How You Can Renew Your Youth Through God’s Word
As director of Healing Rooms Ministries since 1999, I have learned a lot about healing. I studied God’s Word on healing and the work of the past and present healing evangelists.
In my studies and in the operation of Healing Rooms globally, I noticed something that bothered me. I was seeing that we were not gaining much ground. It seemed that we were getting people healed, but they just got sick again.
We were trying to get healing into sickly bodies. I knew there had to be more than healing for God’s people.
My Wake-Up Call
About 12 years ago, I was speaking at a conference in Holland when I got a wake-up call from God. I was 40 pounds overweight and greatly out of shape. I finished the morning meeting and we broke for lunch, which was in an upstairs room. As I was walking up the stairs, I began to have chest pain.
When I finally got to the next floor, the pastor called a doctor who was attending the conference. He said I was having a heart attack. I thought No, not here, not now! God had my attention! And I heard Him say, “What do you think you are doing? This isn’t your body; it is My body.” He showed me 1 Cor. 6:20:
“You were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.”
He then pointed out to me that I only have one body, and if I keep messing it up, we will both be out! I then began to realize my lifestyle would either give me life or it was going to take my life. I began to realize, as the body of Christ, it was my responsibility to steward my body as I steward my spirit. It doesn’t do any good to be called by God to go into the world and preach the gospel, then become sick and bedridden so you can’t do what He has called you to do!
Stewarding the Body
After a week in the hospital in Holland, I finally arrived home. It was then that I had a dream that I became strong. I believed that God was going to make me strong.
But that wasn’t what the dream meant. Instead, through a divine appointment, He sent Mr. Universe, the most decorated natural bodybuilder in the world, to my house. Talk about getting your attention!
I was in my 60s and thought it would be impossible for me to become physically strong. When Mr. Universe came to my house, he said that God had sent him to teach me how to eat right and how to exercise correctly in order to become healthy and strong.
In all my life up to this point in time, I was never into healthy food or exercise. This was going to be a new learning curve for me. What I had to admit was that I didn’t mind killing myself one day at a time. I just didn’t want it to happen all at once!
Mr. Universe, a believer, taught me how to adjust my diet by eating more protein, along with fewer carbs, sugars and fatty foods. Combined with a healthy diet, he then showed me how to exercise three days a week to increase muscle and cardio capacity.
Without realizing what is happening, seniors begin to lose muscle mass, often by eating poorly, which causes weight gain, loss of energy, a rise in blood pressure and joint pain. That is what had happened to me.
I knew this change wasn’t going to be easy. But I also knew that, as a senior, I wanted to continue serving God for as long as possible and to enjoy life, traveling with my wife.
As my wife and I began to make better choices in our diet and exercise, we began to see changes in our bodies. We lost weight and our energy level increased.
After six months into this new lifestyle, I went back to my cardiologist for a check-up. I had lost nearly 40 pounds. The doctor asked in amazement what I had been doing to bring about such changes, and whatever it was, to keep it up. He said, “I can’t even tell that you had a heart attack!” I knew then that we are never too old, nor is it too late, for anyone to develop a healthy lifestyle.
A Broken System
In America, we have a broken system. We don’t have health care; we have disease management. A profit-driven food system provides for a high-carb diet, loaded with sugar, that creates addictions to keep us coming back for more. This breaks down our immune system and causes us to be susceptible to various diseases.
We become unhealthy and sick. Then a profit -driven pharmaceutical industry has a drug that will “manage” our problem. We have attorneys who will represent us if and when these drugs create side effects that might kill us.
When we live in a system such as this, over the years our bodies lose the ability to overcome the stress that this causes. As we age, we slow down and our bodies cannot metabolize the processed food that we eat, which causes us to gain the extra weight. After age 30, we lose 3%-5% of our muscle mass each decade.
By not exercising, the muscle that supports our joints weakens and, with the extra weight gain from an unhealthy diet, more pressure is put on our joints, which ultimately leads to joint replacements. This continues to drive the medical industry.
The good news is that we don’t have to give into this system. Our health is not determined by our age, or by a broken system. It is determined, or at least greatly affected, by what choices we make. Our healing is by God’s power; our health is by our power. I have come to know that when we combine a strong physical immunity with a strong spiritual immunity, we will have a strong immune defense. It has been over 10 years now since I began this journey and I have only had one cold that my system had to overcome.
God’s Word on Health
As I was going through this transformation, God began to teach me about His will for our health. He told me, “My ultimate goal was never healing; it is what healing produces, a body that isn’t sick, a healthy body.” He never made His body to be sick. He made it to walk in health.
“Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, even as your soul is well” (3 John 1:2).
He wants us to prosper and be in good health. His Word will give us a long life and peace.
“My son, do not forget my teaching. But let your heart keep my commandments; for length of days and long life and peace will they add to you” (Prov. 3:1-2).
God’s promise is to not just heal our diseases, but to also renew our youth.
“Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases … who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (Ps. 103:3, 5).
God’s promises must be applied by us. We must ask to receive them. He gives us good things that, when applied by us, will renew our youth.
It is interesting that the word renew means to rebuild. I have experienced this in my own life as God intervened at my time of need and gave me His truths. When I began to rebuild my body with proper diet and exercise, my youth began to be renewed as well.
I feel younger as I get stronger. Now at 75 years of age, I am stronger than most men 30 years younger than me. Today I am still as active in ministry as I was when we first started.
No one wants to be sick and everyone wants to be in good health. It is a journey that we can all begin to walk out at any age. Let God direct your path and begin one day at a time.
His Word will renew your mind, so that your mind can renew your body. You are not over the hill; you are just about to take it! {eoa}
Cal Pierce is the international director of Healing Rooms Ministries.
