20. Physician Heal Yourself: Restoration and Healing for Every Physician

Join us for this insightful episode, where we explore foundational topics that every Christian physician should incorporate into their life for wholeness and restoration—both for themselves and their patients. These are key themes we'll delve into at our upcoming "Heal the Healers" retreat.

This life-changing retreat, taking place on November 1st and 2nd, is designed specifically for physicians who seek to integrate their faith with their medical practice. With speakers like Dr. Inga Hofmann, Judith MacNutt, and Rev. Ken Polsley, we’ll dive deep into biblical insights on physical, inner, and spiritual healing. Expect powerful teachings, moving testimonies, and profound worship experiences that will rejuvenate your approach to medicine.

Even if you’re unable to attend, this episode is a must-listen for any physician looking to deepen their understanding of Jesus' healing ministry and apply it to their work. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to rediscover your purpose and restore your passion for healing.

00:00 Introduction: The Challenges in Healthcare
01:26 The Importance of Restoration and Healing
01:42 Upcoming Heal the Healers Retreat
02:46 The Reality of Physician Burnout
04:10 Personal Healing Journey
06:57 Retreat Details and Keynote Speakers
08:26 Four Types of Healing
10:07 Integrating Faith and Medicine
13:53 Healing Our Image of God
16:37 Physical Healing and Family Histories
20:12 Inner Healing and Forgiveness
21:25 Challenges in the Medical Field
22:07 The Power of Forgiveness
26:57 The Significance of Spiritual Retreats
31:52 Final Blessings, Prayer, and Encouragement

Register for the Heal The Healers Physician Retreat
👉👉👉 https://healthehealersretreat.org
📆When: November 1st and 2nd, 2024
📍Where: Upper House, Madison, WI
Registration closes on October 31st! Get your tickets now!

Are you a PHYSICIAN in need of prayer?
Submit a prayer request or schedule a prayer ministry appointment:
👉https://www.ingahofmann.com/healthehealers
Due to capacity issues please note that I don't offer prayer and intercession appointments to the public (non-physicians) at this point.

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Join us inside the Heal The Healers Mento

Are you a Christian physician longing for a deeper walk with God and a supportive community that truly gets it?

The Heal the Healers Mentorship is a Spirit-led program equipping Christian physicians to walk in wholeness, power, and purpose. You’ll grow in intimacy with God, walk boldly in your identity, and learn to integrate faith and medicine—without burnout or compromise.

👉 Enroll here to join the mentorship program.

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Transcript

Restream recording Oct 17, 2024 • 05:52:19 PM: 0:01

With an ever changing health care system and multiple stressors our way, with medication shortages, IV fluid shortages, and just so many demands on our lives, it can be very easily exhausting and draining. To serve and help patients to the best of our ability. Yet we often feel like we are just drained and don't have anything left to give. So if this is you, I want you to stay tuned because I believe it is very much time for physicians to find their own restoration healing and get equipped for the days ahead and better equipped for our job than what we have been currently doing. So stay tuned and I will be right back. Welcome to the Heal the Healers. where we explore the intersection of faith and medicine, discover your God given potential, and experience Christ's healing in the midst of medical burnout. I'm your host, Inga Hoffman, a pediatric chemog dog, physician coach, and follower of Jesus. Together, we will navigate the challenges of medicine, integrate faith into our personal and professional lives, experience spiritual renewal, and find restoration in Christ. Welcome to the Heal the Healers, where Christ heals one physician and one patient at a time. Yeah, welcome back and it is so good to see you and I'm excited to share a little bit more today about what I would entitle physicians. It is time for restoration, for healing, and for equipping in this season. And on my last episode, I shared a little bit about the upcoming Heal the Healers Retreat, which by the way, I am gonna put a QR code up there in the corner so that you can have a link to the registration. And a registrar, because the retreat is coming up November 1st and 2nd, and I want you to be well aware about it and we'll share a little bit today, actually, what's going to be happening at the retreat and what you can expect, but why restoration and healing is so important. Also, if you're watching, thank you so much for tuning in, and I would love it if you could take a moment. To follow us on on YouTube, on Facebook, on the various platforms, on the podcast platform, you might be listening to you and subscribe to the show because this will really help us. And it will help so that other people can see this content that would like that type of encouragement as well. So thank you so much for doing that. And let's dive right in. So what I've experienced over the years is that our physician jobs are quite draining and can be difficult, and that's really no surprise. We see rapid rise of physician suicides rates. People talk about burnout all the time, but really, what can we do to dial back that clock and actually say enough is enough? I have my faith, yet I feel like I'm not breaking through. I have my faith over here, and medicine over here, and I feel this constant tension and tug of war, and I'm honestly as disenchanted and burned out as ever. And if that is you, I want you to really tune in and and take to heart because at the heal, the healers retreat, we're going to touch up on a lot of those points because I can tell you from personal experience and likely you have your own stories to share that. Medicine takes a toll on you. And to be honest, I never felt burned out. I never felt like, Oh, I'm depressed or burned out. You know, I was physically exhausted sometimes on tough nights on call. I've done this for a long time. I'm a pediatric oncologist, hematologist by training, specialized in bone marrow transplant and some rear bone marrow diseases. And what I I did realize though, over my own healing journey, that there were deeper seated roots of all sorts of issues that I did not see. That's why they're called blind spots, because we are not aware often what is happening in our bodies, in our minds, what Well, we might have even given the enemy a foothold to kind of take over our thoughts and hold us captive. And until I realized that and gained freedom through prayer and and some deep work on myself, but really through the healing power of God, it took me a while to come around to that. But once I gained greater degrees of freedom, a lot changed so much. In fact, everything transformed. I experienced physical healing. I experienced healing from, from just sort of negative thoughts and negativity. My attitude and my perception and perspective changed. So many things shifted. And this is why I believe this retreat is critical. See, I didn't feel like I was burned out or struggling. I actually thought, you know, yes, I love my job. I get very compassionate and passionate about my patients and I am Very much emotional involved as a pediatric oncologist. Always have been. Because I feel the responsibility. These are the people in front of me that God entrusted me to take care of. I better do a good job. And so, and I just deeply cared for them and I always consider it to this day in honor to walk alongside any family that I've ever had the honor and the pleasure to take care of, even it wasn't always easy, but so I did not realize that there were wounds and things that I had to deal with. And until I noticed that. I was like, wow, what was I doing all these years? There were so much more freedom and joy despite the challenges in our environment. So I hope this retreat is actually going to provide to you. Well, I know it is going to provide to you a platform, a space, a safe space and a time to unplug, come into the presence of God and really experience some of those things. In my last episode and you can go back to that. I shared a little bit, the backstory, how this retreat came about today. I want to really share some practical nuggets about what we will be doing and why you should be in the room and why this is meaningful to you. So the retreat starts I should probably put the dates down here for a second. We can get rid of this title. So the retreat starts on Friday night late Friday afternoon, November 1st and goes all the way through Saturday evening. We will start with and we'll be really exciting. We're just going to gather and actually, have community, we're gonna have a dinner together, a little dinner reception, and then we're going to start up with worship and the service in the evening. And the 1st thing we're going to talk about, and that will be our wonderful keynote speaker, Judith McNutt from Christian Healing Ministries is a wonderful woman of God. She has over 4 decades of experience in healing ministry and is a, It's just a wonderful woman of God. And I'm so honored. And I'm so grateful that she's doing this retreat with us. You will learn so much in those one and a half days, it will literally transform your mind and your thinking about health, about wellbeing, about patients, about yourself. Just sitting under the teaching alone will be very transformative, but of course, we are not going to stop at the teaching. We are really praying for the presence of God to touch your life, to touch your family, to touch your patients, to touch your community. But so let's go quickly into the topics and share a little bit with you what you can expect from the topics. So that you have a sense of, Hey, this is really exciting. And I believe it is. So the first night, we're going to talk a little bit laying a foundation about the four kinds of healing. We can see. Based on the scriptures in the Bible, when we look at the ministry of Jesus, when we think as physicians about healing, we tend to think about physical healing, right? People come with illnesses, maybe your mental health professional you will think about their mental health, and that is probably where we stop. But there was many. Interwoven facets to healing. And in the Bible we see four things. We see physical healing. We see that there is inner healing, meaning emotional type of wounds, trauma, etc, that we need healing and restoration from. And then there is forgiveness, which is a huge part, and a huge part in our society and in the medical field. And then there is deliverance, meaning any type of spiritual oppression. Trust me when I say this, when I first. Came under this teaching and really looked at the Bible, what it says about healing, my mind was blown because you read the stories of Jesus in the Gospels and you're like, okay, he healed a person. He drove out a demon and you sort of take these stories for granted, but they are not. We read throughout the New Testament that those things were very active, and we should still see them today. And that is what I believe. That's what I've experienced. That's what I want you to see in a scriptural, very foundational, biblical way. So that will be the first night. You will really get a deeper understanding that will help not only you think about your own life, But also, as you care for your patients to see them in a much more holistic way. I know integrating medicine with other holistic practices is a more and more big thing these days. And often we don't have time to deal with that. But you already know that there are aspects in your patient's life that you tried all the medications for, you tried all the therapies and interventions, and they aren't working. And chances are there are other deeper things going on that we have not yet uncovered. And if you, as a physician, know about these things, you can help your patients. That doesn't mean that you have to hit them over the head with a gospel, although you can preach it to them if, if there is, if you get guidance from the Lord, but more so that you have really revelatory insight to have a deeper look at what's going on with your patients so you can pray for them on your own or with them if they want that and give you permission to do or it might even guide your wisdom in terms of diagnostics and therapeutics that you would otherwise not have. It will build rapport and help you in conversations with your patients. So, all very important. I could go on and on about this, as you can already tell this is an incredible, important topic, and we're going to dive much deeper into this at the retreat, but I would say these are the ABCs that every Christian physician should really know, and that's why you need to learn it, and I think you will be richly blessed and your patients will be blessed because you will be walking in a way that is In a better way able to minister to them and serve them and help them beyond what we do in our medical practice. And here's a clue. It doesn't always have to take more time out of your day. And that's really important. Okay. So and then we close with worship and just prayer and ministry time. We really will leave a lot of time for you to have time for connection with others, time for prayer, time for worship, because again, this is a time to unplug. This is not just bombarding you with a bunch of CME lectures and more knowledge. But activation and have an importation in your life where you're like, okay, I got activated. I understand. Now I can apply this to my life to my own life, perhaps in my daily practice on Saturday. I will share a little bit more about my faith journey, specifically where really medicine and faith became one and how I integrated them. And I wasn't actively looking for that, but I will share you through my journey that had its ups and downs, how. I was more receptive and what happened when I number one received healing and restoration for myself, experienced it with my patients. I shared one of those testimonies and and how that applies now and how we can have an increased measure of really hearing from God for our patients. And get wisdom and revelation from that. So and we'll have a short message, what it means to really be a healthcare professional, a Christian healthcare professional, and how we can support each other. That is really important part. So then we're going to talk about Judith McNutt is going to have a topic on healing our image of God. Also incredibly important. Because to be frank, I think we all, myself included, through one way or another, have often a broken and misapplied image of God. And that can have many, many different reasons. Perhaps we had a misconception. through our upbringing, perhaps relating to God, the father can be a hard part when we, none of us have perfect fathers and some of us perhaps have experienced very difficult, perhaps even traumatizing relationships with our fathers. Other things that can impact our perception and our relationship with God is just, Stuff we learn at church that is probably not accurate, and I think it is very important for us to gain a deeper understanding about who God is, our standing and relationship with him to really heal not only the image of God, but once we see God in a more correct image. We also transform the image in our identity about ourselves. And here's one thing that I know. We physicians can be incredible hard on ourselves. I'm certainly a good example of that. Having not always done this very well can be very critical because we expect the best from everybody else. And we expect even more than that from ourselves. And that can be really difficult sometimes to maneuver and honestly, quite traumatizing and difficult. How we talk to ourself. It's another topic for another day, but I know from experience and really want to stress this point as you understand and learn. The correct image of God, meaning how does God revealed himself in the word in the Bible, his character, his nature, his disposition in connection with us, then you will be able to not only have a healed image, of God, but also of yourself. It is such a foundational thing. And I think again, as Christian physicians, we are harsh on ourselves in many ways. And I think this is really going to help you. So this will bless you in so many ways. Just going to look at the schedule here. So go in order. In the afternoon, we're going to have a session on physical healing. I'm super excited about that. Obviously as physicians, we are very well familiar with physical healing and we have a wonderful minister Ken Palsley talking about physical hearing. I think he's going to share a number of testimonies. Physical healing and prayer for patients and cardiac ICU and in the medical field, you will be blessed hearing those testimonies. And I think it will build your faith to pray for your patients again, when it is the right time in an appropriate setting, and we're going to talk about those things too. So and then we're going to move into an interesting section where we're really looking at sort of our pedigrees. What do I mean by that? We all have family histories, physically, mentally, tendencies that run in our families, and sometimes you're like, why is this happen? And we kind of take them for granted or shuffle them all off to genetics, which. I study genetics a lot and genetic predispositions to rare bone marrow disorders, so I'm well versed in that field and absolutely there are genetic predispositions. I'm not negating the science fun of it. I do want to say that sometimes we have to step back and look at a whole picture, not just at the patient in front of us, just like you take a family history with your patient on a medical side. Sometimes you need to take a spiritual history or what else is going on in mental health and other aspects. We're going to talk a lot about why this is important and practical applications again for us. In our families, as well as related to how would, how does that inform how we take care of patients? But again, all the things I'm talking about, very important. We need to start with us first. What I've learned over the years is you got to receive. your own healing and restoration to walk in greater freedom with the Lord, to have more authority, to help others walk in greater freedom. That's a whole lecture to unpack. But there is a bit of, There is truth in, you have to work some of those things out for yourself before you can help others. Number one and that's true in the natural too, right? You don't want to get advice from somebody on an area or topic in your life that somebody else has no clue about. So you don't want parenting advice from somebody who hasn't raised children because they actually have no clue what it means to be a parent. You don't want to get financial advice or business advice for people that are broke or that don't have a business. So the same is true in areas of a spiritual growth. Now, can God use anybody? Absolutely. He really wants to partner with us. So can God overcome our weaknesses? Absolutely. But there is a degree of. We need to heal and restore first before we have a more extended capacity to heal, help others heal and restore and again, greater degrees of freedom, whether that's our family, our patients, somebody has to be the brave person to walk ahead and do that work. Especially as it relates to things that might be run in families. And I had to do that for me, myself, my family, and it was very freeing and praise the Lord. So the afternoon, we're going to finish with another session by Judith McNutt on inner healing and forgiveness. This is another topic that I think is so critical and I cannot tell you how Absolutely important. This will be we all need inner healing and forgiveness. What does that mean? We all have been wounded, hurt. experience, maybe trauma through another person. Sometimes we have done that to other people. And we all have the need to forgive, the fact the Bible commands us to forgive. So we all have, we are commanded to forgive. But let's be honest, sometimes that can be emotional, very, very difficult. I've not heard a better talk on this than from Judith McNutt to really walk out those emotional challenges and what the Bible says and holding the emotional challenges and biblical wisdom at the same time in both hands. So you will be blessed by that. And I will share more testimony at the retreat itself, but let me just tell you. Forgiveness and inner healing isn't just there's things that happen in our lives, in our families in through all sorts of things, but I would also say in a competitive medical environment, especially in academia, I think it's true for private practice as well, but perhaps in a different way. We're in a highly competitive environment in a very broken medical system, and let's just put it plainly, Things don't always go very well, right? People get hurt. People have tension and conflict with each other. And in academia, I certainly experienced that in various facets. And I will share a little bit of that story there. But I will tell you that releasing, forgiving people. Doesn't mean that you make things right, you say what they did was right and we're going to talk about that at the retreat. I don't want to get ahead of myself, but they can be deep rooted wounds and hurts through our upbringing of just our medical training. That I think the Lord wants to take care of and that you can gain freedom from. And when you have that, you will again, walk in greater authority and more peace and more joy and be perhaps less triggered even by your environment. because some of those wounds were healed and you have forgiven. There's a whole lot I could say about that, but I want you to hear this. This is gonna be very, very critical. And I know we so often say of forgiveness. I know the Bible talks. There's a big thing in the Bible, right? We should all forgive. Jesus has forgiven us and we should forgive others. And we gloss over that because this is such a common message. Yeah. But are we taking it to heart, to the core of its understanding, and of its meaning? And I have to tell you That sometimes we think we do, and we haven't, so that certainly happened in my life. I will give you examples from my medical professional career, and I think that will resonate with very many of you and will be very restorative and that's important. We need to be were stored and healed in such a way and God can do that. And he only can do that. That's my experience. I tried a lot of personal development, leadership, and all sorts of stuff. And I know the only true healing restoration comes from the Lord and nowhere else. I can get by with a little progress here and there with some personal development of behavior modification and coaching and all those things. I work with people a lot and I'm amazed the progress they make, but I know the final root. There's often something there. So what I would tell you is do not miss this because you might walk away with a very, very transformative experience just from this lesson alone, because that's happened to me when I was sitting under that teaching, and I will share more about that. It's going to be fun and you will be filled with joy. That's my prayer. All right. And then in the evening, we gonna have a healing service. What does that mean? You're like, that's weird. Great. That sounds very charismatic. So what it means we're going to worship. We're going to pray and we're really gonna listen to the Lord. We're going to listen to the Holy Spirit and just like anything That is still sort of needs to be taken care of. You, you learned a lot through the 1. 5 days we will have taken care of some things. The Lord have spoken to you about some things, but at the end is like we want to make sure when you leave. You leave with greater degrees of freedom and you say, the Lord has touched me in a way that nobody else can. It's not me with our ministers. We're just conduits, but we're praying that the Lord will really transform lives and he can do that. And he wants to do that for you. And so we're going to leave time in the evening to be less lecturey, but really have more like a worship service and time to Address some of the things that might be coming up and you will be blessed and in the end we will pray over you and we will equip you and you will be well equipped to go off into your community, go to your families, bring your family. You can bring your spouse. And even if they're not a medicine, by the way, they're very, very welcome. The only thing we don't have But babies and labs, nursing babies, if you're like, I want to come, but I cannot leave my nursing baby behind. And you can feel comfortable juggling that. That is totally fine with me. So so we're praying for you and we really pray that you will leave just like me. The conference title says restored, healed, fully equipped to go back out and, and so we sent you back out really with a blessing. So do not miss this. I know some of you might be thinking, ah, next time I come, maybe next year, let me check that out first and see, and maybe I'll Think about it next year. Number one. I don't know if there is a next year. I have not gotten clear direction about that. I'm hoping I think that's a chance. I don't know when I have no specific instructions, so I cannot promise you that there will be a next time. That will be lovely, but we'll see. But really there's no such time as today. We're living in a crazy tumultuous world and a lot can happen in a year. And this is probably the last words of wisdom I want to leave you with. You might find yourself in a situation, and I don't even know what I'm saying this, but praise the Lord. So you might find yourself in a situation that you're like, I have so much going on, I just don't have the bandwidth right now. I don't have the time. I'm just going to wait it out and wait next year. And when we live in a stage and phase of life, especially when there is either just plain busyness over scheduled over committed too many activities and the family and on the home front and on the work front. Well, that's. That's a relatively easy fix, but we can talk about that another time. But or you might be just like, wow, I'm, I'm just down and out. I'm really struggling. That's exactly why you should be there. And you cannot see. That there is a future. You cannot see that there is a better ending to this story and you cannot see how much can change in a very quick amount of time when God begins to do a work in you and I could tell you stories after stories, especially over the last few years of my life that are a lot. amazing and blow my mind still every day. And it's not because I'm awesome because we have a God that is awesome. And a lot can happen in just one year. I've shared on other times that I have been to conferences that literally where the, the last one I went to is called ignition was an ignition point. There are events in our life where we come before the Lord. Especially in a community of believers and where that really can ignite something. Now, I'm not saying, and please see me on that, that you have to chase an event to seek the Lord. No, you shouldn't be doing that. You should be getting in front of the Lord every day in your quiet time and learn how to listen to his voice for yourself. So please hear me. This is not like just go chase another event. This is not about an event. An event never changes a person. God does, but God can use environments like this. And sometimes it is just the plain part of us saying I'm going to extract myself. I'm going to say I am important and I'm gonna in my relationship with God is important. I'm just going to get a, take a pass. I'm going to just take this time, even it's inconvenient and cost time and money and all sorts of shenanigans because. I need to solve this problem in front of me and God honest that I do believe that. And I've seen that over and over again in my life. So it is not necessarily about, you have to go to that one minister or to that one person to, to get your God fix. No, no, no, no, no. That's not. Correct. Teaching and not biblical. But there is something about coming into an atmosphere where you lay everything down, where you say, I'm going to come with like minded people right by two or three gather. I will be in the midst of them and worship God and really start to listen and tune all the other stuff out. There's power in that. And a lot can happen when God touches us in a moment's time. That can be a very significant event that propels us forward that accelerates us with greater speed than previously possible, because let's be honest before we tend to be in a rut about ourself, the daily trot of life, you know, going from activity for activity on the home front on the hospital front and we just juggling along with our schedules and to do list. And not take that time. And that's what we're providing space and time to get in front of the Lord and really hear what he has to say to you individually, but I may also add to the medical community. So. With that I'm leaving you with a blessing. We're praying for you. God may bless you. Let me briefly pray over you. Lord for every person listening, every person who's catching this on a replay or recording on the podcast or YouTube or anywhere, any physician that feels themselves struggling or just in a rut or in a difficult spot, Lord that you touch their lives right now, that you, that you, Let the power of God really your love hit them right now in their heart that they know that they are not alone and that you have not forsaken or forgotten them, but that you want to take them by your hand and lead them out to to greater degrees of freedom. Thank you that you prepare a way for every person who is coming or fulfills the heart string to just I should be at this retreat. I don't know how to make it happen. Lord, make a way, make the mountains plane level. and easy for them to overcome. And thank you for for leading away. Thank you for touching those doctors. Thank you that you are wanting to pour into the medical field because you care about the sick, the broken hearted, that those that are forgotten and those without a voice. So we thank you that for that in Jesus name. Amen. So with that, have a blessed day and I will see you next week. Prayer is that you were encouraged, strengthened, and perhaps even convicted with this episode today. If this podcast has blessed you, would you help share it with your friends and colleagues and even share it on social media? Also, leave us a review on the podcast platform where you are listening to this content. It would help us a lot. Together, we can share the good news of Jesus and transform medicine, one physician and one patient at a time. Have a great day. God bless.