So I’m really coming to grips with the fact that I am gluten intolerant. Might have celiac disease. (Don’t know, and at the moment, don’t really care.)
When I was in the process of sorting this out, back a few months ago, Pastor Mike said something interesting mid-sermon. He was talking about our need to be very careful what we put into ourselves. We can become defiled by the things we see and hear – and so much moreso if we choose to see and hear them. If you want life to work properly, be careful what you put into it!
Up until then, I was thinking that I needed to pray for healing from this thing with gluten. But then… I had an AHA! moment.
My body becomes defiled, so to speak, if I ingest gluten. If I have so much as a crumb by accident… and so much moreso if I were to break down and eat a donut.
I’m not allergic. If I want my body to run at optimum efficiency, I have to be very careful what I put into it. It’s no different from being a body builder or a marathon runner and choosing food/fuel carefully.
Then last week I had another AHA! moment. I thought, “I can handle gluten like I can handle sin – not at all!” (Pastor Crabtree used to relate sin with cyanide – a point well made). And then… it hit me.
Gluten-containing foods: wheat, rye, barley, spelt, and oats (the latter is somewhat disputed)
Foods that are hametz for Passover*: you guessed it! wheat, rye, barley, spelt, and oats (the latter is somewhat disputed) *symbolic of sin, and must be removed from the home and avoided at all costs
Interesting. The foods I can’t eat are symbolic of sin. Sin defiles. Gluten defiles. Defilement = defilement.
My friend Carrie suggested that maybe this is a prophetic statement being made in my life.
PS – wanted to add: I am in NO way asserting that gluten=sin, or that the consumption of gluten is sinful – this is in the realm of symbols, not the natural. Nor am I saying that this applies to anyone but me.
It’s just my two cents, but seeing as you move in the prophetic, you know that God doesn’t need to use the devil’s tricks to relay messages to His own people. I don’t think that He’d communicate with us through sickness. He’s greater than that. Jesus didn’t pick and choose who to heal (those that truly needed it, and those being taught a lesson from God. Isn’t it time they got that message?)
Healing and prophecy are from God.
Sickness (celiac disease/gluten intolerance) don’t seem to be the way He works.
Well – that was my initial belief. This process has wrecked my theology a little bit
But I’m not sick! For the first time in a long time, I am well – really, really, really well. I’m about to turn 40 and I feel better than when I was 20.
Gluten to me is like three cheeseburgers at every meal would be for you. There are some things that are simply not healthy for your body and shouldn’t be eaten. Discovery of this intolerance has been more like receiving a healing… not at all like discovering I was sick.
Make sense?
You know, I’m not allergic to Twinkies and Swiss Cake Rolls, but if I consumed them day in and day out I’d get even unhealthier. I honestly believe with every ounce of my being that God wouldn’t give an “intolerance” or “disease” to someone to tell them to eat right. He doesn’t need that.
Yes, you’re healthier. Yes, you feel better. That’s really, really awesome. I’m not discounting that. I just don’t believe this is the method God would choose to say “watch what you eat, Kathi.” I just don’t believe God would put you through misery like this for that long to tell you this message.
But it has nothing to do with eating.
I read where some brands of ketchup have gluten in them…..
Some brands of everything have gluten in them. Often there’s just no reason whatsoever for it.
Heinz is the brand I use for nearly anything vinegar-based. The products that should be logically gluten-free are… and their vinegar is neither wheat nor petroleum based (yes, you read right – what powers your car might power your catsup.)
This post is special to me. My wife recently found out she has gluten intolerance. I wanted to comment on a couple of things:
1) God said an interesting thing after He made man, He permitted them to eat only plants. Some people lived to be over 900 years old. I'm not a vegan or vegetarian. I actually love meat and junk -food (too much). We know that God gave us all things to eat after the flood. And now we're blessed to see 100 years. It's an interesting thing to ponder. Gluten isn't a very nice thing, I'm learning; it's great for making dough stretchy, but it does some pretty bad things to the lining of your GI tract. We really are better off without it.
2) I agree with Steven, you seem prophetically gifted – ask God to increase it.
3) Strictly speaking, God doesn't 'put us through' painful trials, but He does permit them, within limits. Satan is the one responsible for all sickness, injury and death. He brings it in varying degrees and through different methods. We basically put up with as much or as little as we want to. Some is unavoidable, some can definitely be changed or stopped.
4) I'm a paramedic, I pray for many of my patients and see some healed. I also pray for people off-duty and see God do miracles there too. I write about my experiences on my blog. I post a lot of testimonies of healing. I found a video testimony today of a woman healed of gluten intolerance on Bethel Church's website. I believe you can be healed if you want to. And you may just continue eating as the Lord leads. I'm posting a link to your blog on mine. We need more people like you to write about the good things of God.
You rock!
My blog: http://mobileintensiveprayerunit.blogspot.com/
Hi Dave! (now there's two Dave-commenters on here
) Welcome!
Pretty sure it was you that posted on my FB wall about this too?
The gluten thing is a odd thing in me. It's stretched me in ways I didn't know I could be stretched. (ha – and gluten makes things stretchy – that's ALMOST too funny).
I had Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. God healed me so totally of that, it's incredible. Doctors get all woozy over me. I had the privilege, after a car wreck, of seeing one of my former orthopedists and he was flat-out amazed and said that yes – it HAS to be God.
I had an allergy to peanuts and tree nuts that sent me into hives and wheezing if someone so much as ate nuts in my presence. God healed that. I can eat them now (I don't like them – but I can eat them with zero reaction).
I have gluten intolerance (and quite probably celiac disease but I'm not wasting $ on a diagnosis). If I avoid gluten, I am well – beyond any wellness I've ever experienced. If I don't, I get sick and fat. When we prayed for the allergies to be healed, I was able to eat a Reese's peanut butter cup (and I walked around for weeks muttering, "I didn't die! I didn't die!"… and I was also able to eat pizza without pain – so I assumed I was healed from gluten issues as well. Well. Apparently if you follow a GF diet for a considerable amount of time (which at that point I had) you can start eating gluten again and not FEEL or see the effects for some time. The effects are there, of course – that gluten is destroying the intestine again – but the incredible pain is absent at first.
I had thyroid disease. And I guess I still do, sort of. If I abstain from gluten, my TSH level goes down, down, down. If I eat it, it goes up, up, up. (Up is bad, down is good). I started off (while still eating gluten) at 91 – over the course of six months it decreased, on its own with no meds, to 29. I fully expect when I go back in February that it will be in the teens or lower, and by next summer it will be completely normal – on its own.
So where does this leave me? (other than losing 40lbs having to buy new clothes monthly dancing and feeling GREAT?) I have three medically documented healings (thyroid still in progress) and one that wasn't medically documented and that's the one where I didn't really have healing. Interesting.
When I first discovered gluten is my problem, I was bummed out. I mean, really really bummed. And of course I talked to the Lord about it, a lot. It's kind of disenheartening to believe you're healed and then discover you're not. KWIM? So of course my immediate thought was, "Well how did I lose it" – and God reassured me I hadn't. So my second response was, "I should pray for healing" and God constrained me from doing so. I mean, flat-out stopped me. What? Seriously?
And so after the process of several weeks of praying, the Lord revealed the prophetic symbolism to me. And I was like, WOAH. What? That flies in the face of my theology, God. Not sure You're allowed to do that…
So I told a couple of prophetic people who I trust – I mean, really really trust, and who really know me well and aren't afraid to say, "Nope, you're wrong." They've prayed about it and heard from God and said – yes. I was hearing accurately from the Lord on this. OK, Lord, You're allowed to wreck my theology if You really want to…
So I don't know where this leaves me – except that since I stopped eating gluten again, my ability to hear from the Lord has increased exponentially. I had no idea it could be like this. Coincidence? Maybe.