Why Are You Tolerating Sickness | Neresa Jones

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey guys, welcome to this week's show. Quick announcement before we jump in. Please join me May 1st and 2nd at Sovereignty Ranch in Bandera, Texas for a two day gathering at the intersection of land, liberty, food and the future of America. The American Regeneration Conference. A nation that heals its soil, heals itself. I'm honored to be speaking at the conference May 1st 2nd. You can go to americanregeneration.com org or those tickets. I believe you can also get tickets through Sovereignty Ranch website. And also Green Acres is co sponsoring this conference. So excited to be coming back down to Sovereignty Ranch. Y' all check that out. And then just a quick note on today's episode, guys, we're going to have Neresa Jones jump on here in just a second in her book, why are you tolerating sickness? Great book, going to be a great interview. But I did want to preface this by saying because we're going to talk about, number one, does Jesus and God intend for us to be well? Did Jesus pay for us to be well? Is it conditional? Is it for everyone or just some people? Is it just whenever God decides on a case by case basis, there's a lot of questions there. And I want to be sensitive to the fact that I know a lot of people have lost loved ones. I've lost loved ones, patients, dear patients, close patients, very young patients that I've into the hospital, prayed over them, commanded healing. So I want to be sensitive to that. Knowing it can be hard, for sure, no doubt about it. And, but I do think there's things that we're still learning, we're still seeing through that glass dimly, but it's becoming more and more clear as we continue to explore and seek and find and knock and, and God answers every time. These mysteries that were not revealed in the past and now they're becoming more and more clear. This ongoing revelations in scripture, nothing new, nothing outside of scripture, but a deeper understanding, a deeper insight, and all related to identity as we continue to clear up who God is in our hearts, his character and his nature. And honestly, who Jesus was, what did he come to do and accomplish and what all is entailed in that? It's huge, guys. So, so getting God's identity cleared up, getting our identities cleared up is, is a big season that we're in right now. And that's why I asked Neurisa to come on, because her book, which is about healing, but it's about identity. So I hope you find it helpful. Guys, I just want to encourage you. We're seeking the kingdom First, I don't have it all figured out. Nobody does. But we're learning more and more and more. Holy Spirit is writing truth on our heart. In the season that we're in right now, I think it's essential that we abide in the vine. We get our marching orders every day from God, Holy, the Holy Spirit writing truth on our heart. Because we, as the body of Christ, need to be manifesting God's kingdom here on the earth now. Our world is desperate for it all. The creation's waiting and groaning and crying out for it. The world needs it. It's not in a pressure way. God has been, in an awesome way and in a positive way, a lot of doom and gloom out there. But as we continue to get this identity piece nailed down, I think we're going to see more and more and more kind of like this, this frequency just flip like a tuning fork. We hit that frequency of truth in our heart and boom, something happens. And healing is a part of that. Something I believe. So hope you enjoy the interview today. Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of youf're the cure. Dr. Ben Edwards here. We've got a show, I always say a great show, but today's gonna be extra, extra great. And I just pray that you'll receive it. And if at first you don't want to maybe, or a little red flag or wait a minute, I'll know about this. Just stick with us. Stick with us to the end and chew on it and ask Holy Spirit to just write truth on your heart. We are all on this journey and it's like on a fast pace right now. I believe getting to the very core of what allowed evil into this realm, because God's will was for the culture of the Kingdom of Heaven to be in the earth, in the physical realm. That was his will. That was his goal. That's what he did. That's what he made in the garden with his family, his kids. It's awesome. But then something happened and we're nowhere. Well, we're coming back to that. I was going to say we're nowhere near that. But when you look at the world, man, evil abounds and sickness abounds. And. And in the United States of America, sickness really abounds. If we. We've gone through that so much, I'm not going to go through all those statistics, but we are the sickest country in the world. And I don't know on religious stats, but probably we have the most believers of anywhere in the world. I would say that would claim to be a follower of Christ. So when we talk about a controversial topic that we'll talk about today, potentially controversial. Did Jesus pay for us to be well, to walk in health, to never even be sick? I mean how could that be? How could that be the truth if, if we're the most believers but we're the sickest? You know, that's a big question and could stir some discontentment, maybe a little upsetness, especially if you're sick. So there's no condemnation here. I hope, if you've been a listener for a while, but even if you haven't, you know, we talk about things that are outside the box. Not conventional thinking, not the norm. I quote that Mark Twain all the time. It's not what you don't know that gets you in trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so. And we've talked about so many things in the natural that we just knew for sure was so like serotonin depletion is a cause of depression. Therefore serotonin pills will get you back. No. 3% of people at 12 months with serotonin pills. That's what the studies show. 0.8% of people on cholesterol lowering drugs prevent a heart attack. Alzheimer's drugs. The best they can do is three weeks of. Of delayed nursing home placement drugs for stroke. 0.4% reduction in future stroke. By taking the pharmaceutical, the number one pharmaceutical for stroke prevention, for osteoporosis prevention, you're at 0.4% reduction in hip fractures. There's that pharmaceutical thing we thought was the way to go and it wasn't. I was just re read reading this old book, this Vera Shibner and I think she's passed away now. PhD vaccination. A hundred years of research that she summarized. But Vera was simply a PhD researcher back in the 80s she and her business or research partner developed a device to just monitor babies breathing pretty breathing patterns. COT watch. C O T COT watch. It was the first device of its kind. These little babies, they were monitoring, doing the research and they would notice these patterns and some of these babies would actually slow their breathing and space it out to even stop breathing. And that was the point of this device, is to catch that and the cot death. We'd call SIDS now. But she started noticing a pattern. Stress is what would trigger the d diminished breathing, even to no breathing. And then she just noticed it was just there. It was a very. Is this correlation a massive change in breathing pattern within 48 to 72 hours after that the child routine childhood vaccine visit at the pediatrician. That's just something the data showed back in the 80s and, and she wasn't looking for that. It's just what it showed. And she tried to publish it, she tried to go to the pediatrician, she American Academy of pd, all this and nobody, nobody would. Well, very few would listen. None of the institutions would. And how many SIDS deaths have there been? And we've talked about all that. But what I'm saying is those pediatricians and still to this day, they love babies, they love kids. That's why they went to med school. They're trying to help, they just didn't know the cardiologists, they're trying to help people. All the doctors are trying. But there's a blindness, there's a deception, there's a. So changing our mind, changing our thinking, being humble, be willing to go somewhere different especially when your current protocols or methods produce such poor outcomes. Nerissa Jones is my guest today. The book is why are you tolerating sickness? And what I love about the book and I've marked this up so much and I've got so many quotes I want to read but I need to let there ease talk so I'm going to try to restrain myself. But here's what I love. This. This could have just said identity. Why aren't you walking in your identity? That could have been the name of this book and that's why, you know, we've been talking identity for three years here guys. God, we're in a season. I feel like God's clearing up our, our vision, our understanding of who he is, his identity and who we are, who he says we are, who he sees us as. It's a big big deal. And when you get this identity thing, natural things flow from that position and in fact that's one of the quotes. We are not talking about performance, doing stuff, seeking, healing, trying to get healing, performing in any way, trying to get more faith. I mean we're going to talk about all these things. So I'm just going to say from the outset it's not about performance, it's about position. That's one of the quotes I was going to read and the resput is page one. Her number one goal is to shift your mindset and so that's what we're going to get into today. Metanoia, repenting, metamorphosis, a changing of your mind. Go beyond your old way of thinking. I just encourage you depend. You know we've talked about this on years ago on some other podcasts and, you know, but it's been a little while and we've had Chad Gonzalez on more recently, and he, he approached us the same way through Identity. And Theresa does an amazing job in this book, so I've asked her to come show we can dive into this. And Theresa, honestly, I had a quote that I was going to share at the closing. Kind of want to read it now, but then have an intro quote. I want to share, but I may just let you first introduce yourself and some of your journey as to what got you to where you are today. Writing a book like this because it is from a personal place of. Of. Of darkness, I would say, I think is a word you use there. And just desperation and darkness. And until you had a aha. Moment is what I'll call it personal revelation related to righteousness. Right. Standing related to heart change, related to identity. And we'll get into that. But maybe a little backstory on, you know, what led you to this place of writing the book. [00:11:11] Speaker B: Yes. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Ben, for having me. This, this book was birthed, as you said, really on the bed of sickness. This was seven years ago. I was seven months pregnant. I was admitted into the hospital. My blood pressure got up to 200 and around 20, my hearing had been lost in my right ear. My vision was impaired. I was now bedridden in a wheelchair, and I'm seven months pregnant. And this entire time, I thought that God was the author of sickness and disease. I thought that he sponsored the sickness. So I was welcoming it. I perceived that it was going to teach me something or to humble me. I grew up in a very religious background, and so I was willing to just tolerate and live with this. After being discharged from the hospital, I went Dr. Ben and saw probably 50 specialists to determine what exactly was going on. No one could diagnose what was wrong with me. I then, after maybe six months on this search, this journey of trying to discover why I was in, my pain level was at probably a level 12 out of 10. As I said, my vision was impaired. My hearing, I went deaf on the right side of my ear. My rib cage was constantly burning. I was having severe headaches. I then discovered that I was diagnosed with occipital neuralgia, which is where the nerves in the back of my neck and head were being compressed with inflammation. And so, upon the doctor's recommendation, they said, neurisa, we just recommend you to have surgery. I then, Dr. Ben had the surgery. They shaved my head bald. They cut the back of my neck and the back of my head open to remove the inflammation. And the goal was to get better. But I actually got worse. When I woke up from the surgery, the symptoms were heightened. The nervous system had been more compromised. And so I spent over a year in the bed in a dark room because now the sunlight was intensifying. I was unable to go outside. I could not pick up my newborn son for the entire first year of his life because anything over five pounds, it would squeeze my nervous system and it would cause severe pain. I could not drive my vehicle anymore. And so this became. I slid into depression behind this. I went from zero medications to 13 a day. I was a Division 1 athlete, collegiate soccer player. And then now here I am, unable to be a mother, a wife. I moved into depression, as I said. And so it was in this place that I just, I was sitting there just accepting and tolerating this as maybe these things happen. God orchestrated this. And here we are. Let's just tolerate and make do. [00:13:54] Speaker A: Right? And so how long were you in that kind of state of just not being able to hold your baby and just on meds, wheelchair can't lift things, all that? [00:14:05] Speaker B: Yeah. So I was in the wheelchair for about two to three months. I. Then it was a year that I did not pick up my son for the first year of his life. Someone had to lift his legs for me to change his diaper. I was unable to cook. I also had a two year old daughter that I was doing soccer with her. It was her coach. I. It was an entire year of me being just in this dark, depressed state that I was in. [00:14:32] Speaker A: And so what was the moment of coming out of that? What happened? [00:14:40] Speaker B: So the moment was, is I. As I was tolerating and accepting this, I thought that this was God's will. I still was seeking just Christian networks. This was during COVID And so I was studying things online, just hearing a lot. I came across a prominent minister that said, God wants you well more than you want to be well. And I completely dismissed it. Dr. Ben, I was like, this is crazy. God did this to me. There is no way he wants me well. I continued to listen. The holy spirit prompted me and said, neurisa, listen to this man. I began to listen and everything that he was saying, I completely dove into the word of God. I was in the dark room, but I had my cell phone out with the light flashing on it because the sunlight was too intensifying. But I began to dive into the word of God and discover, wait a minute, God actually Sent his son not even for me to get healed, but he wants me to walk in constant health. And so I started on that journey. It took me over a year, as you just said that metamorpho, renewing my mind, not trying to get healed, but discovering who I was in Christ, my true identity. [00:15:48] Speaker A: Amen. Well, I think that number one, that's just amazing. And do you, you know, I've often wondered just, you know, when you heard that in that initial reaction, no way. But then a prompting of the Holy Spirit, you think it was out of debt. You're just such in a low, desperate spot or just Holy Spirit touched you or you know, that moment where people will have an open heart to explore and go to the Word and let the Holy Spirit. What do you think? Was that? Was that. [00:16:21] Speaker B: I think. Dr. Ben yeah, I think it may have been a combination of two. Because I was so desperate. I remember going to my last doctor's appointment and they sang Therese, On a scale from 1 to 10, how much do you want to live? 10 being the highest. I said a zero. So that's how low I was. And that's the state, the mental state that I was in. And so when I did hear this, it's like, okay, Holy Spirit, he prompted that in me. But I do believe I was at rock bottom. And it's like there has to be something, some something, some good news, because everything I was hearing, I even heard from the doctors, I could go blind at one point. So it probably was a combination of both. [00:17:01] Speaker A: Right. Well, I want to touch on, because you've mentioned already a couple times, raised really religious and I mean, you've mentioned this word religion a couple times. Maybe explain to the listener what do you mean by that? What are you talking about there? And what kind of mindset does that for you? I mean, because there's different people hear that word and could think different things. [00:17:24] Speaker B: Yeah. Thank you for wanting to bring clarity to that. So for the religious mindset that I like to talk about, I grew up Catholic specifically, and everything was about working to get to God, was about striving, performance, what I needed to do. When I got a hold of the gospel, it was all about who I was. It was all about being, not about doing. And so that religion to me is nothing more than just to simplify, just a performance based effort trying to get to God. When God actually got inside of me the moment we got born again. [00:17:56] Speaker A: Amen, sister. 100%. I love how you talk about. I think this is chapter 10 in the Word Sozo. The Greek word that most Bibles will translate, that is just saved, you know, and for most, I think, at least for my upbringing, a lot of people I interact with just that word saved translates to sins are forgiven. So therefore, when my flesh falls over dead, I won't go to eternity and a burning hell. I'll go to heaven to be with God, which is true. But the actual words, Sozo, salvation, you, you say Here on page 111, it goes far beyond just forgiveness of sins. It means to save, to heal, to deliver, to make whole, to preserve and to protect. That's a, a lot deeper meaning. Could you talk a little bit more about that from that standpoint of in your experience, that religious kind of thought or maybe some of the upbringing of certain denominations versus this word sozo? [00:19:02] Speaker B: Yeah. Dr. Ben. So this particular part of the journey was really where my understanding began to shift that I had only been experiencing a portion of my inheritance, which was I just thought I would die and get to heaven later. When I got a hold of this Greek word, sozo, an all encompassing, all inclusive word, it really revealed to me that heaven's currency actually should be Neurisa's reality. And so it just, it inspired me. But man, I'm, I'm not accessing everything that Jesus provided and healing and not really healing because I believe if we talk about healing, you have to be sick to need healing. Really, health is the goal. So it just, it ignited a fire in me to dive deeper. [00:19:43] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm going to read a little bit here just to go even a little more on this topic. You wrote on page 118. I'm going to say something radical, but not everyone who preaches the Bible is preaching the Gospel. The gospel is, which by the way means good news, guys, but the gospel is a specific message tied to the finished works of Jesus that brings a person into relationship with God and makes them sinless in the sight of God, thus empowering believers to live a victorious life. Life that's coming out of Ephesians 1:4. Talk about that a little bit. Which goes along with so Sozo made whole, but because it has to do with righteousness. Right. Standing, you know, your own righteousness you talk about in the book is like filthy rags versus God's righteousness kind of talk because you, you camp out on righteousness quite a bit, is a key kind of foundational piece of this thing. So explain that a little bit more. [00:20:51] Speaker B: Yeah. Dr. Ben. So the revelation that I received as I was trying to just search more about healing the Father was actually tying me back to identity, which is my right standing with God. That's what that word righteousness means. It just means right standing. And because I'm in right standing with God now, healing that possession, so to speak, that belongs to me because of my position. My position is that I'm in right standing. Therefore I can access my possession of being whole well, and getting healed if there's ever a sickness. And I, when I speak about healing, it's really not about chasing that fruit. It's us getting down to the root of righteousness in God. That now that I'm in right standing, that veil has been torn. Now there is no barrier between us that the very life of God is in me. And now there's no way that sickness should ever be able even to touch me. [00:21:42] Speaker A: Right. So back to the garden. I mentioned that earlier, you know, God's will. You talk about knowing God's will and how key that is and how important that is. And you talk about the Garden of Eden was a display of God's will. Of course heaven now is, and Jesus came. But can you talk a little more on folks who might think. Because you said you thought it was God's will that you were sick, maybe even caused it. At least he's, you know, allowing it, that kind of thing. Well, now, obviously your mindset's totally. Why are you tolerating it? How do you go from God authored it, allows it to. There's no way we should be tolerating it from the standpoint of God's will. Can we know that? Should we know that? Does the Bible talk about knowing God's will? [00:22:33] Speaker B: Yeah. So the, the interesting part with this is that faith cannot operate where the will of God is not known. So when we talk about the will of God, you just hit it. Dr. Ben, those three areas, we can look to heaven, we can look at Jesus, and then we can look to the Garden of Eden before sin took place. And I can know it's God's will for me to be well by looking at those three areas. But the Scriptures say in Ephesians 5, 17 that we should not be ignorant concerning the Lord's will. So he wants us to know his will and his nature. And when I look at his nature, I can see what he will and will not do to me. And so that journey, and it was a process, it was a journey actually in my soulless realm. Not really my body, my body was sick, but really my soul was sick because I had adopted a mentality, a belief system that God Made me sick. But when I began to really look through the scriptures at those three areas, there was not any doubt in my mind that God was the sponsor of sickness and disease. [00:23:31] Speaker A: Yeah, you talk about a religious tradition, legalism, that blinds people to the heart of God. Multiple places in the book you're talking about the heart of God. You even talk about God's heart has always been for health. In the garden, obviously there was no sickness, but even Old Testament times and the law coming out of Egypt, of course, Jesus, we can talk about Jesus and healing in just a minute. But maybe that Old Testament part of it, what that was a little eye opening to me. God's heart has always been for health. Talk about in terms of the Old Testament before Jesus came and restored us back to what was lost and reclaimed all this in our identity in particular. Talk through that a little bit. [00:24:21] Speaker B: Yeah, that was actually Dr. Ben kind of a hurdle for me as well, because even growing up with this, this mindset that God sponsored sickness, I'm like, well, what about the Old Testament when he made people sick? But when I began to discover, even whenever he came into relationship with the, the nation of Israel, it says in Psalm 135, verse 37, that he brought them out with silver and gold, not one feeble one. And so his heart, even for a nation that were servants, they were unrighteous servants. He said, I'm going to bring you out wealthy and healthy. That's my will for a servant. How much more someone who's righteous, which is us in Christ, should it be my standard for the Son. And so that actually was a little hurdle for me just trying to discover, well, what is there a difference between the God of the old covenant and the God of the new covenant? But the scriptures say in Hebrews 13, 8 that he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. So I had to reconcile everything that I was reading through the lenses of the person of Jesus Christ. And Jesus had a healing ministry. He was either on his way to heal someone in the process of healing someone, or he had just finished healing someone. So that all just, I mean, it reformed. It restraint, everything, my entire belief system. [00:25:36] Speaker A: Yeah, you talk about God calling sickness in various places throughout the Bible. Bondage, captivity, oppression, a curse. Those kind of remind me of all the things Jesus came to set people free from. Bondage, captivity and curse. So, so let's, let's move into that a little bit. You know, Jesus just getting us to heaven versus restoring so much more. What, you know, coming to destroy the works of the devil and Specifically setting us free from those kind of things that include sickness. How. How do you get sickness included in all that if you do? I mean, I know God identified sicknesses with those different adjectives there, but talk through that. What Jesus did and which goes to that sozo word, but him taking on sickness, not just forgiveness of sins. And how do those kind of interrelate? [00:26:37] Speaker B: Yeah. So anytime. Dr. Ben and I love this study, but anytime we look at sin and sickness, they're all coupled together. You could see In Isaiah, chapter 53 and verse 10, this is a powerful scripture, but it says that it pleased the Lord to crush Jesus. That means beaten to pieces in Hebrew, to cause him to suffer. That word suffer in Hebrew is sickness and disease. So Jesus not only took sin, he also bore sickness simultaneously. And so when I saw, I'm like, oh, my gosh, I am tolerating, which is why the name of the book exists on my bed of sickness. The father said to me, nerissa, why are you tolerating sickness? He began to take me on that journey of, you have accepted forgiveness, but you've isolated healing. And so he showed me throughout the scriptures that they came together one package. [00:27:26] Speaker A: Yeah. And you talk about in Isaiah 53, the Hebrew words that were used there for griefs and bore, when he bore our griefs. But the. The word. I don't know how to pronounce it. Choli C H O, L, I, why actually means sickness and disease, and boar NASA means to remove or carry away. Because when. When people, you know, Jesus quoted from that scripture about part of what he was coming to do, and he. He bore our sickness. His by his stripes were healed. Some of those Old Testament verses, sometimes people say, well, that just means spiritual, you know, kind of healing, not necessarily the physical and the sickness. But can you talk a little bit about that? The physical part of those words? [00:28:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Even when we tie In Isaiah chapter 53, verses 4 through 5, if we don't even know Hebrew, Dr. Ben, we can transition on to Matthew 8, 17, where it's actually going back to what Isaiah prophesied. And it is specifically speaking of physical healing. And before, when I was coming to these truths, I was telling everyone the good news. God wants me. Well, I'm not staying like this. And I had more people say to me, neresa, this is simply spiritual healing. Do not get your expectations up. And so when we really. We don't even really need to know Hebrew, Dr. Ben, to look at Isaiah, chapter 53, 4, 5, we can still just look at Matthew 8, 17, and then we can move on down to first Peter 2, 24, who was looking back at the cross. And that specific word healing in that scripture is ionima. In Greek it refers to physical healing. Jesus came to set captives free. And we could see physical healings taking place all throughout the Gospels. It's good news. It's really the gospel. The good news that, man, God wants you well more than you want to be well. [00:29:25] Speaker A: Yeah, well, a few years ago when I started really looking at this, because I hadn't, honestly, even though I'm a doctor and even more holistic and of course we used to focus mostly on the natural things, diet and exercise and all that kind of stuff, which is, guys, you still need to steward. I think we're a spirit housed in the body with, with the soul. And we gotta nourish and steward all three. Body, soul, spirit. But this book by Dr. T.J. mcCross and I think this back from the 50s, bodily healing and the Atonement. It's an old school book, but these were Greek Hebrew scholars of their day. And, and I'm just saying this for anyone who's kind of academic or really wants to take some deep dives into that word that Marisa was just saying. And does that mean physical healing? And. But I'll just tell you the conclusion of the scholars of their day if you read this book is yes, it exactly includes. That's what the word means, actual physical sickness and disease. Which kind of would lead me to the next question, Theresa, on stewardship. You know, we have standard Americans just sucking down high fructose corn syrup all day long. In fact, I had a. Had a guy reach out to me. He's basically the health insurance broker. And a lot of his clients are churches and ministries. He actually has some network of over 200,000 churches that he has access to. But what he called me or was talking to me about was at his own personal church, he was listening to the prayer list. Like, you know, we need to be praying for X, Y and Z people and they're sick and they're in the hospital. And after he had learned about listening to some of our. Our stuff here on our education platform, he was just going right down the list. Preventable, reversible, preventable, reversible. Just with diet and lifestyle stuff. You know, just quit eating high fructose corn syrup. We're praying for all these folks who are there and not to condemn those folks. It's out of ignorance and lack of knowledge. We just didn't know. But how do you see that stewardship in the physical where we know you drink a certain thing, eat a certain thing, you're damaging your DNA, your cells, your gut microbiome, all the thing taking tons of antibiotics in the food or from your doctor. I mean the, the physical stuff that we do that we know if we don't do, we can get better. It made the opposite that too we continue to do some of that poor stewardship. How does that all. How do you see that is an interplane. The physical stewardship versus knowing our identity seated in Christ in heavenly places and what that allows us to possess. [00:32:10] Speaker B: I believe, Dr. Ben the moment that we know who we are in Christ there should be a direct correlation how I steward my temple because I am God's temple. I think that we cannot separate the spiritual and the physical because we are a three part being. I still need to steward my body. We've talked about this before, Dr. Ben. But water, even stress levels, all of these things that were kind of speaking to mountains and we're rebuking symptoms and prayers, praises, strength to steal the enemy. Those are biblical. But we really. Sometimes you may need to really just go to sleep at night and get you eight good hours of sleep. I am very big on that balance and I know a lot of ministers. We like to strictly stick to just the spiritual aspect of what God did for us. But there's also a responsibility on how when I get off of here, I am going to run. I'm going to put my body in a place of movement and motion. And so I 100 Dr. Ben. I am aligned with just knowing that there is a. There's a responsibility for the believer too. That it's not just grace and up to God. There is something that I need to do as well with this body and really make this body my slave. I'm very big on that as well. That I am a spirit being who I am in Christ. How am I taking care of this temple in this house that God has given me? [00:33:30] Speaker A: Right. Yeah, it's good. Would you mind sharing because you did in the book a little more personal though. You can tell a story about your mama and your dad and these are in two different seasons of your life and different mindsets. I thought very interesting how both, both mom and dad had some brain related things going on. But can you share those stories kind of the approaches, the mindset and the approach that was different with each one of their hospitalizations? [00:34:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Thank you Dr. Ben for mentioning that. So when I was six years old, my mother, she was having frequent reoccurring headaches, she went into the doctor and they diagnosed her with a brain tumor. She went to the hospital to have the brain tumor removed. And unfortunately, the two doctors that performed the surgery, they were under narcotics, and they ultimately removed her pituitary gland versus the tumor. So when she woke up from the surgery, she was paralyzed completely on her left side. She was unable to talk, unable to walk. Over a course of five to six years, she gained over 500 pounds, and she ultimately ended up dying. And so during that whole time, from the age of 6 on to 12 when she passed away, my entire family, we were praying to God every night, fervently, lord, if it be your will, please heal my mother, Whatever we need to do for her to get well. She did not get well, Dr. Ben. She actually got worse. And so we accepted the sickness. We tolerated that with her so we could look at later in life. I had already learned the truths that I'm sharing in this particular book. Years later, after I'd learned the truth, I received a phone call that my father had a stroke. And so when I arrived at the hospital, they said, neresa, we're going to need to perform brain surgery on your father. And this is really interesting, because the same day that I received that call, it was decades before, on that same day that my mother had passed away. And so this was totally. It could have really put me in a place of, okay, what's going to happen now? But I had renewed my mind to knowing that healing was God's will. And so the doctor said, we're going to need to perform brain surgery on your father. There's a blood clot in his brain. I then knew my authority in Christ. But I knew my authority because I was rooted, Dr. Ben, in my identity. And so I just commanded the blood clot to go. I truly believed that it would leave. Hours later, the doctors returned in from an MRI that they had performed by my father. And they said, neurisa, the blood clot that we once saw, we're no longer seeing anymore. He's not going to need brain surgery. And so the truths that I share, Dr. Ben, in this book are so. They're so passionate to me because had I not been rooted in God's will and my identity, I do not. My father would have had to have a brain surgery similar to how my mother had. My mother walked into the hospital, she rolled out and died six years later. Because I was established in the truths that I'm sharing, my father rolled into that hospital, but he walked out six days Later. So this is a life or death message for me that I've had way too much experience with myself and even my family, that I'm just passionate as the Father is. As you said earlier, his heart is to see his people. Well, Amen. [00:36:53] Speaker A: And can you talk about. You know, I think a lot of folks will go to the mindset of on about faith and that if they're not well or if they are sick, but they love Jesus, they've been praying. Maybe they're praying like you were with Mama. If it be your will, maybe they don't. They haven't got the identity, revelation and authority. Big, big deal. But a lot of people will kind of get a little condemnation going about. Or are you saying I don't have enough faith or I'm not a good enough Christian or something there? But. And you address it in the book. Really, really well. And guys, I encourage you to get the book because Narisa does a great job really hitting these points that tend to come up, these question marks that'll come up. But can you expand on that a little bit about just the faith piece? Do we gotta have more faith? Is it my faith that's an issue or what? Just talk through that a little bit. [00:37:49] Speaker B: Yeah, that. That's a great question. Because even in my own journey, I was like, okay, Lord, it's your will, but now I just need more faith to believe you. And so, as you said, we unpack that throughout. That throughout the book. Why are you tolerating sickness? What I want to say is faith works by love. The moment we get a revelation of how much the Father loves us, faith just is nothing more, Dr. Ben, than a response to what he's already done. And so my heart for the believer is to make it easy. I do not want it to be complicated. Healing should not be hard. I want it to be effortless, which is what the Father wants as well. So when we talk about faith, you have enough faith. It's already been imputed to you. We could go through so many scriptures on that, but faith works by love. It says in Galatians 5, 6. And so it's simply my response. He says that I'm healed. Can I get myself. I'm just going to believe that I'm healed regardless of the symptoms, which is really. Sometimes it's. It's difficult just being transparent that when you have alarming symptoms, they're heightened. It could be a lot to wrap your mind around that. But I believe as you just continue in these truths and saturate yourself in the goodness of God you'll naturally respond and your body will follow suit. I really believe that. [00:39:01] Speaker A: Yeah. And you talk about in here not having faith in your faith. It's faith in God and. But that goes to knowing God and not having that question mark in your heart, which is what Satan came to Eve in the garden and got a question mark in her heart on God's character and nature. And we get question marks in our heart if we're honest about it and that. So then it's hard that can keep that faith in God from really flowing. And you go on to talk about this is later in page 134 you said you can print out 10 pages of healing scriptures but don't know in, but don't intimately know the one who spoke them. So I know there's folks that maybe got the understanding God wants me well, but still it's up to me to do stuff. And I'm going to speak the word. I know the power of life and death is in the tongue. And as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. And I'm going to speak, I'm going to, I'm going to speak these scriptures, healing scriptures. I'm going to quote them, I'm going to write them on my, my mirror and all the things which all that's good. I'm not saying not to do that, but expound on that. If you can print out 10 pages of healing scripture, but if you don't intimately know the one who spoke them. So there's this thing about knowing God and knowing his love you just talked about, but kind of clarify that how much we gotta do versus just be and just know the simplicity. You were talking about. [00:40:43] Speaker B: This is my heart, Dr. Ben, where I've seen just a. This is a landslide. Where people do we get. So we actually open the Bible, we flip through the pages to find a promise. I don't flip through the Bible to find a promise. I open it up to diligently seek after a person. And there's a radical difference in that that we put. We exalt the promise more than the person who made the promise. If we really come into relationship as you're describing, Dr. Ben, with God, you'll believe the promises and effortlessly because you know him. Which is why Jesus had 100 success rate in everything that he did, because he knew the Father. [00:41:22] Speaker A: Yeah, I was thinking about Jesus success rate. I think you quoted 17 times. It says in scripture he healed them all. But I've had people ask me what about and the Two what abouts. And there's other questions I have. But what about at the pool of Bethesda? He stepped over. There are lots of sick people there. He only went to the one. And then his own hometown. I mean, I have my thoughts on. Well, I'll just share my thought and then tell me what you think. But for sure, his own hometown. I mean, that seems super clear. Those folks were not coming to him, seeking him, looking at him as who he was, identity. They're looking at him as, you're just the boy that grew up here. Now you're grown up a little bit, but you're just Jesus that grew up here. We know your brother. We know your sister. Meaning a narrow, narrow, myopic vision of who Jesus is. And in today's religious world, I'd say that could be. He's just my ticket to heaven. They just don't know. They don't see him. They can't receive. They're not seeking him for healing would be on the hometown. Hometown thinking is what I call that. But what hit me the other day on the pool of Bethesda, because he asked that guy, do you. I don't remember the exact scripture, but basically, do you want to be. Well, there's something about a connection. I think of it as a magnet. When you have two. Two magnets coming together. But if you flip your magnet where you. It's negative to negative, there's a repelling going on versus a positive to negative in a connection. Connection going on. It's like there's this frequency or a heart connection, and Jesus wants to have that. I mean, he gets down in their face. He gets, you know, gets close to him. He has a personal. But he asks that question. It's almost like there has to be a seeking, a wanting. You flipped your magnet. You are. You see him for who he is. You're seeking his face, you're seeking his character, nature, his love. I mean, there's just something about a. A desire where. I mean, he didn't go. Ask all the other people at the pool. And I don't know. We can't know for sure. Why didn't he ask everybody that day? What was the intent of just the one guy? But the point I'm getting at is he made that connection where that guy was seeking in that moment. Because he said, yeah. I mean, he said some other stuff, but there's something about this connection on identity, it seemed to me. But I'll. I'll let you give me your thoughts on healing them all versus what about when not everyone was healed. [00:43:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I actually do a whole study on when we talk about Jesus where his own hometown. And you actually hit it, Dr. Ben, where it says that he could do not many mighty works. There were still miracles that took place. But these people were looking through the lenses of looking at Jesus in a very narrow mindset. So it wasn't that Jesus couldn't heal them all. It really was that the people weren't being. They weren't propelled toward to go towards him. And John, chapter five, Dr. Ben, is one of my favorite stories in the Bible with the man at the pool of Bethesda when he said, do you want to be made well? When you translate that out in Greek, it means are you determined to get well? Because this man, he had sickness in his body, but sickness actually was in his mindset. He was in an environment with sick people. And so Jesus, as you said he was coming into, he was really getting to the root that, listen, you don't have sickness. Sickness has you. And I love the way Jesus is so personable. Are you determined to get well? And then, as you said, he came with a couple excuses, but ultimately he got free. And that's what all of this is about. It's a back. It's going back to abiding in union, that relationship where God, he is determined and aggressive for you to get well. He is obsessed with seeing you live an abundant life. [00:45:15] Speaker A: Yes, ma', am, I agree. I want to read a couple pages here if you'll bear with me. Starting on page 120. And I'm starting you quote Romans 10:14. This is how the NIV. How then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? That's Romans 10:14 in context. This passage is about salvation, believing in the Lord Jesus. But we must remember, as we've already established, the Greek word for salvation. Sozo is all inclusive. It doesn't just mean forgiveness of sins. It means healing, deliverance, preservation, and wholeness. And that makes this verse even more sobering. How can believers walk in health if they've never heard it's available? How can they believe in deliverance if no one has told them it belongs to them? The tragedy is many pulpits today aren't declaring the full message. I believe there are several reasons for this, but the most crippling one is fear. Fear that if they preach healing, nothing will happen. Fear of disappointment. Fear of being labeled or criticized. Fear of losing people or looking foolish. And sadly, many ministers have become paralyzed by public opinion. And the body of Christ is paying the price for that silence. Let me be clear. I don't preach or minister healing just to count results. I preach it because the Word commands me to. I lay hands on the sick, not because I'm in a society that is consumed with going viral, but because Jesus said to Mark 16:18, My job isn't to produce miracles. My job is obedience. The results, they're in God's hands. I'm not responsible for making healing happen, but I am responsible for making it known. At the Bible college I attended, the founder and president placed a strong emphasis on God's unconditional love and grace. It wasn't just a theological concept. It was the heartbeat of the entire ministry. And the fruit was undeniable. This ministry has documented countless healing testimonies. Blind eyes, open, brain damage reversed, lupus healed, cancer stopped in its tracks. And the list goes on. But all these individuals had in common was this. In the middle of the crisis, they heard the good news that God wanted them well and that healing had nothing to do with their performance or level of holiness. It had everything to do with his grace. It was this revelation of their righteous position in Christ that shifted their mindset from striving to believing, from fear to faith, from condemnation to confidence in Christ. And as they received the truth of God's love and provision, healing followed. The power wasn't in their words, it was in the word. The transformation didn't come from their worthiness. It came from understanding his worthiness. When people hear the true gospel, not a mixture of grace and law, but the message of Jesus's finished work. Faith rises, hearts open, and miracles happen. That's the power of grace. That's the power of the gospel. Many believers today are trapped in the mindset that they have to be good enough to walk in divine health or for God to heal them. They measure their worthiness based on how well they've performed, how much they've prayed, or how sinless they've lived. But that couldn't be further from the truth. If human effort, our own flesh, were enough to earn healing, righteousness, or any of God's blessings, then why would Jesus have needed to come in the flesh at all? The whole reason we he came was that we couldn't do it ourselves. Romans 8:3. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on the account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh. Romans 8:3. The law demanded righteousness, but our flesh couldn't meet the demand. So God sent His Son not to lower the standard, but to fulfill it perfectly on our behalf. Matthew 3:15. Healing, just like salvation, doesn't come because we've earned it. It comes because Jesus paid for it. It's not about your performance. It's about his obedience. Romans 5:19. It's not about your goodness, it's about his grace. So if you're waiting to feel worthy enough to be healed, you'll always feel disqualified. But when you look at Jesus, his finished work, his righteousness, his sacrifice, you'll find every reason to receive. Healing is not a reward. It's a part of our inheritance. One of the enemy's greatest tactics is convincing believers that they're not worthy, not good enough, or not deserving of healing. And here's the truth on your. On our own, we aren't apart from Jesus. We don't qualify for any of it. But here's the good news. We're not apart from Jesus. Our access to divine health comes from the finished work of the cross, not through our performance, but through his perfection. The moment you treat healing as something to be earned or deserved, you unknowingly give the enemy a landing strip to bring condemnation and doubt. You begin to measure God's willingness to heal by your behavior rather than by his covenant and your right standing with Him. Sorry, that was long, but so good. When I read that, I marked that thing up. I gotta read this because this just puts so just boom. It's. If we just. And this is going to be Holy Spirit writing the truth on people's hearts of. Of understanding the goodness of God, God's love and his will. And when we realize it's not about us and we can't do it, but we have the choice to make. Or we can continue in our own strength, our own ways, our own thinking, our own flesh, letting our soul, our intellect, our emotion, our will. That's in our soul. Guys. Body, Soul, Spirit. Andrew Wommack's book, We had them on talking about spirit. Soul and body is the name of the book, actually. It's so key to delineate out that thing and. And understand our identity. We talked about this with Chris Blackaby. Seated in Christ in heavenly places. That's who we are. We're a citizen of that kingdom. Ah. In the world, just. We've been not only hoodwinked and bamboozled and deceived, distracted, lulled to sleep, put into either or tree of knowledge of good and evil. Getting into camps, left, right, black, white, this, that, and we just argue and fight and theological doctrines of man and all this stuff. There's a simplicity of Christ. And he came and he showed us the heart of the Father. If you see me, you've seen the Father. I don't do anything except the works of the Father. And I came to destroy the works of the devil. I mean, it's all in Jesus's life. That's. That's my theology. Jesus's life and we get to partake in that. That's the beauty of what he did. If we don't see that, if no one's preached that, if we haven't heard that, we haven't seen that, it's hard to get a hold of that and believe it and walk in it. And Theresa does such a great job. I just read. I mean, that was beautiful what you wrote there. But the book's full of it, of identity, identity, identity and God's will and his purpose and his intent. And so we've been talking about in a lot of podcasts. Guys, we've got to move and shift and start seeing ourselves for who we are and who God is. That's the key of the whole deal. Got to clear up this identity thing. I really wanted to read that song. I'm glad I did. [00:53:54] Speaker B: Amen. [00:53:56] Speaker A: I played so much, much glad I had time for that. But I want to give you time also. Just anything on your heart to share comments on that, that passage, or just anything to drive home to the. The listeners, to give them hope and, and direction. And you talk about kind of some steps in here, but you also say it's not a formula. It is not a formula. It's all about position and identity and understanding the righteousness of God. And we get to partake in and it's awesome art, not our righteousness. Filthy rags. Any thoughts on that or anything else in the book that you want to share before we. We've got, you know, five or ten minutes left. [00:54:34] Speaker B: No, I thank you for that, Dr. Ben. I just. My heart is exactly what you just expressed in those, those pages, those passages, because it all ties back to him and it takes that burden off of me. And even in the last chapter of the book, it's not titled. Love wants you well. And love is God. God's love. He wants as well. The very last person that Jesus healed was someone who came to arrest him. You could find that at the very end of his earthly ministry. Dear God, if If Jesus could heal someone that came to arrest him, I certainly should not disqualify myself. And so when we could get in this place of this is his will, his nature is in me. That very life that's on the inside of me is. It's available, it's ready to flow and hit this place. Flesh, that hope rises up. And so I just want to encourage anyone listening that if you are in a place right now where you're just like Neresa, I don't even want to live. I've. I've been crippled with sickness and disease for decades now. We just want to encourage you that there is hope for you. There is a life after that. And as you begin to just transform, renew that mind to these truths that will saturate. I'm. I believe the body follows effortlessly. A lot of times we talk about, about the flesh and the body. I believe we need to take an inventory of our soulless realm. What is going on in our thinking? Are we thinking sickness? Do we have a dialogue going on in our daily itinerary of, you know, pills and prescriptions? I know I did. Everything revolved around the sickness. But then I shifted that mindset. I exchanged those lies with the truth and I began to just get. I just started to live my life. And I love how Jesus did that with people. Take up your mat and go. It was just that easy. They went from sickness to health just in an instant. I believe that takes place, Dr. Ben. A lot of it takes place in the soulless realm when we could just get our mind wrapped on, like you said, kingdom, culture, my God, we are citizens of heaven. Philippians 3:20. I have to renew my mind to this new identity, this new man, this new system that I should not even be susceptible to sick to sickness. So I just. I thank you for reading that because that is really the heart behind. Even in the book. This is not about me, it's all about him. And this is not about another principle. I do not like telling people to speak to mountains. And yes, it's biblical, but a lot of times we speak to these mountains and they're not moving, we become frustrated. I'm more on pointing you to who you are in Christ. And I believe healing takes place place effortlessly when we do that. [00:57:06] Speaker A: Amen. I do too. I think there's just a frequent frequency shift. Something just happens. And honestly, guys, there's people just more in the secular realm that are purely using quantum physics, scientific principles, knowing about how frequency works and spoken words and, and thoughts and. And even getting Results in the secular realm. We're citizens of the kingdom of God, the Creator, the Alpha, the Omega, the God most high of every. And we should be leading the charge in this thing. And, and I don't want to this to bring fear at all. But I was listening to, he's pretty well known, kind of naturopathic in the Naturopathic Circles, Dr. Group ed Group last night. And he's been all into the nanotech, you know, from those gene therapy injections that came out in 2020 and but then they've been testing food and water and toilet paper. I mean pretty much everything at the grocery store he says has these nanotech which we're not going to get off on this tangent but I know some of my listeners hear this kind of stuff on their Instagram reels and, and whatever podcasts are listening to and oh no, oh no. And you know, what are these crazy mad scientists doing trying to alter our DNA with this stuff? And yeah, there's things to try to detox that but I'm telling you guys, it's a hundred percent my belief and I don't have a peer reviewed published study to show it. But I got the word of God and I'm telling you this thing Theresa's talking about, when we get this identity thing and we get these question marks cleared up in our heart about God's character in nature and who he is and we get these questions Mark cleared up on our identity, there's something that's going to shift in your physical that I promise you will just disintegrate those nanotechnology, nanobot whatever they're doing, we don't focus on that. We don't walk by our flesh carnal five senses, what's under the microscope. And I'm not dogging those guys at all, I mean at all. And then if you're doing some detox or that kind of stuff, that's fine. But I'm just saying seek the kingdom first, make this a priority. And you'll need less and less and less of that other stuff or the Holy Spirit will tell you hey, avoid that thing today or do this extra thing today in the physical. I'm not saying there may not be that moment where that of course Holy Spirit will totally direct you in that but you're not attacking it from a place of faith, fear and oh no. And these globalist elites are trying to just population control us and all this stuff. I mean they may, I think they are doing all that. But who, who do? Where do we sit, where we Sit is above that. That's all second realm stuff. That's all principalities and spiritual forces in that second heaven realm. And our king that lives in us and we're in him, has overcome all that already and he's continuing to overcome it more and more and to actually manifest that through us. The body of Christ in the earth, him is our head, his spirit. Leading us in our true identities, corporately together will put on display the multi sided wisdom of God to those principalities and spiritual forces in the heavenly realms. And Paul says that's the mystery that was never known for ages past, but now it's known. And that's the mystery that God's wanting to do this with us, partner with us, his family. He could just boom, in a second, wipe out Satan, Lake of fire, all of it done, boom, any moment. I mean with a half a breath, that's not even. But he chose to do it with us. But we got to be submitted to him, the truth. So identify those lies in your soul. Marisa was saying this is a battle of the soul. Third John, I think it is. Beloved, I wish above all else, I pray above all else you may prosper and be in health. As your soul prospers, so you got to take captive that lie, bring the truth to it, renew the mind and boom, you're walking by spirit, not by carnal flesh. Theresa, I'll give you the last word. The book. Why are you tolerating sickness? How can people follow you? Your website, social media, get the book and just any closing thought. [01:01:28] Speaker B: Dr. Ben, before I even jump into just, just myself, I want to thank you for bringing in just this side. As a doctor, I know a lot of us, Chad Gonzalez, Andrew Wommack, a lot of us are ministers of the gospels behind a pulpit. But for you to bring these truths into the arena that you have, I want to commend you and tell you thank you and encourage you to keep going because like you said, when we get a hold of this reality over here, care less about what's going on in the physical realm. But you deal with a lot of people, Dr. Ben, that are coming to you with physical issues. And so for the Father to be able to couple all of that and use you as a vessel, I just want to thank you. I'm encouraging people to continue to listen to you. But for our ministry, you can head on to our [email protected] you can order the book, it's on Amazon right now if you want to purchase it. And I mean we have our YouTube channel where we really dive into these truths. We're on a series right now of really taking captive your thought life that if you're gonna faint in your body, your first. You're gonna first faint in your mind before you ever collapse in your body. And so we're gonna. We're going through those things right now. And I just encourage you head to our YouTube, get on there, get fed the truth of the word of God, get injected with that truth, and as you said, effortless change. You just the symptoms. In my own case, I don't know, Dr. Ben, when they fell off, I. I don't know. I just began to live my life out of my identity. And now I hear, perfect, this is all of my hair. It's longer than what it was before. I'm running more miles than what I did before. I've gotten my life back, so my heart is to see other people set free as well. [01:03:06] Speaker A: Amen. Praise be to God. Glory be to God. That's awesome. Okay, Nerissa Jones, thank you so much. Y' all get the book. Why are you tolerating sickness? Neurisajones.com and on Amazon, check out the YouTube page. Theresa, we'll have to have you back. Thank you so much for being with us today. [01:03:23] Speaker B: Thank you, Dr. Ben. God bless. Thank you so much. [01:03:26] Speaker A: All right, everybody, we'll be back next week. Check out veritas wellness member.com for all the shows archived there. And of course, all the podcast platforms, YouTube, all that social media stuff's on the website, too. We'll see y' all next week. Bye. Bye.