Indeed our physical bodies play a vital role in our spiritual life. After all, if the physical body suffers, our senses and reasoning can be affected. In the book of Isaiah 1:18-19, God spoke to the prophet, explaining that we should think logically with Him, and by our sound reasoning, our sins will go from scarlet to white as wool. At the same time, our obedience will have us eating from the best the land offers. Therefore this verse further reinforces that unbalanced living in our physical bodies leads to spiritual discrepancy through sin. The inconsistency leaves many wondering why they have difficulty reaching Spiritual elevation through the Holy Spirit.

God created our physical bodies brilliantly; they tell us when they need attention, including when it’s time to put away old habits, lusts, and addictions, including things like alcohol and drugs, overeating, sugar, poor sleeping habits, and even prescriptions provided they are not life-sustaining medications. More people are taking prescription medications under the guise of needing them when the truth is contradictory. Today’s modern idea of psychiatry is to medicate our feelings and regulate the emotions God created us to feel and experience. Jesus knows firsthand about feelings like depression and sadness and the after-effects of rejection and trauma, and for this reason, He leaves us with life-sustaining bread through the word to heal those things that enslave.

Psalm 34:18 says that the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those crushed in their spirit. This verse confirms that God is there to help us when life is too overwhelming to handle alone, especially during our most significant emotional trials and troubles. God makes a way, but we can block the fullness of what Christ offers by chasing buildings and men rather than self-accountability that puts all things in motion.

Just as critical, poor eating habits and obesity can have an incredibly harmful impact on our spiritual life. Not only can they reduce our physical energy and motivation to engage in activities that nurture our spiritual life, such as prayer, reading the Bible, and attending an assembly, but they can also make us more prone to feelings of guilt and shame. Satan loves nothing more than to feed the feelings of poor self-worth, which leave people to seek validation through worldly appearances, titles, fancy clothes, plastic surgery, and hypersexuality. We see this more so in organized religious buildings than in everyday secular circles; the idea of Christianity has gone from Christ-like living to self-centered slavery and is called holy. And more devastating is that the secular circles see the Christian community as a bunch of hypocritical idolatrous windbags. Are they wrong?

Idolatry is a spirit killer, and when people compete and compare according to their physical bodies, nothing Holy or spiritually pure comes from it but opens doors to the demonic. Ephesians 6:12 is accurate when Paul tells us that we battle not against each other but against principalities and the dark forces that manipulate people to follow the flesh, therefore, demolishing a healthy spiritual life. Can you see how these things all come together and how our physical bodies have everything to do with our Spiritual lives?

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” When we make unhealthy eating decisions and poor choices concerning our physical bodies, we are not honoring God with our bodies as we should, which can lead us to feel unworthy of God’s love and grace. Poor eating habits and, obesity, unneeded medications can also lead to physical ailments that further complicate our spiritual lives, such as depression, anxiety, and fatigue. Therefore, we must prioritize our physical health and nutrition to have a strong and healthy spiritual life.

Recently I have been struggling with my weight, intense fatigue, and body ache in my bones and joints. Physical ailments that would otherwise not be a problem if I lost weight. Still, I haven’t given it as much attention as I should while putting others before myself, and that is not good or intentional, but it helps happens to many of us in life and ministry. While Philippians 2:3 undoubtedly tells us to place others ahead of ourselves and stay away from selfish deceit, it doesn’t say to put your health in jeopardy while doing it.

Today I want to talk to those struggling with health issues you can control to help you and provide healthy biblical solutions. A plan without a strategy is likelier to fail than a goal and timeline of possible bullet points. Remember, you don’t have to sprint to the finish line; small drawn-out blueprints are simpler to follow. Furthermore, a healthy church body is a happy body, and joy is essential when sharing the gospel with a dying world. How can we gain a healthy footing; when our bodies are falling apart in the process; it’s not impossible, and not wise at the same time. The prophet Isaiah motivates us in scripture by saying that God gives power to the fainting and makes vigor abound in our weakness.

In conclusion, we see that our physical bodies affect our Spiritual lives and can have immeasurable effects on us as a church body, which is a Spiritual body, not a building. Paul says in Philippians 3:21 that God will transform our lowly physical body to be like his glorious body, Spirit, by the power of the Holy Spirit; God enables us to be subject to God, and the reason we must pay attention to the things we talked about today, and for the sake of this article’s effectiveness, I put together a few helpful tips that you can tweaks to meet your needs and goals. Whatever you need to get a hold of and stop, it only happens when you take the first step and put Jesus first; today, don’t wait. I encourage you to begin with a simple plan that won’t lead to failure and make you feel worse than before you began.

It’s not a race to perfection but a walk of progress; today, you can start by intermediate fasting and living the word you read; the success we should strive for is Christlike godliness which is Holy and Spiritual, not worldly.

1. Start by setting a realistic goal for yourself and then breaking it down into smaller goals you can achieve each week. With fasts, begin with a 12-hour overnight fast and slowly work your way up to a 16-hour fast. Set reasonable goals; otherwise, you will become overwhelmed and give up.
2. For exercise, start with something you enjoy doing and gradually increase the intensity or duration of your workouts each week. Mix up your activities and focus on working for different muscle groups. Please don’t overdo it, but don’t be lazy either and not do it at all. Remember that balance is critical to a healthy lifestyle.
3. When it comes to scripture, dedicate daily time to reading and reflecting on scripture. James 1:22-25 says to be doers of the word and not just read; this way, we don’t deceive ourselves. Please stop trying to prove to people how holy you are because when you begin to live godly, the need to prove it is refined away. Again, Holy Spiritual power is stifled by the things we talked about above.
4. Lastly, focus on loving yourself throughout the process. Make sure to practice self-care and focus on your mental and emotional health, and with consistency and determination, you can reach your goals through Christ.

Let me share a little testimony before we go; in 2015, after four years of depression and medications that led to significant weight gain, God began to prepare me for a Dimaacus encounter that would change my life in 2017. But even still during this challenging time, I committed to changing my physical life; it was during one of the toughest times in my life, but I did the work and lost 100 pounds, began to train for my first marathon, and in 2017 after seeing Jesus, and gave my life in service to the calling, I ran with the race with Jesus. I finished the marathon as the 625th runner out of four thousand runners. I could never have achieved it without faith in Jesus Christ and his Holy Spirit and word that made me believe I could accomplish such a feat. Philippians 4:33 tells us that we can do everything through Christ, strengthening us and making the impossible possible by believing in the power and authority of Jesus.

I pray that you are encouraged today to do what Jesus calls you to so that your relationship with Jesus increases and you learn to live a life of godliness and pure joy in love and safety. I pray your Holy Spiritual life soars in Christ. He loves you! Jesus said we should make an oath and say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and stick with it (Matthew 5:34–37); you and Jesus can do it!

Blessings,
Sister Christine

C. Brejcha ©️