00000--Awaken the Healer eBook

Awaken the Healer in You

Awaken the Healer in You

How to Heal Your Body — God’s Way!

Bo Sanchez National Bestselling Author 1

Awaken the Healer in You

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Awaken the Healer in You

Awaken the Healer in You

How to Heal Your Body — God’s Way!

Bo Sanchez National Bestselling Author 3

Awaken the Healer in You

How to Heal Your Body — God’s Way!

ISBN 978-971-007-021-3

Bo Sanchez

Philippine Copyright © 2010 by Eugenio R. Sanchez, Jr. 1st Reprinting, June 2011

Requests for information should be addressed to: SHEPHERD’S VOICE Publications, inc. #60 Chicago St., Cubao, Quezon City, Philippines 1109 P.O. Box 1331 Quezon City Central Post Office 1153 Quezon City Tel. No. (632) 725-9999, 725-1115, 725-1190, 411-7874 Fax. No. (632) 727-5615, 726-9918 E-mail: [email protected] All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, except for brief quotations, without the prior permission of the publisher. Cover Design and Layout by Rey de Guzman

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Disclaimer: Neither the author, the publisher nor any of their respective affiliates make any guarantee or other promise as to any results that may be obtained from using this book. No reader should make any health decision without first consulting his or her own personal physician and conducting his or her own research and due diligence. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the author, the publisher and their respective affiliates disclaim any and all liability in the event that any information, commentary, analysis, opinions, advice and/or recommendation in this book proves to be inaccurate, incomplete or unreliable or result in any detrimental health condition.

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Other Books by Bo Sanchez: Inspirational How to Live a Life of Miracles 40 Stories of Passion Don’t Worry, Be Happy How to Turn Thoughts into Things How to Conquer Your Goliaths How Your Words Can Change Your World Personal Finance Series 8 Secrets of the Truly Rich 8 Sikreto Para Maging Tunay na Mayaman Simplify and Live the Good life Simplify and Create Abundance 8 Habits of the Happy Millionaire (formerly “Choose to Be Wealthy) My Maid Invests in the Stock Market Kerygma Collection How to Be Really, Really, Really Happy (1st Collection) You Can Make Your life Beautiful (2nd Collection) You Have the Power to Create Love (3rd Collection) Fill Your Life with Miracles (4th Collection) Inner Healing Series Your Past Does Not Define Your Future Stop Hidden Addictions Singles & Relationships How to Find Your One True Love How to Find Your One True Love, Book 2 40 Stories of Finding Your One True Love How to Build a Happy Family Children’s Book Eagle’s Don’t Fly, They Soar! Bo’s Websites: Read Bo’s Blogs at www.BoSanchez.ph Watch Bo’s Videos at www.PreacherInBlueJeans.com Get Daily Spiritual Food at www.KerygmaFamily.com Gain Financial Abundance at www.TrulyRichClub.com Receive Daily Messages at www.GodWhispersClub.com 6

Awaken the Healer in You

Table of Contents

Introduction

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Section 1: Healer You Have the Power to Heal Yourself 17 Section 2: Emotions What You Feel, You Can Heal

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Section 3: Relationships Only Love Heals

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Section 4: Nourishment You Are What You Eat

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Section 5: Protection Get Rid of Toxins

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Section 6: Trust Believe That God Can Heal You

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Epilogue

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Awaken the Healer in You

Introduction

How to Create a New Body Health is not valued till sickness comes. — Thomas Fuller “For I am the Lord who heals you.” — Exodus 15:26

Imagine walking into a mall. Going up an escalator, just above the shoe department, you see an entire section called “The Body.” You wonder what that’s about. As you move up, what you see makes your eyes pop out. Because you see fresh, bloody organs of the human body in large bottles lining the beautiful shelves. Hearts. Livers. Kidneys. Brains. Even an entire skeletal system. The sales lady greets you with a smile. “We have a 30 percent off on brains today!” “Excuse me?” you ask in total shock. “Brains are on sale,” she answers, “you can buy a brand new one at 30 percent less the retail price.” 9

Introduction

“Uh… who buys new brains?” you ask. “Oh, a lot of people. To help the nation, we even give special rates to politicians,” she grins. “He, he…” you force a chuckle, still dazed over what you’re seeing. “But more people buy an entire new body,” she says. Now you’ve heard everything. “An entire body?” “Yes! All you have to do is walk into our dressing room, try out different models and, voila — you walk out with your new body.” “When you talk about a new body, you mean every organ in the body is changed?” “Absolutely.” “A heart patient can throw away his clogged arteries for brand new ones? “That’s right.” “And a diabetic can throw away his diseased pancreas?” “Yes.” “And a person with cancer in his body can throw away his entire body and replace it with a brand new body free from cancer?” “Yes. Totally free!” Your mind is spinning. You’re beyond shocked. At that moment, you wake up. It was all a dream. You Don’t Have to Buy a New Body — Just Create One! Here’s the good news: You don’t need to buy a new body. 10

Awaken the Healer in You

Because you can create a new one. I wrote this book, Awaken the Healer in You, for this purpose. To teach you how to slowly replace your old body and create a new one. Yes, God has given you the power to do that. I must warn you: It won’t be easy. Overhauling your body requires overhauling six critical areas of your life: your beliefs, your emotions, your relationships, your eating, your protection and your faith. But it can be done. I’ve seen it happen in my life. A Sickly Boy When I was a kid, I used to get sick every other month. Flu. Bronchitis. Diarrhea. Ulcers. Measles. Especially measles. I’m the only person on planet Earth I know who got the measles six times. First it was German measles. After that, I don’t know which country they came from. They didn’t show me their passports. My doctor was baffled why I got sick so often. Years later, I learned why. Emotional Roots Even as a kid, I was riddled with emotional problems. One reason: I was molested as a child. When I was eight years old, a cousin bigger than I abused me. When I was 13, my youth group leader molested me, too. (I wrote about this in my books, Your Past Does Not 11

Introduction

Define Your Future and Stop Hidden Addictions.) Irrationally, I felt I was bad, too. Subconsciously, I felt I deserved to be molested. As a teenager, I developed an addiction to pornography. I saw myself as a big failure. I had low grades in school. It didn’t help that I was terrible in sports. I hated myself. I was ashamed of myself. Looking back, I felt I was in a prolonged state of despair. My Image of God Didn’t Help Me Like Myself My brand of spirituality didn’t help me. Because I had a distorted image of God. My Bible said that He loved me. But somewhere deep inside, I felt He really didn’t like me. I felt He was obsessed with my sins, constantly catching me with my hand inside the cookie jar. Sure, I was His child. But I felt that to Him, I was a sinner first. That was how He saw me. Looking back, I now know this was all a projection of how I saw myself. I projected my self-disdain onto God. And my brand of spirituality corroborated with my projection. In my mind, God was some type of benevolent tyrant that wanted my attention and allegiance. If I gave Him my love, He’d be kind to me. But if I didn’t give Him my love, well, He’d punish me to hell forever.

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My wrong image of God worsened my emotional sickness. I already felt ashamed of myself. Every morning, I’d wake up depressed. I was ashamed that I was alive. I was ashamed that I even existed. And whenever I prayed, was God also ashamed of me? It felt like it. And my self-disdain was showing up in my body. I was manifesting my shame in my weak immune system. No wonder I was sickly. Taking Care of My Body Was Good, But Not Enough In my late twenties, I decided to go semi-vegetarian. I gave up chicken, pork, beef — and ate only fish. My reason? I wanted to be healthier. I wanted to serve God for many more years to come. I felt my diet helped, but there was something lacking. Looking back, it was because my physical weakness was rooted in my emotions and spirit. Thus, for complete physical healing to happen, I had to receive emotional and spiritual healing, too. The Real God Broke Through the Caricature God Slowly, God’s love conquered my wrong image of Him. And God’s love conquered my shame and self-hatred. Little by little, I saw cracks in my perverted 13

Introduction

understanding of God. Gradually, I realized I was worshiping the wrong God. And step by step, I began to experience a different God. A God who first saw me as His son before I was a sinner. A God who saw my good before my bad. A God who wasn’t obsessed with my sin but obsessed with how wonderful I was. A God who celebrated me. A God who cherished me. A God who really, really liked me! I was in my thirties when I began to love myself. And I realized that this was the key to my healing. When I learned to forgive, accept, embrace and love myself, I felt that my body experienced powerful healing. And when I did, I felt my body instantly become stronger and healthier. Six Principles to Optimal Health My point? You can’t heal your body without healing your entire being. If you want to heal your body, you need to heal your spirit, your mind and your emotions. I wrote this book to help you receive total healing. But health isn’t just the absence of disease. I wrote this book to help you achieve optimal health, vitality and strength. Friend, I share with you my story just as an example. The root cause of your physical weakness or sickness may be totally different than mine. Perhaps your disease comes from a subconscious anger that you’ve never released. Perhaps your father abandoned you or abused you. Perhaps you never experienced love as a 14

Awaken the Healer in You

child. Perhaps there’s a deep, powerful fear that has gripped you for decades. Perhaps you’ve been under prolonged stress. Or perhaps your relationships are shallow and your heart is starving for love. Or perhaps you’re eating wrongly. Or your entire system is overwhelmed with chemical toxins. Here’s my promise: If you apply what you’ll learn in these pages, you’ll be able to heal many diseases you’ve been battling for years. I believe you don’t have to be sickly or physically weak. I believe it’s possible to live until you’re 100 while still enjoying the strength and vitality of a 50-year-old. You can be in sparkling health! Here’s a secret: Natural healing and supernatural healing are really one. They’re not separate. Because your spirit and your body aren’t separate entities either. Here are the Six Principles to Optimal Health: Principle 1: Healer You Have the Power to Heal Yourself Principle 2: Emotions What You Feel, You Can Heal Principle 3: Relationships Only Love Heals Principle 4: Nourishment You Are What You Eat 15

Introduction

Principle 5: Protection Get Rid of Toxins Principle 6: Trust Believe That God Can Heal You

Get ready to overhaul your health!



May your dreams come true,

Bo Sanchez

PS. Just one last health tip… I have a morning habit that helps me so much. I love doing it. It gives me a mega-dose of enzymes and a megadose of Vitamin C naturally. My morning habit also makes my body more alkaline (germs love acidic environments) and cleanses my kidneys and liver from toxins — every day! Note: I’m not recommending a tablet or a supplement. It’s something that’s available in your neighborhood market. But you have to take it in a particular way. To know what this powerful habit is, get my special FREE eReport, My Morning Habit, at www.HealerInYou.com

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Awaken the Healer in You

Section 1

Healer You Have the Power to Heal Yourself Every patient carries her or his own doctor inside. — Albert Schweitzer I have an important announcement to make: God has given you the power to heal yourself. This is an awesome power. And this power is already at work in your body. Within your body is a powerful healing system that fights germs, heals diseases and prevents you from getting sick. Friend, God has placed a healer within you. And that healer is an amazing healer! Some of you may ask, “Bo, are you talking about

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Section 1: Healer

the immune system?” Yes, but not just the immune system as you know it. Because we’re talking about a healing system that is both natural and supernatural, both physical and spiritual at the same time. Turn the page. Open your mind. And discover the healer in you.

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Awaken the Healer in You

Chapter 1

The Best Repairmen in the World “By creating an artificial environment, we’re not stimulating our immune system enough. Germs are immune stimulants. They challenge you to be prepared.” — Dr. Deepak Chopra

When I was a high school kid, I studied in an all-boys school. Beside us was an all-girls school. Between us was a fence. So what did we do? My classmates and I, whenever the teacher wasn’t looking, climbed that fence to ogle at the girls next door. Obviously, I wasn’t lusting. I was just admiring God’s beautiful creation in the female anatomy. But in one of those trips down that fence, I fell. Really bad. And I had this deep gash in my lower abdomen. Except that I didn’t know about it. When I stood up and ran back to our classroom, my classmate was the one who said, “Bo, you’re bleeding!” I looked at my abdomen and saw my white polo uniform

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The Best Repairmen in the World

drenched with fresh red blood. I lifted my shirt and exposed a long wound. My classmate gasped. “Your intestines are coming out!” He asked me to go to the clinic right away. I didn’t go because of fear. How can I tell them that I got the wound because I was climbing the fence to ogle at girls? So I went straight home, cleaned up my wound and told no one about it. But 30 years later, I can’t even see a scar. Where Are Your Wounds? As a child, how many times have you fallen, scraped your knee, bruised your elbow, bumped your head, scarred your skin, and burned your fingers? How many paper cuts have you had? How many times did you shave yourself in the wrong way and nicked your face? You must have had hundreds — if not thousands — of wounds. Yet where are those wounds today? They’re all healed. Simply because your body has this incredible ability to repair itself. You don’t have to put anything onto a wound. Just clean it and your body will heal itself. Let me divulge my age here. When I was a kid and I’d get a wound, my mother would say, “Get the Mercurochrome from the medicine cabinet.” If you’re my

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age, you’d remember this tiny red bottle with a small cotton bud inside. Later on, they banned it and pulled it out from the market because it used mercury, which they discovered to be poisonous to the body. Today, we usually don’t put any ointments anymore on our wounds. Because wounds heal by themselves.

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The Best Repairmen in the World

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Awaken the Healer in You

Chapter 2

The Best Army in the World Unlike drugs or radiation, which are given to the patient, do their damage and leave, what we’re doing is asking the patient’s own immune system to mount an attack on the cancer. — Jeffrey Schlom

There are millions of different kinds of germs all around you now. There are also millions of germs within your body now — in your lungs, in your various organs, in your blood, on your skin… But why are you not sick? When I was a kid, there was no such thing as alcogel. Today, many people carry this little bottle in their bags. You see people wiping their chairs before they sit down, wiping doorknobs before they hold it, wiping tables before they eat on them. Do you think they’re healthier today because they have alcogel? You be the judge. Here’s my belief: The army of germs around us and in our bodies, our lungs, our blood, our skin, are no match compared to the army of antibodies in our body. We have the best army in the world inside our bodies! 23

The Best Army in the World

Your powerful army looks for germs, bacteria, virus and all other foreign intruders, and with precise accuracy, zaps them, shoots them, wrestles them to the floor, pins them down and destroys them. And I hope I won’t scare you when I say this, but right this moment, you have cancer cells in your body. But why is it that you don’t have cancer? Why are you strong and alive and vibrant? Because God’s healing system is at work in your body. Unlike chemotherapy that destroys both cancerous and healthy cells, your healing system is so advanced, so high tech, so phenomenal, it targets only cancerous cells and kills them. With pinpoint precision, it only destroys what needs to be destroyed. Our problem? Many times, this healing mechanism in you — this Healer that God has placed in your body — is weakened. And what weakens the Healer in you? In one word, toxins — Spiritual and Physical toxins.

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Chapter 3

The Best Pharmacy in The World My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity… This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. – Proverbs 3:1-2, 8

We like popping a pill for our diseases. If we want to sleep, we take a sleeping pill. If we want to be tranquil, we take a tranquilizer. If we want to fight germs, we take an antibiotic. If we want to slim down, we take an appetite suppressant. But all these pills will never solve your problem if you don’t address the emotional roots of your disease. Worse, drugs cause many problems. Not only is the original problem not solved, these pills cause many side effects. Friend, your body is the greatest pharmacy in the world. It produces the best drugs you can ever find in the planet. 25

The Best Pharmacy in the World

The drugs produced by your body are 100 percent natural, produce no side effects and are given at the right dosage every single time. Doctors know about the placebo effect for a long time now. They’ve done thousands of experiments on placebos. They give a patient a pill with absolutely nothing in it and tell him it will remove his pain. The patient takes the pill and his pain disappears. Why? Because his body was producing natural painkillers so effective, so efficient, it gives it at the right dosage and at the right time. They’ve conducted experiments with patients who had cancer. They’re given a pill that was absolutely inert and they’re told it was anti-cancer drugs. The patient swallows it. Immediately, the patient starts manufacturing powerful anti-cancer chemicals within his body. Your body is more powerful than you think it is. When you pray with profound peace, when you laugh till your belly hurts, when you take deep breaths, when you enjoy the sunset, when you get a hug, when you’re engrossed in a project that blesses the world, your body manufactures all-natural chemicals that heal your body. Let me tell you a story that inspired me so much…

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Chapter 4

Cancer Is No Match to God’s Healing Power in Your Body Feed your faith and your fears will starve to death. — Author Unknown “And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease.” — Matthew 10:1

One day, Lina wasn’t feeling well. When she went to the doctor, they diagnosed her to have an acute rheumatic heart disease. Her heart valves were damaged so much, she needed immediate heart surgery. After what appeared to be a successful operation, she woke up with a terrible headache. Thinking it was just an effect of the anesthesia, the doctors gave her oral pain killers. But the pain didn’t stop. The doctors gave her injectable pain relievers but they didn’t work either. 27

Cancer Is No Match to God’s Healing Power in Your Body

The headache persisted. This worried her doctors and ordered her to have a cranial MRI to find out what was causing the pain. To the horror of her family, the doctors found a tumor in her brain. Imagine this: after her open-heart surgery, Lina went home to prepare for a brain surgery! I know about this story because of Liza, Lina’s sister. Liza is a great friend of mine and she texted me to pray for Lina. Liza also told me how she texted all 500 names on her cell phone. She asked her friends in Opus Dei to ask for the intercession of St. Josemaria Escriva. Soon, Lina went back to the hospital to check if her heart was strong enough for a brain surgery. As she was being prepared for the operation, she noticed that she no longer had headaches. On the day of the operation, doctors performed a few more tests and MRIs. The operation was scheduled to start at 7 a.m. But at 9 a.m., the operation had not yet begun. “There are some complications,” the doctors explained to the family. After lunch, the doctors called the family to tell them that all the tests showed that the tumor had disappeared! They couldn’t explain it. There was no need for an operation.

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You Create a New Body Every Single Second How did her tumors disappear? I’ve been serving God for so long now, I’ve seen these miracles happen again and again. Tumors disappearing. Cancers going on remission. Kidneys being repaired. Bones getting healed. Why do these miracles happen? Science is slowly catching up to explain such miracles.

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Cancer Is No Match to God’s Healing Power in Your Body

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Awaken the Healer in You

Chapter 5

Is Your Body a Machine or a Flowing Stream? Our bodies are apt to be our autobiographies. — Frank Gillette Burgess “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?” — 1 Corinthians 6:19

Physicists have long learned that we create new bodies every single second of our lives. Through calculations done with radioisotopes, physicists say that we replace 95 percent of the atoms in our body. You create a new liver every six weeks. You create a new skeleton every three months. You create a new stomach lining every three weeks. You create a new skin every month. You create a new brain every year. Here’s the truth: Your body is now different from the body you had last year. Our bodies are not machines.

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Is Your Body a Machine or a Flowing Stream?

Quantum Physics now tells us that our bodies are more like flowing streams of energy. Physics tells us that at the subatomic level, we’re all moving, vibrating energy. What does this mean? You can create a brand new cell, a brand new tissue, a brand new organ and a brand new body! This is the reason why healing can happen every day. “But Why Is My Body Not Changing?” I can hear your question now. “But Bo, if I change the atoms of my body so often, why is my body still sick? You’re telling me that I get a new liver every six weeks. But I’ve had this liver problem for two years now. Why do I replace my sick liver with another sick liver?” One reason: Your body is an expression of your soul. Your body is a blueprint of what is inside you — your thoughts, your emotions, your imagination, your beliefs, your attitude, your dreams, your hurts, your doubts, your prayers… So, your body won’t change if your soul won’t change. Your body will change the moment your soul changes. Let me clarify this for you. Here’s a fact: Every day, we have 60,000 thoughts. That’s great. That sad part is that 95 percent of those thoughts were the same thoughts we had yesterday! If you want your body to be healed, you have to first change your thoughts, your feelings, your imagination, your expectations… Especially your expectations.

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Chapter 6

The Power of Expectation To wish to be well is part of becoming well. — Seneca “Because they did not have faith, Jesus did not perform many miracles there.” — Matthew 13:58

Our bodies merely manifest our beliefs. And there’s our problem: We expect to grow old and decay. For us, growing old means getting ready to die. Why? Because that’s what we see around us: People in their sixties and seventies who are so sickly, they’re like walking drugstores. We see them hobbling on their canes, bent over and crooked, complaining of aches and pains every day. It’s the expectation of society. It’s called the hypnosis of social conditioning. But not everyone has this expectation. In fact, scientists have gone to the 10 places in the world with the most centenarians. They asked the question, “What’s the secret of their long life?” They discovered many things. The great food they eat. The pure air they breathe. The long-term relationships they enjoy. 33

The Power of Expectation

But aside from these obvious things, there’s one thing that’s very different in their world: society’s expectations of old people. In those places, they love old people. They celebrate old people. To grow old is glorious. In their societies, it’s normal to see a 100-year-old man swimming in a cold river. It’s normal to see a 103-year-old woman climbing up a mountain with a heavy basket on her back. It’s normal to see a 105-year-old man on horseback. Their expectations are very different. What is your expectation of yourself? Expect healing and health! Expect to grow old strong and blessed. Starting today, expect to reach a hundred years old, serving God with the strength of a 50-year-old body! The Power of Faith There’s power in your expectation. Do you expect healing? Do you expect miracles? I’ve been doing ministry for 31 years. I’ve preached in both cities and barrios. And here’s what I’ve noticed: When I hold healing prayer sessions, I see more miracles in the barrios than in the cities. I see more people healed in little towns than in big towns. Why? Because people there have simple faith. They have less doubts. They carry less intellectual baggage (aka pride). In other words, they expect miracles. And their bodies comply with their expectation. I encourage you to expect healing.

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Open Your Life to Miracles I already shared with you the healing story of Lina. Her sister Liza, a close friend of mine, also has a powerful sharing. One day, Liza found a small lump in her left breast. She went to Asian Hospital and had it tested. A few days after, she got the news that her biopsy was positive for a malignant tumor. On hearing the news, Liza and her husband, Benny, hugged and cried together. The next days were very confusing. They were told to make a decision and to make it fast. The doctors recommended chemotherapy. But through prayer, Liza and Benny decided not to go through chemo. Instead, Liza went through natural medicine. She completely changed her lifestyle, her eating habits, eating no meat, no processed food, no dairy products and drinking 150 herbs a day. Through all that, Liza kept her faith and positive attitude. Liza is one of the most vivacious woman I’ve ever met — and even amidst her cancer — she kept smiling, laughing and giving joy to people around her. Today? My friend Liza has been free from cancer for the past six years. Without the use of chemo or modern medicines. Yes, miracles happen. Every day. I pray for you: Open your life to healing. Open your life to miracles. 35

The Power of Expectation

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Chapter 7

How Your Soul’s Health Impacts Your Body’s Health Diseases of the soul are more dangerous and more numerous than those of the body. — Cicero “Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.”’ — Mark 2:3-5

Why did Jesus say, “Your sins are forgiven” to a paralytic? Shouldn’t He have said, “You’re healed”? In this story, we discover the link between our soul and our bodies. Sometimes (not always), the sickness in our body is connected to the sickness in our soul. And God’s love will heal both the soul and the body. We are sick because of toxins in our system. 37

How Your Soul’s Health Impacts Your Body’s Health

These toxins are spiritual, emotional and chemical in nature. In the next section, I’ll discuss this with greater detail. Here is a partial list of how we open ourselves to sickness: • Unaccepted Feelings • Unacknowledged Anger • Resentments • Constant Worry • Crippling Fear • Depression • Low Self-Worth • Deep Shame • Toxic Stress • Negative Disposition • Loneliness • Guilt • Overwork • Toxic Eating • Toxic Environment • Vices • Immorality Friend, what are your toxins?

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Section 2

Emotions “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” — Philippians 4:8

What You Can Feel, You Can Heal Do you want to live a happy and healthy life? Then be an optimist. Because researchers have found that optimists have a longer lifespan than pessimists. They studied 1,100 patients at the Mayo Clinic and asked them to do a personality survey. These studies classified them according to optimists and pessimists. Thirty years later, they went back to these patients.

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Section 2: Emotions

Here’s what they found out: Optimists have a 19 percent higher chance of still being alive than the pessimists. Other studies have discovered that positive feelings are a key to effective cancer cure. In fact, scientists studied one of the body’s natural “mood chemicals” called serotonin. When serotonin is placed in a test tube alongside tumor cells of Burkitt’s lymphoma, the cancer kills itself. Here’s a quote from that study: “An exciting property of serotonin is that it can tell some cells to self-destruct. We have found serotonin can get inside the lymphoma cells and instruct them to commit suicide.” Today, you’ll learn how to deal with your negative emotions. Even negative emotions that have been buried within you for the longest time. By allowing yourself to feel them and surrendering them to God, you’ll open your life to God’s healing. God wants to heal your body. In order to do that, He needs to heal your soul first. Open yourself to God’s pervasive healing today.

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Chapter 8

Are Negative Emotions Causing You to Get Sick? The mind has great influence over the body, and maladies often have their origin there. — Moliere “A happy heart is good medicine and a cheerful mind works healing, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.” — Proverbs 17:22

One day, a man had the flu. So that he wouldn’t spread his germs, his wife dropped his plate and utensils in boiling water. Their five-year-old daughter saw this and asked, “What are you doing, Mommy?” “I’m boiling the dishes to kill Daddy’s germs,” she said. The girl remained quiet. After a while, she said, “I have an idea. Why not just boil Daddy and kill all his germs?” Germs. We blame them for our sickness. But that’s only partly true.

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Are Negative Emotions Causing You to Get Sick?

Our immune system is so terrific, it can fight almost all germs. But we get into trouble when our immune system gets weak. And one thing that causes it to weaken is our negative emotions. The Shocking Truth This blew my mind. Studies show that 85 percent of all diseases is rooted in our emotions. Wow. That means that among the 17 million people who died of heart disease last year, and among the 7.2 million people who died of cancer last year, 85 percent of those diseases were rooted in their emotions. Man! If only someone taught them to work on their emotions (not just on their bodies), some of them might still be alive today. Here’s what I believe. Most of our diseases are messages. What’s the message? Diseases tell us that we have a spiritual need that we need to fill. But instead of listening to the message, we kill the messenger. We get rid of the sickness without addressing our soul needs. Very soon, the sickness will reappear. Sometimes, in a fatal way. For example, our sickness may be telling us, “You need to forgive and get rid of your anger,” but instead of forgiving, we take a pill. Or our sickness is telling us, “You need to stop worrying and trust God more,” but instead of trusting, we take a pill. Or our sickness is telling us, “You

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need to stop working too hard and relax more with your family,” but instead of playing with our kids, we take a pill. In primitive societies, doctors were also priests. When people got sick, the cure was holistic. Aside from giving them herbs, doctors told them to pray, to forgive, to trust in God. And then the scientific revolution came and doctors focused purely on the body. Today, the old model is coming back. Because now, my friend doctors are praying with their patients, are telling them to have faith, to forgive and to spend time with their families. They’ve become doctors and priests again. Two Reasons Why We Get Sick How do our emotions cause sickness? In two important ways. First, when we have too much negative emotions. Second, when we have too little positive emotions. Let me tell you how both are deadly to your system.

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Chapter 9

Too Much Negative Emotions I see rejection in my skin, worry in my cancers, bitterness and hate in my aching joints. I failed to take care of my mind, and so my body now goes to hospital.  — Astrid Alauda “My son, when you are ill, do not be depressed, but pray to the Lord and he will heal you. Renounce your faults, keep your hands unsoiled, and cleanse your heart from all sin…” — Sirach 38:9-10

Let’s take stress. When I was a small boy, I regularly massaged Dad’s shoulders every night. It was part of my “chores” as a kid. But every time I did, I’d complain. Because his shoulders were as hard as steel! They were no match for my tiny thumbs. Even then, I knew the tension in his shoulders came from his job. Dad was a manager in a large food company. Mom said he also had hypertension. As Filipinos love to say, “Mataas ang high blood niya.” (Wow, that’s really high.) Dad had hypertension all his life.

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All his life, that is, until he reached 65. That was the year he retired from his job. From that day on, he never had hypertension, all the way until the day God called him home at the young age of 88. One day, when Dad was already retired — but very busy serving God — I remember he was eating in the dining room. I went behind him and gave him a shoulder massage. The difference was amazing! His shoulders were soft and supple. No more tension in them. That’s the power of stress in our lives. Let me ask you a question: How stressed are you? Stress and Sickness Who are those most susceptible to heart disease? Those with a “Type A Personality”: People who are aggressive, easily angered, competitive, controlling and always rushing. Here’s a scary fact: 82 percent of people who have heart disease have a Type A Personality! Why? Because of stress. (Type A Personality isn’t just a personality. Type A is a spiritual disease.) Here’s another fact: More strokes and heart attacks happen on Monday than on another day of the week. (We need a presidential decree removing Mondays from our calendar!) I know a woman who liked her job but didn’t like the boss she was working for. There was a lot of conflict. Wanting a break from her stress, she took a 15-day vacation. And she enjoyed her two-week vacation. But on the 14th day, when she knew she was going back to her job, she suffered a massive stroke. Today, half of her body is paralyzed. 46

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That was a perfect picture of her life — half of her body wanted to go to work, the other half didn’t want to! Because our bodies were not made for prolonged stress. Another negative emotion is anger…

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Chapter 10

Anger Has an Expiry Date Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. — Buddha “Do not stay angry all day.” — Ephesians 4:26

One day, a man was sitting in his living room when he heard a knock on the front door. He opened the door and saw no one. But as he looked down, he saw a snail, saying in a little voice, “Can I borrow P100?” The man shouted, “Get outta here!” and kicked the snail off his porch. One year later, the man is sitting in the living room and he hears a knock on the door. He opens it and sees a very angry snail, asking, “Why did you do that?” Some of us are snails. After a year, we’re still angry! People who are like snails won’t enjoy optimal health.

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Here’s the truth: God never designed your body to keep anger for a long time. Anger’s purpose is to spur you to action. Once that purpose is fulfilled, you should get rid of anger by forgiveness. In other words, anger has an expiry date. Once it’s past due, it becomes poison in your body. Are you angry with someone? Surrender your anger to God. Angry People Die Sooner They made a study of 255 doctors and asked them to take a “hostility” test. They were quizzed on how they respond to drivers who cut them on the road. Or to people who criticize them. Or to friends who are disloyal them. Thirty years later, the researchers went back to these same doctors. What did they find out? Some of those doctors who scored high in the hostility test were already dead! Their death rate was six times higher than those who scored low in the hostility test. Remember: Angry people die sooner.

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Chapter 11

Don’t Escape! We must face what we fear; that is the case of the core of the restoration of health. — Max Lerner “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” — Proverbs 23:7

If we don’t want to get sick, what should we do with stress, anger, sadness, fear and other negative emotions? Ignore them? Pretend they’re not there? Nope. That will make it worse. Here’s my big message for you: What you can feel, you can heal. What does that mean? Don’t escape your negative emotions. Perhaps you have money problems now. Or you have conflicts at work. Or you have a broken heart. Or you have marriage problems. Or you have problems with your kids. Or you’re sick right now. And you’re tempted to escape from your anxiety, stress, anger, fear and depression. 51

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How? Some people become numb. Others escape through addictions: drugs, alcohol, sex, video games, food, shopping, relationships and workaholism. Remember that all addictions are really emotional anesthesia. So that we won’t feel our emptiness, our fears, our depression, our anger, we distract ourselves. But when we don’t feel our negative emotions, they come out in our bodies as respiratory problems, ulcers, headaches, skin allergies, digestive problems, even cancers. Even Childhood Emotions John Sarno is a doctor specializing in back pains, neck pains, shoulder pains and leg pains. When he was a young doctor, his main tools were like every other doctor — surgery and pills. But soon, he got very frustrated with the results. Many times, the pains of his patients would come back — even after expensive treatments and invasive surgery. That’s when he overhauled his method of healing. Now, his tools of healing people are two lectures! Basically, he tells them how their unacknowledged and unfelt childhood emotions cause their pains. He explains: Their subconscious mind was giving them real physical pains to distract them from discovering — and feeling — these very painful emotions buried in their past. Perhaps their father abandoned them when they were children. Perhaps they witnessed their parents getting a divorce. Perhaps they were beaten as kids.

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The fear and rage and sadness were so overwhelming, they buried it all in. They pretended everything was OK. After 10, 15, 20 years, these dark emotions manifest in all sorts of diseases. The results? (This is amazing.) For the past 30 years now, Dr. Sarno has treated 10,000 patients with a 95 percent cure rate. Using what? Two lectures! Some of his patients experience instantaneous healing. Others take a longer time to heal, as they had to discover these painful emotions within them — and feel them again. They did this via small groups, journaling or psychotherapy. Friend, do you want to experience healing, too? Feel Your Feelings before God If you want to be healed from your diseases, feel your negative emotions. More specifically, feel your darkest emotions before God. Weep. Be angry. Question Him. (Believe me, He’s big enough to take it.) Go to God now. And share your inmost heart. Tell Him what you feel, whether it’s anxiety, stress, fear, anger, sadness… The Psalms of the Bible are exactly like this! They contain what I call “terrible” prayers. For example, Psalms 22 says, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer…” And in Psalms 55, it says, “My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death assail me. Fear and trembling have beset me; horror has overwhelmed me.” But that’s precisely why they’re in the Bible. 53

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God is telling you to go to Him no matter what you’re feeling. Friend, God is waiting for you now. So go ahead. Before Him, feel your darkest emotions. Soon, those negative emotions will pass. Because all storms come to an end. And you’ll notice the healing of your body, too. And here’s the second reason…

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Chapter 12

Too Little Positive Emotions A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor’s book. — Irish Proverb Warning: Humor may be hazardous to your illness. — Ellie Katz

Two weeks ago, I met Fr. Georges-Etienne Beauregard, an old Jesuit priest. His age? Ninety-seven years old. He’s led an incredible life: imprisoned in China, built churches in the Philippines for 12 years and worked with the aborigines in Taiwan for the last 42 years. What is he doing today at 97? Still very busy, working in a parish and hospital (which he also built) among the aborigines in Taiwan. How healthy is he? When he was 95, he was still riding his motorbike! I asked him, “Father, what is the secret of your long life?” He chuckled and said, “I have no problems. Others have problems with me, but I have no problems.” 55

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In other words, he didn’t focus on his problems. In the short time I had with him, I noticed that he chuckled a lot. He loved to laugh! The secret to his long life was no secret at all. It was very obvious. He had a light, jolly heart. Your Need for Joy Your body was made to operate with the “oil of gladness” flowing through your veins, tissues and cells. You were made to laugh, to celebrate, to be happy! One day, Norman Cousins was diagnosed to have a heart disease. In his book, The Anatomy of an Illness, he shares how he got healed: by taking Vitamin C and megadoses of laughter. Every day, he would watch comedy films and enjoy 10 minutes of genuine belly laughter. And he was healed! Doctors thought he would live a short life. But he lived for 30 more years. That’s why the Bible says, “A happy heart is good medicine and a cheerful mind works healing, but a broken spirit dries up the bones” (Proverbs 17:22). Are you a happy person? Do you enjoy life? Are you fulfilled? Are you self-assured? Many studies show that positive emotions strengthen your immune system.

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Chapter 13

How to Have More Positive Emotions What a wonderful life I’ve had!  I only wish I’d realized it sooner. — Colette “Be happy all the time.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:16

How can you be happy more often? How can you have more contentment, self-assurance, fulfillment and a deep sense of profound peace more often? Let me end this discussion by showing you two ways: First, Gratitude.

Maricel is our house helper. She shared to me a very touching story. Last month, she went home to her province in Dumaguete. She borrowed money from us to buy the little plot of land that her family house was standing on. She also 57

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brought home her savings, buying a sack of rice for her family. She also went home to spend time with her siblings and their children — her little nephews and nieces. So one bright morning, from the barrio, they traveled to Dumaguete City. Maricel paid for all their jeepney fares. Everyone was excited, she said. Because for some of them, it was the first time to visit the city. She brought her family to a mall — and the kids were beside themselves with joy. What they loved most were the escalators. They shrieked with delight, “Ate, yung hagdan, tumatakbo!” (The stairs are moving!) When they went home, everyone was so happy. One of her little nieces hugged Maricel and said, “Tita, sa susunod na taon, ipasyal mo kami ulit, ha?” (Auntie, take us out again next year, OK?) Clearly, it was the high point of their year. Casually, I asked Maricel, “What did you eat in the mall?” “Hindi po kami kumain, Kuya Bo. Walang budget, eh.” (We didn’t eat. I had no budget.) Her answer brought me to tears. Those kids went to the mall and went home without eating, and yet they were so happy. Sometimes, I forget how blessed I am. Sometimes, we have food in front of us, and we even have the gall to complain that it isn’t our favorite. No wonder we lack happiness in our lives. And no wonder our bodies are sick!

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Learn to be more grateful for life. Live in gratitude. Celebrate God’s goodness, even in the smallest blessings! Soon, happiness and healing will flow into your life. Second, Trust. Heart disease has killed more people than any other disease in the world. It’s the number one killer in the world. And I believe the number one cause of heart disease is stress. From my experience, there’s only one antidote to stress: Trust in God. It’s the greatest stress buster in the world. How much do you trust in God? A deep trust in God will make you avoid stress and keep you healthy! I invite you now to surrender your problems to God. Follow the Bible when it says, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). He does care for you, my friend. Give Him all your fears. Surrender yourself to God.

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Section 3

Relationships The power of love to change bodies is legendary... Love moves the flesh, it pushes matter around.... — Larry Dossey

Only Love Heals! I believe that only love can heal our souls, our minds, our emotions — and ultimately, our bodies. Today, there are hundreds of scientific studies made that show that people who are surrounded by love have, in general, healthier bodies. People who enjoy loving relationships among family and friends enjoy stronger immune systems and live longer. Right this moment, you’re surrounded by bacteria and virus. They’re in the air you breathe. They’re in the food you eat. But why are you not sick? Because of your immune system. That immune system becomes stronger when you’re filled with love. In a study made among AIDS patients, they discovered that feelings of love, gratitude and 61

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appreciation created 300,000 times the resistance they had without those feelings. Lesson: Stay in feelings of joy, love, gratitude and appreciation! Dr. Bernie Siegel devoted his entire life studying the power of our thoughts over our bodies. He wrote, “I have collected 57 extremely well documented so-called cancer miracles. A cancer miracle is when a person didn’t die when they absolutely, positively were supposed to. At a certain particular moment in time they decided that the anger and the depression were probably not the best way to go, since they had such a little bit of time left, and so they went from that to being loving, caring, no longer angry, no longer depressed, and able to talk to the people they loved. These 57 people had the same pattern. They gave up, totally, their anger, and they gave up, totally, their depression, by specifically a decision to do so. And at that point the tumors started to shrink.” Today, you’ll learn the power of loving, caring and healing relationships over your physical body. My recommendation? Check your inner love tank. How full is it? (Or how empty?) Increase the love you receive. Increase the love you give (because what you give, you receive back multiplied over). Invest in your relationships. Major in it. Prioritize it. And you’ll be blessing your body big time!

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Chapter 14

Is a Lack of Love Causing You to Get Sick? Good friends are good for your health. — Irwin Sarason, PhD “Two are better than one.” — Ecclesiastes 4:9

One day, a man came to a priest and said, “Father, please help me. My wife is poisoning me.” “What? How can you be sure?” the priest asked. “I’m very sure!” The priest was concerned. He said, “Let me talk to your wife. I’ll see what I can find out — and I’ll let you know.” The next day, the man came to the priest again. “What happened, Father?” “I called your wife. I talked to her for three solid hours! Do you want my advice?” “What’s your advice, Father?” “Drink the poison.”

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Why People Are Sick Do you know why so many people are sick? Because their relationships are poisoning them. So many people are starving for love. But all they get is poison. Today, I’m going to make a bold claim: I can predict the state of your health 30 years from now. How? By asking you a simple question: How’s your relationship with your parents? Let me tell you where I got this… The Effect of Our Parents’ Love From 1956 to 1991, Harvard asked 126 healthy men to rate their relationship with their parents, whether it was… a. Very Close b. Warm and Friendly c. Tolerant d. Strained and Cold (Go right ahead and choose two answers, one describing your relationship with your Mom and the other for your Dad.) These researchers went back to these men 35 years later. Among the men who said they had “very close, warm, and friendly” relationships with both their parents, 47 percent had major illnesses. But 53 percent of them were healthy. You might say, “Well Bo, what’s so surprising about that? Isn’t that normal — half are healthy and half are sick?” Yes, that’s normal. But the next answers aren’t. After 35 years… 64

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• Among the men who said only their mother was warm and close, and their father wasn’t, 82 percent were sick; 18 percent were healthy. • Among the men who said only their father was warm, and their mother wasn’t, 91 percent of them were sick; Only 9 percent were healthy. • Here’s the worst. Among the men who rated both their father and mother low in warmth and closeness, 100 percent of them were sick. None of them were healthy! By sick, I mean major diseases like heart disease, ulcers, hypertension, even alcoholism. I have good news for you: You don’t have to follow these statistics. Because God has another plan for your life. He wants you to be vibrant and healthy and strong. If you follow what God is telling you to do today, you’ll experience health and healing in your body. But first, let me explain why we get sick when we lack love.

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Chapter 15

Sickness Is Separation The “I” in illness is isolation, and the crucial letters in wellness are “we.” — Author unknown, as quoted in Mimi Guarneri, The Heart Speaks: A Cardiologist Reveals the Secret Language of Healing “It is not good for the man to be alone.” — Genesis 1:18

God designed our bodies for love. Think of fish. Pull it out of water and it dies. Because its body was made for water. In the same way, our bodies were made to swim in love. Pull us out of love and we die. Our bodies get sick, become weak, and perish. Whenever we move towards separation, conflict, isolation and loneliness, we get sick. Stress is really separation. Worry is separation. Fear is separation. Sadness is separation. We’re afraid because we feel alone. We’re sad because we feel no one is there for us.

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Anger and unforgiveness are also separation. Here’s my belief: Any movement towards separation makes us sick. But any movement towards connection makes you whole! When you forgive, when you love, when you trust, you walk towards your healing. Take a look at this small town called Roseto. The Effect of Our Neighbor’s Love Roseto has become very famous because Malcolm Gladwell wrote about it in his bestselling book Outliers. For many years, this small town in Pennsylvania was a “medical anomaly.” Doctors and researchers couldn’t understand why Roseto’s residents were incredibly healthy. For example, virtually no one in Roseto had heart disease! And the death rate for those aged 50 to 60 years old was half that of the entire USA. So many theories came up to explain this medical anomaly. They said perhaps it was the air they breathed. Or the water they drank. Or the food they ate. But after much research, all these theories didn’t hold water. Why? Because right beside it was another town named Nazareth. And people of Roseto and Nazareth ate the same food, drank the same water and breathed the same air. But Nazareth, just a few miles away, had a lot of people with heart disease. And their death rate of old people followed the national average. What was so special about Roseto? After many years of study, doctors finally found the answer. 68

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Many years ago, the people of a tiny village in Italy, also called Roseto, migrated to America. They pitched their tents in a place in Pennsylvania and called their town Roseto, too. And these migrants brought with them their close-knit relationships. For years, they were insulated from the “individualist” lifestyle of America. Let me give you a glaring fact: Unlike many Americans, in Roseto, three generations lived under one roof! Grandpa, grandma, all the children and their spouses, and all the grandchildren still lived in one house, eating together every day. Imagine the noise. Imagine the fights. Imagine the chaos. But imagine also the love! Here’s a second unique thing about this town. After dinner, you’d see neighbors gathering on their wooden porches and talking over a hot cup of coffee. You’d see neighbors greeting each other on the street and chitchatting. No one is rushing. Everyone knows everybody. And that, my friend, was the only reason for the medical anomaly in Roseto: Something called love. Create This Medical Anomaly in Your Family I believe God wants you to build a Roseto in your family. He wants you to be 100 percent healthy. He wants your family to be 100 percent healthy, too. How do you receive this grace? Increase your love in your heart. Increase your love in your family. Spend more time together. 69

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Go home after work and play with your kids. Date your spouse. Eat together often. Laugh with your friends. Better yet, serve together. You’ll bless your loved ones with spectacular health. Because only love heals. 4 Prescriptions to Heal Your Body by the Power of Love Let me go to specific ways of healing. Here are four things you can do to increase healing in your body by the power of love. 1. Open Up More. 2. Touch More. 3. Volunteer More. 4. Accept More.

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Chapter 16

Open Up More The worst prison would be a closed heart. — Pope John Paul II “Love covers over all wrongs.” — Proverbs 10:12

Dr. David Spiegel wanted to disprove my very message — that love has something to do with health. He got women with metastatic breast cancer and divided them into two sections. The women in the first section were each given small support groups. These small groups were to meet for 90 minutes each week for sharing and encouragement. The second section didn’t have these support groups. Result? The women in the first section, who had a weekly support groups, lived twice as long as the other women. Sadly, after five years, all the women in the second section were dead. Dr. Spiegel was proven wrong. Love has everything to do with your health! If you want to be healed, open up in your close relationships. If you don’t have close relationships, find them. 71

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In our community, Light of Jesus, we don’t only have large gatherings like The Feast. We also have caring groups. These are small groups of eight to 15 people that gather each week for sharing and loads of fun. So, here’s my first prescription for you: Join a caring group. God wants to bring healing to your body. And He’ll do it through your close relationships. They’ll change your life and heal your bodies, too. I’ve been part of these small, nourishing, caring groups for 30 years now. I can’t imagine my life without them. Each week, I always look forward to these relaxing, happy, fun meetings. I believe they’re the best stress busters in the world.

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Chapter 17

Touch More Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. — Leo Buscaglia “Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man.... Immediately he was cured of leprosy.“ — Matthew 8:2-3 Do you have a pet? You’ll find this next study riveting. In Ohio, researchers wanted to measure the effect of a high-cholesterol diet among rabbits. So they fed rabbits food rich in cholesterol. (I have no idea what they fed Bugs Bunny and his friends. Aligue? Crispy pata?) In one room, rabbits were stacked in wired cages from floor to ceiling. All of them were given the same food rich in cholesterol. The doctors were expecting all the rabbits to develop blockages in their arteries. But the results boggled their minds. The rabbits at the higher cages got more blockages than the ones in the lower cages. 73

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It made no sense. The rabbits were of the same genetic background. But after much thinking, they found the answer. A very obvious, simple answer. They discovered that the guy who fed the rabbits loved animals. He would play with them, pet them, cuddle them and stroke them. But here was the problem: He was short. So he could play only with the rabbits in the lower cages. He couldn’t play with the rabbits in the higher cages. He could only feed them. Result? The rabbits that were petted, cuddled, caressed and loved had 60 percent less blockages in their arteries. Amazing? That’s the power of touch. Go Against Your Culture and Show Affection If affection is good for rabbits, it must be good for you, too. I recommend that you touch, hug and caress your loved ones more often. They need it. (Correction: They starve for it.) And you need it, too. When I say this, some tell me, “But Bo, my family isn’t the touchy-feely type. It’s just not our family culture. We feel corny and icky when we do that.” Then don’t follow your culture. Unless, of course, you want to get sick. Let me give you an example of culture. Psychologist Sydney Jourard wanted to measure the 74

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number of times couples touched in a restaurant. So we went around the world and through hidden cameras counted the number of “touches.” In Puerto Rico, couples touched 180 times an hour. In Paris, couples touched 110 times an hour. But in the United States, they touched only two times an hour. And in London, it was zero! Too bad he didn’t come here to the Philippines. But our national average isn’t important. Here’s my second prescription: Today, make a decision to create a culture of touch in your family. If you know how important touching is to the health of your loved ones, you’ll do it. Make a conscious effort to embrace each other every day. I embrace my kids every day — and it’s good for them, and it’s good for me, too! Embrace your children. Embrace your parents. Embrace your friends. We need hugs for our physical survival.

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Chapter 18

Volunteer More Research has shown that people who volunteer often live longer. — Allen Klein “Serve one another through love.” — Galatians 5:13 Receiving love is important. But giving love is important, too. In a huge study done by Cornell University, they gathered 427 married women with children. They hypothesized that the more kids a mother has (and thus, more stress), the earlier she dies. They were wrong. The number of kids wasn’t a factor at all. They were shocked to discover that the determining factor of a mother’s longevity was something very simple: whether she did volunteer work or not in a volunteer organization. After 30 years, they went back to these 427 women. Here were the results:

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• Among the women who didn’t do volunteer work, 52 percent had major illnesses. • Among the women who did regular volunteer work, only 36 percent had major illnesses. You get sick because you move towards separation. How does healing happen? When you move towards connection. When you love and receive love, your body rejoices. Your body is happy! And your body becomes strong. Today, I ask you: Do you do volunteer work? Do you give of yourself to people who won’t be able to pay you back? I invite you to join a ministry in your prayer group or charity work. My third prescription for 100 percent health: For a few hours a week, forget yourself. Think of others. Go out of your way. Serve strangers. And yes, welcome healing into your body.

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Chapter 19

Accept More “Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.” — Ephesians 4:32

I’ve got a great marriage. People ask me, “Bo, what’s your secret? If there’s one thing that I can do to have a great marriage, what would it be?” I tell them my secret. It’s very simple, really. Every day in my marriage, I face a choice: To be right or to be loving. And I always choose to be loving. There are times when I’m totally convinced that I’m right and my wife is totally wrong. But I’ve long decided never to insist that I’m right. I just love her. Believe me, this decision has made my marriage — and my life — so enjoyable. (And after two years or so, I realize I was wrong and she was right. Oh well…) And my body is healthier, too! I once heard Deepak Chopra talk about this. He said if you want to be healed, you have to lose your need to defend your point of view. 79

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War is the defense of a point of view. But war has never worked. Just look at the history of the world. No one wins in a war! Hey, it’s great to have a point of view. (It’s healthy.) But don’t be attached to it. Because no two people will experience reality in the same way. Repeat: When you lose your rigid need to be right, you experience healing. Do you want to be healthy? Here’s my fourth and last prescription: Don’t judge. Don’t label. Deepak says that in the silence of non-judgment, healing comes. (Silence happens because much of the noise in our minds is the noise of judgment.) When you drop your defenses, there is nothing to attack. Also, if you want to be healthy, choose the people you hang out with — those who don’t add to your stress. Have cheerful friends. Proverbs 22:24 says, “Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man, do not associate with one easily angered.” You Will Be Healed Friend, God wants to heal you. God wants you to be healthy. This is His great desire for you. And the only way to be healthy is to live in love.

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In the same way that fish need to live in the water, you, too, need to live in love. Move towards connection with my four prescriptions. • Open up more. • Touch more. • Serve more. • And accept more. Fill your life with love! And you will be healed.

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Section 4

Nourishment Do vegetarians eat animal crackers? — Author Unknown

You Are What You Eat I just ate my breakfast. I had two slices of melon, four chunks of watermelon, two bananas and two mangoes. I only eat fruits for breakfast — and usually, only local fruits found in the country. I try to eat organic whenever possible. I’ll have lunch soon. It’ll consist of vegetables — usually raw. If not, it’ll be slightly cooked. My dinner will be the same. Because I believe that you are what you eat — both emotionally and physically. Result? I’ve never felt better in my life. Surprise: This kind of diet is found in the Bible! My health mentor taught me that if I eat this way each day, I cleanse my liver and kidneys, alkalinize my

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body, give myself natural vitamins and nutrients, and provide my body with living enzymes. So, every day, I give my body a power boost. And I feel incredible. For 17 years now, I’ve been careful with what I eat. In the past two weeks, we’ve discussed how our emotions (or “what eats you up” inside) has a direct effect on your physical body. Today, we’ll talk about what the Bible says about “what you eat” and its direct effect on your body. If you want a healthy body, here’s what I’ve learned: Let food be your medicine. Let medicine be your food. If we eat the right food, we don’t need much of the medicines we take in today. By eating right, we open ourselves to God’s healing power. So get ready to be healed and be even more healthy!

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Chapter 20

The Best Medicine in the World Is Right in Front of You Let food be thy medicine, and let thy medicine be food. — Hippocrates

Lolo Carding and Lola Caring met each other in their old age, fell in love and decided to get married. Their age? Lolo Carding was 81 and Lola Caring was 79. One day, while walking in a mall, they passed by a big drugstore. Lolo Carding told his fiancée, “Let’s go in.” They met the woman behind the counter. Lolo Carding asked, “Do you sell heart medication?” The woman said, “Yes, Lolo.” “Medicine for arthritis?” Lolo Carding asked. The woman nodded her head, “Plenty, Lolo.” “How about medicine for memory problems, back pains, osteoporosis, constipation, high cholesterol, hypertension and diabetes?” The woman smiled, “Yes, we have all those medicines, Lolo.” “Do you also sell wheelchairs and walkers?” 85

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“We have many brands, Lolo.” Lolo Carding and Lola Caring smiled at each other, turned to the woman behind the counter and said, “We will be getting married in one month. Can we use this drugstore as our bridal registry?” How You Can Avoid Becoming a Walking Drugstore? People expect that as they grow old, they’ll be taking more and more drugs. Why? Because that’s what old people do. I know of some people who take 20 tablets a day. That seems normal now. People take maintenance medicines for hypertension, high sugar, cholesterol, uric acid, high sugar and heart problems. Plus, they take more medicines for the side effects. Isn’t that insane? Yet that has become normal, too. Friend, this doesn’t have to happen to you. You have a choice. There’s another path to growing old. I’ll repeat my message: The best medicine in the world is God’s chosen food. Eat it and be healed.

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Chapter 21

Consult Your Manufacturer It is reasonable to expect the doctor to recognize that science may not have all the answers to problems of health and healing. — Norman Cousins “God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him...” — Genesis 1:27 If your phone is busted, what do you do? You just don’t bring it to anyone. If you’re wise, you bring it to its manufacturer. If you have a Nokia phone, you bring it to Nokia. If it’s Samsung, you bring it to Samsung. If it’s an iPhone, you bring it to Apple. Today, I want you to go to your Manufacturer. Get yourself repaired. Consult Him. What does He say about becoming healthy? I’m not a doctor. I’m a spiritual mentor. So I’ll be showing you what the Bible says about health.

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It’s amazing how science is now discovering the logic behind these ancient verses. The Cause of 99 Percent of All Diseases Read carefully: According to immunologists, 99 percent of all diseases aren’t caused by germs. They’re caused by a starving, weak, malnourished immune system. Your body has an incredible, God-designed, super-elite army capable of destroying any germ that tries to attack it. This internal army consists of billions of cells in your body that can prevent and cure any disease in your body. But that’s the problem: We don’t eat the food that God designed for us to eat. So that army is starving. No wonder we get sick! If you look at the Bible, it gives you very practical recommendations on what you should eat. Let’s consult our Manufacturer and find out what He says about what we should eat. Let me discuss three prescriptions today. 1. Eat Plants. 2. Eat Clean. 3. Eat Other “Food.”

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Chapter 22

Eat Plants It’s bizarre that the produce manager is more important to my children’s health than the pediatrician.  — Meryl Streep “God makes the earth yield healing herbs which the prudent man should not neglect.” — Sirach 38:4 In Daniel 1:11-15, we read the fascinating story of how Daniel and his friends competed with the Babylonians in the “Who Will Be Healthier in 10 Days?” contest. “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food….” So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days. At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. Daniel and his friends ate “vegetables and water.” The other young men ate “royal food,” which consisted of meat and other foods that were considered “unclean”

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by the Bible. After 10 days, Daniel and his friends were healthier. The poor man’s diet won over the rich man’s diet. The Bible says in Genesis 1:29, “I have given you every plant with seeds on the face of the earth and every tree that has fruit with seeds. This will be your food.” The Bible tells us that plants should be our main food. And today, modern science agrees! If you study our bodies, you’ll find more similarities with herbivores than carnivores. Go to the mirror now and check your teeth. What do you notice? They’re flat. Just like the teeth of cows, goats and sheep. (If they’re all sharp, I suggest you find a good exorcist.) Carnivores, like lions and tigers, have sharp teeth. Second, herbivores have very long digestive tracks. Just like ours. Carnivores have short ones. Our anatomy is telling you that our major food should be plants. The reason why we get sick is because for many years (decades?) we’ve not been eating enough plants.

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Chapter 23

Why Natural Is Still Best Vegetables are must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread and pumpkin pie. — Jim Davis “Please test your servants for ten days. Give us vegetables to eat and water to drink. ... After ten days they looked healthier and better fed than any of the young men who ate from the royal table.” — Daniel 1:12-13, 15 When I tell people to eat more fruits and veggies, they give me three common objections. Objection 1: “But, Bo, I Take Vitamins!” Some people say, “I don’t like fruits and veggies. So I just take vitamins.” Thank God you’re taking vitamins. But that isn’t enough. Sorry, vitamin pills won’t replace the actual fruit or veggie. They’re called supplements because they add, not replace. Because fruits and vegetables aren’t just about the vitamins. The actual plant also gives enzymes, trace 91

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elements, fiber, alkalinity, etcetera! Let me give you an analogy. If you’re my age, you probably watched Voltes V. For younger people who didn’t watch this Japanese cartoon, my deepest condolences to you. Voltes V consists of five spaceships piloted by Steve, Mark, Big Bert, Little John and Jamie. There was a love triangle between Steve, Mark and beautiful Jamie and… uh, never mind. By themselves, the spaceships are OK. Each can shoot down enemy ships. But somewhere in the middle of the cartoon, these five spaceships connect with each other and “volt in.” Attached together, they form a giant, powerful, kick-butt robot with a saber sword. Yep, the sum is always greater than its parts. Swallowing a vitamin pill is like getting only one spaceship of Voltes V. But when you eat the whole fruit or vegetable, you’re getting all five team members — and they volt in! They work together to build you up. Take the case of enzymes. You Need Workers Vitamins and minerals are like the raw materials for building your body. Imagine all of the wood, steel and cement necessary to build a home. But the enzymes are your laborers. Without laborers, the house won’t be built. And where do you get enzymes? Not from a pill.

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You get enzymes when you eat raw fruits and raw vegetables. Alkaline Body No, I’m not talking about long-lasting batteries. Here’s another thing complete fruits and vegetables give you that pills can’t: When you eat plants, your body becomes alkaline. And germs can’t live in an alkaline environment. Cancer cells can’t live in an alkaline environment. That’s why cancer patients and other sick people have highly acidic bodies. (By acidic, I’m not talking about stomach acidity. I’m talking of the entire body.) When you eat fruits and vegetables every day, you make your body alkaline, thus making it stronger against disease. Here’s another objection… Objection 2: “But, Bo, I Do Eat Fruits and Veggies!” That’s great! The question is how much? Some eat one fruit a day — a banana after a meal — and they pat themselves on the back and say, “I’m healthy.” Some eat one tiny side dish of cooked veggies — perhaps buttered string beans and carrots — and they say, “I’m healthy.” But doctors specializing in immunology will tell you that you need 15 kinds of fruits and vegetables every day to be healthy. Fifteen! Every single day. 93

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I’m not asking you to be vegetarians. But if you want to be healthy, make fruits and veggies your main food. Let everything else be side dishes.

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Chapter 24

Why Simple Is Still Best “Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something difficult, you would have done it. So why don’t you do what he said? Go wash and be cured.” — 2 Kings 5:13 Finally, there’s another objection that people give… Objection #3: “But, Bo, It’s So Simplistic…” Last month, while traveling in Shanghai, my 85-yearold mother got sick. (Yep, at her age, she still travels!) When she came home, she got worse. She was coughing non-stop, felt very weak, couldn’t sleep and had pain in her ribcage. When my sisters brought her to the clinic, the doctor gave her top-of-the-line antibiotics. They were expensive and powerful. She took one tablet before she slept. The next morning, she felt terrific. “It’s a miracle,” she said, “I feel so good. The antibiotic worked.” That day, my health mentor visited us. He looked at my mother, and said, “Mommy, I want you to take a megadose of vitamin C.” My sister asked, “What brand?” My health mentor laughed. “When I say megadose of vitamin C, I don’t mean swallowing a pill. I’m talking about 95

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eating fruits and drinking fresh fruit juices. Osterize them. Drink juices many times every day!” Here’s what happened. My mother didn’t listen to him. Nor did any of my sisters who were staying with her. Why? Because the antibiotic was working. Or so they thought. The next day, the “miracle” wore off and she got worse. Her coughing got worse. Her pains got worse. Despite taking powerful antibiotics every day. After one week, she was a wreck. Mom hates hospitals. But that morning, she felt so bad, she woke up and said, “Bring me to the hospital. I can’t take it anymore.” But that day, my health guru visited again. And he asked her, “Mommy, did you take your fresh fruit juices?” Mom shook her head. My sisters said, “Ooops, we forgot.” My health teacher scolded us, “What happened? Mommy, please take your juices, non-stop, every day.” Healing from Simple Fresh Fruits That day, we gave her fresh fruit juices. Many times a day. We’d take the fruits, chuck them in a blender, and pour the juice into a glass. Simple. That was her main food the next few days. And would you believe? In two to three days, she was cured! Here’s our problem. We don’t like simple solutions. 96

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We like it when the solution is complicated. It’s more believable. Like costly pills. A trip to the hospital. An expensive medical test. But when we hear the words, “Eat fruits,” we think it’s an old wives’ tale. But scientists are now telling us it’s not old wives’ tales. Just last January, a group of food scientists proved that mango — in an experiment made in a laboratory — fought the cells of breast and colon cancer. For years, scientists have been saying that bananas are effective against hypertension, depression, digestive problem and a host of other diseases. And ripe bananas have cancer-fighting elements. For years, pineapples have been known to have powerful anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. Ordinary fruits that we take for granted because they’re so available. But what do we do? We’d rather eat a candy bar than a mango. We’d rather eat chichiria (chips) than a pineapple. I’m not a scientist. Never was and never will be. But here’s my wild guess: I believe all fruits are powerful medicines for your body. If you follow the immunologists and eat 15 kinds of fruits and vegetables every day, you’ll avoid many sickness. In the next two chapters, I’ll give you two very practical steps on how to apply this important food recommendation into your daily life.

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Chapter 25

Eat Local Fruits for Breakfast Every Day “Then God said, ‘I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.’” — Genesis 1:29 I have a simple solution for you. Instead of a breakfast of hotdogs, pancakes, bacon, eggs, SPAM and rice — why not eat fruits? Here’s what I do. Every morning, I eat local fruits for breakfast. Pineapples. Watermelons. Melons. Star apple. Mangoes. Bananas. Guyabano. Papaya. Etcetera! I try to eat five fruits every morning. When I do that, I bless my body every day with the following: • I load up with natural vitamins and minerals. • I take in necessary living enzymes. • I cleanse my internal organs of toxins. • I give my body an alkaline environment. Organic fruits are best. If you can’t find them, wash them very well. 99

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Why a preference for local fruits? Fruits from other countries may take a long time to come to our shores. So the possibility that they spray these fruits with chemicals to preserve them is more likely. Here’s my suggestion. To really get the maximum effect of the fruits, wait for an hour before you eat any other food or drink water. Why? Fruits are very easy to digest.

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Chapter 26

Eat Raw Veggies for Lunch and Dinner Every Day Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon. — Doug Larson

Most people eat veggies. But we eat too little of them. A few leaves and we think we’re OK. No, you’re not. Your immune system is starving for real food. Another thing? We cook our veggies to death. All the nutrients and enzymes are gone. Here’s my very strong recommendation: For lunch and dinner, eat a huge bowl of raw salad. Let that be your main meal. What veggies? If you’re Filipino, sing “Bahay Kubo”! Organic, if you can find them. If not, wash thoroughly. For variation, you can also eat slightly cooked, slightly steamed, slightly blanched veggies.

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I’ve got some favorite dishes: I love a bowl of hot soup filled with slightly cooked fresh veggies with a dollop of Korean fermented chili (spicy!) sauce. Yum! I’ve been eating this way for some time now and my body is thanking me for it. If you’re good to your body, your body will be good to you. I encourage you to study how to make delicious veggie dishes. Google it. Buy vegetarian recipe books. Make your family healthy and prevent disease! Ten years from now, you’ll be grateful you upgraded your diet.

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Chapter 27

Eat Clean “I have given these laws so that you will know what animals, birds, and fish are clean and may be eaten, and which ones are unclean and may not be eaten.” — Leviticus 11:46-47 If you read the Old Testament, you’ll find God calling some animals “clean” and others “unclean.” Here’s one example in Leviticus 11:1-3: The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Say to the Israelites: ‘Of all the animals that live on land, these are the ones you may eat: You may eat any animal that has a split hoof completely divided and that chews the cud.’” According to the Bible, cows, sheep and goats are clean. Pigs aren’t. Chickens and turkeys are clean. Rabbits aren’t. Tuna and salmon are clean. Crabs, shrimps, shells and squid aren’t. On and on the list goes. In the New Testament, we no longer follow these food laws. Because as Christians, we don’t consider them spiritual laws anymore. We’re free to eat anything. No, you won’t go to the fires of hell if you eat lechon. 103

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Yehey. Instead of taking them as spiritual laws, I suggest that we take them as health recommendations. Because this is what I find amazing: Science is now discovering that animals labeled as “unclean” by the Bible carry more diseases and more toxins than the “clean” variety. For example, “clean” animals have three or four stomachs with very long digestive tracks. But unclean animals have one stomach and a very short digestive track. A cow takes 24 hours to digest its food. Aside from the fact that a pig eats anything, it also takes only four hours to digest its food — absorbing much of the toxins that it eats into its flesh. Vacuum Cleaner of the Sea I find this next passage rather fishy. In Leviticus 11:9-10, it says: “Of all the creatures living in the water of the seas and the streams, you may eat any that have fins and scales. But all creatures in the seas or streams that do not have fins and scales — whether among all the swarming things or among all the other living creatures in the water — you are to detest.” What are sea creatures without scales or fins? Crabs, lobsters, shrimps, squid and all shellfish. Today, we know that they’re the scavengers of the sea. They’re garbage collectors. They’re vacuum cleaners. They’re bottom feeders, eating fish droppings and 104

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dead creatures. Because of this, they purify the water. Good for the water. But bad for them. And bad for those who eat them. High concentrations of germs and toxins are in their meat. In fact, if scientists want to know the toxicity level of a lake or lagoon, he’ll get a shrimp in that water and measure the toxins in its meat. And what’s so important about scales anyway? Today, science has discovered that scales are important because that’s what fishes use to release the toxins from its body. My recommendation? Avoid pork. Avoid crabs, lobsters, shrimp, squid and all shellfish. At the very least, minimize eating them. Because if you eat them regularly, you’ll have a more difficult time preventing disease in the future. But food isn’t our only food. Your body requires other kinds of “nourishment.” Let me mention four of them…

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Chapter 28

Nourish Yourself with Movement “Physical exercise has some value…” — 1 Timothy 1:8

Find an exercise that you enjoy. Personally, I love walking. It’s the simplest exercise. I believe it’s also one of the best exercises in the world. It requires no membership fees, no fancy equipment, no long trips to the gym, exposes you to fresh air, gives an emotional lift because you’re outdoors, provides you with sunlight and cleanses your lymphatic system. I walk for 30 to 45 minutes each morning. While walking, I can do three wonderful things: I can talk to God, or I can plan for my day, or I can listen to an audio talk on my iPod and be inspired. So I look forward to these “side benefits,” too. Before my walk, I do very simple Tai Chi movements. I just do it for about 10 to 15 minutes.

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And I love doing them. The deep breathing and slow movements refresh me so much. I’ve realized one thing: The simpler my exercise program, the easier it is for me to do. And the more I enjoy it, the more likely I’ll keep on doing it. There are many other healthy exercise programs and I encourage you to find the one that works for you. But I warn you against “over exercise.” For example, studies have found that some marathoners aren’t healthier but are more prone to colds and other sicknesses. But moderate exercise will strengthen your inner healer. I believe many people will be surprised how many of their diseases will decrease or disappear if they start taking walks every day!

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Chapter 29

Nourish Yourself with Oxygen Fresh air impoverishes the doctor. — Danish Proverb “God formed Man out of dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life.” — Genesis 2:7

This may surprise you, but many people don’t breathe well. They breathe in a shallow way, also called lazy breathing. Their body is starved of oxygen. Most diseases are linked to the lack of oxygen in our cells. Germs can’t live in a highly oxygenated environment. I really believe a lot of people will get healed by simply breathing slow, deep breaths many times during each day. For example, I work with the computer a lot. When my web pages are loading (because of slow Internet connection), I take long, deep, invigorating breaths. It not only gives me oxygen, it relaxes me emotionally, releasing my stress.

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I personally believe that if you do this many times a day, you’ll awaken the healer in you. Take deep breaths every day. De-stress yourself at different times of the day.

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Chapter 30

Sunlight I think you might dispense with half your doctors if you would only consult Dr. Sun more. — Henry Ward Beecher “The light is pleasant, and it is good for the eyes to see the sun.” — Ecclesiastes 11:7

Filipina mothers expose their newborn infants to the sunlight. They have the right idea! But adults aren’t exempt. You still need sunlight at least 30 minutes a day, preferably in the morning. Sunlight heals! God created lots of it for your use. Because of sunlight, your body produces vitamin D, which is crucial for your health and healing. Health experts believe vitamin D prevents osteoporosis, depression, prostate cancer, breast cancer and even effects of diabetes and obesity. If your skin is darker, and thus have more skin pigment, you need more sunlight to produce the required amounts of vitamin D.

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And don’t use sunscreen lotions, because they prevent the production of vitamin D. Just use common sense so you won’t get sunburned (like don’t stay under the sun for four hours!). I believe that a lot of people will change the quality of their health by exposing themselves to more sunlight every day.

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Chapter 31

Sleep The best six doctors anywhere And no one can deny it Are sunshine, water, rest and air Exercise and diet. — Nursery rhyme “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain… for he gives to his beloved sleep.” — Psalm 127:1-2

Many people don’t sleep enough. If you want to be healthy, listen to your body. Your body will tell you how many hours of sleep it needs. For example, I’ve noticed that vegetarians need lesser hours of sleep — because digestion takes a huge amount of energy. But most people will require eight hours of sleep to be fully totally restored. But at the end of the day, I believe that real sleep doesn’t come from sleeping pills or an expensive bed. I believe real sleep comes from God. (See the passage above.) 113

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Do you trust in the Lord for all your worries? When you trust Him deeply, you can sleep! By the way, didn’t you notice that oxygen, movement, sunlight and sleep are free? Health isn’t expensive.

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Chapter 32

Cleanse Your Soul, Cleanse Your Body Health is a state of complete harmony of the body, mind and spirit. — B.K.S. Iyengar

Let me end with two true-to-life stories. I know of a woman who was almost a vegetarian for 10 years. But recently, she had cancer. People around her were aghast. How could someone whose diet was so healthy have cancer? The answer came from those who knew her predicament: Last year, she discovered her husband was having an affair. It was such a painful experience for her. Her heart was filled with rage and bitterness. In my ministry, I’ve talked to so many people with cancer. I’m no longer surprised when I find out that it coincided with a highly stressful, very painful event in their lives. Why am I sharing this to you? To remind you again that we’re not just biological creatures. We’re spiritual and emotional beings, too. And while eating right, sleeping right, breathing right and 115

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exercising right are crucial for our health, that’s just one part of the equation. Let me now share with you my other story. My friend had breast cancer seven years ago. Prior to this, she, too, discovered that her husband had an adulterous relationship. The family was torn apart. Bitter rage filled her heart. But she knew the deadly poison of resentment. And so daily, she let go of her anger. She surrendered her husband to God. And in prayer, she was led not to go through any chemotherapy or radiation. Instead, she became a pure 100 percent vegetarian. Her goal was to remove all emotional and physical toxins in her body. She was successful. Because today, my friend is totally free from cancer. I pray that the same miracle will happen to your life. Go ahead.

Cleanse your soul.

Cleanse your body.

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Section 5

Protection Get Rid of Toxins What is food to one, is to others bitter poison. — Lucretius I believe our bodies can heal itself. I believe bodies can fight 99 percent of the germs in the world. That’s how God created our bodies. Yes, our bodies are phenomenal! Our problem is that the healer in our bodies is weak. Why? Because of the toxins we allow into our emotions and bodies. In the past chapters, we’ve been talking about the toxins in our emotional life. Our unacknowledged and unsurrendered stress, angers, fears, shame, sin and guilt open us up to diseases. Today, we’ll be talking about the physical toxins. You can protect yourself from them, too. Friend, do you want to be healed?

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To God, there’s no distinction between natural and supernatural healing. All healing comes from Him. But you need to take charge of your health. Make a decision now to protect yourself from toxins (as much as you can) to awaken the healer in you. Even if you live in a polluted world, you can do simple things to avoid the pollution around you. Little things can go a long way to make you healthier.

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Chapter 33

Take Charge of Your Health Every man’s disease is his personal property. — Alonzo Clark

I remember my college days. Going to Ateneo every day was tough. If I drove Dad’s car, it would take me 20 minutes. But usually, Dad’s car wasn’t available. (Boohoo.) So I rode the public jeepney almost every day. And it would take me an hour to go through the traffic. Why that long? Three reasons. First, jeepney drivers are very friendly, sociable guys who like to stop in the middle of the road to chitchat with other drivers. Second, jeepney drivers drive very slowly, because they use secondhand engines that overheat if they go faster than 30 kph. Third, jeepney drivers are known to wait for passengers to fill their seats. So even if the passenger is still at home, eating his breakfast or taking a shower — the driver will still wait for him. I’m kidding. Just having fun here.

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Here’s my point: If you’re not the driver, you can only complain. Friend, in any vehicle, there are really only two seats: The Driver’s seat and the Passenger’s seat. Let me ask you this big question: In the vehicle of your life, where are you seated? Where You’re Seated Spells the Difference A lot of people are Passengers. They don’t take charge. All they do is complain. “Why am I not getting a promotion in my job?” “Why is my relationship not working?” “Why am I so sickly?” Let me give you a universal principle you can take to the bank: The amount of blessings you’ll receive is in direct proportion to the amount of responsibility you’re willing to take. The more responsibility you take in, the more blessings you take in as well. Blessings and Responsibility are really two sides of one coin. Do you want more blessings? Take more responsibility. Let me give you an example. Why does a manager earn more than a messenger? Because the manager has more responsibility than a messenger. This principle applies to your spiritual life, too. If you want more blessings for your spiritual life, you’ve got to take charge over your spiritual needs. And this applies to your health as well. What am I saying? 120

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When it comes to your life, don’t be a Passenger. God calls you to be the Driver. God wants you to hold the steering wheel of your life. God wants you to take charge. Take charge over your finances. Take charge over your relationships. And take charge over your health! You have more control over your health than you think. The Bible says that if you follow God and take care of your health, you’ll avoid many diseases (Exodus 15:26). Obviously, there are many exceptions. But generally, there are many health benefits to following God. Let me give you three prescriptions on how to avoid disease. Three Prescriptions One of the best things you can do for your health is to take charge of how much toxins you take into your body. To do this, you need to follow these three crucial prescriptions, all of them requiring that you take charge of your health: Prescription #1: Clean Living Prescription #2: Natural Eating Prescription #2: Holistic Healing

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Chapter 34

Clean Living “You shall warn the Israelites of their uncleanness, lest by defiling my Dwelling, which is in their midst, their uncleanness be the cause of their death.” — Leviticus 15:31 You’ll be amazed by this. The Bible was so ahead of its time when it came to hygiene and sanitation. This is mind blowing, considering that biblical authors had no scientific understanding of germs yet, something that Louis Pasteur would discover only in the year 1860. Let me give you four examples… Example 1: Quarantine Contagious Diseases Because our kids are small, all of us sleep in one room. (It’s a win-win. The kids love it because they’re with Mommy and Daddy. And Mommy and Daddy love it because we save on electricity!) But when one of us gets sick, that person sleeps in a separate room — to avoid spreading the sickness. The Bible talked about this a long time ago. It talked about separating people with leprosy and other contagious diseases (Leviticus 13:46). Even their clothes were to be burned. 123

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But centuries later, these simple procedures were forgotten. Thus, from the year 1000 to 1200, leprosy killed millions of people in Europe. And in the 14th century, also in Europe, the Black Death or the bubonic plague killed more than 60 million people. Let me give you a rather obvious example. Example 2: Toilet Training Would you believe? Toilet training is in the Bible. The Bible tells the Israelites to “have a place outside the camp where you can go when you need to relieve yourselves. Carry a stick as part of your equipment, so that when you have a bowel movement you can dig a hole and cover it up” (Deuteronomy 23:13-14). In the newer Bible versions, it says, “Carry a stick and toilet paper — preferably double ply.” Just kidding. Back in those days, you couldn’t flush. So people used a stick. The key here was to dig your dump — and cover with soil. But during the Middle Ages, this simple sanitary method wasn’t done in the many capital cities of Europe. Especially in the slums. In fact, the common practice was that people just dumped their poop on the street.

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Imagine the flies. Imagine the rats. Imagine the stink. And imagine the epidemics of cholera, dysentery and typhoid fever that exploded in those cities. All I can say is, “Thank God we can flush!” Example 3: Take a Bath When I was a kid, Mom forced me to take a bath. I don’t remember now why, but bathing to me was like water torture. But the Bible was pretty big on washing (Numbers 19:11-22). It even gave the ingredients for soap — so that hand washing will take more than 15 seconds — enough to remove the germs. During biblical times, this was a religious ritual. Today, we realize it’s a very important hygienic practice. But during the Middle Ages, bathing fell out of custom. Are you ready to be shocked again? During the Middle Ages, in Europe, most people took a bath one, two, three, or four times in their whole life. I’m not kidding. In Old Testament times, religion supported bathing. In the Middle Ages, religion supported not bathing. For example, the monks felt it was vain to take a bath. St. Francis of Assisi believed that to be dirty was a sign of a holy person. Even St. Benedict recommended that those who are young and strong should seldom take a bath. It was

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said that St. Catherine of Siena avoided washing. And St. Agnes, who died at the age of 13, had never taken a bath. Queen Isabella of Spain was proud to say that she only took two baths in her whole lifetime. And Queen Elizabeth of England was seen as a very vain woman. Why? Because she bathed once a month.

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Chapter 35

Sexual Purity for a Healthy Life “Let marriage be honored among all and the marriage bed be kept undefiled, for God will judge the immoral and adulterers.” — Hebrews 13:4 The Bible’s laws on sex were also laws on health. When people hear the 6th commandment, “Don’t commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14), some say, “God is such a killjoy. He doesn’t want us to have fun.” But the opposite is true. He wants us to have the greatest joy in the world. And the only way to do that is to be sexually faithful. When you’re faithful to your spouse, you don’t only get blessed spiritually, you also get blessed physically. How? You virtually make the entire army of venereal diseases not your personal concern. They’re irrelevant. I’m talking about syphilis, gonorrhea, herpes, hepatitis B and AIDS. Condoms and Antibiotics Don’t Solve the Problem When I was in college, I heard a classmate tell another classmate, “Just use a condom.” With that piece of rubber in their pocket, they felt safe. But it’s now a scientific fact: Condoms minimize the 127

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chances of getting the infection, but the failure rate is still alarming. Especially for AIDS, condoms won’t completely protect you. Imagine this scenario. You’re in a theme park. And you’re lining up for the giant roller coaster ride. After buying the ticket, you turn it over and see this printed at the back: “Warning: Roller coaster can spin off and disengage from the track, causing certain death, 15 percent of the time. To the 85 percent who won’t die, enjoy your ride.” Now tell me, will you still ride? I don’t think so. The same thing is happening with antibiotics. For a while, antibiotics were curing many people from venereal diseases. When I was a teenager, I remember listening to a “liberated” teacher telling us, “Before visiting a prostitute, take 500 milligrams of antibiotics. After sex, take another 500 milligrams. And you’ll be OK.” Not true. Today, drug-resistant bacteria of venereal diseases are spreading all over the world. Because of this, sexually transmitted diseases are now more deadly, more dangerous and more contagious than ever before. How Widespread Is STD? This information shocked me. The World Health Organization (WHO) says that one million people are being infected with venereal diseases every single day.

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When we watch TV, we’re awed by the beautiful and handsome young people that jump from one bed to the other. In sitcoms and movies we watch, sex is nothing more than a recreational activity — much like dancing and videogames. We envy their freedom. We want their pleasure. But Hollywood isn’t showing you the darker side: In America, one out of four teenage girls have a venereal disease. Among those who said they’ve already had sex, 40 percent have a venereal disease. Thirty-five million people in the world have AIDS. Appalled? That’s nothing when you compare that to Hepatitis B. Worldwide, Hepatitis B has now infected two billion people. That’s one out of three people in the entire world. Take charge over your health. Practice Prescription 1: Clean Living. Here’s my second prescription: Natural Eating.

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Chapter 36

Natural Eating He who takes medicine and neglects to diet wastes the skill of his doctors. — Chinese Proverb

Germs aren’t your only enemy. We now have new enemies: modern, man-made toxins. And it’s in our food. Let me tell you about Jack Lalanne, a fitness teacher. He is 96 years old. At his age, he still works out twice a day. That’s two hours of weight training in the morning and another two hours of swimming or walking in the afternoon. When people ask him what’s his best advice for becoming healthy, he tells them, “If man made it, don’t eat it.” Once upon a time, we ate food made by God. I love it when the Bible says, “And they ate what grew in the fields. They found wild honey among the rocks; their olive trees flourished in stony ground. Their cows and goats gave plenty of milk; they had the best sheep, goats, and cattle, the finest wheat, and the choicest wine” (Deuteronomy 32:12-14). I agree with Jack Lalanne. 131

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I believe many people are sick today because of the amount of processed food that we eat. Here’s what you need to watch out for… 1. Zero Nutrition Many times, all the nutrition in processed food has been wiped out by its “process.” But the packaging say it’s “enriched” because they put a few vitamins in it. Crazy. 2. Preservatives and Additives Because food companies want to increase their products’ shelf life, they’ve loaded them with preservatives. Because they want their food to be tasty yet cheap (and increase profits), they put additives and other chemicals to make them taste like the real thing. And many of these chemicals are not healthy for us. 3. Chemicals in Our Meat A few years back, a chick required 45 days to become a fully-grown chicken. Today, because of these chemicals, growth hormones and antibiotics, some chickens are ready for “harvesting” at only 28 days. A cow, by itself, produces 500 gallons of milk a year. Today, “super cows” produce 20,000 to 30,000 gallons of milk a year. That’s because of the chemicals that they inject into these animals. (Super cows don’t move around anymore. They’re held by a steel frame. And they’ve got tubes connected to their udders 12 hours a day.) These chemicals are what we ingest when we eat or drink their produce. 132

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By nature, cows are vegetarian. But in many parts of the world, cows and pigs have become cannibals. They eat their own kind. How? To increase their bulk, protein has been added to their feeds. And the most available protein would come from dead cows and pigs — usually those who died of sickness. Their carcasses, even their bones, are crushed to powder and mixed with the animal feeds. Some scientists believe that this is the main cause of the foot and mouth disease. My Recommendations Here’s my advice: Eat natural foods as much as possible. Decrease your processed food intake. For breakfast, instead of eating hotdogs, tocino, pancakes, white bread and sugared drinks, I suggest papaya, pineapple, melon, watermelon, banana, mangoes and other local fruits. For snacks, instead of chichiria, sodas and bottled juices, eat kamoteng kahoy, raw nuts and fresh fruit juices (made in your home). For lunch and dinner, instead of corned beef, instant noodles, and white rice, I suggest kangkong, okra, talbos ng kamote, lato, carrots, other vegetable salads, tofu, fish and unpolished rice. If you want to eat meat, look for “organic” meat. These are grass-fed cattle and free-range chickens. These are more difficult to find but not impossible. Once again, take charge over your health. Eat natural food. Here’s my third prescription…

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Chapter 37

Holistic Healing The part can never be well unless the whole is well.  — Plato “If one part of our body hurts, we hurt all over. If one part of our body is honored, the whole body will be happy.” — 1 Corinthians 12:26

Before I discuss this, let me state an obvious fact: I believe doctors are God’s gifts to us (Sirach 38:12-14). We need doctors. Imagine it’s New Year’s Eve and I get hit with a stray bullet. Please rush me to the hospital, slice me up and pull out the metal slug. Don’t ask, “Bo, what are the emotional roots of your bullet wound?” Once again, we need doctors. However, I also believe many get sick because of overmedication and wrong medication. In a study made by the National Institutes of Health, they say that between 35 to 40 percent of all hospital patients are there because of wrong medical care. Perhaps it was a misdiagnosis. Perhaps the patient was given the wrong medicine. 135

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Perhaps the patient received too much medicines. Perhaps the medicines had side effects. Perhaps while in the hospital, the patient got infected with another sickness. This was a study made in the United States. Somehow, I want to believe it’s not that bad here in the Philippines. (For example, my friend doctors are more spiritual and relational in nature.) Whenever possible, I always tell people to take the least invasive medical procedure — and be more invasive when it comes to changing their emotional life, spiritual life, lifestyle and diet. See Yourself as Body and Soul My friend, Dr. Romy Paredes, MD, emailed me last month, and he explained it to me this way… The bottom line truth: The immune system is a divinely designed system. But this was not emphasized in medical school. What was emphasized was what drug to give for every disease. Ironically, my favorite subject in medical school (and also the subject where I got my highest grade 1.0) is pharmacology... only to find out that somewhere later in my career, I decided to walk the less traveled road of medicine. Prescription pads nowadays are filled with drugs. That was how I was trained. Now I prescribe water, sunlight, words like forgive, love more, spend more time with your loved ones, a minimal amount of supplements. 136

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I agree with him. Because 99 percent of the time, medicines suppress the symptoms but never cure the cause of the sickness — which can be emotional, spiritual or nutritional in nature. Here’s what I mean: When a person comes to me with ulcers, chest pains, back problems, cancers, I advise him not just to pop a pill or go under a knife but to look at his entire life — body, soul and spirit. I ask him to awaken the healer within himself. I tell him to ask himself, “What’s causing this disease?” Eighty-five percent of the time, it’s an unresolved emotion buried in his heart. Heavy stress. A relationship conflict. A spiritual problem. Fifteen percent of the time, it’s a very unhealthy lifestyle that needs to change. A lack of real nutrition. (You can be fat but totally malnourished.) A lack of exercise. A lack of sunlight. A lack of oxygen. A lack of rest. So I ask him, “Don’t just pop a pill. Change your life.” Remember, God wants you to take charge of your health. You have more power than you think you have to change your body. A lot of people delegate their personal health to their doctor or to the medicines they take. Don’t abdicate that responsibility. God gave that responsibility to you. I repeat: Take charge of your health! Let me tell you a story that happened just last week…

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Chapter 38

Instead of Popping Pills, Awaken the Healer Half the modern drugs could well be thrown out the window, except that the birds might eat them. — Martin H. Fischer Medicine sometimes snatches away health, sometimes gives it. — Ovid, Ancient Roman Poet

Last Tuesday, my five-year-old son Francis woke up coughing. By afternoon, he had a fever. A few years back, we would — without much thought — give him paracetamol and cough syrup. If the cough and fever didn’t go away, we’d give him antibiotics. Today, we’re much wiser. What do we do? We awaken the healer in our kids. Believe me, it’s the most powerful thing we’ve ever seen.

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Starve a Fever Haven’t you noticed? When we get sick, we usually lose our appetite. There’s a purpose to this. Our bodies are telling us something. Observe your pets. When they get sick, they don’t want to eat, too. They stay in a corner and sleep or sulk. Years ago, when our kids got sick, we force-fed them. We scolded them, “Eat your rice! Eat your chicken! So you’ll have energy to fight the germs!” We no longer do that craziness. When we’re sick, we lose our appetites (our tongues can’t even taste food) because our bodies are telling us a simple message: “Don’t eat. I want to use all my energy to fight the disease.” Remember that digestion takes up huge amounts of energy. Your body wants to focus on defense. So what do we do now when our kids get sick? We “arm” their immune system with weapons necessary for the fight. How? Let “Natural” Food Be Your Medicine When Francis got sick last week, we made him drink fresh fruit juices. We threw in fresh fruits in a blender. Watermelon. Mango. Melon. Banana. Any local fruits we could get our hands on. For the entire day, that was all he had. Virtually no solids. He wasn’t hungry anyway. He lay down on the couch, in the arms of Mommy, watching Jurrasic Park, sipping his fresh fruit juice many times that day.

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Here’s the amazing thing: The following day, his fever and cough were gone. We couldn’t believe it. The healer in him won! (Note: If a child still has fever for more than three days, that’s the time you bring him to a doctor.) A Disclaimer I’m not a doctor. So please, before you apply what I’m asking you to do, consult your doctor. Ask a second, third and fourth opinion. Like my friend, Dr. Romy, there is an increasing number of doctors who are growing dissatisfied with the mechanical model of their medical practice. And in their own way, they’re practicing Holistic Healing. More and more, they’re realizing that people aren’t machines. They’re body and soul — and if you want to heal the body, you have to heal the soul, too. Friend, take charge of your life. Hold the steering wheel of your life. Go to the place of health, healing and abundance.

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Chapter 39

Protect Yourself from Modern Toxins I drive way too fast to worry about cholesterol. — Author Unknown

We won’t find a Bible verse about modern toxins. But since they are harmful to our bodies, we need to protect ourselves from them, too. So in the “spirit” of the biblical passages on healing, we need to protect ourselves from modern man-made “germs.” Protecting ourselves from these toxins is an essential part of caring for our body, the temple of the Holy Spirit. For example, some “processes” change the molecular structure of the food, making them unhealthy for our use if we eat them in large amounts. • Avoid intake of refined sugar (raw sugar is better). • Avoid “sugar-free” food and the use of aspartame, etc. • Avoid microwaving.

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Chapter 40

Minimize EMF (Electromagnetic Field) Sensitivity to electromagnetic radiation is the emerging health problem of the 21st century. — Dr. William Rea

EMF comes from all electrical appliances and wiring around us. Though people are still debating on this issue, some scientists have already concluded that too much EFM causes cancer (such as leukemia), headache, depression and other health problems. Science sometimes takes time to decide on issues. The World Health Organization (WHO) has been studying the effects of EMF for years now, without conclusive reports. My suggestion is before they make it official, we should take precautionary measures. (If it’s not true, you don’t lose anything.) Again, there was no such thing as EMF when the Bible was written, so I can’t quote you a passage about it. But in the spirit of “protecting” our bodies from anything that harms us, it’ll be wise to decrease EMF pollution.

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You can’t totally avoid EMF. Because it comes from every electric appliance in your home, including the wiring of the house. It comes from your cell phone and cell sites. It comes from the high-voltage wires in the streets. But you can create some distance between you and the source of EMF — and protect yourself from it. Here are some recommendations: • Don’t carry your cell phone in your pocket or belt. Put it in a bag. In the evening, don’t sleep with it in the same room. Use a hands-free kit (with wires) when using a cell phone. • Don’t use your laptop on your lap! • Don’t use your microwave oven. • Don’t put a plugged electric alarm clock near your bed. • Electric appliances (air conditioners, electric fans) must be at least seven feet away from you when you sleep. We can’t cover all the recommendations in this entire topic, but mentioning it here is an invitation for you to study this phenomenon further.

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Session 6

Faith Believe That God Can Heal You

“Therefore I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours.” — Mark 11:24 Sister Marisa is a happy nun in her fifties. She came to The Feast one day. When I greeted her, she said, “I have a scheduled operation for my thyroid next week. Can you pray for me?” “Sure!” I said. After praying over her, she said, “I don’t want to have an operation. I’ve been postponing this for the longest time. Do you think I should go through with it?” I said, “I’m not a great fan of operations, too. Why don’t you postpone it for one more week and meet my health mentor?” She did. She called up her doctor and he said, “Sister 147

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Marisa, this is the last delay. After this, you really need an operation.” Two weeks later, we met again, this time with my health mentor. We discussed about a change of diet and other ways of getting well. And then the scheduled surgery was brought up. “I think I should do it,” she said, “because my Mother Superior has been bugging me to do it. She says I’m just scared.” “Have you asked for a second opinion?” I asked. “I have. In fact, I’ve asked three different doctors and all of them recommend surgery.” My health mentor said, “But do you feel well?” “Yes, I don’t feel anything wrong with me,” she said. “But the doctors keep saying I need an operation.” Wow. Three doctors. Who can beat that? “Just pray for me,” she told both of us. “If God wants to heal me without surgery, a doctor has to tell me I don’t need it. Because that’s the only way my Mother Superior will believe.” Two weeks later, she had an idea. She asked the surgeon who was to operate on her if a thyroid specialist can be part of the surgery team. “No problem,” he said. She called up the thyroid specialist and asked if he could join the surgical team. He said yes. She also scheduled to visit him before the surgery. But before seeing him, she did a strange thing. On her own, she decided to undergo another thyroid exam. Without a doctor’s prescription! (How she did this is another great story, too.)

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She went to her thyroid specialist and showed him the results. After looking at it, he said, “Sister Marisa, you want me to join the surgical team that will operate on your thyroid? But there’s nothing wrong with your thyroid. You don’t need an operation.” She was stunned. Three doctors told her she needed surgery, ASAP. The fourth doctor — a thyroid specialist — told her she didn’t. As I write this, Sister Marisa has overhauled her diet, is praying more deeply, and is happier and healthier than ever. I love stories like this. I no longer see any difference between supernatural and natural healing. Any kind of healing comes from faith. Because only you can open yourself to the healing power of God. Anything is possible to those who believe.

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Chapter 41

Desperation Is Good “There was a woman who had suffered terribly from severe bleeding for twelve years, even though she had been treated by many doctors. She had spent all her money, but instead of getting better she got worse all the time.” — Mark 5:25-26

Twelve years. That’s a pretty long time. She’s tried everything. All human solutions have been exhausted. Friend, you may have exhausted all human solutions, too. Like her, you’re facing impossible problems. You’ve tried every possible solution — and every path has led to a dead end. In fact, some of the solutions you tried made the problem worse. You’ve tried reaching out to your kids — but your kids are still wandering away from God. You’ve tried repairing your marriage — but your relationship is even more divided. You’ve tried getting out of your financial hole — but everything you’ve done so far — from businesses and sidelines — has gotten you deeper in that hole. 151

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And you’re tired. You’re very tired. If this is your situation, then you need to listen to God’s powerful message for you today. Because this woman wasn’t only bleeding physically. She was bleeding financially, too. Because she spent all her money she had on doctors. Financial Bleeding I met a woman exactly in this same condition. Last year, she said her doctors discovered cancer in her ovaries. And she went through surgery to take out the tumor. She went through eight chemotherapy sessions, six radiation sessions, plus a bucketful of medicine she had to swallow every day. She had to borrow money just to go through her treatment. But the sad news was that after six months, her doctors said that her cancer had returned, deadlier, fiercer and angrier than ever before. Not only was she sick, she was in debt, too. But it was worse for this bleeding woman in the Bible… Bleeding Relationally Not only was she bleeding physically and financially, she also was bleeding relationally. Let me explain. According to Jewish Law, a woman who bled was ceremonially unclean. That meant that she couldn’t enter a synagogue or church. She also couldn’t touch anyone — and no one could touch her — because that person will be deemed unclean, too. 152

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For 12 years, she couldn’t enter a synagogue. For 12 years, she couldn’t even hang out with friends. For 12 years, she couldn’t hug her kid, or hug her mother, or shake the hand of a friend, or high-five a neighbor, or stroke the hair of a child. And finally, she was bleeding spiritually. Desperation Is a Good Place Her heart was filled with questions. After 12 years, why was God not healing her? She was desperate. But desperation is a great place to be. Why? Desperate people do desperate things. Desperate people do things they’ve never done before. It was desperation that made her push through a thick crowd of people, crawling on her hands and knees, clawing her way in, weaving her way into the maze, finding an opening, just to touch Jesus — and grab her blessing. Your problem may be so big, you’re here because of desperation. Desperate people do crazy things. Like they read my blog. And pray. And come to The Feast, our weekly prayer meeting. Thank God for desperation. Thank God for problems. Thank God for trials.

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Chapter 42

Touching the Cloak “She had heard about Jesus, so she came in the crowd behind him, saying to herself, “If I just touch his clothes, I will get well.” — Mark 5:27-28

Her desperation made her do the unthinkable: she touched Jesus. That act, according to Jewish Law, should have made Jesus unclean. But the exact opposite happened. It made her clean. But did she really touch Jesus? No. She touched the cloak of Jesus. But that was enough. Here’s the big lesson: When you touch the cloak of Jesus, you’re already touching Jesus Himself. Today, I want you to touch the cloak of Jesus. When you receive communion, you touch Jesus Himself. Yes, Jesus is the Eucharistic host. But when you receive communion, you don’t see Jesus. Why? Because He’s covered by the cloak of that white, thin wafer in front of you. But that’s OK, because all you need to do is touch the cloak, and you’ll be healed. Yes, Jesus is the Word. But when you read the Bible, you 155

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don’t hear the audible voice of God. Why? He is covered by the cloak of words printed on paper. But that’s OK, because all you need to do is touch the cloak and you’ll be healed. I’d like to invite you to The Feast, our weekly prayer meeting. (For more information, log on to www. kerygmafamily.com and check out the schedules on the right side of the page.) At The Feast, Jesus is there. But you won’t see Him. He is covered by the cloak of ordinary people gathering together and having fun. But that’s OK, because all you need to do is touch the cloak, and you’ll be healed.

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Chapter 43

Grab the Power Available to You “She touched his cloak, and her bleeding stopped at once; and she had the feeling inside herself that she was healed of her trouble. At once Jesus knew that power had gone out of him, so he turned round in the crowd and asked, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ His disciples answered, ‘You see how the people are crowding you; why do you ask who touched you?’ But Jesus kept looking round to see who had done it.” — Mark 5:29-32

Here’s why this is one of my favorite stories in the Bible. I love this story because Jesus didn’t touch her, didn’t speak to her, and — take note — didn’t even look at her. Jesus didn’t wake up that morning and say, “I’m going to heal this poor woman who’s been bleeding for 12 years.” Jesus didn’t even know she was there. Jesus didn’t know her from Adam. Jesus didn’t know her name, her home address, her condition, her disease or her suffering.

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And the incredible thing about the story is that even after she was healed, Jesus still didn’t know who she was. Jesus didn’t know who got healed. Jesus didn’t know who grabbed the blessing. This brings me to my central point: Every blessing in the universe is potentially yours. God’s blessings, miracles and resources are available to anyone who wants to take it. The key phrase: available to anyone! It doesn’t depend on God anymore. It depends on whether you’ll grab the blessing or not. Listen to this: Even after the healing has happened, Jesus still didn’t know who was healed by His power. So many people think God plays favorites. “Bakit may palakasan kay Lord?” People complain that God doesn’t treat people fairly. That He blesses some people more than others. That’s not true. Because He’s made every blessing in the universe potentially yours.

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Chapter 44

The Universe Is an All-You-Can-Eat Buffet Table

“You do not have, because you do not ask.” — James 4:2

Imagine Pedro. He’s lived his entire life in a small barrio. And for the first time, he goes to the city. While walking in Metro Manila, he gets hungry. He sees this huge restaurant. He sees many people walking in. He goes in. Pedro picks a table and sits down. After a few minutes of waiting, he doesn’t understand why no one is getting his order or giving him food. In the meantime, he sees everyone else around him eating and happy, their plates filled with food. After almost an hour of waiting, he’s now miserable and hungry. He finally sees a waiter and asks, “Sir, when will you give me food?” The waiter says, “But sir, this is an Eat-All-You-Can buffet. Customers go to the table and get what they want.” Pedro is shocked. It’s the first time he’s ever been to a place such as this. “I can just get what I want?” he asks.

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The waiter smiles, “Yes, sir.” So Pedro stands up and walks towards the buffet. He looks around at all the food and gets a bit overwhelmed. He walks to the waiter and asks, “Can I get a small plate of pancit?” “Yes, sir,” the waiter says, “as much as you want.” Pedro goes and gets himself some pancit. He goes back to the waiter and asks, “Can I get two chunks of adobo?” “Yes, sir,” the waiter says, “as much as you want.” So Pedro goes and gets adobo. He goes back to the waiter and asks, “Can I get a cup of rice?” The waiter says, “Sir, you don’t have to ask my permission to get anything. Just go ahead and get it.” “I don’t have to ask permission from you?” “No sir,” the waiter smiles, “all the food on the table is potentially yours. All you have to do is grab it.” Friend, everything you need is there, available to you in God’s buffet table of blessings. Every Blessing on the Table Is Potentially Yours All the wisdom you need. All the friends you need. All the joy and happiness and fulfillment you need. All the money you need. All the resources you need. All the healing you need. All the God coincidences. All the divine appointments. All the supernatural connections. 160

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All the opportunities for growth. Every blessing in the universe is potentially yours. Our problem is that we’re sitting with our empty plate, still waiting for the blessing. You need to stand up and grab the blessing! Stand Up and Grab the Blessing For example, don’t wait for the perfect job to land on your lap. Create the perfect job. Discover your gift. Develop your skill. Hone your craft. Make yourself valuable. Make mistakes. Double your rate of failure — so that you can double your rate of success. And grab the blessing! Friend, don’t wait for money to come. Create a money machine that will give you the money. Don’t wait for income to flow to you. Create the income stream that will give you the income. And don’t wait for health to just happen to you. Remember that 85 percent of your diseases have emotional roots. And 15 percent come from a lack of nutrition, a lack of sleep, a lack of oxygen, a lack of sunlight and a lack of exercise. So work on the 85 percent of diseases by working on your emotions. Remove the toxic stress. Remove the unforgiveness. Remove the anger. Remove the loneliness. Remove the sadness. Remove the emptiness. And work on the 15 percent deficiency of micronutrients. Change your diet, start eating more plants and less processed food. Get enough sleep. Get enough sunlight. Get enough exercise. Get enough oxygen. Grab the blessing that you need.

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Chapter 45

God’s Delays Aren’t God’s Denials The most important thing in illness is never to lose heart. — Nikolai Lenin

“But Bo, I’ve been praying for healing for years. It hasn’t happened yet!” I will never be able to explain why some people don’t receive healing. Sometimes, we lack action. Sometimes, we lack faith. Sometimes, it’s none of the above. Let me go back to my buffet analogy. Though the buffet table is loaded with a hundred dishes, you may still not find the exact dish that you’re looking for. Let’s say Pedro’s favorite dish is lapu-lapu. The buffet has tuna and mackerel and salmon and tilapia and bangus… but not lapu-lapu. So Pedro asks the waiter, “Do you have lapu-lapu?”

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The waiter says, “Not right now, sir, but if you’re willing to wait, we’re cooking lapu-lapu in the kitchen as we speak. In the meantime, enjoy the other dishes in the buffet.” Friend, God’s delays aren’t God’s denials. When blessings are delayed, God wants you to enjoy and appreciate all the other blessings that are in your life right now. But believe that right now, God is cooking the miracle that you need in His kitchen. He’s preparing it for you. He’s baking it to perfection. Touch Him with Faith In the story of the bleeding woman, hundreds of people were touching Jesus. He was in the middle of a crowd jostling, elbowing one another just to be with Him. Yet only one person received His power. Why? Other people touched Jesus with their hands. She touched Jesus with her hands and with her faith. Your faith releases God’s power. There could be 500 megawatts of power in a power plant, but without a wire — it’s no use. It can’t light a single light bulb. The wire that will connect you to God’s power is faith. Today, I invite you touch the cloak of Jesus.

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Epilogue

A Special Blessing for Your Health “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord… The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” — James 5:14-16 Let me act as your spiritual elder today. At the end of this book, I’d like to take this wonderful opportunity to pray for a special blessing for you. I want to specifically pray for your healing. Receive this now in Jesus’ name. I now bless you, my dearest friend. I speak healing to every cell in your body. I speak vibrant health to every organ, every tissue, every bone, every muscle, every nerve, every blood vessel, every thought, every emotion, every imagination and every fiber in your entire being.

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Be cleansed of all spiritual, emotional and chemical toxins in your body. Be cleansed of all stress, all bitterness, all guilt, all fear. Be flooded now with the spirit of trust, surrender, forgiveness and love. Be repaired, renewed and refreshed right now. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Dear friend, your beliefs are very powerful. Your beliefs create your reality. Believe today that healing will happen. I’ll continue to pray for you.

May your dreams come true,

Bo Sanchez

P.S. Get My HealersClub eLetter for Free! God has given us the power to heal ourselves. We’re all healers. If you were blessed by this book and you want to read more health advice from me, sign up for my HealersClub eLetter for FREE. Get, too, my eReport, My Morning Habit, where I explain a simple health procedure that gives me a mega-dose of enzymes and a mega-dose of Vitamin C naturally. My morning habit also makes my body more 166

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alkaline (germs love acidic environments) and cleanses my kidneys and liver from toxins — every day! Note: I’m not recommending a tablet or a supplement. It’s something that’s available in your neighborood market. But you have to take it in a particular way. To know what this powerful habit is, get my special eReport, My Morning Habit, and my HealersClub eLetter at www.HealerInYou.com

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About the Author

Bo Sanchez started preaching at the age of 13 and wrote his first book at the age of 20. He is the publisher and main writer of Kerygma, the number one inspirational magazine in the Philippines. Today, he continues to preach to millions worldwide. And for years now, his inspirational books have not left the top 10 list of bestselling books in the country. His powerful books include, among others, You Can Make Your Life Beautiful, How to Be Really, Really, Really Happy, You Have the Power to Create Love, Fill Your Life with Miracles, Simplify and Live the Good Life, Simplify and Create Abundance, and Your Past Does Not Define Your Future. (They’re also available through our online store. Log on to www.shepherdsvoice.com.ph.) Aside from Kerygma magazine, he publishes seven more magazines, devotionals and Bible reflection guides: Didache, Gabay, Companion, Sabbath, FiSH, All Stars and Mustard. All of them are top selling periodicals. Bo also has a weekly TV show and a daily radio program. Kerygma TV airs daily, 8:30 p.m. Monday through Friday on TV Maria, Dream Channel 12, Destiny 91 and Sky 160. His radio program, Gabay sa Biblia sa Radyo, is on Radyo Veritas, Monday through Saturday at 5:00 to 5:30 a.m. and on Sundays at 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. He founded many organizations, such as Anawim, a special home for the 169

About the Author

abandoned elderly (for more information, log on to www.anawim. com.ph), and Shepherd’s Voice Publications, a media ministry that publishes the most widely read Catholic literature in the country. He also founded the Light of Jesus Family and the Light of Jesus Counseling Center. A firm believer in working with others, he has partnered with Gawad Kalinga and other groups that work for the poorest of the poor. He has also formed the KerygmaFamily, a borderless, international, non-physical community. All over the world, people are signing up as members of this virtual community — where they receive a mountain of great stuff for their spiritual and personal growth. (Log on to www.kerygmafamily.com.) Privately, Bo is a micro-entrepreneur. He engages in small businesses not only for his family’s needs and for his various projects, but also from his firm belief that one of the most important solutions to his country’s economic problems is to raise more micro-entrepreneurs among his countrymen. He frequently teaches and writes about financial literacy, believing that our poverty is hugely a product of people’s very low financial I.Q. on subjects such as debt management, saving, investing and business. In another endeavor he’s very passionate about, Bo started the Catholic Filipino Academy to help parents who wish to teach their children at home. (Log on to www.catholicfilipinoacademy. com.) But above all these, Bo believes that his first call from God is to be a loving husband to his wife, Marowe, and a devoted father to their sons Benedict and Francis. They live in Manila, Philippines. Each month, Bo writes The Bo Sanchez Soulfood Letter and emails it to tens of thousands of people, inspiring them to live fantastic lives and connecting them to Bo’s ministry. It is absolutely FREE. To subscribe, log on to www.bosanchez.ph or call up (+632) 725-9999 or 411-7874.

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By Joining the Kerygma Family, You Will Receive a Mountain of Blessings for Your Spiritual Life Here’s what will happen to you when you join the Kerygma Family: 1. You’ll receive daily Bible reflections for your spiritual growth. 2. Each month, you’ll get to read an online copy of Kerygma, the #1 Catholic inspirational magazine in the Philippines. 3. You’ll belong to a borderless, global, non-physical community spread all over the world connected through prayer and the desire for personal growth. 4. You shall have the special privilege of supporting this expansive work of the Lord (totally optional!), which includes Anawim, a ministry for the poorest of the poor, the abandoned elderly; Shepherd’s Voice, a media ministry that uses TV, radio, print and the Internet to broadcast God’s love to spiritually hungry people worldwide. 5. You and your intentions shall be included in our intercession team’s prayer.

To join the KerygmaFamily, log on to www.kerygmafamily.com

Don’t delay! 171

Warning: Thieves Are Stealing Your Health The first wealth is health. — Ralph Waldo Emerson It is better to be poor, but strong and healthy, than to be rich, but in poor health. — Sirach 30:14 Money is important in life. But what use is all the money in the world if your body is sick? At the end of the day, health is one of your greatest riches. But here’s the bad news: Every day, your health is being stolen. Right before your eyes. In this life-changing, powerful book, Awaken the Healer in You, bestselling author Bo Sanchez will reveal to you the thieves that are stealing your health: the spiritual, emotional and chemical toxins in your body. Because of those toxins, many people are getting sick. But here’s the good news: When God created you, He created an incredible Healer in you. You’ve got natural and supernatural healing powers at work in your life. By removing these spiritual, emotional and chemical toxins in your system, you awaken the Healer in you. And you heal yourself. And if the Healer in you is awake, it even prevents many sicknesses. Here are the Six Principles to Optimal Health: Principle 1: You Have the Power to Heal Yourself Principle 2: What You Feel, You Can Heal Principle 3: Only Love Heals Principle 4: You Are What You Eat Principle 5: Get Rid of Physical Toxins Principle 6: Believe That God Can Heal You Open the pages of this book and be healed!

Bo Sanchez is a much sought-after Catholic lay preacher and bestselling author of more than 20 books. As a public speaker and servant of God, he has received three recognitions from prestigious award-giving bodies in the Philippines. But over and above all these, he considers his relationship with his wife, Marowe, and two sons, Benedict and Francis, as his greatest achievement in life. They live in Manila, Philippines.

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ISBN 978-971-007-021-3