WAFBEC 2019 (Day 8) Morning Session 2 with Bishop Keith Butler

After Dr. Bill Winston’s session, we had the very Bishop Keith Butler.

In the past seven days at this event, several ministers have been able (with the teachings) to touch different areas that pertains to living a holistic Christian life – faith, love, healing, relationships or family, career, business, ministry, and some others not mentioned.

This morning Bishop Keith’s message centered on health. He title his sermon, “God is interested in our Health”.

According to Jeremiah 29:11, God is concerned in us being healthy in terms of our spirit, soul and body.

He defined the brain as the human body’s first line of defence and consequently, as we change our thoughts, we change our brain, our body and our biology.

He addressed some health issues like stress, depression, sound mind, etc.

According to him, “When we speak Faith filled words, stress is reduced, thereby promoting healing in our body – Psalms 19:14”.

He shared a Harvard University study that revealed that Prayer and Faith filled words produce the relaxation response in the human nervous system. They bring about relaxation of the mind, reduce the negative impact of stress and induce healing.

He defined prayer as not being about telling God about your circumstances or complaining about them. “Real prayer is about speaking the word of God back to him”, he said.

He explained the need for exercise using 1 Timothy 4:7-8. He said that exercise is the most transformative thing that happens to our brains, thereby protecting it from diseases. He then advised that we should exercise 3 to 4 times a week to get our hearts’ rate up.

He then counseled that learning to handle stress helps to improve our well-being.

He shared Mark 4:18-19, Matthew 13:22 to explain that ‘cares’ (i.e. distractions) is what the Devil uses to keep us from focusing and studying God’s word.

He advised that whenever we experience pressure from the happenings in our lives, we ought to go to the Holy Spirit so that we would get the word to meditate on in other to address that situation instead of worrying over it. 2 Corinthians 10:5

He went further to say that in order for us to be healthy, we have to learn to say what God says (in the Bible) about our health. The Holy Ghost will give us the word to announce so that we have the Rhema, the Spoken Word of God. He continued by saying that we should repeatedly say his word concerning our healing.

“Bring everything (symptoms in our bodies) in submission to the Word of our mouth inspired by the Holy Ghost”, he added. Romans 4:17

Bishop Keith told the story of a woman in his church whom he prayed healing for. He said that he was instructed to tell her that she should refrain from the eating habits that brought her the illness so that it doesn’t come back worse. She refused to heed this advice however.

Following this story, he said if we don’t watch our lifestyle or the choices we make, our conditions will get worse.

He proved this with the passage in 1 Corinthians 3:17. He stressed here that our body is to be treated well, in a holy way and that we should physically exercise our bodies to make it even healthier. 1 Corinthians 6:19

Still speaking he used Philippians 4:6 to encourage the congregation to do away with worry but to have a grateful heart. “Worrying is a way of opening the door for our hearts to have a heart attack”, he added.

He called for the church to be healthier than the world so that what the world calls normal will not be found in the health life of the church.

He also spoke about depression. With Matthew 6:25-33, he urged the congregation that there is something else more important than brooding over our material needs. The children of God ought to praise God instead, he said.

After he read Proverbs 17:22 to the congregation he explained that a joyful attitude helps to sustain the health of an individual.

It was a very enlightening session that morning. Bishop Keith even made us laugh out loud several times. He did this to demonstrate that merry heart is good for health. You too can glean more insights by listening to the full message here WAFBEC DAY 8 MORNING SESSION 2