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Humble Doctors
Learn Humility and Live in it!
The Wisdom of the World
Tonight we have come to commission you to go
into the world a be a Christian healer
You have acquired a mass of knowledge that will
in time be increased and tempered by experience
to become this world’s wisdom. Do not let this
achievement give rise to pride
Remember that there is a major problem with part
of the knowledge you have accumulated—Paul the
apostle called the problem foolishness
The World’s Wisdom
Much of our knowledge, though, is not
foolishness, for it is knowledge that God
has revealed to us
He intended for us to use it for the benefit
of mankind
So he commissioned and empowered us to
proclaim the Gospel, heal the sick, cast out
demons and raise the dead
Heal the Sick
You are better prepared to heal the sick than was
my generation
When I graduated from medical school there were
only three antibiotics, no medications for mental
disease, no steroids, no antihypertensives, no
clinical cardiac catheterization procedures, only
four or five anesthetic agents, a few sedatives,
and only one antiepileptic drug
Heal the Sick
Healing for the most part was in the hands of the
surgeons, so in their pride it was no wonder that
many of them developed a god complex
Some of them looked with disdain on we nonsurgical colleagues
They called us psychiatrists “spooks”, and sent
patients to the internists for them to “philosophize
over”.
Heal the Sick
They said of the dermatologists that they
would treat their patients with the red paint,
and if that did not work they would use the
green paint, and on to the yellow, purple,
etc
All of this was a reminder that we did not
have much to offer patients except comfort
Sadly we did not know how to do that
Heal the Sick
When I began my medical career as a practitioner
I realized medicine’s inadequacy. I watched
patients die of many diseases and could do nothing
to heal them
When I went to work in the Dorothea Dix State
Hospital we had 3500 patients for whom we could
do little. We were essentially warehousing them
My compassion for these unfortunates motivated
me to choose a career in psychiatry and research
Heal the Sick
During my training I was blessed to have a
several mentors
The first one recruited me into psychiatry.
He loved me and cared for me as a son, and
guided and directed my training so I could
accomplish what God had planned for me
At the same time my father was praying for
me everyday
Heal the Sick
My career took off and I was able to
achieve more than most other psychiatrists
I got the world’s recognition
But God had planned that for me because I
needed academic tenure, so I could not be
fired when I became a Christian
Then in the fullness of time God reached
down and claimed me for his own
Heal the Sick
This experience changed my worldview.
Something I had not been taught about in
medical school
I now had a new view of the universe, and
the world
I knew that there was a God and he loved
me
He had created it all
Heal the Sick
I also acquired a new value system that was
other directed
I also had a futurology
The most amazing change was that I could
love in a new dimension. I could love my
wife, my children, my patients, my
colleagues and God a hundred times more!
Heal the Sick
He installed the Holy Spirit in my mind and
changed my entire focus on medicine
Instead of being preoccupied with things of
the world I was now preoccupied with
things of the Kingdom
I had a passion to know Him more, and
greater compassion for the lost, and
traumatized people of the world
Heal the Sick
I also had a desire to know more about how
my faith changed the way I thought and
behaved
My research that concentrated before on
clinical and experimental neurophysiology
now focused on the changes that take place
when a person is regenerated (saved)
Heal the Sick
When other people found out I was a Christian
they came to me for help, and as I treated them I
realized that my patients had spiritual diseases that
needed treatment
God also showed me that he provided
interventions that I could use to bring about
healing of their spiritual diseases
I also realized that my training had given me the
understanding that made it possible to use these
interventions
Heal the Sick
This meant that I had to learn about God’s medical
practice including psychiatry
During the ensuing years he helped me to develop
a classification of spiritual disease and how to heal
it
He had given me power to heal when he initially
touched me, and amplified it when he filled me
with the Holy Spirit
Now I could proclaim the gospel, heal the sick,
cast out demons and raise the dead.
Healing the Sick
I soon also had a reputation as a Christian
professor so a medical student came to me and
asked me to teach him how to integrate his faith
into his practice
The Holy Spirit took over and we learned together
Other students came so I then submitted a course
to the curriculum committee entitled “Christianity,
Medicine and Psychiatry”
Amazingly it was approved
Teaching Integration
During the next years I had 108 medical
students, over 50 residents, plus many other
physicians including missionaries who took
the course
I later taught it in 31 countries overseas
And I am still teaching seminarians how to
use their faith to heal psychospiritual
problems today
Practicing Christian Medicine
What do I teach?
The first thing is that we have to change our
worldview. There is a supernatural dimension
to existence
It is inhabited by supernatural beings
We have a supernatural dimension to our being.
Our mind is supernatural
This means that supernatural beings can
communicate with us in our mind
Practicing Christian Medicine
They can come and be installed in our mind or
influence our thoughts
They can only do so with our permission
Having a supernatural mind we also can have
spiritual disease. There are four or these
To be unregenerate—It is congenital
To be in sin—It is infectious
To be possessed—It is being infected and controlled by
the supernatural
To be fanatical—It is to overemphasize beliefs
Practicing Christian Medicine
God has, however, given us spiritual interventions
to heal spiritual diseases. They are:
Evangelism
Discipleship
Prayer for healing
Exhortation
Confession, repentance, and forgiveness
Inner healing
Bibliotherapy
Deliverance
Practicing Christian Medicine
To apply these we need to know which ones are
indicated so we take a spiritual history along with
our medical history
We then plot a strategy in which we will use these
interventions
Our strategy will begin by first loving the patient.
Having God’s love we will have compassion and
the patient will know we care
Practicing Christian Medicine
Next we will attend to their medical problems
And when we get to know the patient and have
established a relationship, we will attend to their
spiritual problems
If they are unregenerate we will evangelize them
If they are in sin, (which they will all be) having
confessed we can use repentance and forgiveness
If they have unresolved grief we are to resolve it
Practicing Christian Medicine
If they are saved and they need discipleship we
disciple them
If they are discouraged we use exhortation
We will always pray for and with our patients
If they have a load of memories from a traumatic
childhood we will use inner healing
If they are demonized we are to deliver them
We will always encourage them to read the Bible
and books that are written to bring about healing
Obstacles to the Practice of
Christian Medicine
Available time
Fear of rejection and criticism
Preoccupation with income
Lack of power–The Holy Spirit is quenched
or grieved in your life
A belief that all you are called to do is heal
their medical problems. Wrong! Christians
are called to be holistic healers!!!
Obstacles to the Practice of
Christian Medicine
The belief that you do not have a call to do
more than the secular world prescribes
Persecution
Believing Satan’s lies
Spiritual and intellectual sloth
Lack of humility
Overcoming Obstacles
1. Maintain your relationship with God
A. Pray unceasingly
Be in the word. Read three chapters of the Bible each
day and meditate on what you read
Worship God with praise and thanksgiving
2. Absolutely surrender and do whatever he tells
you to do
3. Never forget that you are a priest of the most
high God
4. Be humble and enjoy serving the Lord.
For Further Reading
William P. Wilson MD
Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry
DUMC
Distinguished professor of Counseling
Carolina Evangelical Divinity School
www.InstChristiangrowth.org
Go to Essays, and click on Basics for Christian
Psychotherapy, and Clinical Christian
Psychotherapy