The Physiology of Faith: Fearfully and Wonderfully Made to Live and Prosper in Health

By Craig A. Nelson

The Physiology of Faith provides an insightful look at the wonders and marvels of the human body. It truly is Gods greatest creation, and He originally intended it to function and prosper in health forever. The body was designed to defend itself, heal itself, and protect itself from all types of threats. It is a single organism with systems that work together in a complex organization of cells, tissues, bones, muscles, glands, and fluids, which have their own specific function. All of the systems work together in a unique harmony of purpose and design. However, when one system is not functioning properly, it will most often affect the others and result in sickness and disease. A persons health is made up of their every move, function, and thought, which are affected and influenced by what they eat, how they exercise, and how they deal with the daily challenges of life. Good health is more than the absence of disease. It is a state of complete physical, emotional, and mental well-being on all levels.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Sep 23, 2015
• ISBN: 9781512711516

Craig A. Nelson

Craig A. Nelson is the director of LifeSprings USA which exists to share the message of how to live in divine health - emotionally, spiritually, and physically - by living forgiven. His personal mission is to fulfill the Great Commandment and help prepare the Bride to meet the Groom. Craig is a husband and father, teaching-evangelist, international speaker, church planter, author, and businessman.

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CHAPTER 1

Love Is The Key

In order to begin this study it is vitally important to understand that the key to all emotional, spiritual and physical healing is LOVE! There is no subject more misunderstood. Love has sadly become just another four letter word.

What makes Christianity completely different and unique from all the other religions in the world is love because Christianity is the only religion where Jesus Christ, who is love Himself, comes to dwell within each willing heart when He is invited to.

I am firmly convinced that every human being has an unquenchable longing for love, and to love and be loved, because God is love. (1 Jn 4:8) The love a person feels for another is just a minute shadow of God’s love for EVERYONE! Jesus Christ is the very definition of love itself and the empirical evidence that it truly exists. He is the embodiment of love and everything that He says or does is motivated by love.

God has given to human beings freely, and without limits, the desire and capacity for love, because they are created in His image. (Gen 1:27) His love has no beginning or end, no depth or height, width or length that can be measured. It is knowable by human begins through Jesus Christ and it can be experienced because of Him. His love is spontaneous and transcends all limits of human emotions and understanding.

There are layers and layers of it that are forever expanding and can radically transform a person by the active working of Holy Spirit. It is one of those intangibles - something that cannot be completely or fully experienced by the five senses because it originates in the heart of God and never stops flowing.

Looking for Love in all the Wrong Places

Sadly, too many people have problems finding real love. It is only the love of God that can free a person from all the heartache and pain found in this life. Yet most look to created things to satisfy their deep seeded need for love and not directly to the author of love Himself. There is absolutely no way that any human being could ever completely satisfy another’s built-in need for the love that only God can give.

When a person falls genuinely in love the emotion can energize and invigorate. There are depths to it that are unfathomable – even on a purely human level. However, and most importantly, genuine love that is empowered by God gives the human heart the ability to expand and experience deep intimacy beyond anything ever imagined.

It is only God’s love that can take a person into the deepest and innermost parts of the heart within the one they love. It is more than just a deep human affection. It is the kind of deep intimacy that can only be shared and experienced when the created enters into a love covenant with their Creator.

Love Defined

The more a person learns about God’s love - experientially, emotionally, spiritually and intellectually - the more they will be drawn to Him.

"We love Him, because He first loved us". (1 John 4:19 NIV)

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3:16 KJV)

The word Love in the English language is a verb that is defined as: to feel great affection for (someone): to feel love for (someone): to feel sexual or romantic love for (someone): to like or desire (something) very much: to take great pleasure in (something).⁴

The Bible speaks of two types of love in the Greek language - "Agape" and "Phileo".

"Agape" has been defined as a self-sacrificial love committed to the highest good. It is a love that is not dependent on the emotions. Without this love no one could become reconciled to God. Through "Agape" love God set aside His wrath against mankind because of their sin and poured it out on Jesus Christ, the beloved Son.

"Phileo" love is best defined as tender affection; love from the emotions in a person’s soul. It is that kind of love which responds to love from another. It is the love of true friends; love of a child for his parents or for another child; love between a husband and wife. It can be casual or intense. It cannot be relegated to just human emotion. Jesus used this word in describing the Father’s love for Him. (See John 5:20) "Phileo" is also used in describing the Father’s feelings toward all of the Son’s disciples. (See John 16:27)⁵

The Greatest Commandment

The Bible declares that the greatest commandment is to "love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. (Matt 22:37-39 NLT) Jesus said that loving your neighbor as yourself was the same as loving God first and foremost and that no other commandment is greater than these." (Mk 12:31 NLT) Fulfilling the Great Commission starts simultaneously with the Great Commandment!

Within the religions of the world it is not uncommon to hear that the greatest thing to obtain is faith. Yet, the first and Great Commandment given by God was not to have faith but rather, to love Him. Faith - in and of itself - is useless unless it is energized by God’s love. This love command is the foundation of Christianity. The reason God wants Christians to love Him with all their heart, soul, and mind, is because that is how He loves them! (See Matt 22:37-40)

God’s very essence is love. (See 1 John 4:7-10) He has always been love, even before He created man and women. He has always sought to have a close relationship with His children. Human Beings were made for this love. Their entire story is wrapped up within it. Love is the energy of life and is why humans were created. Love is their eternal destiny.

Christianity is the only religion that sets forth the Creator of the Universe as Love. All of creation resounds with the proof that God is love. Within Him is found all the fullness of excellence, beauty, and perfection. He is the author of all that is good in creation. This truth is taught throughout the Bible, beginning with Adam in the Garden of Eden.

When God created Adam, He said to him, I will make a partner suitable to you. (Gen 2:18 NIV) God was declaring the hidden purpose of His heart from eternity past. Holy Spirit reveals that the mystery of the ages is that this promise ultimately speaks of Jesus and the Church. (See Eph. 5:25-6:1)

God proved He is love by choosing to walk among mankind and die in their place. (See Jn 3:16) He now reaches out His arms in tender affection with nail pierced hands in the most pure and intimate way.

The very nature and essence of love requires that it must grow in a willing heart. Sadly, there are many who are not yet able to experience the fundamental reality that God loves and enjoys them. There are even those who would argue that God could not possibly be in love with them.

What a person believes about God is the most important thing contained in their mind. It affects everything about them. For too many people God seems remote, impersonal, and unknowable. Because of that many suffer from an inability to feel forgiven, nagged by doubt and mistrust of Him. A dysfunctional picture of God results in a dysfunctional way of praying. Jesus revealed this truth when He asked;

"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him." (Luke 11:11-13)

Those that had an earthly father who was never around when they needed him, or have experienced trauma, abuse, or extreme discipline, will have a very difficult time pursuing an intimate relationship with the heavenly Father. However, God’s love can soften the hardest of hearts and restore every broken and shattered piece of a person’s life.⁶

The Bridegroom King

God has an indescribable desire and delight in human beings. He likes them, enjoys them, wants them and pursues them.

"The Bible unveils the ultimate purpose of creating mankind at the very end. It reveals the day when the Bride of Christ meets Jesus, her heavenly Bridegroom, and the marriage covenant is celebrated.

"Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready". (Rev 19:7 NIV)

Some say that the Bride of Christ is the universal Church and not each individual member of the Church. The Bible reveals that there is never any variance or change in God’s love, even if there was only one person left on the Earth! This is the most profound mystery of God’s love! The King of the Universe, the beautiful God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, - the supreme Lord of all creation - is so passionately in love with every individual person on this planet that the Bible describes it as the love of a groom for his bride! God’s heart is full of deep affection for every Christian for He takes great delight in them as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride. (Isa 62:4-5 NIV)

The Bible teaches that God’s heart is ravished with enjoyment and delight over His people and that He pursues every Believer with a personal and relentless, infinite love. God is not some mystical, nebulous force whose love is only focused on vast populations. He is passionate towards each individual person.

John the Baptist introduced himself and his personal ministry in context to the Bridegroom King. (See Jn. 3:29) Jesus was the first to introduce this truth to the Church in His last sermon before the Cross. (See Mt. 22:1-13) The Apostle John points to the prominence of this truth in the generation the Lord returns. (See Rev. 22:17, Hos. 2:16) The Bible clearly reveals how important to God the Bride-Bridegroom relationship is. (See 2 Cor. 11:2; Rev. 19:7-9; 21:9; Isa. 54:5; 61:10; Jer. 31:32)

The teaching of Jesus as the Bridegroom King is based primarily on a metaphorical view of the Song of Solomon as a breathtaking and beautiful story of divine love when the prophetic nature of its words are illuminated. It was said by scholarly Rabbis that all the Scriptures are holy, but the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies. They symbolically saw God’s people married to the Lord. (See Isa. 54:5 and Jer. 31:32)

On the surface, this book is just a love song written by King Solomon to a young women, however, if that were its only meaning there would have been no need for Holy Spirit to put it into the Bible. This marriage Song of songs is written in the language of romantic bridal love:

"You have ravished my heart, My sister, my spouse; You have ravished my heart. With one look of your eyes, With one link of your necklace. How fair is your love, My sister, my spouse! How much better than wine is your love, And the scent of your perfumes than all spices!" (Song 4:9-10 NKJV)

The word ravished is livabethini in Hebrew and comes from the root word levav that means heart. The picture presented here represents God’s heart joined in a love relationship with His Bride, the Church. It is a picture of two hearts opening up to each other and becoming equally vulnerable.

In classic writing the word livabethini is used for the pulling of bark (hard outer shell) off a tree and exposing its circulatory system. In this verse the Brides love has literally stripped Solomon of the hard shell that was built around his heart to protect it and he has made himself vulnerable.

The Passion of Christ

Human words cannot express the love God has for every person. He is PASSIONATE about every Christian and who they are in Christ. He is passionate about what they do, and their marriage, and family - and each of their friends and loved ones. He is passionate about seeing every Christian grow closer to Him and to know Him more so that they can be more like Him. Yet, His love is in a realm that transcends all human comprehension and understanding. Attempts at explaining this passion with expressions such as lovesick, desperate, hopeless, romantic, ravished, head-over-heals, etc., are infinitely inadequate to describe His magnificent love.

When a person receives Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior He awakens the passion of His love within, and then asks them to begin a journey of holy desire for more of Him on a path of uncertain direction. As the Christian willingly begins this journey, they will ultimately come to a point of no return - which is the place of self-abandonment - where no sacrifice is too great, or any possession held in higher importance than the fiery flame of God’s all consuming affection. It is there that His love is sealed upon their heart. (Song 8:6-7)

The Christian can then join with the Psalmist in understanding and declare:

Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none on the earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Ps. 73:25-26 NIV)

There are some who have distorted the holiness of God’s passion and have made the teaching of the Bridegroom relationship into a kind of carnal sensuality and mystical experience that has wrecked havoc within many churches and the lives of young and immature Believers. This convoluted teaching has caused many to want absolutely nothing to do with it because, to them, it is heresy. That has caused a throw out the baby with the bath water mentality in the arguments of those who stand opposed to it.

The Dowry of the King

I began my personal experience with Jesus as the Bridegroom King when I was a teenager. Over the decades since then I have seen far more people positively transformed than harmed as they come to understand the pure and passionate way God thinks and feels about them - especially in their weakness. God has placed within men and women the need for holy love. The simple truth is that God looks upon every Christian with loving affection.

I have come to see that the revelation of His love and enjoyment for every individual is vitally important for emotional and spiritual health, whether they be male or female. It may be hard for some men to accept Jesus as the Bridegroom King on a personal basis, but that does not negate the truth that God’s infinite and majestic love is directed intimately towards them.

When a Christian comes to understand that Jesus is the loving Bridegroom, their need to feel loved and enjoyed by God is met.