Note: This is Part 2 of a two-part blog about wholistic digestive health, and it also touches on reproductive health. Read Part 1 for better context. (Again, none of these concepts are proven… just some thoughts.)
A holistic possibility: If it is possible for healthy thoughts to change the brain (for the better) and healthy emotions to have a positive impact on the heart, why not the possibility of healthy deep-seated gut emotions possibly benefitting the digestive tract (and all the abdominal and pelvic organs)?
To delve more into the biblical-spiritual understanding of the concept of bowels (belly), let’s look at some scripture.
“He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38 KJV).
This verse puts forth that Jesus-believers have the potential to experience spiritual rivers of living water flowing from their bellies. The next verse, John 7:39, mentions that Jesus was referring to the flow of His Spirit being released out of the believer.
I remember one of the first times I experienced the Spirit of God flowing through me; it was like taking a cool drink on a hot day; what I imagine a pure river flowing through my inner man might feel like. Incidentally, my regular bouts of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) stopped about the same time that I started learning how to release His Spirit flowing from inside of me.
“Belly,” especially in the OT Hebrew, often is interchanged with the words bowels, inner man, deepest soul… and also with the womb, the seat of human biological life. Fascinating! The more humanity-focused part of the soul is described to correlate anatomically with the intestines and colon and womb (and the kidneys and liver and pelvic organs).
Note: Travail, one of the deep-seated low gut/womb emotions, is deep anguish that is experienced as a woman births biological life and also when humans are emotionally processing deep grief. Healthy travail and healthy grieving are both known to benefit long-term mental and emotional health.
Fun note: There have been many scientific discoveries about gut-health and the fact that leading some to call the gut the second brain. The gut is a “feeler.”
The NT scriptures mention Jesus being “moved with compassion” when doing amazing miraculous acts of mercy, healing, and kindness. It makes me wonder if His eyes were tearing up simultaneously as He felt gut-compassion.
A few fun bowel verses:
“...how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:8 KJV).
“...refresh my bowels in the Lord” (Philemon 1:20 KJV).
“...bowels of compassion…” (1 John 3:17 KJV).
“Put on therefore…bowels of mercies, kindness…” (Colossians 3:12-13 KJV).
My book Holy & Wholistic Health! is available on Amazon and at jonathclarkmd.com. My intermittent fasting book Waiting To Eat is available as a free digital eBook also on my website.
