Thanksgiving celebration was meant by our founding fathers in the USA, to be a time for us to give thanks to God for the freedom of worship, that we do have as a nation. But some have turned it into an opportunity to be eating without making any discretion.
It has become the opportunity for them to find an excuse for overeating and putting on some weights. And as the holiday season comes to an end towards the new year, they will make all kinds of new year resolutions to shed off those extra pounds of weight in their bodies.
Unfortunately, many don’t normally adhere to their new year resolutions, as their unhealthy eating habits becomes an addiction in their lives. Some people who do have preexisting health complications will often get worse with their health situation during this time of the year. Others will begin to struggle due to their new addictions with food and drinks.
Statistics across the USA reveals that more people often die of drunk driving during this season of the year.
But thanksgiving itself was never designed by our founding fathers to be an opportunity to revel at the table. It was meant to be a day for us to show our gratitude to the Almighty God, for His goodness towards us as a nation that worships the One and only true and living God.
The Lord once declared to the Israelites while they were still in the wilderness:
“I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you – life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.””
Deuteronomy 30:19-20 NKJV
For us as the heirs to the blessing of Abraham by the blood of Jesus Christ, these very words are so relevant today. God Almighty is our life and the length of our days on the earth. He has given us good life to enjoy. You do have a reason to be thankful to God for the breath of life that you do have.
However, the Lord is the life and the length of our days, for as long as the choices that we are making daily, are in line with His perfect will in His word for us. We are faced daily with choices in our lives, which determines whether or not we will live in good health, or in sicknesses and diseases all the days of our lives.
We can choose life over death based on what we are eating and drinking during this holiday season. These choices may seem so trivial sometimes, but they do carry with them consequences that affects our eternity with God.
A few years ago, the Lord was dealing with me personally about what I was eating. Yes, I had a personal encounter with the Lord about food. And some of the things that He asked me and taught me at the time, has prompted me to share them as a blessing to you.
It will be selfish to have learnt such things directly from the Lord, and just keep them to myself. I do believe that many lives can be saved through what the Lord had told me about what I was eating. The destinies of others and the nations will be secured, if only God’s people are paying attention to His voice.
I do remember that as the Lord dealt with me about various foods and spices, I was able to share my personal encounter with some other Ministers of the gospel, who had encountered the same thing from the Lord. It’s amazing how the Lord can show the same thing to several of His children, at the same time in different countries of the world.
This shows how the foods that we are consuming daily has the ability to impact, the extent of His Kingdom through our lives on the earth. The Lord knows exactly what the devil is doing with unhealthy foods, so as to hinder the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth, through the ones who had been entrusted to spread it.
You ought to get wiser and smarter by paying attention to what you are eating and drinking. What you are eating and drinking daily goes a long way to determine how long you will live on the earth. It determines whether or not your life on the earth will be a blessing to others, or whether you will be enduring under the curse of sicknesses and diseases, until physical death finally comes to the body.
Someone may be wondering if the Lord really cares about the food that we are eating? But based on my own personal encounter with Him, I can say categorically that He does care. But there are those who however may be thinking that He does not. You do have the right to hold on to your personal opinion about this.
However, do you know that the devil also cares about the food that you are eating? He does not want you to be eating healthy foods at all. And in fact, he had been using food as his weapon of destruction on the earth from the time of Adam and Eve, when he used it to tempt them in sinning against the Lord God (Genesis 3).
Many great men and women of God have died because they never paid attention, to the voice of the Lord to them about the food that they were eating. And even right now there are many wonderful Christians on hospital beds, who are sick because of their bad eating habits.
You don’t ever want to be included in that statistic. You can save yourself a trip to the hospital bed, by beginning to pay attention to the types of food that you are eating every day. Those little bites of unhealthy foods that you are tasting daily, has a way of affecting your overall physical health. And during this holiday season be watchful and careful about tasting foods.
It took me some months to be able to finally stop the devil on his path, to prevent me from putting into practice the things, which the Lord had revealed to me about his tactics with foods. And during those times I encountered several activities of the devil with his tricks, lies and numerous deceptions in his attempt to stop me, from walking in the reality of what the Lord had showed me.
That was why I became more than determined to share about this, because the devil hates the truth from being exposed to others.
The Lord showed me how the devil has been using food to hinder His people, from doing what they have been called to do on the earth, with the declaration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He had indeed succeeded in slowing down certain people of God from standing strong in their callings. And others are still struggling to come out of his trap with food.
Life can be a blessing for us to enjoy, and it can also become a curse to be endured based on our choices of foods.
The bottom line is that if the devil can’t get you to sin against God with sexual sins, materialism or financial temptations; he will use the same old weapon that he had used successfully against Adam and Eve, in his attempt to stop you from fulfilling the call of God over your life.
One thing is certain that we can prolong the number of our days on the earth, if we can make a strong and quality decision to stay away from, many of the delicacies of the world around us.
We do live in a world that is polluted with all kinds of food, that can do serious harm to our physical bodies. Food can restore you back to good health, but it can also make you weak and sick.
Beware of trying out those new delicacies.
There are many experiments with food that are going on right now, among those in the culinary business world. Even the so-called diet experts are constantly doing the same thing. They are all working together to introduce new food products into the market, with the aim of improving your health. And you may be surprised to find out that the same food products which are meant, to improve your health can also make you sick.
These food experts do have a sincere heart to help in fighting sicknesses and diseases, with their experimental products. But the devil is also secretly working behind the scenes, to pollute their works by making people sick as they are eating them.
That’s why you need God to help you in this important matter, especially during this holiday season so as to be on the lookout for those new food products that are coming out into the market. It’s not all the things which glitters that’s really golden.
Some of the experimental food products are healthy, while others are just another way of making people to be consuming the same unhealthy food products. That’s why it’s important for us as the people of God, to constantly be learning how to pick and choose our diets, by the Spirit of the God who lives within us.
The ability of a believer in Christ to walk in God’s wisdom concerning the choices about food, will translate into good health and prosperity for him. Your renewed mind must get realigned to the voice of the Holy Spirit in your life, so as to be able to walk faithfully in this reality.
And if you are not constantly renewing your mind with the word of God; you do have an uphill battle ahead of you. The devil will fight against the revelation of this truth in your life. He is furious about seeing you eating healthy diets. He does not want you to share your revealed truth with anyone else.
Satan is constantly manipulating the culinary industry with all kinds of crazy ideas, that can kill people slowly with the little bites of snacks that they are eating.
Your mouth can cause you to sin against God with what you are saying every day, but eating unhealthy foods will poison your body and kill you slowly, without you even realizing what you are doing to yourself. It can bring the body down to the grave in a subtle and unsuspecting manner. Beware!
The devil is a master genius at food poisoning. He does it slowly and in a way that you won’t even suspect. You may see certain foods as being okay for you to be eating, especially when you are hungry. The tendency is however there for you to be eating anything, to stop the hunger in your stomach. But without realizing it, the devil is actually targeting your health with what you are eating.
The first temptations in both the Old and New Testaments are with food. The serpent used food to cause the fall of the first human beings (Genesis 3). And the first temptation of Jesus in the wilderness was about turning stones into bread (Matthew 4:3-4). The same old tactic is still working for the devil today.
Satan doesn’t care if you are filled with the Holy Spirit or not. He will tempt you with food anyway. He knows how to make your stomach to become hungry for food, even when you are not really hungry. And he can be very aggressive about it also, especially if you are the person who listens more to the voice of your flesh instead of your spirit man.
You can pray and bless the food before eating it; but it’s not going to change the devil. The devil can never change from his evil ways. He will do everything subtly to manipulate you, so as to deceive you about trying all the food in the world around you. And there are many who are falling for his deceptions with food every day.
Don’t get “mass minded” about food.
There are people in the world today who are suffering from being “mass minded”, about everything around them. These are the people who do think that Preachers and their Church members are stupid and foolish. They think Christians are not smart at all. But these same people will do everything possible to satisfy their desires for the pleasures of this world, without any restraint on their part.
The Apostle Peter warned us about mass minded people in 2 Peter 2:12-22. The distinguishing features of their behavior in our world today, as it pertains to food are in these verses:
“And (they) will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices and are accursed children…. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.””
II Peter 2:13-14, 22 NKJV
It’s important to note here the use of the words “to carouse and carousing” by the Apostle Peter. It’s in direct reference to the attitude of these people among God’s people with regards to eating food and drinking.
The same words can be substituted with “to revel or reveling”. By implication these words do suggest letting oneself loose around food and drinks. It means to lose control of yourself when it comes to eating and drinking.
There are people who can’t control themselves when it comes to food and drinks. Evidently the people mentioned here by Peter were not different from what I will describe today as “party animals”. They will go anywhere for the foods and the drinks that will kill them.
As Peter said above, they are like the swine or the dog, that goes back to eat what has been vomited. As soon as they get discharged from the hospital because of their bad eating and drinking habits, they will go back to eating and drinking the same things that got them sick. That’s the dog’s or swine’s mentality in the mass minded people.
In fact, these people will go to Church for that very purpose. These are the types of people who are more concerned about socializing around foods and drinks in Churches. They care more about the food for their stomach, than about the word of God. They will attend every social gathering in the Church, but they will never come for the Bible studies.
These ones see “carousing” as the same thing as fellowshipping in the Church. But the Bible tells us about what fellowshipping in the early Church was like:
“Every believer was faithfully devoted to following the teachings of the apostles. Their hearts were mutually linked to one another, sharing communion and coming together regularly for prayer.”
Acts 2:42 TPT
And the Apostle John described it in this way:
“What we have seen and heard we also proclaim to you, so that you too may have fellowship [as partners] with us. And indeed, our fellowship [which is a distinguishing mark of born-again believers] is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. We are writing these things to you so that our joy [in seeing you included] may be made complete [by having you share in the joy of salvation].”
1 John 1:3-4 AMP
Also:
“If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness [of sin], we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we [really] walk in the Light [that is, live each and every day in conformity with the precepts of God], as He Himself is in the Light, we have [true, unbroken] fellowship with one another [He with us, and we with Him], and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin [by erasing the stain of sin, keeping us cleansed from sin in all its forms and manifestations].”
1 John 1:6-7 AMP
Our fellowship is always meant to be around the word of God and prayer. But the devil has substituted it with carousing among the mass minded people within the Body of Christ.
Biblical fellowshipping is meant to make the mutual joy of those participating in it full and complete, but the mass minded people have substituted joy with “carousing” at the table.
There is nothing wrong with Christians eating together. But our fellowshipping together is not supposed to be around food, but His word (spiritual food) with the aim of fulfilling our joy – see Matthew 4:4.
And during this thanksgiving celebration make it a point of duty to others, by showing gratitude to the Lord for the life that you are enjoying, while giving Him thanks during such fellowships.
Testify about how the Lord had protected, saved, healed and delivered you. Let others know about how Jesus healed you and saved you from death. These are ways you can give thanks during thanksgiving celebration with others.
Jesus warned us about “carousing” in connection with the end times when He said:
““Be careful that you never allow your hearts to grow cold. Be careful that you are not caught off guard, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and the worries of this life, and that day will come upon you suddenly like a trap. Don’t let me come and find you drunk or living carelessly like everyone else.”
Luke 21:34 TPT
These are the very words of Jesus about the unhealthy attitude of certain Christians towards food and drunkenness at the end times. The devil uses carousing around foods and drinks to kill the fire of God in the heart of such Christians. This is what he is still doing today.
If you are not focused on taking the gospel of Jesus Christ to the end of the earth, you are probably “living carelessly like everyone else” in the unsaved world. You are not different from the “mass minded people” within and outside of the Body of Christ. The fire of God is dwindling in your life.
Many of these “mass minded people” are Christians who are constantly compromising their faith, to satisfy the demands of the world around them. And there are indeed some unsuspecting nice Christians who are following them with this worldview, especially with regards to food and whatever they are getting drunk with.
Many of them are sick and dying because of their bad eating habits. But they don’t really care. They do like the food that is making them sick and killing them, because their “mass mind” is telling them that it’s okay, for as long as their crowd approves of it.
Unfortunately, there is no way to change the “mass mind” thinking in these people. That’s why the Apostle Peter warned us to be separated from them. They are on assignment from the devil to kill the fire of God in your life as a committed Christian.
One can only be praying for them in the spirit while loving them. Any attempt to move closer in fellowship with them will pollute your faith. And you however can save yourself from their “mass mindedness”, by not following them along their line of thinking concerning food and drinks
A “mass minded man” can’t stand for any principle in life, most especially the biblical principles. So, he will easily cower to the pressures from the world around him, including the pressures concerning eating the foods, that are harmful to his health.
The “mass minded” person thinks around his eating habit within the popular opinion of the world in which he lives.
If your thought patterns are always consumed with the delicacies of this world, Satan will use those very thoughts to afflict your physical body with the sickness, that comes by eating those unhealthy foods.
Before any sickness takes hold of the human body, the enemy will first attack the mind, by making you to ignore the initial symptoms of the sickness. He does not want you to be paying attention to the initial symptoms of the disease, that is caused by bad eating and drinking habits.
That’s why it’s important not to be giving room to the devil in our (thoughts) or minds (Ephesians 4:27).
There are different types of foods all over the world today. Some of them are healthy and others are not. The foods that you are eating may be different in nature from, what are openly available in other places.
You have to learn by the Spirit of the Lord about what you are supposed to be eating, because the Lord wants you to live longer serving Him on the earth.
Eat healthy to live long.
Have you ever noticed that the Lord will often deliver people from drunkenness, but not from drinking? He will deliver people from overeating or gluttony, but not from eating food in itself. God will never deliver you from eating food, but He will help you in abstaining from unhealthy food habits.
He however needs your cooperation with Him on this matter. He wants you to live long on the earth with the declaration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Are you prepared to work with Him on this issue?
You will have to be separated from your physical body before you can eventually, get yourself delivered from eating food in itself. You need healthy food for the healing, and the restoration of your body to good health.
But eating unhealthy foods will kill you slowly and undetected. It can also be a huge hindrance to the healing process of your body, if you are sick right now. Flee from them. Jesus wants to heal you from that sickness, but you must be resolute about making the changes in your diets.
What this comes down to for us as Christians is about our individual food diet management. You need the Spirit of God and your renewed mind to be working together, in discerning what is healthy and what is unhealthy for your body.
The most knowledgeable expert in the world concerning food does not know as much about food, as the God who lives in you. This means that you alone hold the key to your own physical healing, and the restoration of your body to good health.
This means that you have to be watchful as you are praying in the Holy Spirit about the food that you are eating.
The world around you are full of all kinds of lies and deceptions when it comes to food. You need God’s Spirit to help you and to deliver you from them.
That’s why the scriptures advised us:
“So, live the rest of your earthly life no longer concerned with human desires but consumed with what brings pleasure to God. For you have already spent enough time doing what unbelievers love to do—living in debauchery, sensuality, partying, drunkenness, wild drinking parties, and the worship of demons. They marvel that you no longer rush to join them in the excesses of their corrupt lifestyles, and so they vilify you.”
1 Peter 4:2-4 TPT
Before you were born again you would probably eat, drink and breathe anything in the world, because the world around you do those same things. Some people had even unknowingly eaten foods that had been offered to demons, as sacrifices in this manner. They do such things in the ignorance of their hearts.
But now that your life is hidden in Christ Jesus, those things will have to go away, so that the Spirit of Jesus may be manifested through you more and more.
Food does not bring us closer to the Lord, but His word does. That’s why Jesus told the devil in response to the temptation:
“…It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’””
Matthew 4:4 NKJV
Be safe. Protect your spirit, soul and body from the temptation with the unhealthy foods that are everywhere around you during this holiday season. Live healthy, stay strong by keeping your body active daily.
Remember that Jesus suffered and died for you to be healed and to stay healthy in your physical body, while serving Him on the earth in spreading His glory.
And that’s what you were born for – to destroy the works of the devil everywhere you go (1 John 3:8).
Make the decision today to separate yourself from eating unhealthy foods and get yourself on the road to living a very long life on the earth, while preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in the demonstration of the power of His Kingdom (Psalms 91:16).
