Understanding Prescription and Process

Imagine you have wrecked your car and you are lying in the ditch, critically injured. Soon the ambulance shows up and a doctor gets out. He looks at you and says, “Here is a prescription. Do what it says and you will be fine.”

You are hurting too badly to pay attention to what the prescription says. The doctor sees you are not responding to the message, so he hops back into the ambulance, sighs, and drives away saying, “I can’t want it for you; you have to want it for yourself.”

Still in shock and pain, you grumble to yourself about how you hate doctors. You find a way to get yourself to safety and try to splint your broken leg with a stick you find nearby. It will take some time to heal, but since there is no one to help you, you have to do things on your own. 

What a horrible world that would be. I am thankful we live in a world where medical professionals know how to do more than just write prescriptions. Sadly, we live in a religious world that doesn’t. 

Now, I know what I am saying is an exaggeration. When you write me to tell me how much you hate the point I am making here, please remember that I am over-emphasizing the situation to make the point. 

Like a doctor being schooled in how to write good prescriptions, my ministerial training pressured me to have the right message, to buy the truth and sell it not, and to be steadfast in the apostle’s doctrine! I’m thankful for those who emphasized the right remedy (haters, please note that I said this—I believe having the right message is top priority). Somehow though, I got the idea that giving the right message, the prescription, was the way to cure the hurts and problems around us.

A person hurting in the ditch needs something before they get a prescription: diagnosis. It is usually the EMT who does this. Doctors do not typically ride in ambulances. The EMT meets people at their point of need and helps them self-diagnose even in the midst of pain and confusion: “What happened? Where does it hurt? Will you let me help you?”

The EMT pays attention for signs of breathing difficulty, spinal damage, and a host of other things. Once the EMT and other emergency personnel get the patient stabilized with immediate needs addressed, then a doctor can come and give that so-important prescription. Okay, I know there is more fine tuning to the process, but I am trying to keep this generalized and not write a whole book on the topic (yet). 

At this point, the patient is ready to receive the prescription. Had the doctor given the prescription the day before, the patient would not have listened. Had he given the prescription in the ditch, the patient would not have been ready or able to respond. 

However, diagnosis and prescriptions are not all there is to medical recovery process. Next comes the nurse who helps the patients until they are whole and able to continue healing on their own. Imagine a person properly diagnosed with a good prescription but they have no one to change the bandages, give IVs, or teach them to walk again. The after care is just as important as the first aid. 

I suddenly realized that Jesus gave us these roles in His body! The EMT is the evangelist. The shepherd/teacher is the nurse/care-giver. The prophet/preacher is the doctor writing prescriptions, the Word of God. The apostle is the hospital administrator.

Unfortunately, Christianity has become a doctor/prescription movement. Like people today who say, “My doctor said I have to do this,” many look to the preacher as the focus of the faith. We expect the preachers to do it all. Responding to that emphasis, our preachers try to give better sermons. Since we are a prescription-oriented movement, we flock to the ones who can preach the prescription better than the other. 

Then, things fall apart. One preacher realizes that preaching the prescription isn’t working today because people are trying spiritual self-remedies instead of the apostles’ prescription. So, they change it to make it easier. Now, more people follow the prescription but it does not make them better.

Of course, there are other doctors in the faith who see the prescription is not helping many people, so they feel they have to make it longer. You must do that, AND this and this and this. If you follow everything they prescribe, you should be better. Some take the challenge, hoping to make themselves better. Others give up and decide the wounds are easier to manage than the cure.

What the Lord has shown me is that I have often hurried to the prescription instead of loving people through the diagnosis. It is not that I did not love people or see their hurts. I just thought the prescription was the focus. Some people don’t realize yet that they have a disease.

Let me say it this way. A doctor in my neighborhood stops and talks to me one day on his morning jog and says, “Daniel, you need to follow my prescription or you are going to have heart trouble.” I don’t believe in doctors and think they are all there to push drugs so they can get bonuses and vacations so I say, “Whatever,” and ignore him. The next day, I start having a heart attack. The doc jogs up and finds me lying in the ditch. Suddenly, I say, “Boy am I glad to see you! Help me!”

So it is with people without Jesus. They first need to see their need before they will listen to our remedy. 

Everyone needs inner healing because everyone has been wounded by sin. Be a friend who cares, listens, and applies first aid. Perhaps like a person having a stroke, some don’t realize they need help yet. 

Look at Jesus as an EMT. He helped people self-diagnose often. To the paralyzed man: “Do you want to be made whole?” To the father of the demonized child: “How long has he been like this?” To the man who just received his sight: “Do you believe on the Son of God?”

Diagnosis is the work of the Spirit. This takes a trained ear and eye that follows more than just what is obvious. To the woman at the well, He said: “You’ve had 5 husbands and the one you have now is not your husband.” That woman wanted to argue that her people had the right prescription: worship in Mt. Gerazim. When she saw the true issue, she had to bring everyone she knew to the Great Physician. To Nathanael, He said: “I saw you under the fig tree.” To Simon Peter, He said: “When you are converted, strengthen your brothers.” We have to hear the voice of the Spirit. If we are not Spirit-led, we will misdiagnose many cases.

Jesus also boldly gave the prescription: “…must be born of water and Spirit…,” “come to Me and drink…,” and “He that believes and is baptized will be saved.” Jesus wrote the prescription to begin with. However, personal ministry was not all about the prescription.

Jesus also applied after care: “You have forsaken houses, lands, family… for my sake…,” “You will be hated by all for My name’s sake…,” and “blessed are you when you are rejected and persecuted.”

Jesus organized caregivers and sent them out in groups to find those in need of wholeness. They were to bring hope and the message. They were to stay with those in their care and not abandon them. 

These functions of Jesus—diagnosis, prescription, caregiving, and organization—are all given to us now (Ephesians 4:11). Popular Christianity has focused on the role of prescription writing to the neglect of the others. Other branches of the faith give care but no prescription. The body needs to be balanced. If the church is a hospital, then those who are gifted in these roles need to train us all in how to be highly skilled in them—the gifted ones are to train the rest in how to serve (Ephesians 4:11-12). 

Recently my child was sick. I have learned the difference between symptoms of colds and symptoms of flu. The low-grade fever, vomiting, and discomfort aided his mother and in discerning the cause of his problem. We did not tell him he was weird for having symptoms. Those helped us diagnose and find solutions. 

Often today we look at people with emotional problems as if they were weird. They should not be ashamed of their symptoms. Someone who loves them and knows Jesus can help them find the cure. Too many prescription-focused believers do not want to be troubled with this work. However, those who find the cure become the most loyal! Jesus said those who have been forgiven much (healed of much) also love much (stay fiercely loyal to the Great Physician). 

Can you diagnose the common cold? You can help someone find inner healing. Learn from the Scriptures. Let the Spirit lead you. Work from a place of love and grace rather than a point of demands and control.

How have you helped people find salvation by ministering to their point of need rather than just giving a “heaven or hell” speech?

How could I improve my understanding of this prescription/diagnosis process? Are there other areas of the medical profession that would help us understand the Kingdom better?