What are our true expectations as believers in regard to living in divine health? Is it only disease management, where we seemed to have excelled? Are we expecting a pill to cure our ill?
Is this really the best God can do? Certainly not. So what really happened to get us off course?
Let’s go back to the beginning and try to establish a clear picture of what God’s kingdom and His healing principles are really like.
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth'” (Gen. 1:26).
The key point of the scripture is that God gave man dominion. That was dominion over all these animals and birds as well as the earth. Dominion means to prevail, reign, rule over or dominate. Let’s keep that in mind as we move forward.
“Then God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is on the face of all the earth and every tree which has fruit yielding seed. It shall be food for you'” (Gen. 1:29).
It is interesting to note that God gave dominion to man over the same earth that yields food for man’s existence. Please note that God actually gave appetite for plants when he created us.
Therefore, the appetite that we may battle, whether to have non-nutrient anti-foods that yield disease or God-created life-giving foods that yield health, is really a choice between giving complete control to God or succumbing to self, which is our greatest destructive force.
Let’s look at one more scripture to really drive this point home.
“Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being” (Gen. 2:7).
Said another way, God made man out of the same ground in which He gave him dominion over. Therefore, God gives us dominion over the body that was created from dirt.
That’s right. You and I are running around every day in our dirt suit. Are we truly caring for this miraculous creation that was handcrafted by our heavenly Father? Or are we giving over control to self and its poor choices?
“Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food” (Gen. 2:9a).
Have you ever heard a child say, “I hate vegetables”? Better yet, have you stated that before? I know I have.
When I was a child, I said that phrase so many times I care not to remember. How inaccurate and deceiving it is when you think about it! If God made all these nutrient-containing beautiful plants, including vegetables, for our good, why would we ever express hatred?
Now that we have foundationally established the concept of dominion and God creating appetite, as well as food, through plants, for the body, here are some not so funny certainties:
There were no chicken McNugget trees, Krispy Kreme doughnut bushes and French fry shrubs in the garden of Eden. The was not a Pepsi river or a Coke lake. That is a certainty.
God did not make them, ordain them or establish them for any sustaining or life-giving reason.
Then why do we even have them and allow them to be fed or served to anyone we love, including ourselves? {eoa}
Mark Sherwood, naturopathic doctor (ND), is on a mission to help you achieve wellness in every area of your life. Dr. Mark and his wife, Michele L. Neil-Sherwood, DO, have a successful medical practice, the Functional Medical Institute; have a television and radio program; and provide resources, including their Amazon bestseller, The Quest for Wellness; nutrition plans; fitness instructional videos and helpful mental and emotional steps to provide relief from stress and to help people form better habits so they can live well.
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