All of us -- in what we smoked, in what we have eaten, in what we have had to drink, in what we were exposed to as far as chemicals, or viruses, or through genes, through drugs -- have vulnerabilities: weaknesses that can cause health repercussions but that God can rectify.

The Lord can heal such if we ask Him to (and if it is in His Plan for our redemption).

When we seek healing, it is virtually always for something that's wrong. What about preventative spiritual "medicine"? What about what we eat?

A few weeks back we wrote about how -- yes -- God can go back in time and change mistakes we have made so that we have a fresh start -- so that we can make up for lost time. He can correct emotional, professional, and spiritual mistakes. It was quite a powerful discussion for many of you.

What about the body? Can God repair us physically back in time the same way He can repair relationships and darkness and sinfulness?

Can God go back in our lives and remedy mistakes that caused premature aging or bodily damage?

Yes. Definitely. Never limit a timeless Lord! In prayer, He will do this also. Of course, we can view it in the present: the Lord can simply heal us of anything here and now.

The point: call on Him. Let Him take you through your life and heal you physically, if it is His Will.

For throughout our lives, cells, tissues, and organs take a beating (especially when we sin) and it is good to go through one's life and rectify it. In prayer you can go over every part of your body and ask the Holy Spirit (in the Name of Jesus) to heal your brain, your eyes, your ears, your neck, your lymph glands, your blood vessels, your throat, your heart, your lungs, your stomach, your intestines, your colon, your reproductive organs, your breasts, your skin, and so forth. He is the Great Physician, is He not?

Go through your life and meditate on practices that could have increased your risk of disease -- of cancer, of diabetes -- and (in the Name of Jesus) dispel them. Ask forgiveness for abusing the temple of the Holy Spirit (which is what your body is) and pray again until your organs (particularly potentially troubled ones) are filled with grace.

It is grace that heals.

Let's say you smoked: go back, ask the Lord to forgive you for that, and then pray and ask for the Holy Spirit to pervade your lungs and heal them.

If you drank too much, focus on your liver.

If you ate the wrong things, on your stomach and colon.

If there is a genetic history, ask the Lord to reconfigure your very genes.

Do a "life review" of your health and pray over each organ and then look for any dark blotches that may still cause future illness.

If you have jealousies, this will produce bile (bitterness). If you are angry, you hurt your heart. If you have failed to forgive you are attached to whomever you have not forgiven -- creating unhealthy anxiety. Does your heart ooze gall? Go back in your life and erase the times it has. Gall is poisonous.

Call on Jesus to remove from your heart all corrosive elements. Declare firmly: "Lord, I spit it out!" Take out the garbage and dispose of it (before it rots).

In prayer, we can do two crucial things: we can ask God to heal damaged tissues that could cause future problems and we can pray for guidance on how and what to eat and drink.

As for food: the Holy Spirit knows far more about that than any doctor or dietician.

Everybody is different; we are all unique. Only He can properly guide us. What is good for one person may not be good for another (which is why you see all those conflicting health reports).

In a little booklet called A Scriptural Guide to Nutrition, a priest named Father Herbert Burke reaffirms what we have often heard: that what we eat and have eaten can have a huge effect.

"An apple a day may help keep the doctor away, but if you add a carrot a day he'll probably stay away!" writes the priest. "The carrot is the king of the vegetables. It is loaded with vitamin A which helps your immune system."

Many foods are good for us. Because every body is different, we ask God to lead us into what to drink and eat, and the proper balance. Scientists can get too wrapped up in conflicting studies. Our guide is the Bible: "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit," intones Genesis 1:29. "You shall have them all for food."

Says Father Herbert: "In summary, I have found that organic fruits and vegetables, milk, yogurt, oats, eggs, nuts, nutritional supplements, and regular exercise have helped me maintain fairly good health. If you want to reduce the fat and nutrition-poor calories that make up your body cells, then you need to be on the watch for: fried food, soda, trans-fats, hydrogenated oils, and other junk foods."

Milk and yogurt are not for everyone. We ask the Holy Spirit! Stay away from genetically-altered food. Here's a list. God did not make such food.

Ask Him to go back in your life and bolster your system as if you ate just the right things through the years. He can do such!

Broccoli. Cauliflower. Natural. They protect our cells against chemicals. Watch the microwave. Get plenty of sunshine (but not sunburns).

And water?

In Heaven are the "living waters" -- and clean water gives life on earth. "Water is your friend because you are water," writes the priest. "The body is mostly water, and water is a symbol often used for grace: '...living water... whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life' (John 4:10-14).

"To have a healthy body we should be full of water, and to have a healthy soul we should be full of grace."