes, God has placed divine healing in the earth to help you along (although God’s perfect will for you is that you won’t experience sickness).

This divine healing comes through several forms INCLUDING the gift of physicians, medicine, masks, herbs, and even instructions regarding leaving stuff or people that’s stressing you out, etc. to give you the time to bring your body into alignment with God’s Word to you (faith) to walk in the laws that govern divine health so that you can live longer. He usually shows you what to do in PRAYER, and you OBEY. Many of us, especially African Americans who don’t get enough vitamin D because of the melanin in our skin that naturally blocks the sun (a vitamin needed to fight these different viruses), mixed with our lack of exercise (fresh air and exposure to the sun), and poor diets, become excellent host for viruses and other illnesses, can’t afford to listen to unwise voices in these areas or you will die. Remember God’s Word says, “my people are destroyed because of a lack of knowledge.” The Word of God talks about getting wisdom (God’s will and ways), get understanding (how to apply that wisdom to your unique situation), and get knowledge so that your house is filled with all good things (Proverbs 24:3-4).

Many of us stop at the will of God only. Think about when satan told Jesus to jump off this building because didn’t your Bible say your angels will catch you (same as saying didn’t you say God will heal you although you are consistently violating all these laws)? Jesus told him he doesn’t tempt or try God like that. You know why? Because there are laws of gravity that says you jump if you want to, God definitely can dispatch angels to break this fall but now you are going to require a miracle because all things being equal boss you won’t make it for violating that law. (Cherinita’s translation of Matthew 4:6-7).
It would literally require a miracle because the natural laws have now been violated AND nothing in the natural can reverse the jump. Miracles are a last resort and still happen-(just do a quick keyword search on YouTube). Miracles are sometimes needed when all else has failed and nothing through natural obedience seems that it will help you. But you have to remember miracles are as the spirit wills -our job in helping facilitate them is still to lay hands on the sick, pray, and/or covet the gifts of miracles and healing, and leave the outcome to God’s Holy Spirit.

My sincere desire is for us to prosper and be in health even as our soul (mind, will, and emotions) prosper. BE WELL.

Guest writer: Cherinita Ladd-Reese