A few weeks ago, I asked my 5-year old Francis to sing on stage. And right after, I asked my 10-year son Bene to preach.

This was before thousands of people at the Feast, our weekly prayer gathering.

It was awesome.

Francis brought the house down with his cute singing.

And Bene blew the audience away with his talk.

Hey, please understand.

I’m the father.

So my report is highly biased.

Because I’m sure my kids made mistakes on stage.

Francis probably sang off-key a couple of times.

He probably sang out of rhythm a few parts of his song.

And Bene probably made grammatical errors.

And mispronounced words.

But all that didn’t matter.

And I didn’t pay too much attention to their mistakes.

       Because the whole time they were performing, my heart was bursting within me, saying over and over again, “Those are my kids!”

       This doesn’t just happen when they’re performing in front of a crowd of people. I get the same feeling when I watch my kids draw, swim, play, talk… 

In other words, I just love it when they’re themselves.

       People ask me, “Bo, when Bene grows up, he’ll be a Preacher like you. He’s such a good speaker.”

       I answer them, “I don’t know. That’s up to him to decide.”

I’ve always told Bene, “Be who God created you to be. Be yourself. And you’ll succeed.”

God Loves It When You Become You

       Friend, God is a father too.

       When you use your talent, God’s heart is bursting with pride.

When He sees you performing on stage of life, using the talent that He has given you to bless the world, God is saying, “That’s my kid!”

Why? God loves it when you become you.

He wired you to do something.

He designed you, formed you, shaped you, rigged you, tooled you, and wired you to be a special gift to the world.

If he designed you to be an anthropologist, be an anthropologist.

If he designed you to make deals, then make deals.

If he designed you to listen, then listen.

If he designed you to count money, then count money.

If he designed you to plant crops, then plant crops.

If he designed you to fix cars, then fix cars.

If he designed you to hold the camera, then hold the camera.

       I repeat: God loves it when you become you.

Three Landmarks In Your Success Journey

Friend, do you want to be successful in life?

Remember that success doesn’t happen overnight.

Success is a journey.

In fact, you’ll have to pass via three landmarks in this journey. Between where you are now and where your success is are three landmarks. Here they are:

Landmark 1: When you discover your talent

Landmark 2: When you develop your talent

Landmark 3: When you deliver your talent

These three landmarks correspond to the three kinds of people in the world.

There are people who haven’t discovered their talents because they’ve dug a hole in the ground—the hole of low self-worth—and hid their talent there.

They feel useless.

They feel they’re condemned to live a mediocre life.

       I should know.

       I was once such a person…

1. Discover Your Talent

All of us possess various talents.

Some can dance like Gary V.

Some can make people laugh like Michael V.

Some can act like Ate Vi.

While some can make burgers like Jollivee.

(Sorry, slept late last night.)

But I didn’t believe this years ago.

When I was a kid, I used to complain to God, “Lord, why didn’t you give me any talents?” I felt I was the most talentless person on the planet.

I was afflicted with comparisonities.

When I was in Grade 5, I had a classmate in school who seemed to have all the talents I wanted to have.

His name was Ariel.

He was number one in class.

He was number one in Basketball.

He was number one in Baseball.

He was number one among the girls.

He was number one among the teachers.

Me? 

I was number one at being nothing.

I was number one at being unpopular.

I was number one at being bullied by the bullies.

I was number one at being the laughing stock of my teachers.

But I had one talent that I thought I was good at. At least I had one. I knew I was good at drawing.

But one day, we had art class. And Ariel drew something that was Walt Disney material.  He was number one again.

I complained to God. I said, “Lord, how unfair! Why is he number one in drawing too!   That was my only talent.”

But one fateful day, everything changed in my life.

That was the day I discovered my talent.

All You Have To Do Is Say Yes

As a 13-year-old kid, I was attending this small prayer meeting with my parents. And in one of those meetings, our leader announced to everyone, “God spoke to me last night. One of you will preach the Gospel all over the world.”

She then approached me and asked, “Bo, can you give a talk next Friday.”

Imagine me. That skinny, peepsqueeky kid, who read Superman comics and watched Voltes V on TV, to give a talk.

And with my pre-puberty, high-pitched voice, I said “Sure!”

That was the only thing that God was asking from me.

To say “Yes” to His call.

Did I know I could talk?

No.

But I was willing to try.

I could have given in to fear—and said “No”.

If I did, I wouldn’t be here standing in front of you.

Imagine if I didn’t say “Yes”. What would I be doing now?

The thought gives me the shivers.

But on that day, I conquered my fear and said “Yes”.

When I gave my talk, I realized I had the gift of peace. 

Because when I spoke, I was more powerful them ‘valium’.  Because I made everyone sleep.

I remember this one woman sitting in the front row.

She slept so soundly in my talk, her mouth was wide open. So open, I could count how many of her molars were filled.

I felt humiliated. I was such a poor speaker!

After my talk, I sat down and told myself, “I’ll never give another talk in my entire life.”

Your Availability Is More Important

Than Your Ability

But my prayer group leader, bless her, approached me again and asked me, “Bo, why don’t you give another talk next week?”

And I looked at her with the steely gaze of a hurt, humiliated, 13-year old kid, and said, “Sure!”

I kept saying Yes to God.

And this is what I’ve found out: When you give to God your availability, He will supply you with your ability.

I discovered my gift.

After a few months, I became a better speaker.

And about the woman in front row who slept at my talk? 

She kept on sleeping in all my talks.

I realized she was an insomniac. And that the only time she could sleep was when someone was speaking.

Why You Haven’t Discovered Your Talent

       A lot of people ask me that question: How will I discover my talent? Kids ask me that question a lot. Teens ask me that question a lot. Amazingly, even adults ask me that question a lot.

       Let me be frank with you.

       One of the biggest reasons why you haven’t discovered your talent is because you haven’t been saying a lot of Yeses to life. You’ve been habitually saying No. 

To opportunities. To learning. To experiences. To stretching. 

       You’ve been saying No because you’re afraid.

       You’re afraid of making mistakes.

       You’re afraid of being laughed at by people.

You’re afraid of falling flat on your face.

You’re afraid of being humiliated.

Discovering your talent is like discovering buried treasure. 

Treasure hunters don’t dig in one spot and automatically find the treasure. Treasure hunters go through a lot of surveying the area.

They dig in one spot, find nothing, dig in another spot again, find nothing again, dig in another spot again, find nothing again… until they dig in this one spot and find the treasure!

God has called you to serve Him with your talent.

So serve Him and be willing to make mistakes.

Be willing to fail.

Be willing to be a fool for Christ.

All you’ve got to do is say Yes to God!

2. Develop Your Talent

But I didn’t stop in the discovering of my talent.

I developed my talent.

Some people discover their talent, but they don’t develop it.

They’re good mechanics, farmers, speakers, writers, thinkers, listeners, musicians, engineers, mathematicians, administrators—but they don’t develop their talent. 

They don’t hone their craft.

They don’t sharpen their saw. 

They don’t expand their expertise. 

They don’t increase their initiatives.

They don’t grow their gifting.

How did I develop my talent?

Simple. 

I used it.

I said “Yes” to every single invitation given to me to speak. 

Tiny prayer groups invited me to speak; I said yes. 

Prisons invited me to speak; I said yes. 

Hospitals invited me to speak; I said yes.

Poor dilapidated schools in far-flung barrios invited me to speak; I said yes.

I had to cross three rivers before I spoke; I said yes.

Only twenty people showed up; I said yes.

Only ten people showed up; I said yes.

Only three people showed up; I said yes.

In my early years, I would preach every single day.

I didn’t know it, but saying “yes” to every invitation was fulfilling Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 Hour-Rule of Greatness.

Sometimes, young preachers come up to me and tell me, “Brother Bo, I want to preach as good as you do.”

“Great!” I say. So I ask him, “How often do you preach?”

“Oh, about once a month…” he says.

I want to strangle him. “Once a month? By the time you’ll be any good, you’ll be 150 years old. You should be preaching every single day! Create opportunities for you to speak!”

Here’s the truth: The only way to develop your talent is to use it. Let me say it again. If you don’t use it, you lose it.

3. Deliver Your Talent

Some people discovered their talent, developed their talent, but don’t deliver their talent.

For example, I have a friend who knows he’s a good singer. 

As a kid, he already was blessed with a fantastic voice.

And he sings in his house everyday to develop his voice.

But here’s the funny thing: Not once has he volunteered to sing in public. Not in parties. Not in church. Not in programs. Not in weddings. One day, I invited him to join the music ministry and he said he had no time.

So far, the only ones who have heard him sing are his shower curtain, his bathroom mirror, and his toilet bowl.

One of the things I’ve found out about this world is that you don’t get rewarded for discovering your talent; you don’t get rewarded for developing your talent; you only get rewarded for delivering your talent.

In other words, do you have the ability to launch?

Planning to launch is not enough.

Preparing to launch is not enough.

You have to actually launch.

There are those who like tinkering with their work endlessly. So they delay. And delay. And delay. And they never launch. 

It’s the sickness of corporate world.

       Again, the reason why people don’t deliver is fear.

       It’s same old enemy.

       They’re afraid of failure.

       They’re afraid of rejection. 

       They’re afraid of public humiliation.

So they want everything perfect before they launch. 

And there lies the mistake.

There’s no such thing.

They don’t understand that perfection doesn’t exist. 

What you need to do is launch and re-launch and keep on re-launching until you get it right.

Here’s what I realized: Before you become a public success, you have to first become a public humiliation! 

It’s the only way.

No One Is Exempt

       Let me end with one last story.

       A lot of people tell me, “Bo, I really have no talent.”

       I disagree.

       Let me introduce you to a 21-year old man named Jayjay.

Jayjay Ocaya is a 21-year old who sits on a wheelchair the whole day.  Jayjay has kidney failure and goes for dialysis twice a week. Jayjay is also deaf.

He was born with a congenital disease called Hydrocephalic Spina Bifida. That meant his spinal column wasn’t fully developed. To survive, he has to go through dialysis twice a week.

Yet every Sunday, Jayjay is part of our Ushers Ministry at the Feast in PICC. What is his talent? He may not be able to hear and he may not be able to walk, but he can smile.

Every Sunday, Jayjay smiles at people and shows them God’s Love.

Let me tell you about another friend.

       Her name is Anne Martha Padilla.

       She a 26-year old girl with cerebral palsy and has to stay in bed the whole day.

       She can’t stand or walk or move the way she wants to. Her muscles move on their own. Her mother has to feed her, bathe her, and carry her around.

       She can’t also talk the way you and I do.

       If there’s one person that has the right to say, “I have no talent” and “I can’t serve God”, it would be Anne Martha Padilla.

       But that’s not true.

       Because Anne Martha Padilla gave her Yes to God.

And today, she has a powerful ministry.

She serves hundreds of people in a very personal way.

Anne Martha Padilla is an intercessor and an encourager.

       The way she does it is by her cellphone.

       She would grab her cellphone with her toes. 

And with her other foot, she’d stab at the keypad. Everyday, she’ll send her prayers and inspiration to textmates all over the world.

       She prays for her textmates everyday.

       She encourages them.

       She inspires them.

       She’s discovered, developed, and delivered her talent for God’s people. And people are very blessed because of her.

       If Jayjay and Anne Martha have found their talent, it’s now your turn.

       Give your talent to God.

       Just say “Yes” to Him.

       May your dreams come true,

       Bo Sanchez

PS. Do You Want To Receive God’s Love Letters To You?  Get GodWhispers twice a week. They’re very short, sometimes humorous, and always inspiring love letters from God to you.  You’ll be blown away. It’s FREE. Log on now at www.GodWhispersClub.com now!

You can succeed in life.

Anybody can.

Because time is the great equalizer.

Every human being is given the same amount of time. A billionaire in New York has 24 hours. A beggar in Quiapo has 24 hours. It’s really what we do to those 24 hours that impacts our lives.

Malcolm Gladwell wrote about the 10,000 Hour-Rule in his book, Outliers. He believed that greatness requires the giving of enormous time—approximately 10,000 Hours.

The Phenomenon From London—

Or From Germany?

One of his examples was The Beatles.

The Beatles is the most successful band in the history of music. You must forgive me as I will only tell you what I heard from others. Growing up, I actually never heard The Beatles. I’m only familiar with Charise Pempengco and Sarah Geronimo. (Wink.)

Some say The Beatles were very successful because they were simply super talented.

Not completely true. 

Talent isn’t enough.

Talent is over-rated.

Do you know of very talented people who are unsuccessful?

I do. I also know there are millions of them around.

According to Gladwell, The Beatles were successful because of what happened in Hamburg, Germany from 1960 to 1964.

What was so special about Hamburg, Germany?

Not that they paid well. (They didn’t.) Or that they had the best equipment. Or that they had the best music scene.

Hamburg was special because of the huge amount of time you were forced to perform every single day.

In Hamburg, if your band was hired by a club, they’d make you perform from Monday to Saturday, 8 hours a day, non-stop. 

Do the math. If The Beatles performed over 1,200 times, multiply each performance by 8 hours. That’s 10,000 hours of playing time in a span of 4 years.

So by the time they came back to England, The Beatles “sounded like no one else.” And the rest was history.

I repeat: Give your 10,000 hours in one area, and you unlock your greatness in that area.

Why He Became The Richest Man In The World

Bill Gates is another example of the 10,000 Hour Rule.

How did he become the richest man in the world?

Was it because he was a super genius?

Or was it something else that happened when he was a kid?

In 1968, Bill Gates was only 13 years old when he attended a private high school. It was one of the very few high schools on planet earth that had a computer in its campus. 

Bill Gates was only 13 years old when he fell in love with the computer. He was totally fascinated by it. He couldn’t do anything else except write computer programs.

When everyone was sleep, he would sneak out of his house at midnight, run to the school, slip into the computer room, and use the computer until the wee hours of the morning. He’d go back home before dawn to get ready to go back to school.

Remember what I told you that successful people are a little bit crazy? That’s Bill Gates.

By the time he hit 18 years old, he already logged in 10,000 hours of computer programming—at a time when very few people in the world even knew what a computer was.

Let me give you some of my examples.

Teen Idol Becomes A Servant

My friend Adrian Panganiban is a fantastic singer.

One reason: He started singing on TV at the age of 4.

A few years later, he became a teen idol.

He joined Apat Na Sikat, together with Lala Aunor, Winnie Santos, Arnold Gamboa, and Dondon Nakar.

       Adrian told me that during that time, he would have concerts everyday—flying from one town to another, sometimes from one country to another. Sometimes he would have to sleep on the bus or plane, performing back-to-back concerts.

Adrian has had 10,000 hours performing to huge crowds, unlocking his greatness in that area. 

But today, he’s giving that greatness to God.

Today, Adrian still performs in concerts.

But he sees himself more as a servant than a star.

Let me introduce you to another friend.

Theatre Actor Becomes A Preacher

I see myself in George Gabriel.

I’m not talking about our great looks only. (Didn’t I say that successful people are a little bit crazy?)

       I’m talking about the fact that George gave his life to God when he was 12 years old—the exact age I gave my life to God.

George was willing to do anything for God. He sang, he led worship, he did concerts, he preached, he played the drums, and he became a theatre actor. 

When he had a musical, he performed on stage everyday, twice a day, Monday to Friday.

Very easily, George clocked in 10,000 hours of performance.

Today, this Theatre Actor doesn’t do musicals anymore.

But he continues to preach with his powerful theatre skills.

(By the way, George has launched his first book, Love Life. Grab your copy.)

George is now 34 years old. 

That means that for the past 22 years, he’s been serving God. 

That’s much more than 10,000 hours, believe me.

What’s my message?

If you want big returns, big success, big rewards in your life, you have to give 10,000 hours into what you love to do.

What Area In Your Life Do You Want To Succeed?

The 10,000 Hour Rule of Greatness works in any area.

Question: Do you want to be great in your family life?

Many marriages are failing because of neglect.

Give 10,000 hours to your marriage—and it will prosper.

Why is it that before the wedding, boyfriends and girlfriends spend so much time together? They love talking to each other, laughing their hearts out, and hanging out together.

But the moment the wedding happens, they forget all that.

If you want your marriage to work, work on the relationship. Spend time. Go out on dates each week, more if necessary.

       And do you want to be great parents?

Quality Time Isn’t Enough

I’ve also spent many hours talking with parents whose kids are drifting away from God and hanging out with the wrong crowd.

I know my next statement is very simplistic. 

But bear with me.

I believe kids get into trouble usually because parents didn’t spend enough time with them.   Parents failed to unlock the greatness of their children by not spending both quantity and quality time with them.

All is not lost.

Reach out to them now.

Tell them you love them. Go out of your way and spend time with them.

The other night, I went home totally exhausted. I told the family I was going to sleep early.

But after I dozed off on bed, my five-year old son entered the room and wanted to jump on a trampoline.

In his mind, my body was his giant trampoline!

He’d step on me, walk on me, and jump on me.  

A part of me wanted to say, “Francis, not now. Daddy is really tired.”

But the words couldn’t leave my lips.

Because I knew that a time would come when he’ll no longer be playing with me in this way. A day will come when he’s all grown up and he won’t jump on me anymore. (At least, I hope he won’t!) While we can play together, I’ll do it.

I’ve said “No” to my kids when they ask for toys.

I’ve said “No” to my kids when they ask for junk food.

I’ve said “No” to my kids when they ask for gadgets.

But to this day, I’ve never said “No” when they ask for my time. No matter how busy or how tired I am.

I urge you: Give 10,000 hours to your kids and you unlock their greatness.

Put God First;

Give Him Your Ten Thousand Too

Here’s my final message: Give 10,000 hours to your relationship with God.

Put God first. Prioritize Him. Seek Him first.

I don’t want to complicate things, so let me just put three things before you.

Here’s Number One Thing: Give at least 10 minutes a day to connect to God.

I recommend reading the Bible everyday.

To know what to read, I suggest you use a Bible Guide—such as Didache, Companion, and Sabbath. I heard that those who publish and write those Bible Guides are really fantastic people. (Smile.)

Even if you don’t understand what the Bible is saying, just read. Just clock in your 10,000 hours.

In due time, you’ll understand.

If you want to receive Bible reflections in your inbox everyday, join my international, non-physical, borderless, virtual community called Kerygma Family. Log on at www.KerygmaFamily.com now!

Here’s my second recommendation: Join a prayer meeting every week to nourish your soul. If you don’t have one, I invite you to the Feast. I nicknamed it the happiest place on earth. For more information on time and venues, you can email Annie at feastsecretariat@yahoo.com.

Make it a non-negotiable item in your schedule.

Don’t miss feeding your spirit.

And here’s Number Three: Give your time to God by serving Him in the people around you.

“I Wasted Sixty Years…”

       Many years ago, when I was still a teenager, a woman called me up to pray for her sick husband. “Ben is 61 and he’s dying,” she said, her voice breaking. “My husband has cancer.”

       That happened a long time ago, but I can never forget him. Meeting him had such an incredible impact on life.

       The next day was Valentines Day.

I was single and had no date on Valentines Day, so I told her, “I’ll visit your husband tomorrow and he’ll be my Valentines Date.”

       The next morning, I saw their huge home. 

The woman told me that her husband was a doctor—a very successful one.

       When I entered the living room, I saw him seated on a chair, wearing his pajamas. 

I tried to imagine him before his sickness.

A strong man. A powerful doctor. So in control of life.

Now, he was a broken man. Totally dependent on others.

We greeted each other.

       “Hi Dr. Ben,” I said, “before I pray over you, can you tell me your story?”

       He nodded. “Six months ago, my doctors discovered the cancer in my body. They gave me six months to live. That was eight months ago. I’m living on extra time.”

“Wow…”

       “Bo, when I found out I had cancer, I prayed to God. I started going to Mass on Sundays. I even went to a prayer meeting with my wife. I was too busy to do all those things before. Bo, I wasted 60 years of my life!”

That was when he began to cry.

A successful man, sobbing before me.

In between sobs, he said, “But… but… after awhile, I had to stay home because of the pain in my body. Most days, I cannot do anything else but lie down in bed…”

He gripped my hand.

“Bo, please…” he said, “I want you to pray that God extend my life. Even just a little bit more. Just a little bit more. Because all these years, I was very busy earning money. I didn’t spend time with God. I want to serve Him… I have so many plans.  So many things I want to do for Him. If only He’ll give me more time.”

I prayed over him.

Driving home, I felt God was speaking to me through this man’s life.

When I arrived home, I knelt down and said, “Lord, when I grow old, I don’t want to be like Dr. Ben. I don’t want to have regrets in my life. While I’m young, I want to serve you.”

You Hang Onto Life By A Mere Thread;

It Can Snap Anytime

       I read somewhere that three people die in one second.

       Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick… 

That’s 15 people who died in the past 5 seconds.

       If it took you 15 minutes to read this article, 2700 people have already died in the world. (When you’re done reading, please check your pulse. Just in case you were part of the 2700…)

Friend, life is so incredibly fragile.

You hang onto life by a mere thread.

Anytime, it can snap.

Every moment is a great gift from God.

The Bible says, Teach us how short our life is, so that we may become wise. (Psalms 90:12)

       You see, God never promised you that you’ll wake up tomorrow morning. Everytime you wake up in the morning, you should throw a party. Celebrate! It’s an undeserved gift.

While You Have Breathe, Love God

       While you’re alive, I urge you to give your time to God.

       While you have breath, love God.

While you’re still strong, love the people in your life.

Jesus says, As long as it is day, we must keep on doing the work of him who sent me; night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light for the world.” (John 9:4-5)

       Jesus knew that night was coming “when no one can work.”

       All of us will one day face that “night”.

       Today, I want to remind you of that stark reality.

       Here’s a suggestion.

To know how short your life is, count the number of Sundays you have left.

I read that the average life expectancy in the Philippines is 66 years old. That’s pretty short.

There are 3432 Sundays in 66 years.

I’m now 44. That means I’ve already used up 2288 Sundays.

If I live until 66, I only have 1144 Sundays to go.

1144 Sundays only!

My gosh.

I read this somewhere.

If you want to be reminded by how short your life is, I suggest you get a jar of seeds. 

Any kind of seed would do. 

The seeds should be the exact number of Sundays you have left in your life. 

And every Sunday, remove one seed from the jar.

Every Sunday, you’ll see the seeds in the jar decrease.

When you reach 66 years old, and no seeds are left, each Sunday becomes a big Bonus from God.

Use Your Time Well

Because You Can’t Replace It

       You can replace lost things.

       Money. Cellphones. Cars. Houses.

       But you can’t replace lost time.

       Remember the jar with the seeds inside?

       Each moment of your life is a seed.

When you remove a seed from the jar, you have a choice.

       It’s the choice every single moment gives to you.

       a.) You can throw the seed away and lose it forever.

b.) Or you can plant it in soil and make it eternal.

What am I saying?

When you spend your time loving, you’re doing something that will last forever. When you love, you’re planting a tree in the soil of Heaven.

       According to Dr. Ben, for the first 60 years of his life, he threw away the seeds. He wasted them. He spent them in selfishness.

Don’t make that mistake.

       I invite you to give each moment to God.

Spend your life loving people.

       Heaven is waiting for your seeds.

       May your dreams come true,

       Bo Sanchez

PS. Do You Want To Feed Your Soul By Receiving KerygmaMagazine Every Month? Join my international, borderless, non-physical, virtual community called the KerygmaFamily. Donations are optional. But if you decide to donate at least P300 a month (local) or P20 a month (international), you’ll receive an inspiring copy of Kerygma magazine mailed to your home every month. Be blessed by God’s Word! I’ve been publishing Kerygma for the past 20 years—and it has blessed millions of people worldwide.  When you join KerygmaFamily, aside from Kerygma magazine, you’ll receive a truckload of spiritual food to help you grow in your personal life.  You won’t regret it.  For more information, click below:

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PS2. You’re Already A KerygmaFamily Member? Then here’s another Food for the Soul for you: Get GodWhispers twice a week. They’re very short, sometimes humorous, and always inspiring love letters from God to you.  You’ll be blown away. It’s Free. Log on now at www.GodWhispersClub.com now!

Today, I’d like to teach you how to become a Champion.

I’d like to teach you how to get Big Returns in your life.

Now if you want small returns, skip this piece.

It won’t interest you.

If you want to live a mediocre life, content with mediocre harvests, mediocre results, mediocre rewards, mediocre marriage, a mediocre job, mediocre relationships, mediocre happiness, I repeat: this stuff isn’t for you.

But if you want big returns, big miracles, big blessings, big healing, big happiness—then continue reading. 

This is for you!

Look around you.

The Secret of Big Returns is known by champions of the world.

Why are they champions?

Because they practice the secret.

How Many Sit-Ups Can You Make?

       Why is Manny Pacquiao the best pound-for-pound boxing champion in the world?

You and I only see what Manny does on the ring. 

We don’t see what he does outside the ring. 

For example, I can do 10 sit-ups comfortably.

One day, to impress my wife, I tried doing 30 sit-ups. I only reached 25. After that, she had to carry me to bed.

Do you know how many sit-ups does Manny Pacquiao make in a day? 100? 200? 500? 1000?

Nope.

He does 3000. Every single day.

No wonder he’s a champ.

No wonder his abs are like steel.

When he’s training before a fight, from Monday to Saturday, he starts at 5:30am and ends at 4:00pm. That’s more than ten hours of rigorous, grueling, hardcore, violent training. Everyday!

In fact, Coach Freddie Roach says that Manny has one weakness: “Manny has a tendency to over-train, I have to stop him.” That’s dedication.

Why is Manny a champion in boxing?

Because he knows the secret of big returns: He gives his all.

The Guy Couldn’t Miss A Shot

       Larry Bird was one of the best basketball players in the history of the game.

       He was known for his shooting magic.

But it was no magic. It was practice.

After every team practice, he’d be the last player to leave the gym. While everyone else was taking a shower in the lockers, Larry would close the lights in the court and practice shooting in semi-darkness. Many times, he’d practice three-point shots while closing his eyes. He’d do that everyday.

One day, Larry Bird was making a commercial. The Director instructed him to miss a shot.  That was what the scene required. Because his muscle memory was so strong, Larry had to take 10 shots before he missed it! 

Why was Larry a champion in basketball?

Because he knew the secret of big returns: He gave his all.

Diabetes Couldn’t Stop The Dancing

       Gary Valenciano is “Mr. Pure Energy”.

He’s the only entertainer that has won the Awit Award for Best Male Performer 11 times!

Yet this man has had Type 1 Juvenile Diabetes since he was 14 years old. So far, he’s had 90,000 insulin injections in his body. Yet his sickness has not stopped him giving his all every single time he’s on stage.

       Why is Gary a champion in entertainment?

Because he knows the secret of big returns: He gives his all.

Broken Bones Come With His Job

       Jackie Chan is one of the most successful action movie stars in the world today. He’s big both in Hongkong and Hollywood. 

Jackie appears twice in the Guiness Book of World Records.

First, he holds the record for “most stunts by a living actor”. In fact, no insurance company is willing to insure him. 

Because of his movies, he has fractured his skull, dislocated his pelvis, broken his fingers, toes, nose, both cheekbones, hips, sternum, neck, ankle, and ribs many times.

       Second, he holds the world record for the most number of takes for a single shot in a movie. To make one scene perfect, Jackie had to shoot 2900 retakes. Of one scene! 

       Talk about dedication to his craft.

That’s Jackie Chan.

Why is Jackie a champion in action movies?

       Because he knows the secret of big returns: He gives his all.

The Most Admired Person

In The 20^th Century

       Mother Teresa was called a living saint.

       According to Gallop polls, survey after survey shows that even while she was still alive, Mother Teresa was already the single most admired person in the 20^th century.

She served the poorest of the poor for 45 years. When she passed away, she left the world with 4000 nuns that ran 610 centers in 123 countries.

       Why has she inspired millions of people?

       Because she gave her all.

The Bible says, Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. (2 Corinthians 9:6)

It’s really the Law of the Harvest. 

What you plant, you harvest. 

If you plant small, you harvest small. 

If you plant big, you harvest big. 

And if you plant all, you harvest all!

       Let me now tell you a fascinating story.

Jack, Ken, Poy

       There were three brothers named Jack, Ken, and Poy.

One day, they were walking on the road. Each was carrying a bayong (native basket).  They had just come from the field and harvested some potatoes.

       Soon, they met an old poor man on the road, pulling a rickety cart behind him. He was dressed in rags and was walking barefoot.

       “What happened to you?” the brothers asked him.

The old man said, “My whole town has been flooded! Hundreds of people are now homeless, without food or water. They are very hungry. Can you give your sweet potatoes so I could feed my poor townspeople?”

       Jack, Ken, and Poy looked at each other and nodded their heads.  

I’m telling you this story because Jack, Ken, and Poy represent the three kinds of givers in the world today. I want you to find out what kind of giver you are.

Jack, The Token Giver

Jack reached down his basket, pulled out 3 potatoes, and placed them onto the cart of the old man.

       And the beggar said, “Thank you so much, my son.”

Jack represents the first type of giver: The Token Giver.

All Jack does is give tokens of himself whenever he can.

In his family, he gives tokens of his time and energy to his kids and his wife—just enough so his wife won’t leave him.

In his job, he does the barest minimum possible—so he won’t get fired.

And in Church, whenever the love offering basket is passed, he doesn’t tithe—he gives tokens. Just to say that he gave.

       Because of his habit of giving tokens, his returns are tiny.

       He has a job but his career is stagnant.

       His family lives in one house but relationships are shallow.

       He goes to Church but hasn’t grown spiritually.

       Others however are like Ken…

Ken, The Tentative Giver

Ken did something different. 

He brought his bayong near the cart, tilted itand poured half of its contents. 

The old beggar said, “Thank you very much, my son.”

Ken represents the second type of giver in the world: The Tentative Giver.

He gives more than just tokens, but he still holds back.

In his family, he gives himself to them tentatively. 

He has a 50/50 approach to relationships. Because of this, his relationships are average. Not great. 

Let me tell you why.

I’ve been married for 12 years and here’s one very important principle I’ve learned: Marriages don’t work if the husband gives 50% and the wife gives 50%. A marriage works only if the husband and the wife each give 100% to each other.

When it comes to relationships, you don’t measure what you give. You don’t count.  You throw away the ruler.  

You don’t say, “I rubbed your back, you should rub my back.” That’s not love, that’s business. That’s not love, that’s legal contracts.

When you love a person, and you feel like you’re giving more than he’s giving you—don’t be bitter. Because you know that even if you don’t count, God is counting. And the Law of the universe will be the one who will reward you.

(Note: When I talk this way, I’m not talking about tolerating abusive, or drunkard, or philandering husbands. That’s a totally different issue. I’m talking about healthy marriages here!)

In his job, it’s the same: Ken gives satisfactory work. But not great work. He never goes beyond average.  He never exceeds expectations.

How many of you know this: Promotions doesn’t go to performance. Promotions go to superior performance.

Ken hasn’t been promoted. Because he doesn’t take initiative or develops himself. He doesn’t look for ways to become better, or get trained, or look for mentors.

In his spiritual life, it’s the same story. 

He tries to follow God but doesn’t trust Him with his entire life. He holds back.

       Not like Poy.

Poy, The Total Giver

It was Poy’s turn.

Poy brought his bayong to the cart, inverted it and unloaded everything. He now carried an empty bayong.

       The old man said, “Thank you very much, my son.”

       Poy represents the third kind of giver: The Total Giver.

       Manny Pacquaio is a Poy in boxing.

       Larry Bird is a Poy in basketball.

       Gary V is a Poy in entertainment.

       Jacky Chan is a Poy in making action movies.

       Haven’t you noticed? If you want to be successful, you’ve got to be a little bit crazy. Insane. Illogical. Unreasonable. Fanatical.

       Can you imagine doing 3000 sit-ups every day?

       Or shooting 3-point shots while closing your eyes?

       Or doing 2900 retakes for one scene?

       They’re nuts.

       But that’s Poy.

Poy knows the magic of giving his all.

Note: You also realize that there are two types of successful people in the world. First are those who are successful in one field only—but are dismal failures in other areas. The second are those who are successful in the most important areas of their lives. And you find these people living among us. And that’s what God wants for you!

Let me go back to Poy.

       Poy gives his entire heart to his family. He doesn’t want an okay marriage. He’s committed to a great marriage. He doesn’t want to have an average relationship with his kids. Each day, he works to build deep bonds with them that will last forever.

       In his job or business, Poy also works with passion. He loves what he does. And he loves his customers. For him, work is play. Because of this, he’s pro-active, takes initiative, gets training, hones his craft, and has a lifelong commitment to grow .

       And in his relationship with God, Poy completely surrenders himself to Him. He trusts God. He follows God all the way. He gives his time, his talent, and his treasure to God.

       I repeat my question: Who are you?

The Law Of The Universe

My story isn’t over.

As Poy stepped back with his empty bayong, lo and behold, the old beggar transformed and became a Wizard!

Instead of tattered rags, he now wore a golden robe.

He had a long beard and his face seemed shining. 

The three brothers were so shocked, they could hardly speak or move.

       The Wizard said, “The Law of the Universe says that whatever you give, you shall receive. It’s the Law of Reciprocity. So be ready to receive. How much will you receive? The measure that you used in giving will be the same measure used for rewarding you.”

       And in a flash, POOF, the Wizard was gone.

       The three brothers rubbed their eyes, wondering if it was all a dream. They walked home in a daze.

Because they were still in shock, none of them noticed that their bayongs were getting heavier with every step they took.

       It was only when they reached home did they realize that something miraculous happened. 

All their bayongs were filled to the brim!

       Jack opened his bayong and shouted, “Ken, Poy, look! The 3 potatoesthat I gave the old man were now replaced by 3 bars of gold.”

       Ken opened his bayong and said, “Half of my bayong filled with gold bars!”

       And Poy opened his bayong, and saw all of it filled with gold bars!

Once again, tell me, who are you: Jack, Ken, or Poy?

Create A Bigger Vacuum

       Once upon a time, I asked this question: Why is God so demanding?

Just look at the greatest commandment. Why does God want you to love Him with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength. (Matthew 22:37)

Shouldn’t He be satisfied if you loved Him with half your heart, ¾ of your mind, and 58% of your strength?

Why does God want you to give your all?

Helloooooow.

God doesn’t need your time. 

He’s the owner of eternity.  He invented time.

God doesn’t need your talents, definitely. 

He can just snap his finger and ten thousand battalions of angels kneel before him to serve.

And obviously, God doesn’t need your money.

He’s owns the universe.

So why does He want you to give your all?

Here’s why:

When you give, you create a vacuum. 

An empty space.

When I was a kid, my Grade 6 science teacher said, “Nature abhors a vacuum.” Nature wants to automatically fill vacuums.

That’s why vacuums are powerful magnets. 

That vacuum—that empty space—attracts blessings. What blessings? The stuff that you gave away will be returned to you, only of far better quality and greater quantity.

Listen carefully. The more you give, the bigger the vacuum you create. The bigger the vacuum, the stronger the magnet—and the more blessings you’ll attract into your life.

That’s why giving your all is the secret of big returns.

There’s magic when you give your All.

Because you also attract All that God wants to give to you.

       This reminds me of a poor widow in the Bible.

The Secret of Big Returns

In Luke 21:1, it says…

Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. ”I tell you the truth,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

       How much are two small copper coins?

       Scholars argue a lot here. These coins are called Lenta in Greek. Many scholars believe that those two small copper coins are equal to around P25 in our money today.

       Here’s something that you need to know: To be a poor old widow in biblical times was Hell on earth.

       I’m serious. By law, she couldn’t inherit the property of her husband. For this particular widow, her kids probably were very poor or didn’t care for her—that’s why she was poor.

Let me be honest with you.

If I were Jesus, and saw what she was about to do, I would have stopped her. I would have ran to the widow and said, “Lady, please. Be practical. You don’t have to give those two copper coins. How will you go home? Do you have something to eat tonight? Tomorrow? Hey, if you really want to give something, just give one. Because that’s all you’ve got.”

But Jesus didn’t do that.

He did something very disturbing: He praised her.

He honored her to the high heavens. He put her on a pedestal for the entire world to imitate. He really thought she did a great thing.

To Jesus, there’s magic in “Giving your all”.

       And that’s what I want to share with you today.

       Giving Your All has incredible magic.

       It’s really the secret of big returns.

My Life

       I’ve given my all to God.

       Very imperfectly.

       One of the things I gave to God was my youth. I started serving God when I was 12 years old.

       People ask me all the time, “Bo, don’t you regret giving your life to God so early in life? You never tasted the world.”

       I laugh. 

And I tell them, “I’ve preached in 16 countries, visited 14 more nations, and preached in 38 cities in North America alone. I’ve written 18 bestselling books, performed in concerts, lived in slum areas, built non-profit organizations, started 12 businesses, and talked to presidents, judges, and cardinals. The world has become my playground.”

When I gave my all to God, He has given it back to me a hundredfold.

       Friend, I urge you: Give your all to God.

Nothing Is Too Small For God

       And don’t look down on how small your all is.

       Nothing is too small for God.

       Take a look at the Bible and see for yourself:

       Moses used a simple walking stick to part the Red Sea and save an entire nation.

       Gideon used a little trumpet to defeat the Midianite army.

       Samson used a donkey’s jawbone to slay a thousand Philistines.

       David used a stone picked up from a river to knock down the giant Goliath—and win back the honor of Israel.

       Elisha used a piece of cloth to divide the Jordan River.

       Peter used his shadow to heal the sick in Jerusalem.

       And Jesus used five pieces of bread to feed the multitudes.

All Is Never Small

       Perhaps you feel that you’re insignificant.

       That you don’t amount to anything.

       You feel like you’re that walking stick.

Or that little trumpet.

Or that jawbone.

Or that small stone.

Or that piece of cloth.

But I’ve got news for you: No matter how small you think you are, God has big plans for your life.

Really big!

I want you to believe that God has a big plan for your life. 

Today, I urge you to give your all to God, so that you can receive all the blessings He wants for your life.

May your dreams come true,

Bo Sanchez

PS. Your Family Is Under Attack. The joy from your marriage is being stolen from you. The love among parents and kids is being hijacked. Your family unity is being ripped off. You live in a world that attacks family life. But you don’t have to give in. Let me teach you how to protect the joy, love, and unity of your marriage and family. For more information, click below.

Yes Bo, Teach Me How To Protect

My Family’s Joy, Love, and Unity

PS2. Get a Mountain of Spiritual Food. Join my international, borderless, non-physical, virtual community called KerygmaFamily. It will bless you abundantly. When you join, you receive daily Bible reflections and a mountain of food for your soul. To know more about it, click here.

Available To You Right Now?

I don’t usually start my articles with a Bible story. I usually insert it somewhere in the middle or at the end.

But I just looooove this story so much, please read this first…

There was a woman who had suffered terribly from severe bleeding for twelve years, even though she had been treated by many doctors. She had spent all her money, but instead of getting better she got worse all the time. (Mark 5:25-26)

Twelve years.

That’s a pretty long time.

She’s tried everything.

All human solutions have been exhausted.

Friend, you may have exhausted all human solutions too. 

Like her, you’re facing impossible problems.

You’ve tried every possible solution—and every path has led to a dead end. In fact, some of the solutions you tried made the problem worse.

You’ve tried reaching out to your kids—but your kids are still wandering away from God.

You’ve tried repairing your marriage—but your relationship is even more divided.

You’ve tried getting out of your financial hole—but everything you’ve done so far—from businesses and sidelines—has gotten you deeper in that hole.

And you’re tired. 

You’re very tired.

If this is your situation, then you need to listen to God’s powerful message for you today.

       Because this woman wasn’t only bleeding physically.

       And she was bleeding financially too. Because she spent all her money she had on doctors.

Financial Bleeding

       I met a woman exactly in this same condition. 

Last year, she said her doctors discovered cancer in her ovaries. And she went through surgery to take out the tumor, she went through 8 chemotherapy sessions, 6 radiation sessions, plus a bucketful of medicine she had to swallow everyday. She had to borrow money just to go through her treatment. But sad news was that after 6 months, her doctors said that her cancer came back, deadlier, fiercer, and angrier than ever before.

Not only was she sick, she was in debt too.

       But it was worse for this bleeding woman in the Bible…

Bleeding Relationally

Not only was she bleeding physically and financially, she also was bleeding relationally.

       Let me explain. 

According to Jewish Law, a woman who bled was ceremonially unclean.  That meant that she couldn’t enter a synagogue or church. She also couldn’t touch anyone—nor could anyone touch her—because that person will be deemed unclean too.

For 12 years, she couldn’t enter a synagogue.

For 12 years, she couldn’t even hang out with friends.

For 12 years, she couldn’t hug her kid, or hug her mother, or shake the hand of a friend, or high-five a neighbor, or stroke the hair of a child.

       And finally, she was bleeding spiritually. 

Desperation Is A Good Place

Her heart was filled with questions. After 12 years, why was God not healing her?

She was desperate.

But desperation is a great place to be.

Why?

Desperate people do desperate things.

Desperate people do things they’ve never done before.

It was desperation that made her push through a thick crowd of people, crawling on her hands and knees, clawing her way in, weave her way into the maze, find an opening, just to touch Jesus—and grab her blessing.

Your problem may be so big, you’re here because of desperation. Desperate people do crazy things. Like reading my Blog. And praying. And coming to the Feast (our weekly prayer meeting).

       Thank God for desperation.

       Thank God for problems.

       Thank God for trials.

Touching The Cloak

The story continues…

She had heard about Jesus, so she came in the crowd behind him, saying to herself, “If I just touch his clothes, I will get well.”  (Mark 5:27-28)

Her desperation made her do the unthinkable: She touched Jesus. That act, according to Jewish Law, should have made Jesus unclean. But the exact opposite happened. It made her clean.

But did she really touch Jesus?

No. She touched the cloak of Jesus.

But that was enough.

Here’s the big lesson: When you touch the cloak of Jesus, you’re already touching Jesus Himself.

       Today, I want you to touch the cloak of Jesus.

When you receive communion, you touch Jesus Himself.

Yes, Jesus is the Eucharistic host. But when you receive communion, you don’t see Jesus. Why? Because he’s covered by the cloak of that white, thin wafer in front of me. But that’s okay, because all you need to do is touch the cloak, and you’ll be healed.

Yes, Jesus is the Word. But when you read the Bible, you don’t hear the audible voice of God. Why? He is covered by the cloak of words printed on paper. But that’s okay, because all you need to do is touch the cloak, and you’ll be healed.

I’d like to invite you to the Feast, our weekly prayer meeting on steroids. (For more information, click here.) 

At the Feast, Jesus is there. But you won’t see Him. He is covered by the cloak of ordinary people gathering together and having fun. But that’s okay, because all you need to do is touch the cloak, and you’ll be healed.

My friend, Sr. Marisa, touched that cloak of Jesus…

Consult A Fourth Doctor

Sr. Marisa is a happy nun in her fifties.

She came to the Feast one day.

       When I greeted her, she said, “I have a scheduled operation for my thyroid next week. Can you pray for me?”

       “Sure!” I said.

After praying over her, she said, “I don’t want to have an operation. I’ve been postponing this for the longest time. Do you think I should go through with it?”

I said, “I’m not a great fan of operations too. Why don’t you postpone it for one more week and meet my health mentor?”

She did. She called up her doctor and asked for a delay. And he told her, “Sister Marisa, this is the last delay. After this, you really need an operation.”

Two weeks later, we met again, this time with my health mentor. We discussed about a change of diet and other ways of getting well.

And then the scheduled surgery was brought up.

“I think I should do it,” she said, “because my Mother Superior has been bugging me to do it. She’s says I’m just scared.”

“Have you asked for a second opinion?” I asked.

“I have. In fact, I’ve asked three different doctors and all of them recommend surgery.”

My health mentor said, “But do you feel well?”

“Yes, I don’t feel anything wrong with me,” she said. “But the doctors keep saying I need an operation.”

Wow. Three doctors. What can beat that?

 “Just pray for me,” she told both of us. “If God wants to heal me without surgery, a doctor has to tell me I don’t need it. Because that’s the only way my Mother Superior will believe.”

Two weeks later, she had an idea. 

She asked the surgeon who was to operate on her if a thyroid specialist can be part of the surgery team.

“No problem,” he said.

She called up the thyroid specialist and asked if he could join the surgical team. He said yes. She also scheduled to visit him before the surgery.

But before seeing him, she did a strange thing. On her own, she decided to undergo another thyroid exam. Without a doctor’s prescription! (How she did this is another great story too.)

She went to her thyroid specialist and showed him the results.

After looking at it, he said, “Sister Marisa, you want me to join the surgical team that will operate on your thyroid? But there’s nothing wrong with your thyroid. You don’t need an operation.”

She was stunned.

Three doctors told her she needed surgery, asap.

The fourth doctor—a thyroid specialist—told her she didn’t.

As I write this, Sister Marisa has overhauled her diet, is praying more deeply, and is happier and healthier than ever.

I love stories like this.

I no longer see any difference between supernatural and natural healing. Any kind of healing comes from faith. Because only you can open yourself to the healing power of God. 

Anything is possible to those who believe.

No doubt about it, Sr. Marisa touched the cloak of Jesus.

Her faith. Her prayers.  The recalibration she did with her emotional life. The change of diet.

Will You Grab The Power

Available To You?

       And finally, the last part of the story…

She touched his cloak, and her bleeding stopped at once; and she had the feeling inside herself that she was healed of her trouble.  At once Jesus knew that power had gone out of him, so he turned round in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” His disciples answered, “You see how the people are crowding you; why do you ask who touched you?” But Jesus kept looking round to see who had done it. (Mark 5:29-32)

Here’s why this is one of my favorite stories in the Bible.

I love this story because Jesus didn’t touch her, didn’t speak to her, and—take note—didn’t even look at her. Jesus didn’t wake up that morning and say, “I’m going to heal this poor woman who’s been bleeding for 12 years.” 

Jesus didn’t even know she was there.

Jesus didn’t know who she was from Adam.

Jesus didn’t know her name, her home address, her condition, her disease, or her suffering.

And the incredible thing about the story is that even after she was healed, Jesus still didn’t know who she was. Jesus didn’t know who got healed. Jesus didn’t know who grabbed the blessing.

Which brings me to my central point: Every blessing in the universe is potentially yours.

God’s blessings, miracles, and resources are available to anyone who wants to take it.

The key phrase: Available to anyone!

It doesn’t depend on God anymore.

       It depends on whether you’ll grab the blessing or not.

       Listen to this: Even after the healing has happened, Jesus still didn’t know who was healed by His power.

       So many people think God plays favorites.

       “Bakit may palakasan si Lord?”

       People complain that God doesn’t treat people fairly.

       That He blesses some people more than others.

That’s not true.

Because He’s made every blessing in the universe potentially yours.

The Universe Is An

All-You-Can-Eat Buffet Table

       Imagine Pedro.

He’s lived his entire life in a small barrio.

And for the first time, he goes to the city.

While walking in Metro Manila, he gets hungry.

He sees this restaurant. A huge restaurant. He sees many people walking in. He goes in.

       Pedro picks a table and sits down.

After a few minutes of waiting, he doesn’t understand why no one is getting his order or giving him food. 

       In the meantime, he sees everyone else around him eating and happy, their plates filled with food.

       After almost an hour of waiting, he’s now miserable and hungry. He finally sees a waiter and asks, “Sir, when will you give me food?”

       The waiter says, “But sir, this is an Eat-All-You-Can Buffet. Customers go to the table and get what they want.”

       Pedro is shocked.  It’s the first time he’s ever been to a place such as this.  “I can just get what I want?” he asks.

       The waiter smiles, “Yes, sir.”

       So Pedro stands up and walks towards the table. He looks around at all the food and gets a bit overwhelmed. He walks towards the waiter and asks, “Can I get a small plate of pancit?”

       “Yes, sir,” the waiter says, “as much as you want.”

Pedro goes and gets himself some pancit.

He goes back to the waiter and asks, “Can I get 2 chunks of adobo?”

“Yes, sir,” the waiter says, “as much as you want.”

So Pedro goes and gets adobo.

He goes back to the waiter and says, “Can I get a cup of rice?”

The waiter says, “Sir, you don’t have to ask my permission to get anything. Just go ahead and get it.”

       “I don’t have to ask permission from you?”

       “No sir,” the waiter smiles, “all the food on the table is potentially yours. All you have to do is grab it.”

       Friend, everything you need is there, available to you in God’s buffet table of blessings. 

Every Blessing On The Table Is Potentially Yours

All the wisdom you need. 

All the friends you need.

All the joy and happiness and fulfillment you need.

All the money you need. 

All the resources you need. 

All the healing you need. 

All the God-coincidences. 

All the Divine appointments. 

All the supernatural connections. 

All the opportunities for growth.

       Every blessing in the universe is potentially yours.

       Our problem is that we’re sitting with our empty plate, still waiting for the blessing. You need to stand up and grab the blessing!

Stand Up And Grab The Blessing

       For example, don’t wait for the perfect job to land on your lap. Create the perfect job. Discover your gift. Develop your skill. Hone your craft. Make yourself for valuable. Make mistakes. Double your rate of failure—so that you can double your rate of success. And grab the blessing!

       Friend, don’t wait for money to come. Create a money machine that will give you the money. 

       Don’t wait for income to flow to you. Create the income stream that will give you the income.

       And don’t wait for health to just happen to you.

       Remember that 85% of your diseases have emotional roots. And 15% come from a lack of nutrition, a lack of sleep, a lack of oxygen, a lack of sunlight, a lack of exercise.

       So work on the 85% of diseases by working on your emotions. Remove the toxic stress. Remove the unforgiveness. Remove the anger. Remove the loneliness. Remove the sadness. Remove the emptiness.

       And work on the 15% deficiency of micronutrients. Change your diet, start eating more plants and less processed food. Get enough sleep. Get enough sunlight. Get enough exercise. Get enough oxygen.

       Grab the blessing that you need.

God’s Delays Aren’t God’s Denials

       “But Bo, I’ve been praying for healing for years. It hasn’t happened yet!”

       I can never explain why some people don’t receive healing.

       Sometimes, we lack action.

Sometimes, we lack faith.

       Sometimes, it’s none of the above.

Let me go back to my buffet analogy.

       Though the buffet table is loaded with a hundred dishes, you may still not find the exact dish that you’re looking for…

       Let’s say Pedro’s favorite dish is Lapu-lapu.

       The Buffet has tuna and mackerel and salmon and tilapia and bangus… but not Lapu-lapu.

       So Pedro asks the waiter, “Do you have Lapu-lapu?”

       The waiter says, “Not right now, sir, but if you’re willing to wait, we’re cooking Lapu-Lapu in the kitchen as we speak. In the meantime, enjoy the other dishes in the Buffet.”

       Friend, God’s delays aren’t God’s denials.

       When blessings are delayed, God wants you to enjoy and appreciate all the other blessings that are in your life right now.

       But believe that right now, God is cooking the miracle that you need in His kitchen. He’s preparing it for you. He’s baking it to perfection. 

Touch Him With Faith

       In the Bible story above, hundreds of people were touching Jesus. He was in the middle of a crowd jostling, elbowing one another just to be with Jesus.

       Yet only one person received His power.

       Why?

       Other people touched Jesus with their hands.

       She touched Jesus with her hands and with her faith.

       Your faith releases God’s power.

       There could be 500 megawatts of power in a Power Plant, but without a wire—it’s no use. It can’t light a single lightbulb.

       The wire that will connect you to God’s power is faith.

       Today, I invite you touch the cloak of Jesus.

       May your dreams come true,

       Bo Sanchez

PS. Yes, You Can Make Your Family Happier, Stronger, and Closer To Each Other Today! Get my 7-Session Relationship Reborn Audio & Video Course that will change your family life.  Plus a huge Treasure Trove of inspiring materials to build a fantastic family through my FamilyRebornClub. You don’t want to miss this. For more information, click here.

I remember my college days.

Going to Ateneo everyday was tough.

If I drove Dad’s car, it would take me 20 minutes.

But usually, Dad’s car wasn’t free. (Boohoo.)

So I rode the public jeepney almost everyday. And it would take me an hour to go through the traffic.

Why that long?

Three Reasons.

First, Jeepney drivers are very friendly, sociable guys who like to stop in the middle of the road to chitchat with other drivers.

Second, Jeepney drivers drive very slowly, because they use secondhand engines that overheat if they go faster than 30 kph.

Third, Jeepney drivers are known to wait for passengers to fill their seats. So even if the passenger was still inside his home, eating his breakfast or taking a shower—the driver will still wait for him.

I’m kidding. Just having fun here.

Here’s my point: If you’re not the driver, you can only complain.

Friend, in any vehicle, there are really only two seats: The Driver’s seat and the Rider’s seat.

Let me ask you this big question… 

In the vehicle of your life, where are you seated?

Where You’re Seated Spells The Difference

A lot of people are Riders.

They don’t take charge.

All they do is complain.

“Why am I not getting a promotion in my job?”

“Why is my relationship not working?”

“Why am I so sickly?”

Let me give you a universal principle you can take to the bank: The amount of blessings you’ll receive is in direct proportion to the amount of responsibility you’re willing to take. The more responsibility you take in, the more blessings you take in as well.

Blessings and Responsibility are really two sides of one coin. 

Do you want more blessings?

Take more responsibility.

Let me give you an example. Why does a manager earn more than a messenger? Because the manager has more responsibility than a messenger.

This principle applies in your spiritual life too.

If you want more blessings for your spiritual life, you’ve got to take charge over your spiritual needs.

And this applies to your health as well.

What am I saying?

When it comes to your life, don’t be a Rider.

God calls you to be the Driver.

God wants you to hold the steering wheel of your life.

God wants you to take charge.

Take charge over your finances.

Take charge over your relationships.

And take charge over your health!

You have more control over your health than you think.

The Bible says that if you follow God and take care of your health, you’ll avoid many diseases. (Exodus 15:26) Obviously, there are many exceptions. But generally, there are many health benefits to following God.

Let me give you three prescriptions on how to avoid disease.

3 Prescriptions

       One of the best things you can do for your health is to take charge how much toxins you take into your body.

To do this, you need to follow these three crucial prescriptions, all of them requiring that you take charge of your health:

       Prescription #1: Clean Living

Prescription #2: Natural Eating

       Prescription #2: Holistic Healing

Prescription #1: Clean Living

You’ll be amazed by this.

The Bible was so ahead of its time when it came to hygiene and sanitation. This is mind blowing, considering that Biblical authors had no scientific understanding of germs yet, something that Louis Pasteur would discover only in the year 1860.

Let me give you four examples…

Example 1:

Quarantine Contagious Diseases

       Because our kids are small, all of us sleep in one room. (It’s a win-win. The kids love it because they’re with Mommy and Daddy. And Mommy and Daddy love it because we save on electricity!)

       But when one of us gets sick, that person sleeps in a separate room—to avoid spreading the sickness.

       The Bible talked about this a long time ago. 

It talked about separating people with leprosy and other contagious diseases (Leviticus 13:46). Even their clothes were to be burned.

But centuries later, these simple procedures were forgotten. Thus, from the year 1000 to 1200, leprosy killed millions of people in Europe. And in the 14^th century, also in Europe, the Black Death or the Bubonic plague killed more than 60 million people.

Let me give you a rather obvious example.

Example 2:

Toilet Training

       Would you believe? 

Toilet training is in the Bible.

The Bible tells the Israelites to “have a place outside the camp where you can go when you need to relieve yourselves.  Carry a stick as part of your equipment, so that when you have a bowel movement you can dig a hole and cover it up.” (Deuteronomy 23:13-14)

In the newer Bible versions, it says, “Carry a stick and toilet paper—preferably double ply…”

Just kidding.

Back in those days, you couldn’t flush.

So people used a stick.

The key here was to dig your dump—and cover with soil.

       But during the middle ages, this simple sanitary method wasn’t done in the many capital cities of Europe. Especially in the slums. In fact, the common practice was that people just dumped their poop on the street. 

Imagine the flies. Imagine the rats.  Imagine the stink. 

And imagine the epidemics of cholera, dysentery, and typhoid fever that exploded in those cities.

All I can say is, “Thank God we can flush!”

Example 3:

Take A Bath

When I was a kid, Mom forcedme to take a bath.

I don’t remember now why, but bathing to me was like water torture.

But the Bible was pretty big on washing (Numbers 19:11-22). It even gave the ingredients for soap—so that hand-washing will take more than 15 seconds—enough to remove the germs.

During Biblical times, this was a religious ritual. Today, we realize it’s a very important hygienic practice.

But during the middle ages, bathing fell out of custom. 

Are you ready to be shocked again? During the middle ages, in Europe, most people took a bath one, two, three, or four times in their whole life. 

I’m not kidding. 

In Old Testament times, religion supported bathing.

In the middle ages, religion supported not bathing.

For example, the monks felt it was vain to take a bath.  

St. Francis of Assisi believed that to be dirty was a sign of a holy person. Even St. Benedict recommended that those who are young and strong should seldom take a bath. It was said that St. Catherine of Siena avoided washing. And St. Agnes, who died at the age of 13, had never taken a bath.

Queen Isabella of Spain was proud to say that she only took two baths in her whole lifetime. 

And Queen Elizabeth of England was seen as a very vain woman. Why? Because she bathed once a month.

Example 4:

Sexual Purity For A Healthy Life

The Bible’s Laws on Sex were also Laws on Health.

When people hear the 6^th commandment, “Don’t commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14), some say, “God is just a killjoy. He doesn’t want us to have fun.”

But the opposite is true. 

He wants us to have the greatest joy in the world. 

And the only way to do that is to be sexually faithful.

When you’re faithful to your spouse, you don’t only get blessed spiritually, you also get blessed physically. 

How? You virtually make the entire army of venereal diseases not your personal concern. They’re irrelevant. I’m talking about syphilis, gonorrhea, herpes, hepatitis B, and AIDS.

Condoms And Antibiotics

Don’t Solve The Problem

When I was in college, I heard a classmate tell another classmate, “Just use a condom”. With that piece of rubber in their pocket, they felt safe.

But it’s now a scientific fact: Condoms minimize the chances of getting the infection, but the failure rate is still alarming. Especially for AIDS, condoms won’t completely protect you.

Imagine this scenario.

You’re in a theme park. And you’re lining up for the giant Roller Coaster ride.

After buying the ticket, you turn it over and see this written at the back: “Warning: Roller Coaster can spin off and disengage from the track, causing certain death, 15% of the time. To the 85% who won’t die, enjoy your ride.”

Now tell me, will you still ride?

I don’t think so.

The same thing is happening with antibiotics.

For awhile, antibiotics were curing many people from venereal diseases.

When I was a teenager, I remember listening to a “liberated” teacher telling us, “Before visiting a prostitute, take 500 milligrams of antibiotics. After sex, take another 500 milligrams. And you’ll be okay.”

Not true.

Today, drug-resistant bacteria of venereal diseases are spreading all over the world. Because of this, sexually transmitted diseases are now more deadly, more dangerous, and more contagious than ever before.

How Widespread Is STD?

This information shocked me.

World Health Organization (WHO) says that one million people are being infected by venereal diseases every single day. 

When we watch TV, we’re awed by the beautiful and handsome young people that jump from one bed to another. In the sitcoms and movies we watch, sex is nothing more than a recreational activity—much like dancing and videogames.

We envy their freedom.

We want their pleasure.

But Hollywood isn’t showing you the darker side: In America, 1 out of 4 teenage girls have a venereal disease. Among those who said they already had sex, 40% has a venereal disease.

Worldwide, 35 million people in the world have AIDS.

Appalled? That’s nothing when you compare that to Hepa B.

Worldwide, Hepatitis B has now infected 2 billion people. 

That’s 1 out of 3 people in the entire world.

Take charge over your health.

Practice Prescription 1: Clean Living.

Here’s my second prescription…   

Prescription #2:

Natural Eating

       Germs aren’t your only enemy.

We now have new enemies: Modern, manmade Toxins.

And it’s in our food.

Let me tell you about Jack Lalanne, a Fitness Teacher.

He is 96 years old.

At his age, he still works out twice a day. That’s 2 hours of weight training in the morning and another 2 hours of swimming or walking in the afternoon.

When people ask him what’s his best advice for becoming healthy, he tells them, “If man made it, don’t eat it.”

Once upon a time, we ate food made by God.

I love it when the Bible says, “…and they ate what grew in the fields. They found wild honey among the rocks; their olive trees flourished in stony ground. Their cows and goats gave plenty of milk; they had the best sheep, goats, and cattle, the finest wheat, and the choicest wine (Deuteronomy 32:12-14).

I agree with Jack Lalanne. 

I believe many people are sick today because of the amount of processed food we eat.

Here’s what you need to watch out for…

1. Zero Nutrition

Many times, all the nutrition in processed food has been wiped out by its “process”.  But the packaging say it’s “enriched” because they put a few vitamins in it. Crazy.

2. Preservatives and Additives

Because food companies want to increase their product’s shelf life, they’ve loaded them with preservatives. Because they want their food to be tasty yet cheap (and increase profits), they put additives and other chemicals to make them taste like the real thing. And many of these chemicals are not healthy for us. 

3. Chemicals In Our Meat

A few years back, a chick required 45 days to become a fully-grown chicken. Today, because of these chemicals, growth hormones, and antibiotics, some chickens are ready for “harvesting” at only 28 days. 

A cow, by its natural self, produces 500 gallons of milk a year. Today, “super cows” produce 20,000 to 30,000 gallons of milk a year. That’s because of the chemicals that they inject into these animals. (Super cows don’t move around anymore. They’re held by a steel frame. And they’ve got tubes connected to their udders 12 hours a day.) These chemicals are what we ingest when we eat or drink their produce.

By nature, cows are vegetarian. But in many parts of the world, cows and pigs have become cannibals. They eat their own kind. How? To increase their bulk, protein has been added to their feeds. And the most available protein would come from dead cows and pigs—usually who died of sickness. Their carcasses, even their bones, are crushed to powder and mixed with the animal feeds. 

Some scientists believe that this is the main cause of the foot and mouth disease.

My Recommendations

       Here’s my advice: Eat natural foods as much as possible. Decrease your processed food intake.

For breakfast, instead of eating hotdogs, tocino, pancakes, white bread, and sugared drinks, I suggest papaya, pineapple, melon, watermelon, banana, mangoes and other local fruits. (Organic if possible. If not available, wash them very well.)

For snacks, instead of chichiria, sodas, and bottled juices, eat kamoteng kahoy, raw nuts, and fresh fruit juices (made in your home). 

For lunch and dinner, instead of corned beef, instant noodles, and white rice, I suggest kangkong, okra, talbos, lato, carrots, other vegetable salads, tofu, fish, and unpolished rice.

If you want to eat meat, look for “organic” meat. These are grass-fed cattle and free-range chickens. These are more difficult to find but not impossible.

Once again, take charge over your health.

Eat natural food.

Here’s my third prescription…

Prescription #3:

Holistic Healing

Before I discuss this, let me state an obvious fact: I believe doctors are God’s gifts to us. (Sirach 38:12-14)

We need doctors.

       Imagine it’s New Years Eve and I get hit with a stray bullet. Please rush me to the hospital, slice me up, and pull out the metal slug. Don’t ask, “Bo, what are the emotional roots of your bullet wound?”

       Once again, we need doctors.

However, I also believe many get sick because of over-medication and wrong medication. 

In a study made by the National Institutes of Health, they say that between 35 to 40 percent of all hospital patients are there because of wrong medical care.

Perhaps it was a misdiagnosis. 

Perhaps the patient was given the wrong medicine.

Perhaps the patient received too much medicines.

Perhaps the medicines had side effects.

Perhaps while in the hospital, the patient got infected with another sickness.

This was a study made in the States. Somehow, I want to believe it’s not that bad here in the Philippines. (For example, my friend doctors are more spiritual and relational in nature.)

Whenever possible, I always tell people to take the least invasive medical procedure—and be more invasive when it comes to changing their emotional life, spiritual life, lifestyle, and diet.

See Yourself As Body And Soul

       My friend, Dr. Romy Paredes, MD, emailed me last month, and he explained it to me this way…

“The bottom line truth: The immune system is a divinely designed system.

But this was not emphasized in Medical school.

What was emphasized was what drug to give for every disease.

Ironically, my favorite subject in Med school (and also the subject where I got my highest grade 1.0, hehe) is pharmacology…only to find out that somewhere later in my career, I decided to walk the less travelled road of medicine…

Prescription pads nowadays are filled with drugs. That was how I was trained.

Now I prescribe water, sunlight, words like forgive, love more, spend more time with your loved ones, a minimal amount of supplements,…”

I agree with him.

Because 99% of the time, medicines suppresses the symptoms but never cures the cause of the sickness—which can be emotional, spiritual, or nutritional in nature. 

Here’s what I mean: When a person comes to me with ulcers, chest pains, back problems, cancers, I advice him not just to pop a pill or go under a knife, but to look at his entire life—body, soul, and spirit. I ask him to awaken the healer within himself. 

I ask him to ask himself, “What’s causing this disease?”

85% of the time, it’s an unresolved emotion buried in his heart. Heavy stress. A relationship conflict. A spiritual problem.

15% of the time, it’s a very unhealthy lifestyle that needs to change.  A lack of real nutrition.  (You can be fat but totally malnourished.) A lack of exercise. A lack of sunlight. A lack of oxygen. A lack of rest.

So I ask him, “Don’t just pop a pill. Change your life.”

Let me tell you a story that happened just last week…

Instead of Popping Pills,

Awaken The Healer

Last Tuesday, my 5-year old son Francis woke up coughing. 

By afternoon, he had fever.

       A few years back, we would—without much thought—give him paracetamol and cough syrup. If the cough and fever didn’t go away, we’d give him antibiotics.

       Today, we’re much wiser.

       What do we do?

We awaken the healer in our kids.

Believe me, it’s the most powerful thing we’ve ever seen.

Starve A Fever

Haven’t you noticed? When we get sick, we usually lose our appetite. There’s a purpose to this. Our bodies are telling us something. 

Observe your pets. When they get sick, they don’t want to eat too. They stay in a corner and sleep or sulk.

Years ago, when our kids got sick, we force-fed them. We scolded them, “Eat your rice! Eat your chicken! So you’ll have energy to fight the germs!”

We no longer do that craziness.

When we’re sick, we lose our appetites (our tongues can’t even taste food) because our bodies are telling us a simple message: “Don’t eat. I want to use all my energy fighting the disease.” Remember that digestion takes up huge amounts of energy. Your body wants to focus on defense.

       So what do we do now when our kids get sick?

       We “arm” their immune system with weapons necessary for the fight. How?

Let “Natural” Food Be Your Medicine

When Francis got sick last week, we made him drink fresh fruit juices. We threw in fresh fruits in a blender. Watermelon. Mango. Melon. Banana. Any local fruits we could get our hands on.

       For the entire day, that was all he had.

       Virtually no solids. He wasn’t hungry anyway.

       He lay down on the coach, in the arms of Mommy, watching Jurrasic Park, sipping his fresh fruit juicemany times that day.

       Here’s the amazing thing: The following day, his fever and cough were gone. We couldn’t believe it.

       The Healer in him won!

(Note: If a child still has fever for more than three days, that’s the time you bring him to a doctor.)

A Disclaimer

       I’m not a doctor.

       So please. Before you apply what I’m asking you to do, consult your doctor. Ask a second, third, and fourth opinion.

       Like my friend Dr. Romy, there are a growing number of doctors who are growing dissatisfied with the mechanical model of their medical practice.

       And in their own way, they’re practicing Holistic Healing.

       More and more, they’re realizing that people aren’t machines.

       They’re body and soul—and if you want to heal the body, you have to heal the soul too.

       Friend, take charge of your life.

       Hold the steering wheel of your life.

       Go to the place of health, healing, and abundance.

       May your dreams come true,

       Bo Sanchez

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I turned 44 this month.

I’ve noticed something: The older I get, the more I believe in miracles. In fact, I believe I’m surrounded by an ocean of miracles.

Everyday, I see God-Coincidences.

Divine Appointments.

Supernatural Connections.

Mysterious Surprises.

Spontaneous Healings.

More and more, I believe in the unexplainable, beautiful, mystical work of God in our lives. That no matter how impossible the situation, I believe that God will make a way where there seems to be no way.

Yes, I believe in magic.

I live in a magical universe!

I believe that in every moment, God is performing miracles. 

In every moment, He is blessing you, healing you, touching you, and guiding you.

The 3 Stages Of My Spiritual Life

Let me tell you how I came to this belief.

Because it’s my birthday month, allow me to be autobiographical. Hope you don’t mind.

Let me talk about my 30+ year journey with God. (No, this won’t be 30 pages long! Perhaps 29… Just kidding.)

I believe I went through three distinct stages in my spiritual life:

·        First Stage: Super Spiritual

·        Second Stage: Highly Practical

·        Third Stage: Peacefully Mystical

Which stage are you in?

Find out.

Let me describe each stage to you…

First Stage: Super Spiritual

(Age 12 to 28)

I got to know God at age 12.

Since that time, all the way until I was around 28 years old, I was super spiritual. 

I had hyper-faith.

I wanted God to do everything for me.

If I did something, it meant that I didn’t trust God.

If I was hungry, all I had to do was open my mouth.

Because I expected God to plant a seed, water it, fertilize it, grow it, pick the fruit, slice it, fork it, and feed it to me.  I even wanted God to chew the fruit and spit it in my mouth.

I shunned the world.

I didn’t like secular music, secular books, and secular movies.

I didn’t like insurance or saving money, or the stock market.

I believed that the purpose of life was to go to Heaven.

My faith was inhuman.

Bottomline, I didn’t like my humanness. 

I believed my flesh was tainted with evil.

I was a spiritual being trapped in a human body, and my goal was to escape my earthly tent as much as I could.

Example?

How I Dressed Up

I wore the crummiest clothes.

Old sandals. Old jogging pants. Old shirt.

The more holes, the more faded, the better.

I felt that if I wore a clean shirt and nice shoes, it was vanity—a sin against the Almighty.

I didn’t comb my hair lest the Holy Spirit would be displeased. 

Reason? To try to look handsome is about “self”. And self is bad. I’d be filled with pride and endanger my eternal soul.

I wanted to focus not on being presentable to men, but presentable to God.

Thus, I didn’t put on deodorant too. 

I reasoned that if I smelled bad, there was a sacred purpose behind it.

Was it to save on bug repellant?  Because of my unique odor, insects dropped dead within a two-meter radius around me.

Saints had what people called the odor of sanctity. Whenever they entered the room, people would smell the scent of fresh flowers. That made people fall on their knees and pray.

I too had that same effect. When I entered the room, people didn’t just only fall on their knees. They’d have a near-death experience and pray for their salvation.

My whole persona—how I dressed, looked, and smelled was my AAD. My Anti-Attraction Device. So girls won’t fall in love with me—lest I fall into lust. (Haha.)

This over-spiritual attitude spilled over to how I preached…

How I Gave My Talks

Whenever I preached, I didn’t want to prepare too much. 

I wanted to be led by the Spirit.

I would preach in this way…

“Brothers and Sisters, good morning….” In the middle of my talk, I’d close my eyes, pause for a few seconds, while murmuring, “thank you Jesus, speak to me Jesus, thank you Jesus…”. Then I’d open my mouth and say, “Today, God told me to tell you that He loves you very much…” And then I’d close my eyes, and murmur my prayers again, “thank you Jesus, speak to me Jesus, shalalalala…”

This super spirituality spilled over my decision-making too…

How I Made Decisions

Every choice had to be prayed for.

Every decision!

What I should do on a particular day.

Who I should talk to.

What I should say.

What I should eat.

Where I was going.

What I would wear. (Crummy shirt #1 or Crummy shirt #2?)

No decision was too minor.

If I didn’t hear anything from God, I’d cut the Bible.

If you don’t know what “cutting the Bible” means, let me describe it to you.

One day, my friend was in an Eat-All-You-Can Buffet. 

Being super spiritual like me, he prayed, “Lord, what do you want me to eat?”

He closed his eyes and opened the Bible.

He pointed his finger on a page, and read, “Jesus fasted for 40 days and nights.”

His face turned pale in terror. 

He said, “Lord, this is a mistake. Do you really want me to fast?” With shaking hands, he cut the Bible again. 

The verse he opened to?

“And Jesus said, ‘Go and do likewise.’”

Disturbed With My Super Spiritual Approach

Because I was super spiritual, I didn’t want to finish high school anymore. I felt schooling was useless because Jesus was coming again. Perhaps he would come next year. So why bother with Trigonometry and Chemistry?  How can I use those in Heaven?

But my parents insisted I finish high school. And they also pushed me to go to college.

But after two years of college, I dropped out and became a fulltime missionary.

But as the years progressed, I began to grow uncomfortable with my extreme spirituality. Something was wrong. 

As I grew older, I saw that being human wasn’t so bad after all. In fact, a quote from St. Irenaeus jolted me to the bone. He said, The glory of God is a human being fully alive.

Slowly, I began to move to the next stage of my spiritual life…

Stage Two: Highly Practical

(Age 29 to 43)

In my late twenties, I began to appreciate my humanness.

I realized God created me to be an incredible human being that can dream, plan, design, think, and act. Why did He give me all these fantastic abilities if He didn’t want me to use them?

If He wanted me to simply depend on Him and do nothing, He should have made me a stone or a plant or an amoeba.

But no. He gave me a phenomenal brain that was more powerful than all the computers of this world put together.

And ever so slowly, I morphed.

I began to be more down-to-earth.

More pragmatic.

More realistic.

More open…

How I Saw The World

       I started reading secular books. 

       I got to know secular people.

I learned that atheists, agnostics, irreligious, and immoral people were children of God and they had much to teach me.

Stage 2 gave me a very precious gift: It took away my self-righteousness and spiritual arrogance.

I began to love people genuinely.

I got to know the secular world that I thought was totally condemned by God. (It wasn’t. I saw God’s fingerprints all over.)

It was a terrifying yet liberating experience.

I realized my spiritual world was very small. Puny!

And my version of God was tiny too.

I realized He was bigger than my narrow definitions.

How I Saw Romance

       When I was 30, I decided to get married.

       That helped a lot in moving me fully into Stage 2.

       Stage 1 kept me in limbo—Celibacy or marriage? 

I couldn’t decide.

For years, I was trying to find God’s Will and was terribly confused.

But in Stage 2, I realized that His Will was my deepest desires. That through the scalpel of discernment, I can strip the layers of shallow desires until I touched base with the core desires that God has placed in my heart.

And in Stage 2, I finally chose my lovely wife—after so much dilly-dallying in Stage 1.

That was when I wrote my controversial book, How To Find Your One True Love.

       I wrote it for single people who were super spiritual, waiting for their future husband (or wife) to fall out of the sky on a silver platter.

       In that book, I taught mature singles how to pray, yes. But I also taught them how to write a checklist of what they want in a spouse, how to change their daily itinerary to meet more singles, and how to have more friendly dates.

       That book was a huge bestseller because for the first time, a spiritual book gave singles permission to do something in finding a spouse aside from just praying and waiting.

How I Saw Money

       In Stage 1, I remained poor.

       I watched this same phenomenon among super spiritual people. Though close to God, they were far from God’s material blessings because they believed poverty came with the territory. 

They’re in debt. They don’t have savings. They live hand to mouth.  Because they depend on God totally. They don’t like talking about money. They don’t want to learn how money works.

       I was so frustrated not having money when I had all these great projects that I wanted to do for God.

       So at the age of 32, I became an entrepreneur. 

I became an investor. 

Today, God has prospered the work of my hands.

       A few years later, I wrote my book, 8 Secrets Of The Truly Rich. It rocked the world of many spiritual people. For the first time, a spiritual book gave them the permission to become wealthy in the right way.

How I Saw Dreams

       In Stage 1, I didn’t allow myself to have dreams.

I considered that selfishness.

But in Stage 2, I wrote my dreams, read them daily, and saw them being fulfilled one by one. I was mesmerized by the power that God gave us to make our dreams come true.

       So I taught people to dream and pursue their dreams.

       I taught them that their actions shaped their future.

       I told them, “God has placed your destiny in your hands!”

       It was an exhilarating experience.

       But deep within, something was brewing in my soul.

Disturbed With My Highly Practical Approach

       The past year, I saw a certain movement in my spirit.

       It was a gentle call from God to a deeper kind of trust.

       I saw myself walking to a new stage in my spiritual life.

Stage 3: Peacefully Mystical

(Age 44 To Eternity)

       Today, I’m a mystic. Again.

       I’m back believing in miracles.

       Obviously, I never lost faith in miracles.

       But in a more profound way, I’m realizing that everything that I do is dependent on miracles.

       Yes, I’m returning to an enlightened version of Stage 1.

       But it’s really Stage 3: Peacefully Mystical.

       It’s my second naïveté.

       How did this happen?

I really have no choice: It’s the only way to keep my sanity.

       As overall leader of Light of Jesus and our other ministries, I’m faced with gigantic problems every single day.

       I do all I can. With the best of my abilities. But the problems are still there. 

So I reach this point where only God can solve the problems.

I have only two options: To be stressed or to be blessed.

Stress and trust cannot co-exist.

If I’m stressed, then it means I don’t trust.

If I trust, then I won’t be stressed.

       So I decide to trust. 

And I like a child, I tell Him, “I’ve reached a point of incompetence. Lord, this is your problem. Give me a miracle.”

       And He gives me a miracle! He actually comes in and performs a beautiful miracle right before my eyes.

Why I’m Relaxed

My wife says I’m always cool.

No matter what happens.

Let me tell you why.

I believe that I live in a friendly universe. 

I live in a gracious galaxy.

I live in a universe that is conspiring to bless me. 

Every atom of God’s creation is strategizing how to prosper me, solve my problems, open new doors of opportunity, give me divine connections, supernatural appointments, send miracles on my path, heal me, make me stronger, increase my peace, increase my money, tighten my relationships with my family, give me more wisdom….

And problems?

I believe that when a problem comes, it brings within it a beautiful solution. When a trial comes, it brings within it a treasure waiting to be unearthed.

I just need to be open to it—and the miracle will come.

Let me tell you how magical my life is…

Someone Stole Our Vault

       Last Sunday night, our ministry office was burglarized.

       It was no ordinary robbery: The thieves carried out our entire vault.

I say “thieves”—plural—because I know the weight of that vault. Two or three guys are needed to carry that thing.

But here’s the miracle.

Every Sunday, after the Feast (our large prayer gathering), our staff would count the offering, bring it back to the office, and put it in the vault. So that they could bring it to the bank the next day.

But last Sunday, for some magical reason, our chief accountant decided not to put the money in the vault. She placed the money beside the vault.

So here’s what happened. The robbers got the vault. But left behind the big money beside the vault!

How can you explain that?

Only one reason.

We live in a magical universe.

I’m surrounded by an ocean of miracles.

Yes, there was a little money in the vault—and we lost that.

But we’ll be wiser now.

But I’ve now learned that sometimes, God allows small problems to protect us from bigger problems. He allows us to lose a small amount, so that in the future, we won’t lose a bigger amount.

Even In Your Biggest Problems,

God Is Performing Miracles

       A few years ago, my friend was fooled by her business partner. This partner ran away with their products—and my friend was left holding the empty bag. 

Result? My friend was now P20 million in debt.

       Everyday, she cried out to God.

       Everyday, she was filled with so much stress.

       She couldn’t eat.

       She couldn’t sleep.

       Her heart was filled with worry, fear, sadness, and anger.

       Her soul was filled with questions.

       Why God? Why did you allow this to happen?

       But she kept her faith.

       She kept attending the Feast (our weekly gathering), believing that God will rescue her from her trials.

       Today, five years later, my friend has paid all her debts.

       Her business is better than ever before.

       And her trust in God is so deep!

       She never brought her ex-business partner to court. She didn’t want to waste her time or money in bringing her to justice. She decided to focus on rebuilding her business.

       In fact, the P20 million debt turned out to be a blessing.

Why? That huge debt hanging on her head forced her to become a better entrepreneur and make more money than ever before. Today, her business is bigger, stronger, and more prosperous! Something that may not have happened without the tragedy she went through.

       What happened to her ex-business partner?

       She found out that she’s now in jail—because of another crime that she committed. 

What did my friend do?

She visited her in jail and forgave her.

Why? Because her God is a big God.

Bigger than a P20 million debt.

Bigger than her anger towards her business partner.

Here’s what I learned in life: God’s size is flexible.

Some worship a big God.

Some worship a small God.

It depends on your faith.

Do you want to know the size of your God?

Look at the size of your fears.

If your fears are big, then it means your God is small.

But if your fears are small, then it means your God is big.

Today, my fears are getting smaller and smaller, because my God is getting bigger and bigger.

Even In Your Biggest Problems,

God Is Performing Miracles

       Another friend had a problem with her eldest son.

       She came up to me one day and said, “Oh Bo, please help me. My son likes to drink and smoke. He’s not doing too well in school. He’s a rebellious kid and hates authority…”

       She would call me up, crying on the phone.

       And we’d pray together.

       The months turned to years, and she’d tell me that her son is still the same—rebellious and addicted to vices. For six years, it was as though nothing was happening.

       But one day, a miracle happened. Her son was invited to a youth ministry—and a spiritual conversion took place.

       Today, her son is now leading that youth ministry. He’s preaching, bringing a lot of young people to God.

I can imagine what was happening during those six years of waiting, whenever she prayed to God with a lot of tears. I bet God was saying to her, “This storm will end. Your miracle will come. What you wish for will be granted.”

You’re Surrounded By An Ocean Of Miracles

Perhaps right now, you too have experienced a loss.

Perhaps you’re going through a heavy trial right now.

       And it seems like it’s an impossible situation. 

       But in God’s vocabulary, there’s no such word as impossible.

       In God’s dictionary, the word “impossible” isn’t found.

I have a simple message for you: Trust Him.

       God will make a way where there seems to be no way.

       You’re surrounded by an ocean of miracles.

May your dreams come true,

       Bo Sanchez

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PS2. Join The Internet Marketing Bootcamp on July 29. There’ll be 17 Speakers, including 4 International Internet Experts. By the way, I’m not organizing this event. They just invited me to be the Keynote Speaker, so I’m passing the information to you. Internet Marketing Maven Anton Diaz, Larry Gamboa, and Randy Manaloto are its organizers. If you want to learn various business models to earn money through the internet, this is the place to go. For more information, click here now.

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PS4. Gatherings On Fire, Seminar-Workshop on Prayer Meetings on July 31. Do you feel that your prayer meetings need a makeover? Let the wisdom and experiences you’ll get from this seminar-workshop bring your gatherings to ‘the next level’. Arun Gogna and his team offer tips on animation, great topics, overall flow and dynamics, and everything you can do to liven up your prayer meetings. Let’s answer your questions from A-Z… A must for your community!   It’ll be on July 31, 8am-5pm. Early bird registration is P795 only. For more information, call Noel at (02) 6687766 or 09154493600 or 09282109765.

       Lolo Carding and Lola Caring met each other in their old age, fell in love, and decided to get married.

       Their age? Lolo Carding was 81 and Lola Caring was 79.

       One day, while walking in a mall, they passed by a big drugstore.

       Lolo Carding told his fiancé, “Let’s go in.”

       They met the woman behind the counter. Lolo Carding asked, “Do you sell heart medication?”

       The woman said, “Yes, Lolo.”

       “Medicine for arthritis?” Lolo Carding asked.

       The woman nodded her head, “Plenty, Lolo.”

       “How about medicine for memory problems, back pains, osteoporosis, constipation, high cholesterol, hypertension, and diabetes?”

       The woman smiled, “Yes, we have all those medicines, Lolo.”

       “Do you also sell wheelchairs and walkers?”

       “We have many brands, Lolo.”

       Lolo Carding and Lola Caring smiled at each other, turned to the woman behind the counter and said, “We will be getting married in one month. Can we use this drugstore as our bridal registry.”

How You Can Avoid

Becoming A Walking Drugstore?

       People expect that as they grow old, they’ll be taking more and more drugs.

       Why? Because that’s what old people do. 

I know of some people who take 20 tablets a day. 

That seems normal now. People take maintenance medicines for hypertension, high sugar, cholesterol, uric acid, high sugar, and heart problems. Plus, they take more medicines for the side effects. Isn’t that insane? Yet that has become normal too.

       Friend, this doesn’t have to happen to you.

You have a choice.

There’s another path to growing old.

       I’ll repeat my message: The best medicine in the world is God’s chosen food. Eat it and be healed.

Consult Your Manufacturer

       If you’re phone is busted, what do you do?

       You just don’t bring it to anyone.

If you’re wise, you bring it to its manufacturer.

If you have a Nokia phone, you bring it to Nokia. 

If it’s Samsung, you bring it to Samsung. 

If it’s an Iphone, you bring it to Apple.

Today, I want you to go to your Manufacturer.

Get yourself repaired.

       Consult Him. 

       What does He say about becoming healthy?

       I’m not a doctor.

       I’m a spiritual mentor.

       So I’ll be showing you what the Bible says about health.

It’s amazing how science is now discovering the logic behind these ancient verses. 

99% Cause Of All Disease

Read carefully: According to immunologists, 99% of all diseases aren’t caused by germs. They’re caused by a starving, weak, malnourished immune system.

       Your body has an incredible, God-designed, super-elite army capable of destroying any germ that tries to attack it.

       This internal army consists of billions of cells in your body that can prevent and cure any disease in your body.

       But that’s the problem: We don’t eat the food that God designed for us to eat. So that army is starving.

       No wonder we get sick!

       If you look at the Bible, it gives you very practical recommendations on what you should eat. Let’s consult our Manufacturer and find out what He says about what we should eat.

       Let me discuss three prescriptions today.

1. Eat Plants

2. Eat Clean

3. Eat Other “Food”

1.Eat Plants

In Daniel 1:11-15, we read the fascinating story of how Daniel and his friends competed with the Babylonians in the “Who Will Be Healthier In 10 Days?” Contest…

“Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food….” So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days. At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food.

Daniel and his friends ate “vegetables and water”.

The other young men ate “royal food” which consisted of meat and other food that was considered “unclean” by the Bible. After ten days, Daniel and his friends were healthier. The poor man’s diet won over the rich man’s diet.

The Bible says in Genesis 1:29, “I have given you every plant with seeds on the face of the earth and every tree that has fruit with seeds. This will be your food.”

       The Bible tells us that plants should be our main food. And today, modern science agrees!

       If you study our bodies, you’ll find more similarities with herbivores than carnivores.

       Go to the mirror now and check your teeth.

What do you notice?  They’re flat. (If they’re all sharp, I suggest you find a good Exorcist.) Just like the teeth of cows, goats, and sheep. 

Carnivores, like lions and tigers, have sharp teeth. 

       Second, herbivores have very long digestive tracks. Just like ours. Carnivores have short ones.

       Our anatomy is telling you that our major food should be plants. The reason why we get sick is because for many years (decades?) we’ve not been eating enough plants.

Objection 1:

“But Bo, I Take Vitamins!”

       Some people say, “I don’t like fruits and veggies. So I just take vitamins.”

       Thank God you’re taking vitamins.

But that isn’t enough. Sorry, vitamin pills won’t replace the actual fruit or veggie. 

       They’re called supplements because they add, not replace. 

Because fruits and vegetables aren’t just about the vitamins. The actual plant also gives enzymes, trace elements, fiber, alkalinity, etcetera!

Let me give you an analogy.

       If you’re my age, you probably watched Voltes V.

       For younger people who didn’t watch this Japanese cartoon, my deepest condolences. 

Voltes V consists five spaceships piloted by Steve, Mark, Big Bert, Little John, and Jamie. There was a love triangle between Steve, Mark, and beautiful Jamie and…uh, never mind. 

By themselves, the spaceships are okay. Each can shoot down enemy ships. 

       But somewhere in the middle of the cartoon, these five spaceships connect with each other and “volt-in”.  Attached together, they form a giant, powerful, kick-butt robot with a saber sword. 

Yep, the sum is always greater than its parts.

Swallowing a vitamin pill is like getting only one spaceship of Voltes V.   But when you eat the whole fruit or vegetable, you’re getting all 5 team members—and they volt-in!

They work together to build you up.

       Take the case of enzymes.

You Need Workers

       Vitamins and minerals are like the raw materials for building your body. Imagine all of the wood, steel, and cement necessary to build a home. 

But the enzymes are your laborers. Without laborers, the house won’t be built.

       And where do you get enzymes? Not from a pill.

       You get enzymes when you eat raw fruits and raw vegetables.

Alkaline Body

       No, I’m not talking about long-lasting batteries.

Here’s another thing complete fruits and vegetables gives you that pills can’t: When you eat plants, your body becomes alkaline.  And germs can’t live in an alkaline environment. Cancer cells can’t live in an alkaline environment. That’s why cancer patients and other sick people have highly acidic bodies. (By acidic, I’m not talking about stomach acidity. I’m talking of the entire body.)

       When you eat fruits and vegetables everyday, you make your body alkaline, thus making it stronger against disease.

       Here’s another objection…

Objection 2:

“But Bo, I Do Eat Fruits and Veggies!”

       That’s great!

Question: How much?

Some eat one fruit a day—a banana after a meal—and they pat themselves on the back and say, “I’m healthy.”

Some eat one tiny side dish of cooked veggies—perhaps buttered string beans and carrots—and they say, “I’m healthy.”

But doctors specializing in immunology will tell you that you need fifteen kinds of fruits and vegetables everyday to be healthy.

       Fifteen! Every single day.

       I’m not asking you to be vegetarians. 

But if you want to be healthy, make fruits and veggies your main food. Let everything else be side dishes.

Objection #3:

“But Bo, It’s So Simplistic…”

       Last month, while traveling in Shanghai, my 85-year old mother got sick. (Yep, at her age, she still travels!)

       When she came home, she got worse. She was coughing non-stop, felt very weak, couldn’t sleep, had pain in her ribcage.

       When my sisters brought her to the clinic, the doctor gave her top-of-the-line antibiotics. They were expensive and powerful. She took one tablet before she slept.

       The next morning, she felt terrific. “It’s a miracle,” she said, “I feel so good. The antibiotic worked.”

       That day, my health mentor visited us (I have a mentor for various areas of my life). He looked at my mother, and said, “Mommy, I want you to take a megadose of vitamin C.”

       My sister asked, “What brand?”

       My health mentor laughed. “When I say megadose of vitamin C, I don’t mean swallowing a pill. I’m talking about eating fruits and drinking fresh fruit juices.  Liquefy them. Drink juices many times everyday!”

       Here’s what happened. 

My mother didn’t listen to him. Nor did any of my sisters who were staying with her.

       Why? Because the antibiotic was working.

       Or so they thought.

The next day, the “miracle” wore off and she got worse. 

Her coughing got worse. Her pains got worse. Despite taking powerful antibiotics everyday.

       After one week, she was a wreck. 

Mom hates hospitals. But that morning, she felt so bad, she woke up and said, “Bring me to the hospital. I can’t take it anymore.”

       But that day, my health guru visited again. 

And he asked her, “Mommy, did you take your fresh fruit juices?”

       Mom shook her head.

       My sisters said, “Ooops, we forgot.”

       My health teacher scolded us, “What happened? Mommy, please take your juices, non-stop, everyday.”

Healing From Simple Fresh Fruits

       That day, we gave her fresh fruit juices.

Many times a day. We’d take the fruits, chucked them in a blender, and poured the juice into a glass. Simple.

That was her main food the next few days.

       And would you believe? 

In two to three days, she was cured!

Here’s our problem.

       We don’t like simple solutions.

       We like it when the solution is complicated. 

       It’s more believable.

Like costly pills.

A trip to the hospital.

An expensive medical test.

       But when we hear the words, “Eat fruits”, we think it’s old wives tale.

       But scientists are now telling us it’s NOT old wives tales.

Just last January, a group of food scientists proved that Mango—in an experiment made in a laboratory—fought the cells of breast and colon cancer.

For years, scientists have been saying that bananas are effective against hypertension, depression, digestive problem and a host of other diseases. And ripe bananas have cancer-fighting elements.

For years, pineapples have been known to have powerful anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties.

       Ordinary fruits that we take for granted because they’re so available. But what do we do?

       We’d rather eat a candybar than a mango.

       We’d rather eat chichiria (chips) than a pineapple.

I’m not a scientist. Never was and never will be. But here’s my wild guess: I believe all fruits are powerful medicines for your body. If you follow the immunologists and eat 15 kinds of fruits and vegetables everyday, you’ll avoid many sickness.

Let me give you two very practical steps on how to apply this important food recommendation into your daily life.

Action 1:

Eat Local Fruits For Breakfast Everyday

I have a simple solution for you.

       Instead of a breakfast of hotdogs, pancakes, bacon, eggs, spam, and rice—why not eat fruits?

Here’s what I do.

       Every morning, I eat local fruits for breakfast.

       Pineapples. Watermelons. Melons. Star apple. Mangoes. Bananas. Guyabano. Papaya. Etcetera!

       I try to eat 5 fruits every morning. 

       When I do that, I bless my body everyday with the following:

o   I load up with natural vitamins and minerals.

o   I take in necessary living enzymes.

o   I cleanse my internal organs of toxins.

o   I give my body an alkaline environment.

Suggestion: To really get the maximum effect of the fruits, wait for an hour before you eat any other food or drink water.

Action 2:

Eat Raw Veggies For

Lunch And Dinner Everyday

       Most people eat veggies.

       But we eat too little of them. 

A few leaves. And we think we’re okay.

No, you’re not. Your immune system is starving for real food.

       Another thing? We cook our veggies to death. All the nutrients and enzymes are gone.

       Here’s my very strong recommendation: For lunch and dinner, eat a huge bowl of raw salads. Let that be your main meal.

       What veggies? Sing Bahay Kubo.

Organic, if you can find them. If not, wash thoroughly.

       For variation, you can also eat slightly cooked, slightly steamed, slightly blanched veggies.

       I’ve got some favorite dishes: I love a bowl of hot soup filled with slightly-cooked fresh veggies with a dollop of Korean fermented chili (spicy!) sauce. Yum!

       I’ve been eating this way for some time now and my body is thanking me for it. If you’re good to your body, your body will be good to you.    

I encourage you to study how to make delicious veggie dishes. Google it. Buy vegetarian recipe books. Make your family healthy and prevent disease! Ten years from now, you’ll be grateful you upgraded your diet.

Here’s my second prescription.

2.Eat Clean

If you read the Old Testament, you’ll find God calling some animals “clean” and others “unclean”.

Here’s one example in Leviticus 11:1-3: The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Say to the Israelites: ‘Of all the animals that live on land, these are the ones you may eat: You may eat any animal that has a split hoof completely divided and that chews the cud.

       According to the Bible, cows, sheep, and goats are clean.

       Pigs aren’t.

       Chickens and turkeys are clean.

       Rabbits aren’t.

       Tuna and salmon are clean.

       Crabs, shrimps, shells, and squid aren’t.

       On and on the list goes.

       In the New Testament, we no longer follow these food laws. Because as Christians, we don’t consider them spiritual laws anymore. We’re free to eat anything. 

Yes, you won’t go to the fires of hell if you eat lechon. 

Yeheey.

Instead of taking them as spiritual laws, I suggest that we take them as health recommendations.

       Because this is what I find amazing: Science is now discovering that animals labeled as “unclean” by the Bible carry more diseases and more toxins than the “clean” variety.

For example, “clean” animals have 3 or 4 stomachs and with very long digestive tracks. But unclean animals have one stomach and a very short digestive track. 

A cow takes 24 hours to digest its food. 

Aside from the fact that a pig eats anything, it also takes only 4 hours to digest its food—absorbing much of the toxins that it eats into its meat.

Vacuum Cleaner Of The Sea

I find this next passage rather fishy.

In Leviticus 11:9-10, it says, Of all the creatures living in the water of the seas and the streams, you may eat any that have fins and scales.  But all creatures in the seas or streams that do not have fins and scales—whether among all the swarming things or among all the other living creatures in the water—you are to detest.

What are sea creatures without scales or fins? 

Crabs, lobsters, shrimps, squid, and all shells.

Today, we know that they’re the scavengers of the sea.

They’re garbage collectors.

They’re vacuum cleaners.

They’re bottom-feeders, eating fish droppings and dead creatures.

Because of this, they purify the water. 

Good for the water. But bad for them. And bad for those who eat them.

High concentrations of germs and toxins are in their meat.

       In fact, if scientists want to know the toxicity level of a lake or lagoon, he’ll get a shrimp in that water and measure the toxins in its meat.

       And what’s so important about scales anyway? 

       Today, science has discovered that scales are important because that’s what fishes use to release the toxins from its body.  

       My recommendation?

       Avoid pork.

       Avoid crabs, lobsters, shrimp, squid, and all shells.

       At the very least, minimize eating them. 

       Because if you eat them regularly, you’ll have a more difficult time preventing disease in the future.

       Let me now go to my last prescription…

Prescription #3:

Eat Other “Food”

       Food isn’t our only food.

       Your body requires other kinds of nourishment.

       Let me mention four of them today very quickly.

1. Oxygen

God formed Man out of dirt from the ground

and blew into his nostrils the breath of life

–Genesis 2:7

Your cells are starving of fresh oxygen. 

Germs can’t live in a highly oxygenated environment. 

Take deep breaths everyday. De-stress yourself at different times of the day.

This naturally happens when you follow the next “food”…

2.Movement

Physical exercise has some value…

–1 Timothy 1:8

Find an exercise that you enjoy. 

Personally, I love walking. 

It’s the simplest exercise. 

When you walk, you go outdoors, you get sunlight, you oxygenate your body, you get an emotional lift, you lessen your stress, and you cleanse your lymphatic system.

And speaking of sunlight…

3.Sunlight

The light is pleasant,

and it is good for the eyes to see the sun.

–Ecclesiastes 11:7

Many people are sick because they lack Vitamin D. 

Because Vitamin D prevents osteoporosis, prostate cancer, breast cancer, depression, diabetes, and obesity. (No one is marketing sunlight because we can’t bottle sunlight and earn from it.) Mothers who expose their babies to the sunlight know what they’re doing. But what’s the difference between the baby and an adult? Get 30 minutes of sunlight everyday.

4.Sleep

Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain…;

for he gives to his beloved sleep.

–Psalm 127:1-2

Many people don’t sleep enough. 

If you want to be healthy, listen to your body. Your body will tell you how many hours of sleep it needs. For example, I’ve noticed that vegetarians need lesser hours of sleep—because digestion takes a huge amount of energy. But most people will require 8 hours of sleep to be fully totally restored.

       But at the end of the day, I believe that real sleep doesn’t come from sleeping pills or an expensive bed.

       I believe real sleep comes from God.

       Do you trust in the Lord for all your worries?

       When you trust Him deeply, you can sleep!

— 0 —

       By the way, didn’t you notice that the four elements above—oxygen, movement, sunlight, and sleep—are free? Health isn’t expensive.

Cleanse Your Soul,

Cleanse Your Body

       Let me end with two true-to-life stories.

       I know of a woman who was almost a vegetarian for ten years. But recently, she had cancer.

       People around her were aghast. How could someone whose diet was so healthy have cancer?

       The answer came from those who knew her predicament: Last year, she discovered her husband was having an affair. It was such a painful experience for her. Her heart was filled with rage and bitterness.

       In my ministry, I’ve talked to so many people with cancer. I’m no longer surprised when I find out that it coincided with a highly stressful, very painful event in their lives.

       Why am I sharing this to you?

       To remind you again that we’re not just biological creatures. We’re spiritual and emotional beings too. And eating the right food is crucial for our health, but that’s just one part of the equation.

       Let me now share with you my other story.

       My friend had breast cancer 7 years ago.

       Prior to this, she too discovered her husband had an adulterous relationship. The family was torn apart. Bitter rage filled her heart.

       But she knew the deadly poison of resentment. And so daily, she let go of her anger. She surrendered her husband to God.

       And in prayer, she was led not to go through any chemotherapy or radiation. Instead, she became a pure 100% vegetarian. Her goal was to remove all emotional and physical toxins in her body.

       She was successful.

       Because today, my friend is totally free from cancer.

       I pray that the same miracle will happen to your life.

       Go ahead.

       Cleanse your soul.

       Cleanse your body.

       May your dreams come true,

       Bo Sanchez

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       “What? How can you be sure?” the priest asked.

       “I’m very sure!”

       The priest was very concerned. He said, “Let me talk to your wife. I’ll see what I can find out—and I’ll let you know.”

       The next day, the man came to the priest again.

       “What happened, Father?”

       “I called your wife. I talked to her for three solid hours! Do you want my advice?”

       “What’s your advice, Father?”

       “Drink the poison.”

Why People Are Sick

       Do you know why so many people are sick?

       Because their relationships are poisoning them.

       So many people are starving for love.

       But all they get is poison.

       Today, I’m going to make a bold claim: I can predict the state of your health 30 years from now. How? By asking you a simple question: How’s your relationship with your parents?

       Let me tell you where I got this…

The Effect Of Our Parents’ Love

From 1956 to 1991, Harvard asked 126 healthy men to rate their relationship with their parents, whether it was…

a. Very Close

b. Warm and Friendly

c.   Tolerant

d. Strained and Cold

(Go right ahead and choose two answers, one describing your relationship with your Mom and the other with your Dad.)

These researchers went back to these men 35 years later.

Among the men who said they had “very close, warm, and friendly” relationships with both their parents, 47% had major illnesses. But 53% of them were healthy.

You might say, “Well Bo, what’s so surprising about that? Isn’t that normal—half are healthy and half are sick?”

Yes, that’s normal.

But the next answers aren’t.

After 35 years…

§ Among the men who said only their mother was warm and close, and their father wasn’t, 82% were sick; 18% were healthy.

§ Among the men who said only their father was warm, and their mother wasn’t, 91% of them were sick; Only 9% were healthy.

§ Here’s the worst. Among the men who rated both their father and mother low in warmth and closeness, 100% of them were sick. None of them were healthy!

By sick, I mean major diseases like heart disease, ulcers, hypertension, even alcoholism.

I have good news for you: You don’t have to follow these statistics. Because God has another plan for your life.

He wants you to be vibrant and healthy and strong.

If you follow what God is telling you to do today, you’ll experience health and healing in your body.

But first, let me explain why we get sick when we lack love.

Sickness Is Separation

       God designed our bodies for love.

The Bible says, It is not good for the man to be alone (Genesis 1:18). 

Think of fish. Pull it out of water and it dies. Because its body was made for water. In the same way, our bodies were made to swim in love. Pull us out of love and we die. Our bodies get sick, become weak, and perish.

Whenever we move towards separation, conflict, isolation, and loneliness, we get sick.

       Stress is really separation.

       Worry is separation.

       Fear is separation.

       Sadness is separation.

       We’re afraid because we feel alone.

       We’re sad because we feel no one is there for us.

       Anger and unforgiveness is also separation.

       Here’s my belief: Any movement towards separation makes us sick. But any movement towards connection makes you whole!

       When you forgive, when you love, when you trust, you walk towards your healing.

       Take a look at this small town called Roseto.

The Effect Of Our Neighbor’s Love

Roseto has become very famous because Malcolm Gladwell wrote about it in his bestselling book, Outliers. 

For many years, this small town in Pennsylvania was a “medical anomaly”. Doctors and researchers couldn’t understand why Roseto’s residents were incredibly healthy.

For example, virtually no one in Roseto had heart disease!

And the death rate for those age fifty to sixty years old was half that of the entire USA.

So many theories came up to explain this medical anomaly. They said perhaps it was the air they breathed. Or the water they drank. Or the food they ate. But after much research, all these theories didn’t hold water. 

Why? Because right beside it was another town named Nazareth. And people of Roseto and Nazareth ate the same food, drank the same water, and breathed the same air.

But Nazareth, just a few miles away, had a lot of people with heart disease. And their death rate of old people followed the national average.

So what was so special about Roseto?

After many years of study, Doctors finally found the answer.

Many years ago, the people of a tiny village in Italy, also called Roseto, migrated to America. 

They pitched their tents in a place in Pennsylvania and called their town Roseto too. And these migrants brought with them their close-knit relationships.

For years, they were insulated from the “individualist” lifestyle of America.

Let me give you a glaring fact: Unlike many Americans, in Roseto, three generations lived under one roof! 

Grandpa, grandma, all the children and their spouses, and all the grandchildren still lived in one house, eating together everyday. Imagine the noise. Imagine the fights. Imagine the chaos. But imagine also the love!

Here’s a second unique thing about this town.  After dinner, you’d see neighbors gathering on their wooden porches and talking over a hot cup of coffee. You’d see neighbors greeting each other on the street and chitchatting. No one is rushing. Everyone knows everybody.

And that, my friend, was the only reason for the medical anomaly in Roseto: Something called Love.

Create This Medical Anomaly

In Your Family

       I believe God wants you to build a Roseto in your family.

       He wants you to be 100% healthy.

       He wants your family to be 100% healthy too.

How do you receive this grace? 

Increase your love in your heart.

Increase your love in your family.

Spend more time together.

Go home after work and play with your kids.

Date your spouse.

Eat together often.

Laugh with your friends.

       Better yet, serve together.

       You’ll bless your loved ones with spectacular health.

Because only love heals.

4 Prescriptions To Heal Your Body

By The Power Of Love

       Let me go to specific ways of healing.

Here are four things you can do to increase healing in your body by the power of love.

1. Open Up More

Dr. David Spiegel wanted to disprove my very message—that love has something to do with health.

He got women with metastatic breast cancer and divided them into two sections. The women in the first section were each given small support groups.  These small groups were to meet for 90 minutes each week for sharing and encouragement.

The second section didn’t have these support groups.

Result? Those women in the first section, who had weekly support groups, lived twice as long as the other women.

Sadly, after five years, all the women in the second section were dead.

Dr. Spiegel was proven wrong.

Love has everything to do with your health!

If you want to be healed, open up in your close relationships. If you don’t have close relationships, find them.

In Light of Jesus, we don’t only have large gatherings like the Feast. We also have Caring Groups. These are small groups of 8 to 15 people who gather each week for sharing and loads of fun. 

So here’s my first prescription for you: Join a Caring Group.

God wants to bring healing to your body. And He’ll do it by your close relationships.

They’ll change your life and heal your bodies too.

I’ve been part of these small, nourishing, Caring Groups for 30 years now. I can’t imagine my life without them. Each week, I always look forward to these relaxing, happy, fun meetings. I believe they’re the best stress-busters in the world.

2. Touch More

       Do you have a pet?

You’ll find this next study riveting.

In Ohio, researchers wanted to measure the effect of a high-cholesterol diet among rabbits.

       So they fed rabbits food rich in cholesterol. (I have no idea what they fed Bugs Bunny and his friends. Aligue? Crispy pata?)

       In one room, rabbits were stacked in wired cages from floor to ceiling. All of them were given the same food rich in cholesterol.

       The doctors were expecting all the rabbits to develop blockages in their arteries.

       But the results boggled their minds. The rabbits at the higher cages got more blockages than the ones in the lower cages. 

It made no sense.

The rabbits were of the same genetic background.

But after much thinking, they found the answer.

A very obvious, simple answer.

They discovered that the guy who fed the rabbits loved animals. He would play with them, pet them, cuddle them, and stroke them. 

But here was the problem: He was short.

So he could play only with the rabbits in the lower cages. He couldn’t play with the rabbits in the higher cages. He could only feed them.

       Result? The rabbits that were petted, cuddled, caressed, and loved had 60% less blockages in their arteries.

       Amazing?

       That’s the power of touch.

Go Against Your Culture

And Show Affection

       If affection is good for rabbits, it must be good for you too.

I recommend that you touch, hug, and caress your loved ones more often. They need it. (Correction: They starve for it.)

And you need it too.

       When I say this, some tell me, “But Bo, my family isn’t the touchy-feely type. It’s just not our family culture. We feel corny and icky when we do that.”

       Then don’t follow your culture.

       Unless, of course, you want to get sick.

       Let me give you an example of culture.

       Psycholgist Sydney Jourard wanted to measure the number of times couples touched in a restaurant. So he went around the world and through hidden cameras counted the number of “touches”.

       In Puerto Rico, couples touched 180 times an hour.

       In Paris, couples touched 110 times an hour.

       But in the United States, they touched only 2 times an hour.

       And in London, it was zero!

       Too bad he didn’t come here to the Philippines.

       But our national average isn’t important.

       Here’s my second prescription: Today, make a decision to create a culture of touch in your family. If you know how important touching is to the health of your loved ones, you’ll do it. 

Make a conscious effort to embrace each other everyday.

I embrace my kids everyday—and it’s good for them, and it’s good for me too!

       Embrace your children.

       Embrace your parents.

       Embrace your friends.

       We need hugs for our physical survival.

3. Volunteer More

       Receiving love is important.

But giving love is important too.

In a huge study done by Cornell University, they gathered 427 married women with children. They hypothesized that the more kids a mother has (and thus, more stress), the earlier she dies.

       They were wrong. The number of kids wasn’t a factor at all.

       They were shocked to discover that the determining factor of a mother’s longevity was something very simple: whether she did volunteer work or not in a volunteer organization.

       After thirty years, they went back to these 427 women.

       Here were the results:

·        Among the women who didn’t do volunteer work, 52% had major illnesses.

·        Among the women who did regular volunteer work, only 36% had major illnesses.

       You get sick because you move towards separation.

       How does healing happen?

       When you move towards connection.

       When you love and receive love, your body rejoices.

       Your body is happy!

       And your body becomes strong.

       Today, I ask you: Do you do volunteer work?

       Do you give of yourself to people who won’t be able to pay you back? I invite you to join a ministry in your prayer group or charity work.

My third prescription for 100% health:

       For a few hours a week, forget yourself. Think of others. Go out of your way. Serve strangers. 

And yes, welcome healing into your body.

4. Accept More

I’ve got a great marriage.

       People ask me, “Bo, what’s your secret? If there’s one thing that I can do to have a great marriage, what would it be?”

I tell them my secret.

It’s very simple, really.

       Everyday in my marriage, I face a choice: To be right or to be loving. And I always choose to be loving.

       There are times when I’m totally convinced that I’m right and my wife is totally wrong. But I’ve long decided never to insist that I’m right. I just love her. Believe me, this decision has made my marriage—and my life—so enjoyable. (And after two years or so, I realize I was wrong and she was right. Oh well…)

       And my body is healthier too!

       I heard Deepak Chopra once talk about this. He said if you want to be healed, you have to lose your need to defend your point of view.

War is the defense of a point of view. 

But war has never worked. Just look at the history of the world. No one wins in a war!

Hey, it’s great to have a point of view. (It’s healthy.)

But don’t be attached to it.

       Because no two people will experience reality in the same way. Repeat: When you lose your rigid need to be right, you experience healing.

       Do you want to be healthy?

       Here’s my fourth and last prescription: Don’t judge. 

Don’t label.

       Deepak says that in the silence of non-judgment, healing comes. (Silence happens because much of the noise in our minds is the noise of judgment.)

       When you drop your defenses, there is nothing to attack.

       Also, if you want to be healthy, choose the people you hang out with—those who don’t add to your stress. Have cheerful friends. Proverbs 22:24 says, Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man, do not associate with one easily angered…

You Will Be Healed

Friend, God wants to heal you.

God wants you to be healthy.

This is His great desire for you.

And the only way to be healthy is to live in love.

In the same way that fish need to live in the water, you too need to live in love.

Move towards connection with my four prescriptions.

·        Open up more.

·        Touch more.

·        Serve more.

·        And accept more.

Fill your life with love!

And you will be healed.

May your dreams come true,

Bo Sanchez

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So he won’t spread his germs, his wife dropped his plate and utensils in boiling water.

Their 5 year old daughter saw this and asked, “What are you doing Mommy?”

“I’m boiling the dishes to kill Daddy’s germs,” she said.

The girl remained quiet. After awhile, she said, “I have an idea. Why not just boil Daddy and kill all his germs?”

Germs.

We blame them for our sickness.

But that’s only partly true.

Our immune system is so terrific, it can fight almost all germs. But we get into trouble when our immune system gets weak. And one thing that causes it to weaken is our negative emotions.

The Shocking Truth

This blew my mind.

Studies show that 85% of all disease is rooted in our emotions.

Wow.

That means that among the 17 million people who died of heart disease last year, and among the 7.2 million people who died of cancer last year, 85% of those diseases were rooted in their emotions.

Man! If only someone taught them to work on their emotions (not just on their bodies), some of them might still be alive today.

Here’s what I believe.

Most of our diseases are messages.

What message? Diseases are telling us that we have a spiritual need that we need to fill. 

But instead of listening to the message, we kill the messenger. We get rid of the sickness without addressing our soul needs. Very soon, the sickness will reappear. 

Sometimes, in a fatal way.

For example, our sickness may be telling us, “You need to forgive and get rid of your anger,” but instead of forgiving, we take a pill. Or our sickness is telling us, “You need to stop worrying and trust God more,” but instead of trusting, we take a pill. Or our sickness is telling us, “You need to stop working too hard and relax more with your family,” but instead of playing with our kids, we take a pill.

In primitive societies, doctors were also priests. When people got sick, the cure was holistic. Aside from giving them herbs, doctors told them to pray, to forgive, to trust in God.

And then the scientific revolution came, and doctors focused purely on the body.

Today, the old model is coming back. 

Because now, my friend doctors are praying with their patients, are telling them to have faith, to forgive, and to spend time with their families. They’ve become doctors and priests again.

Two Reasons Why We Get Sick

How do our emotions cause sickness?

In two important ways.

First, when we have too much negative emotions.

Second, when we have too little positive emotions.

Let me tell you how both are deadly to your system.

1. Too Much Negative Emotions

Let’s take stress.

When I was a small boy, I regularly massaged Dad’s shoulders every night. Part of my “chore” as a kid.  

But everytime I did, I’d complain. 

Because his shoulders were as hard as steel!  They were no match for my tiny thumbs.

Even then, I knew the tension in his shoulders came from his job. Dad was a manager in a large food company.

Mom said he also had hypertension.  As Filipinos love to say, “mataas ang high blood niya”. (Wow, that’s really high.)

Dad had hypertension all his life.

All his life, that is, until he reached 65. That was the year he retired from his job. From that day on, he never had hypertension, all the way until the day God called him home at young age of 88.

One day, when Dad was already retired—but very busy serving God—I remember he was eating in the dining room. I went behind him and gave him a shoulder massage.

The difference was amazing! His shoulders were soft and supple. No more tension in them.

That’s the power of stress in our lives.

Let me ask you a question: How stressed are you?

Stress And Sickness

Who are those most susceptible to heart disease?

Those with a “Type A Personality”: People who are aggressive, easily angered, competitive, controlling, and always rushing.

Here’s a scary fact.  82% of people who have heart disease have a Type A Personality! Why? Stress. (Type A Personality isn’t just a personality. Type A is a spiritual disease.)

Here’s another fact: More strokes and heart attacks happen on Monday than at another day of the week.  (We need a Presidential Decree removing Mondays from our calendar!)

I know a woman who liked her job but didn’t like the boss she was working for. There was a lot of conflict. Wanting a break from her stress, she took a 15-day vacation. And she enjoyed her two-week vacation. But on the 14^th day, when she knew she was going back to her job, she suffered a massive stroke. Today, half of her body is paralyzed.

Which was a perfect picture of her life—half of her body wanted to go to work, the other half didn’t want to!

Because our bodies were not made for prolonged stress.

       Another negative emotion is anger…

Anger Has An Expiry Date

One day, a man was sitting in his living room when he heard a knock on the front door.

He opened the door and saw no one. But as he looked down, he saw a snail, saying in a little voice, “Can I borrow P100?”

The man shouted, “Get outta here!” and kicked the snail off his porch.

One year later, the man is sitting in the living room and he hears a knock on the door.

He opens it and sees a very angry snail, asking, “Why did you do that?”

Some of us are snails. 

After a year, we’re still angry!

People who are like snails won’t enjoy optimal health.

Here’s the truth: God never designed your body to keep anger for a long time. Anger’s purpose is to spur you to action. Once that purpose is fulfilled, you should get rid of anger by forgiveness.

In other words, anger has an expiry date. Once past is due, it becomes poison in your body.

Are you angry with someone?

Surrender your anger to God.

Angry People Die Sooner

       They made a study of 255 doctors and asked them to take a “hostility” test.

       In other words, how they respond to drivers who cut them on the road. Or to people who criticize them. Or to friends who are disloyal them.

Thirty years later, the researchers went back to these same doctors. What did they find out? Some of those doctors who scored high in the hostility test were already dead!   Their death rate was six times higher than those who scored low in the hostility test. Remember: Angry people die sooner.

Don’t Escape!

If we don’t want to get sick, what should we do with stress, anger, sadness, fear, and other negative emotions?

Ignore them? Pretend they’re not there?

Nope. That will make it worse.

Here’s my big message for you: What you can feel, you can heal.  What does that mean? Don’t escape your negative emotions.

       Perhaps you have money problems now.

       Or you have conflicts at work.

       Or you have a broken heart.

       Or you have marriage problems.

       Or you have problems with your kids.

       Or you’re sick right now.

       And you’re tempted to escape from your anxiety, stress, anger, fear, and depression. 

How? Some people become numb.

Others escape through addictions: drugs, alcohol, sex, video games, food, shopping, relationships, and workaholism. Remember that all addiction is really emotional anesthesia. So we won’t feel our emptiness, our fears, our depression, our anger, we distract ourselves.

       But when we don’t feel our negative emotions, they come out in our bodies as respiratory problems, ulcers, headaches, skin allergies, digestive problems, even cancers.

Even Childhood Emotions

       John Sarno is a doctor specializing in back pains, neck pains, shoulder pains, and leg pains. When he was a young doctor, his main tools were like every other doctor—surgery and pills.

But soon, he got very frustrated with the results. Many times, the pains of his patients would come back—even after expensive treatments and invasive surgery.

That’s when he overhauled his method of healing.

Now, his tools of healing people are two lectures! Basically, he tells them how their unacknowledged and unfelt childhood emotions cause their pains.

He explains: Their subconscious mind was giving them real physical pains to distract them from discovering—and feeling—these very painful emotions buried in their past.

Perhaps their father abandoned them when they were children.

Perhaps they witnessed their parents getting a divorce.

Perhaps they were beaten as kids.

The fear and rage and sadness were so overwhelming, they buried them all in. They pretended everything was okay.

After ten, fifteen, twenty years, these dark emotions manifest in all sorts of diseases.

The results? (This is amazing.) For the past 30 years now, Dr. Sarno has treated 10,000 patients with a 95% cure rate.

Using what? Two lectures!

Some of his patients experience instantaneous healing. Others took a longer time to heal, as they had to discover these painful emotions within them—and feeling them again. They did this via small groups, journaling, or psychotherapy.

Friend, do you want to experience healing too?

Feel Your Feelings Before God

       If you want to be healed from your diseases, feel your negative emotions. More specifically, feel your darkest emotions before God. Weep. Be angry. Question Him. (Believe me, He’s big enough to take it.)

Go to God now. And share your inmost heart. Tell Him what you feel, whether it’s anxiety, stress, fear, anger, sadness…

The Psalms of the Bible are exactly like this! They contain what I call “terrible” prayers.

For example, Psalms 22 says, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer…” 

And in Psalms 55, it says, “My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death assail me. Fear and trembling have beset me; horror has overwhelmed me.”

But that’s precisely why they’re in the Bible.

God is telling you to go to Him no matter what you’re feeling.

Friend, God is waiting for you now. So go ahead. Before Him, feel your darkest emotions.

Soon, those negative emotions will pass.

       Because all storms come to an end.

       And you’ll notice the healing of your body too.

       And here’s the second reason…

2.Too Little Positive Emotions

       Two weeks ago, I met Fr. Georges-Etienne Beauregard—an old Jesuit priest. 

       His age? 97 years old.

He’s led an incredible life: Imprisoned in China, built churches in the Philippines for 12 years, and worked with the aborigines in Taiwan for the last 42 years.

       What is he doing today at 97? Still very busy, working in a parish and hospital (which he also built) among the aborigines in Taiwan. 

How healthy is he? When he was 95, he was still riding his motorbike!

       I asked him, “Father, what is the secret of your long life?”

       He chuckled and said, “I have no problems. Others have problems with me, but I have no problems.”

       In other words, he didn’t focus on his problems.

       In my short time I had with him, I noticed he chuckled a lot. He loved to laugh!

       The secret to his long life was no secret at all. It was very obvious. He had a light, jolly heart.

Your Need For Joy

Your body was made to operate with the “oil of gladness” flowing through your veins, tissues, and cells. You were made to laugh, to celebrate, to be happy!

One day, Norman Cousins was diagnosed to have heart disease. In his book, The Anatomy of An Illness, he shares how he got healed: By taking Vitamin C and mega-doses of laughter. Everyday, he would watch comedy films and enjoy 10 minutes of genuine belly laughter. And he was healed! Doctors thought he would live a short life. But he lived for 30 more years.

That’s why the Bible says, A happy heart is good medicine and a cheerful mind works healing, but a broken spirit dries up the bones (Proverbs 17:22).

       Are you a happy person?

       Do you enjoy life?

       Are you fulfilled?

       Are you self-assured?

Many studies show that positive emotions strengthen your immune system.

Optimists Live Longer!

Scientists studied 1,100 patients at the Mayo Clinic and asked them to do a personality survey. These studies classified them according to optimists and pessimists. Thirty years later, they went back to these patients.

Here’s what they found out: Optimists have a 19% higher chance of still being alive than the pessimists.

Here’s one fascinating explanation.   

In one study, scientists studied one of the body’s natural “good mood chemicals” called serotonin.

When they placed serotonin in a test tube alongside tumor cells of Burkitt’s lymphoma, the cancer cells kill themselves.

Here’s a quote from that study: “An exciting property of serotonin is that it can tell some cells to self-destruct. We have found serotonin can get inside the lymphoma cells and instruct them to commit suicide.”

How To Have More Positive Emotions

How can you be happy more often?

How can you have more content, self-assurance, fulfillment, and a deep sense of profound peace more often?

Let me end this discussion by showing you two ways:

First, Gratitude

       Maricel is our house helper.

She shared to me a very touching story.

Last month, she went home to her province in Dumaguete. She borrowed money from us to buy the little plot of land that her family house was standing on. She also brought home her savings, buying a sack of rice for her family.

She also went home to spend time with her siblings and their children—her little nephews and nieces. So one bright morning, from the barrio, they travelled to Dumaguete City. Maricel paid for all their jeepney fares.

Everyone was excited, she said. Because for some of them, it was the first time to visit the city.

She brought her family to a mall—and the kids were beside themselves with joy. 

What they loved most was the escalators. They shrieked with delight, “Ate, yung hagdan, tumatakbo!” (The stairs are running!)

When they went home, everyone was so happy.

One of her little nieces hugged Maricel and asked, “Tita, sa susunod na taon, ipasyal mo kami ulit, ha?” (Auntie, bring us out next year, okay?) Clearly, it was the high point of their year.

Casually, I asked Maricel, “What did you eat in the mall?”

“Hindi po kami kumain, Kuya Bo. Walang budget, eh.” (We didn’t eat. I had no budget.) 

Her answer brought me to tears. Those kids went to the mall and went home without eating, and yet they were so happy.

Sometimes, I forget how blessed I am.

Sometimes, we have food in front of us, and we even have the gall to complain that it isn’t our favorite.

No wonder we lack happiness in our lives.

And no wonder our bodies are sick!

Learn to be more grateful for life. Live in gratitude. Celebrate God’s goodness, even in the smallest blessings!

Soon, happiness and healing will flow into your life.

Second, Trust

       Heart disease has killed more people than any other disease in the world. It’s the number one killer in the world.

       And I believe the number one cause of heart disease is stress.

       From my experience, there’s only one antidote to stress: Trust in God. It’s the greatest stress-buster in the world.

       How much do you trust in God?

       A deep trust in God will make you avoid stress and keep you healthy!

I invite you now to surrender your problems to God. Follow the Bible when it says, Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:7)

He does care for you, my friend.

Give Him all your fears.

       Surrender yourself to God.

May your dreams come true,

       Bo Sanchez

PS. Yeheey, it’s my birthday this July 11! I’m excited. On my birthday, I launch my latest book, How To Build A Happy Family. I’ll also be launching a 7-month audio and video course called Relationship Reborn Program. It’ll rock your world. And with it, I’m also launching a FamilyReborn Club to help families grow more in love and unity. I know it’ll bless thousands of families, marriages, and parents! I’ll talk more about it next week. Watch for it…

PS2. Join my Virtual Community. Enjoy Daily Bible Reflections at KerygmaFamily plus a mountain of spiritual blessings. Go to www.KerygmaFamily.com now!

       I have a very important announcement to make: God has given you the power to heal yourself.

       This is an awesome power.

       And this power is already at work in your body.

       Within your body is a powerful healing system that fights germs, heals diseases, and prevents you from getting sick.

       Friend, God has placed a healer within you.

       And that healer is an amazing healer!

       Some of you may ask, “Bo, are you talking about the immune system?”

       Yes, but not just the immune system as you know it. 

Because we’re talking about a healing system that is both natural and supernatural, both physical and spiritual at the same time.

Let me give you three examples of this kind of self-healing that happens everyday of your life.

1. The Best Repairmen In The World

       When I was a high school kid, I studied in an all-boys’ school. Beside us was an all-girls’ school. Between us was a fence. So what did we do? My classmates and I, whenever the teacher wasn’t looking, climbed that fence to ogle the girls next door.

Obviously, I wasn’t lusting. I was just admiring God’s beautiful creation in the female anatomy. J

But in one of those trips down that fence, I fell. Really bad. And I had this deep gash in my lower abdomen. Except that I didn’t know about it.

When I stood up and ran back to our classroom, my classmate was the one who said, “Bo, you’re bleeding!” I looked at my abdomen and saw my white polo uniform drenched with fresh red blood. I lifted up my shirt and exposed a long wound.

My classmate gasped. “Your intestines are coming out!”

He asked me to go to the clinic right away.

I didn’t go. Because of fear. How can I tell them that I got the wound because I was climbing the fence to ogle at girls?

So I went straight home, cleaned up my wound, and told no one about it.

But 30 years later, I can’t even see a scar.

Where Are Your Wounds?

As a child, how many times have you fallen, scraped your knee, bruised your elbow, bumped your head, scarred your skin, and burnt your fingers? How many paper cuts have you had? How many times did you shave yourself in the wrong way and nicked your face?

You must have had hundreds—if not thousands—of wounds.

Yet where are those wounds today?

They’re all healed.

Simply because your body has this incredible ability to repair itself. You don’t have to put anything into a wound. Just clean it and your body will itself.

Let me divulge my age here. When I was a kid, and I’d get a wound, my mother would say, “Get the Mercurochrome from the medicine cabinet.” If you’re my age, you’d remember this tiny red bottle with a small cotton bud inside. 

Later on, they banned it and pulled it out from the market—because they used mercury—which they discovered to be poisonous to the body.

Today, we usually don’t put any ointments anymore on our wounds. Because wounds heal by themselves.

2. The Best Army In The World

       Here’s my second example.

There are millions of different kinds of germs all around you now. There are also millions of germs within your body now—in your lungs, in your various organs, in your blood, on your skin…

       But why are you not sick?

When I was a kid, there was no such thing as alcogel.

Today, many people carry this little bottle in their bags. You see people wiping their chairs before they sit down, wiping doorknobs before they hold it, wiping tables before they eat on them.   

Do you think they’re healthier today—because they have alcogel? You be the judge.

Here’s my belief: The army of germs around us and in our bodies, our lungs, our blood, our skin, are no match compared to the army of antibodies in our body.  We have the best army in the world inside our bodies!

       Your powerful army looks for germs, bacteria, virus, and all other foreign intruders, and with precise accuracy, zaps them, shoots them, wrestles them to the floor, pins them down, and destroys them.

       And I hope I won’t scare you when I say this, but right this moment, you have cancer cells in your body.

       But why is it that you don’t have cancer?

       Why are you strong and alive and vibrant?

       Because God’s healing system is at work in your body.

       Unlike chemotherapy that destroys both cancerous and healthy cells, your healing system is so advanced, so hi-tech, so phenomenal, it targets only cancerous cells and kills them. With pinpoint precision, it only destroys what needs to be destroyed.

       Our problem? Many times, this healing mechanism in you—this Healer that God has placed in your body—is weakened.

       And what weakens the Healer in you?

       In one word, Toxins—Spiritual and Physical toxins. (I’ll talk more about this in my next articles.)

       Let me give you a third example of how you heal yourself.

3. The Best Pharmacy In The World

We like popping a pill for our diseases.

       If we want to sleep, we take a sleeping pill.

       If we want to be tranquil, we take a tranquilizer.

       If we want to fight germs, we take an antibiotic.

If we want to slim down, we take an appetite suppressant.

But all these pills will never solve your problem if you don’t address the emotional roots of your disease.

Worse, drugs cause many problems. Not only is the original problem not solved, these pills cause many side effects.

Friend, your body is the greatest pharmacy in the world. It produces the best drugs you can ever find in the planet.

       The drugs produced by your body are 100% natural, produces no side effects, and is given at the right dosage every single time.

       Doctors know about the placebo effect for a long time now.

       They’ve done thousands of experiments on placebos.

       They give a patient a pill with absolutely nothing in it and tell him it will remove his pain. The patient takes the pill and his pain disappears. Why? Because his body was producing natural pain-killers so effective, so efficient, it gives it at the right amount, right dosage, right time.

       They’ve conducted experiments with patients who had cancer. They’re given a pill that had absolutely nothing in it and they’re told it was anti-cancer drugs. The patient swallows it. Immediately, the patient starts manufacturing powerful anti-cancer chemicals within his body.

       Your body is more powerful than you think it is.

When you pray with profound peace, when you laugh till your belly hurts, when you take deep breaths, when you enjoy the sunset, when you get a hug, when you’re engrossed in a project that blesses the world, your body manufactures all-natural chemicals that heal your body.

Let me tell you a story that inspired me so much.

Cancer Is No Match To

God’s Healing Power In Your Body

       One day, Lina wasn’t feeling well.

       When she went to the doctor, they diagnosed her to have an acute rheumatic heart disease. Her heart valves were damaged so much, she needed an immediate heart surgery.

       After what appeared to be a successful operation, she woke up with a terrible headache.

       Thinking it was just an effect of the anesthesia, the doctors gave her oral pain killers. But the pain didn’t stop. The doctors gave her injectable pain relievers but they didn’t work too.

       The headache persisted. This worried her doctors and ordered her to have a cranial MRI to find out what was causing the pain.

To the horror of her family, the doctors found a tumor in her brain.

Imagine this: After her open-heart surgery, Lina went home to prepare for a brain surgery!

Through all this time, Liza told me how she much she prayed for her sister Lina. Her sister, Liza, texted all 500 names in her cell phone. She asked her friends in Opus Dei to ask for the intercession of Jose Maria Escriva.  

Soon, Lina went back to the hospital to check if her heart was strong enough for a brain surgery.   As she was being prepared for the operation, she noticed that she no longer had headaches.

On the day of the operation, doctors performed a few more tests and MRI’s. The operation was scheduled to start at 7am. But at 9am, the operation had not yet begun. “There are some complications,” the doctors explained to the family. 

After lunch, the doctors called the family to tell them that all the tests showed that the tumor had disappeared! They couldn’t explain it. There was no need for an operation.

You Create A New Body Every Single Second

How did her tumors disappear?

I’ve been serving God for so long now, I’ve seen these miracles happen again and again.

Tumors disappearing.

Cancers going on remission

Kidneys being repaired.

Bones getting healed.

Why do these miracles happen?

Science is slowly catching up to explain such miracles.

Is Your Body A Machine?

Or A Flowing Stream?

       Physicists have long learned that we create new bodies every single second of our lives.

       Through calculations done with radioisotopes, physicists say that we replace 95% of the atoms in our body.

       You create a new liver every 6 weeks.

       You create a new skeleton every 3 months.

       You create a new stomach lining every 3 weeks.

       You create a new skin every month.

       You create a new brain every year.

       Here’s the truth: Your body is now different from the body you had last year.

       Our bodies are not machines.

       Quantum Physics now tells us that our bodies are more like flowing streams of energy. Physics tells us that at the subatomic level, we’re all moving, vibrating energy.

       What does this mean?

You can create a brand new cell, a brand new tissue, a brand new organ, and a brand new body! This is the reason why healing can happen everyday.

“But Why Is My Body Not Changing?”

       I can hear your question now.

“But Bo, if I change the atoms of my body so often, why is my body still sick? You’re telling me that I get a new liver every six weeks. But I’ve had this liver problem for two years now. Why do I replace my sick liver with another sick liver?”

       One reason: Your body is an expression of your soul. Your body is a blueprint of what is inside you—your thoughts, your emotions, your imagination, your beliefs, your attitude, your dreams, your hurts, your doubts, your prayers…

       So your body won’t change if your soul won’t change.

       Your body will change the moment your soul changes. 

       Let me clarify this for you.

Here’s a fact: Everyday, we have 60,000 thoughts.

That’s great.

       The sad part is that 95% of those thoughts were the same thoughts we had yesterday!

       If you want your body to be healed, you have to first change your thoughts, your feelings, your imagination, your expectations…

       Especially your expectations.

The Power Of Expectation

Our bodies merely manifest our beliefs.

And there’s our problem: We expect to grow old and decay.

For us, growing old means getting ready to die.

Why? Because that’s what we see around us: People in their sixties and seventies who are so sickly, they’re like walking drugstores. We see them hobbling on their canes, bent over and crooked, complaining of aches and pains everyday.

It’s the expectation of society. It’s called the hypnosis of social conditioning. 

       But not everyone has this expectation.

In fact, scientists have gone to the 10 places in the world with the most centenarians. They asked the question, “What’s the secret of their long life?”

They discovered many things. The great food they eat. The pure air they breathe. The long-term relationships they enjoy. 

But aside from these obvious things, there’s one thing that’s very different in their world: The society’s expectations of old people. In those places, they love old people. They celebrate old people. To grow old is glorious.

In their societies, it’s normal to see a 100-year-old man swimming in a cold river. It’s normal to see a 103-year-old woman climbing up a mountain with a heavy basket on her back. It’s normal to see a 105-year-old man on horseback.

Their expectations are very different.

What is your expectation of yourself?

       Expect healing and health!

Expect to grow old strong and blessed.

Starting today, expect to reach a hundred years old, serving God with the strength of a fifty-year-old body!

The Power Of Faith

There’s power in your expectation.

Do you expect healing?

Do you expect miracles?

I’ve been doing ministry for 31 years.

I’ve preached in both cities and barrios.

And here’s what I’ve noticed: When I hold healing prayer sessions, I see more miracles in the barrios than in the cities. I see more people healed in little towns than in big towns. Why? Because people there have simple faith. They have less doubts. They carry less intellectual baggage (aka: pride).

In other words, they expect miracles.

And their bodies comply to their expectation.

I encourage you to expect healing.

One Last Story: Liza

I already shared with you the healing story of Lina.

Her sister Liza, a close friend of mine, also has a powerful sharing.

One day, Liza found a small lump in her left breast.

She went to Asian hospital and had it tested.

A few days after, she got a text message that biopsy came out malignant. On hearing the news, Liza and her husband Benny hugged and cried together.

The next days were very confusing. They were told to make a decision and to make it fast. The doctors recommended chemotherapy.

But through prayer, Liza and Benny decided not to go through chemo. Instead, Liza went through natural medicine. 

She completely changed her lifestyle, her eating habits, eating no meat, no processed food, no dairy products, and drinking 150 herbs a day.

Through all that, Liza kept her faith and positive attitude. Liza is one of the most vivacious woman I’ve ever met—and even amidst her cancer—she kept smiling, laughing, and giving joy to people around her.

Today?

For the past 6 years, my friend Liza has been free from cancer.

Yes, miracles happen. Everyday.

I pray for you: Open your life to healing.

Open your life to miracles.

May your dreams come true,

Bo Sanchez

PS. What if God wrote you a short and simple love letter regularly?  You’ll be blown away. Sign up at www.GodWhispersClub.com now. 

PS2. Join Me To A Pilgrimage To The Holy Land.  I’m leading a group this October 11.  For more information, click here.