Beyond Pills: Praying for Patientsfeatured

In allopathic medicine, we are trained to recognize symptoms and treat them.  This creates a culture of simply pushing more pills, our main tool for chronic medical problems.  As amazing as this may sound, I once had a patient on 36 medications on his initial visit with me.    This should raise multiple red flags for anyone with a thinking brain.  

We humans are much more complex than “fixing” someone’s biochemistry by having them take a pill and believing it may be the end of the story.   Patients would not keep coming to doctors if it were that simple since we would genuinely heal them. We physicians “practice medicine” because medications don’t work for everyone, and even when they do, medicines come with a price called “side effects.”  

Therefore, the clear realization that we are more than just molecules that randomly placed themselves by chance through billions of years to create a human body and that the body’s complex ailments- which the majority of times are multifactorial – are due to altered states of its biochemistry and can somehow be “fixed” by simply adding more chemicals (medicines) is a very simplistic way of seeing what true healing is.  

Human beings, according to the Bible, are tripartite beings possessing a body, soul, and spirit (1st Thessalonians 5:23).   

Belief in a Higher Life 

God not only created the universe and everything in it but created our human souls also.  For a list of books that discuss the existence and reality of life after death, please check out the following books:  “God at the Speed of Light,” by T. Lee Baumann, M.D.; “Life after Life” by Raymond A. Moody, Jr., M.D.; “Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences” by Dr. Jeffrey Long, M.D., and Paul Perry; and “The Case for Heaven”  by Lee Strobel, among others.  

 I confess I am starting with the premise and assumption that the God of the Bible is real.  I believe with all my heart that God manifested in the person of Jesus Christ.  And as it says in the gospel of John, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God” (chapter 1, verse 12). 

After reading the Holy Scriptures several times, I see how the Divine Life, which is Eternal, Vast, and Indestructible, truly became manifest in the person of Jesus Christ and that we can become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4) by believing in Him. This simple act causes our human spirits to be regenerated—that is, to become children of God. 

The Divine Flow

“But Jesus said, Someone touched Me, for I perceived that power had gone out from Me” (Luke 8:46).  

Regardless of their complexity, living organisms always have some energy flow. Life is never static. Our bodies possess a flow of electrical current (interpreted in an electrocardiogram and electroencephalogram). Of course, the food we eat is a compilation of energy that eventually gets transformed into chemical energy.   

In the Bible, we also see what we can call a “divine flow.”  God, who created everything in the universe, is a God of purpose that intends to “flow in and out of us.”  Once, after a celebration, Jesus Christ proclaimed to everyone an interesting statement:  “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.  He who believes into Me as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38).   In the very next verse, the author of this gospel says that Jesus Christ was referring to the Spirit they would eventually receive.  

I believe such flow is the move of the Spirit of God, and when it moves in us, it manifests as a burden or “feeling” that produces a reaction in us.  We are led to pray, assist, help, or, in one way or another, reach out to others in need.  In short, we are burdened for what’s in the Lord’s heart.  Therefore, when I pray for people, there usually is a burden or an inner sense that I should offer prayer for a patient, not only for their physical healing but for their spiritual healing. 

Dear reader, I ask you one thing:  What’s the point of treating someone’s physical symptoms when they continue with so much bitterness, anger, full of guilt, and envy?  Many of those negative emotions likely contribute to the patient’s physical ailments in the first place!   This is where receiving Christ into our hearts comes in.   Leading someone to believe in the Lord is free and involves no risks.  From personal experience, my life was uplifted after receiving the Lord into my heart, receiving so much peace.  I have seen many patients return for their follow-up appointments with smiles, peace, and joy after believing in Jesus Christ.   

We all will one day die, and no matter how much anti-aging medicine we use in the form of stem cells, PRP, supplements, fasting, etc., we cannot prevent the unavoidable death.   Why wouldn’t I offer the peace and life that come from receiving Christ into our hearts to my patients, at least those who are open, if it’s a joy to do it and it is a commission from God?  

When I pray for a patient, it is an outflow of the Divine Life through me, a vessel, into a needy patient. Sure, a patient presents to the clinic because they have a physical or psychological need, and I have a duty as a physician to treat those symptoms.   However, praying for patients calls upon this Higher Life to intercede for this one, recognizing that we can’t do it alone. 

Let me know what you think.  I read all the comments and am very encouraged by them.