Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers. (3 John 1:2 NKJV)
To answer this question, I need to share a little of my own journey to where I am today. I’ll begin the story in Miami, Florida as a high school student facing the great gulf called becoming someone or doing something. Like many of my contemporaries the vision ahead was blurry and it was easier to do what felt like fun in the moment, a characteristic of my fire element, of which I was totally unaware. Despite my lack of clarity, God’s hand was guiding me through this as He placed mentors in my life who saw for me when I couldn’t see for myself.
One of these men was my high school coach Rich Coyle. Coach Coyle was from the New England Area and so took my football films and grades and helped open doors to the Ivy League Colleges. I ended up being recruited and accepted to the top five, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania and Brown. I chose Harvard with no real plan beyond going. Sometimes in life, you find yourself in a place so beyond what you expected that you need time to acclimate and see things correctly in order to know the purpose. Thankfully, God positions people to speak into our confusion.
The process of acclimating and figuring out the purpose of a Harvard education in my life took me six years. A wise counselor suggested taking some time away and discovering the purpose my education was going to serve. This led me to two years in Gainesville, Florida where I met my beautiful wife Lisa and figured out at least part of the purpose God had for me, that being natural health care. I returned to Harvard with a entirely new sense of purpose and for the first time in my life, a sense of destiny.
After graduating Harvard University in 1980 with my degree in Psychology and Social Relations, I began my natural health education in California at the Pacific College of Naturopathic Medicine. This was a complete culture shock for me. From junk food, mainstream east coast diet and lifestyle to the nature laden ideas and practices of the west coast holistic health community. These included vegetarianism, eastern meditative practices, energy medicines, yoga, tai chi and a plethora of self healing modalities. Lisa joined me and we launched into what we now call the New Age.
One shining light that outshone the rest was Classical 5 Element Acupuncture. I fundamentally know that I am in desperate need of systems in my life. My fire nature tends to spontaneity and thus is easily distracted. Classical Five Element Acupuncture provided my passionate soul with a template to view life, healing and people. Through a series of friendships and what I now know was God directing my steps, I ended up enrolling in the first class of what today is known as the Maryland University of Integrative Health. I felt for the first time in my life that I was “home”. I still get teary when I remember the overwhelming sense that “this is what I was created for”. I have never lost that connection to 5 Element Acupuncture and the beauty of this system of medicine.
My studies were divided between the East Coast in Boston, to the West Coast in the San Francisco Bay area. Somewhere in the middle of this vortex of new experiences and thought, I managed to propose to my best friend and love, and we returned east to complete my education with a Masters Degree in Acupuncture and begin a new life. Lisa and I began our married life together in Columbia, MD, home to the University and where we became the blessed carriers of the seed of the life of our eldest son Joshua. For the testimony of his miraculous birth, I encourage you to go to www.lisamitts.com and read the testimony of God’s saving power and the first time Lisa heard His voice which saved her life and our baby in the womb.
Lisa and I moved to Florida and began the steps that would add the Pastor to ‘AcuPastor’. We lived in Jacksonville Florida where through a series of relationships, we got involved with the Amway business. Unknown to us was that God would use this business vehicle to introduce Himself to us formally. With an enthusiasm built out of the vision and dreams of newlyweds we launched ourselves into this new endeavor. Amway, as most networking companies, are about building teams or groups of entrepreneurs who want to leverage the vehicle to supplement of even replace their primary income. Our group was composed of our friends who were involved in the same new age interests that we were. What we all shared was a desire for true success and a love of positive things.
I’ll never forget our first convention November of 1987. It was at the Opryland hotel in Nashville. We arrived a little late and the convention was in full swing. We entered the large ballroom and were greeted with a sea of people and a band playing southern Christian Music. What hit us even stronger was a Presence. We later learned that the Presence was God’s Holy Spirit. But as new agers, we just called it “goodness”. Whatever it was called, we knew it was a purity and goodness that was absent in all of our wanderings. Like our ancestors, the Israelites who left Egypt, we were being drawn forward by the cloud of His Glory!
Fast forward 8 months later, Fontainebleau Hotel, Miami Beach, Florida, another convention and we received Jesus as our savior and Lord, at a non-denominational church service. I was baptized gloriously in the Atlantic Ocean and filled with His Glorious Holy Spirit. Our lives came into a brilliant focus and our spirits rejoiced as new citizens of the Kingdom of God! Wow!
For the sake of time, I’ll abbreviate the testimony at this point to say that the next 14 years were full of experiencing God in a powerful way, family rejection (because we are both Jewish), (Jesus or Yeshua, His Hebrew name was not “kosher” in our family) building our business and unbeknownst to me, the development of the Pastor calling on my life. God took me completely out of acupuncture for a season of 12 years and developed the pastoral and prophetic call in me through men of God, such as Paul Zink, Rodney Howard-Browne, and Brig Hart who became my mentors. Though it was at first difficult to give up a thriving clinic as well as a School of 5 Element Acupuncture that I began in Jacksonville, FL, (many thought I was crazy – how would I support my family?) we learned how to trust His voice and know Him as “Abba” or Daddy, the one who provides for His children. This would be a critical and valuable lesson for us in the years ahead.
Then in 2002 the Lord changed our direction radically by ending the season of business and bringing ministry and acupuncture into the foreground. He moved our family which had grown to six, to Seattle (another amazing story for another time) and birthed One New Man Ministry, while also reviving my Acupuncture career. Before we left Jacksonville, He clearly spoke to me to ask Paul Zink to ordain me as a minister of the Gospel. Though the actual term ‘AcuPastor’ wasn’t realized until recently, the reality of it was definitely birthed.
In the next post, I’ll share the story of the warfare with the religious spirit that dominates the health area of the Church and leads thousands to sickness and often even early death. For now, suffice it say, the Church needs AcuPastor and the spiritual seekers of the new age, need AcuPastor. Please share this Blog with those you care about as I will be covering in future posts powerful truths of body/mind/spirit as well as Simple Action Steps (“SAS”) that could make THE difference for your overall health.
SAS of today: We are entering into the season of spring. The Chinese call this the season of Wood because we look to the natural return of the leaves to the woods. The organs connected with this time of year are the Liver and Gall Bladder and the emotion is anger or frustration. The organs are affected by the sense of hope and purpose because without that one can become very frustrated and even depressed.
Your assignment, should you accept it, is to think ahead and project the next 1-2 years in your life. How do you see your future? What brings you a sense of hope and purpose? What is the plan or do you have one? you Write it out so you can run towards it.
Then the LORD answered me and said, “Record the vision And inscribe it on tablets, That the one who reads it may run. “For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay.(Habakkuk 2:2-3 NASB)