What is the best way to pray when suffering in our health as a result of poor choices?

For instance, a lot of people have diabetes. Not all diabetes is caused by weight, but a tremendous amount of diabetes is caused by weight. If you’re praying for healing and yet you aren’t taking care of your body, well, then you’re going to hinder your own prayer. So you not only need to believe and receive your healing, but then you need to lose weight. You need to start exercising. You need to do some things, change some things. There’s a balance. It’s not all spiritual. Part of it is just natural.

What is the best way to pray when suffering injury from an accident?

I had a guy come to me one time who was a construction worker, and he drove a concrete nail into the concrete, the nail broke and as he hit it, it bounced off the concrete. This nail came up and stuck in his eye. So he came to see me, and he had this concrete nail sticking out of his eye, and it was bleeding, and he was having pain. So I prayed over him and instantly the bleeding stopped and the pain was gone.

He then said, “I feel fine…”, but he still had a nail sticking out of his eye and I said, well, “I believe you’re healed and it was supernatural, but you got to get this nail taken out. Do you want me to pull it out or do you want the doctor to pull it out?” He said, “I think I’ll go to a doctor.”

In this instance of someone suffering injury from an accident, the best way to pray was to ask God boldly, in faith, for healing and the removal of the pain, but then to go and get professional help for the nail to be removed. It’s not just all spiritual or all-natural. It’s a combination sometimes. Sometimes you pray and believe God to heal you of something, but then you also take care of your body.

What is the best way to pray when suffering a sore back from being overweight?

You know, I’ve prayed with people before that had back pain and they were 100 pounds overweight. If you’re 100 pounds overweight, you’re going to have back pains and that’s not the devil. Maybe the devil inspired you to let yourself go that way.

I carry feed sacks all the time and they’re usually 50 pounds. If I had two feed sacks strapped to my middle and I had to walk around, and when I slept, I had to have those things on me. I guarantee you I’d have back problems. So if somebody came to me with two feed stack sacks strapped to their middle and said, “I’ve got back problems, would you pray for me?” I’d say, “yeah, I’ll pray for you, but I would unloose the feed sacks and let them drop to the ground. And then I pray.”

Similarly, I think sometimes we need to pray and say, “Father, I’m receiving my healing, forgive me for abusing my body, but I’m not going to sit here and do these things anymore.”