Rick Warren Reveals He Suffers from Painful Autoimmune Disease

Former Saddleback Church pastor and author Rick Warren has revealed he suffers from constant pain due to an autoimmune disease.

Warren, 69, disclosed his ailment to Daniel Yang and Ed Stetzer during an appearance on The Stetzer Churchleaders Podcast to discuss his latest book, “Created to Dream: The 6 Phases God uses to Grow Your Faith.”

Stetzer began the interview by asking the “Purpose Drive Life” author about his health. Warren replied, “It’s not good right now. I’ve been in a two-year battle with an autoimmune disease. It’s not life-threatening. It won’t even last. It lasts between three to five years. But without getting into all the details, the bottom line is it leaves my muscles, all my major muscles in pain pretty much 24 hours a day.

“It’s tough walking, working, but it hasn’t changed the way that I think,” he said. “And the problem is I sometimes feel like I am this brain on fire and I’m in a wheelchair. I’m not in a wheelchair, but the bottom line is, it’s difficult to move around.

“When you’re trying to lead a global movement called Finishing The Task, it’s debilitating. But I do believe, as Scripture says, my times are in his hands, and I want to be directly in the center of the will of God,” Warren noted. “I don’t want to get ahead of His will. I want to get behind His will. I want to be at the pace that He wants.”

“And so everything that happens in our lives is Father-filtered. That’s really part of what’s in the book, too, is that nothing can come into my life without the heavenly Father’s permission,” he continued.

Warren’s Ministry

Warren co-founded the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California with his wife Kay in 1980. As Charisma News has reported, he stepped down from his role as senior pastor of the now megachurch after preaching 6,500 sermons and studies in 43 years.

Since his departure from Saddleback, Warren has continued to give inspirational messages through his Daily Hope Devotional and his Pastor Rick’s Daily Hope podcast on his website pastorrick.com.

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