Healthy Spirit, Healthy Life

Healthy Spirit, Healthy Life

By Tanelia Johnson-Evans

In order to have a healthy life, you must first have a healthy spirit. Everything we need, whether we believe it or not, comes from the Lord. We become healthy spiritually by feeding our spirit the word of God; praying daily without ceasing; fasting as led by God; and by reading, studying, and meditating on God’s word, The Holy Bible. Making time for God and spending time with God bring forth growth and a healthy, close relationship with God; but it takes discipline.

Just like growing spiritually takes discipline, so does being healthy. Eating well, especially if you like sweets like I do, can be challenging. I figured out that if I can discipline my mind for a fast, I can discipline my body to eat the right foods if I want to - keywords, want to. No one would have known from looking at Florence Griffith Joyner, aka Flo Jo, that she was ill. She was athletic and was beautiful inside and out. Her beauty radiated from inside of her. She set world records in the area of track and field, yet she had an epileptic seizure and died in her sleep. It was so sad. Everyone believed her to be healthy as an ox. Well, at least I did! She was young, only 38 years old, when she passed.

Continued on p. 31

Healthy Spirit, Healthy Life

Continued from p. 30

Looking healthy and being healthy are not the same. Humans look upon the outer appearance, but God looks upon the heart - not the physical heart, but the spiritual heart, our innermost thoughts, how we really feel about a person and ourselves. God knows us better than others and better than we know ourselves. We can’t fool God. The most prophetic person in this world, unless given a revelation by God, wouldn't be able to discern your heart. Doctors won’t be able to see it, because they see only your physical heart; God sees your spiritual heart.

Proverbs 17:22: “A joyful heart is the health of the body.” Smile; laugh a little or a lot. “The joyof the Lord is your strength!” “Laughter is like medicine.” We need to laugh sometimes.

Our connection with God brings spiritual health and spiritual wealth. We must be healthy spiritually in order to have a healthy life. You can’t have one without the other. Our souls - our minds, wills, and emotions - are ours, but our spirits belong to God. 1 Corinthians 6:20 reinforces, “For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23: May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus.”

Some people are off the chain spiritually and are overweight physically. That is an imbalance and causes you to operate spiritually and be extremely exhausted after praying and laying hands on others. For so long, Christians (I am totally guilty of it myself) lose sleep, eat unhealthy carb-filled, greasy, fatty foods, get little to no exercise, don’t drink enough fluids like water, are overweight, and put anything in our bodies, going to bed late and waking up early, eating too late at night, and going to bed right after we eat. It has been in the last few years

Continued on p. 32

Healthy Spirit, Healthy Life

Continued from p. 31

that Christians have figured out that we must take care of the temple that houses the spirit of God in order to go forth in our daily tasks: praying, fasting, and going forth physically in ministry to serve others, but not putting the proper natural fuels in our bodies - i.e. cooking, cleaning, working at our secular jobs - and wondering why God won’t heal us from being tired physically and having diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. Romans 12:1 says, “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our reasonable service.” That means that we have to present our bodies to God not just trying to be sinless, but also taking care of it so that it can last long enough to do His will. I would hear folks say, “You can exercise, eat right, drink all the water you want and die by getting hit by a bus or something!” That can happen, but at least you die trying to do what is right.

“God wants us to prosper and be in good health, even as our soul prospers” (3 John 1: 2).

Oh, we have it going on - fasting, praying, laying hands on the sick, cell groups, choirrehearsals, Bible studies, Prayer Meetings, Praise Dancing, studying and reading the Holy Bible,and the list goes on - but we lack taking care of the only one body we will ever have.

All of this starts with discipline. If we can discipline ourselves enough to exercise - or read the word of God, eat right and fast, or pray and drink water - we can have a made-up mind to live a healthy life by making good choices. We must have a balance in and with all things. God gave us all free-will to do as we please, but just know that there are consequences for every decision we make - Godly or ungodly, healthy or unhealthy. The decision is yours!

Continued on p. 33

Healthy Spirit, Healthy Life

Continued from p. 32

God’s word says that, “He wishes above all things that we may prosper, be in health even as our souls prosper” (3 John 2). You see, the spiritual and the natural go hand in hand. God also wants us to be in good health, even as our soul prospers. If we are not healthy our body dies, but our spirit lives on.

If we are healthy spiritually, we will be healthy naturally by trusting in God, His grace, and His mercy - knowing that He loves us unconditionally, obeying Him, living to please Him, going to Him not just for what we need and want, but to worship Him in spirit and in truth,knowing that He truly has our backs, thanking Him, and being thankful for the big and the small things, even when we are sad or happy, in the good times and the bad times, considering Him at all times - not just going to Him when we need help, but considering Him daily in and for every decision that we need to make, big or small, in all our ways acknowledging Him - and He shall direct our paths.

It is healthy living to put God first and consider Him, most of all loving God in spite of what wego through or how we feel.

God’s word is full of scriptures concerning your spirit and body, health and wealth, having a prosperous life or the life of a pauper, heaven or hell, life and death, etc. God also gives us a choice. Choose you this day how you will serve God. Will it be with a healthy life and healthy spirit or an unhealthy life and broken-down spirit?

Continued on p. 34

Healthy Spirit, Healthy Life

Continued from p. 33

I borrowed this quote from the website entitled A Deeper Word: Going Beyond Surface Christianity: “What is a healthy soul? A healthy soul has: A strong mind: A mind that is renewed to think right and make good choices. A surrendered will: A will that says no to its own stubborn way and says yes to God’s will. Stable emotions: Steady emotions in good and bad times” (Reish).

Prayer: Father, in the name of Jesus I ask you to lead us and guide us to what can make us healthy and keep us healthy in every area of our lives. Protect us from the harmful things that are detrimental to our health both physically and spiritually. Help us to speak life and not death because we know that, “death and life are in the power of the tongue.” So, help us to speak life. Help us to speak out and be respectful of His name. Let us know how to by leading us and guiding us through your word to live a healthy lifestyle. Lord, help us to trust you with those areas of our lives and in every area of our lives. Help us to trust and depend on you, even when we feel like we don’t need anyone else because there are times when we feel like we don’t need anyone and sometimes we act as if we don’t need you also! Help us to know that we are helpers of one another and that we need each other. Help us to put our needs and others’ needs before you daily and not forget where we came from physically and spiritually.

Reish, Jim and Janene Reish. “A Healthy Soul.” A Deeper Word: Going Beyond Surface Christianity.https://www.jimandjanean.com/home/2021/5/17/a-healthy-soul. 17 May 2021.

Tanelia Johnson-Evans, licensed minister and aspiring author, is on a mission to help others live their best life. With the joy of the Lord as her strength, she encourages people with her inspiring words. This former Special Needs Para- Educator wears many hats, but the most important hat she wears is being a mother to her daughter, Amahna Joy Evans.