There are many Christians who are dying daily, just because of their inability to do the right things, so as to stay healthy and not get sick. These are good Christians who have become negligent about keeping an eye on what they are eating every day.
God is not only interested in your spiritual life. He is interested in your spirit, soul and body. He wants your total man to be irreproachable by the devil (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
He is concerned about what you are eating and how you are eating. He wants you to eat well and live longer on the earth doing His will. He is seeking for more Christians who are prepared to sacrifice their bad eating habits, so as to live longer on the earth for His Kingdom.
He said:
“Dear friend, I hope all is well with you and that you are as healthy in body as you are strong in spirit.”
3 John 1:2 NLT
Many are dying daily just because of the lust in their flesh for unhealthy foods. The unhealthy desires within them for certain foodstuffs is worsening their health, thereby making them sick in fulfilling the call of the Lord for their lives.
It’s interesting to note that many of them do acknowledge the right things for them to be doing, so as to change from their bad eating habits. But despite such acknowledgement they still continue to crave for those unhealthy foods. They can’t break away from eating unhealthy foods.
The devil kills a lot of Christians these days by giving them a lustful desire to be eating foodstuffs, that will worsen their health and eventually kill them.
Are you prepared to live longer on the earth serving the Lord? If your answer is – “yes”; then it’s a good thing to start paying careful attention to the desires in your life for certain foodstuffs.
God created the physical body to be nourished by eating healthy foodstuffs. He did not give us the physical body to be misused and abused with unhealthy foods.
We are the caretakers before God of our own physical bodies. God lives in our physical bodies. Your body is the Temple of God, who dwells in you. You should be a good steward of caring for it, because God lives in you. As the Apostle Paul said:
“Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.”
I Corinthians 3:16-17 NKJV
God longs to manifest Himself through your physical body, to those who do not yet know Him. Your body is the Temple of God’s Holy Spirit, who lives in you. You have to be a better and good steward of God’s Temple – whose you are.
Just because something tastes good and delicious doesn’t necessarily means, that it’s healthy and good for the physical body. It’s true that God created all animals, plants and seeds as food for us to enjoy (Genesis 1:29-30).
But just because certain things are good for one person, doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s good for everyone else. One man’s food can be another man’s poison that will destroy his life.
The scriptures declare that:
“For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him.”
Romans 14:2-3 NKJV
It’s not a thing of honor and glory to God to be seeing gifted and talented children of God dying, because they can’t take care of what goes through their mouths.
Do you know that many Christians are dying before the time, that the Lord gave them to live on this earth, just because they are addicted to certain unhealthy food items?
What they are eating is making them sicker daily, in fulfilling the call of God over their lives. They get tired so easily in doing the will of God in their physical bodies. In their hearts they want to do much more for the Lord, but their physical bodies keep telling them that they can’t.
Many of them do know about this, but they will just not break away from their unhealthy eating habits.
They used to be stronger and very energetic for the Lord before. But now their physical energy has dwindled. It has affected their spiritual growth as well, because they can’t pray more effectively as they used to do before. They can’t do what they used to do for the Lord ten or twenty years ago, just because of their unhealthy eating habits.
Will it not be a good testimony for every child of God, to be able to do exploits for the Lord, as Caleb did in his old age.
Caleb never waned in his physical body and strength. He was stronger at the age of eighty-five, ready to go out and fight for the Lord, just as he was at the age of forty. He said to Joshua with whom he had spied out the promised land from the wilderness (Numbers 13 and 14):
“And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, as He said, these forty-five years, ever since the LORD spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness; and now, here I am this day, eighty-five years old. As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in.”
Joshua 14:10-11 NKJV
What a great testimony of God’s faithfulness from this man of faith. At the age of eighty-five he was not thinking about retirement. He was planning to go out and win more battles for the Lord. Will it not be a good thing for every messenger of the Lord God on earth today, to be able to live like Caleb at that age?
We are involved in a spiritual warfare that had been won already by Jesus Christ against the devil. We will need to be able to stand firmly in this victory, declaring and affirming the Lordship of Christ Jesus.
What you are eating may be affecting your effectiveness, to stand strong against the devil with your declarations and affirmation of victory in Christ Jesus.
This has nothing to do with smoking or alcohol consumptions, even though these are also as bad for the body just as unhealthy foodstuffs. We often do see alcoholism and smoking as bad habits, that should never be tolerated among Christians.
But what of the foods that certain Christians are eating, which are endangering their health? Yet when they get sick, they are always asking the Church to pray for them. And no one among their fellow Christian brothers and sisters is even advising them, about changing the bad eating habits that’s making them sick.
Jesus will heal the sick. But of what good is it if the same person keeps getting sick of the same ailment. And no one is compassionate enough to talk to that sick person, about changing what he or she is eating, so as to stay healthy after being healed.
Some of these Christians have developed a craving for unhealthy foods from their childhood. And now as they are aging their physical body is telling them to stop eating those things, which they can’t seem to be breaking away from. Their bad eating habit is slowing them down and gradually destroying their physical body.
Unfortunately, some are not listening to the Lord and their medical doctors at all about this. They are killing themselves slowly every day because of their own foolishness. Your physical body does not need certain things as you are aging.
There are things you used to do as a little child which you don’t do anymore, because you have grown up to become an adult. As the Apostle Paul said:
“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”
I Corinthians 13:11 NKJV
When you were a child, you used to eat certain things, which are now endangering your health as an adult. It’s time to do as Paul did as an adult – “but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”
What of the foods that you used to eat from childhood? Are you paying attention to be sure that, they are not what’s making you sicker to quickly obey God?
A baby will feed on milk for the growth and development of the baby’s body after birth. After a while that baby will begin to learn how to eat solid foods. And as the baby grows into adulthood there will come a time, when the body of the person will start telling him or her to stop eating certain things also.
The Lord had kept Caleb stronger and healthier so as to be able to do greater exploits, because he had learnt to obey God’s commandments; including the commandments that pertains to eating certain foods.
Do you know that Caleb actually outlived Joshua in the promised land? He was the last person to die of those who had traveled from Egypt into the Promised land.
The Lord prolonged his life so that he could be able to do greater exploits for Him among the Israelites. He conquered many lands and nations in various battles for Israel.
Before the Judges emerged in Israel Caleb had become a mentor, to the younger generations coming after him. His lifestyle of faith had affected the course of Israel’s history.
Caleb had kept a close eye on his physical body. His body was never for the things that others were doing around him. And he knew better not to be eating the foods that, God had commanded them not to be eating through Moses. This was the secret to his long life.
The longest living man on the earth was Methuselah (see Genesis 5:21-27). Many rabbinical teachings have pointed out that, Methuselah was always particular about what was going on around him. He kept himself pure from the evil world that surrounded him.
Even though he was a great hunter, but there were certain things that he would never eat, which he had seen people around him craving for.
If you’re planning to live longer on the earth so as to serve the Lord in a healthy body, until the second coming of Jesus Christ; you’d better be paying attention to what you are eating.
It’s godly and medically advisable to be eating foodstuffs, not just because they taste good and delicious; but because they are healthy for your physical body.
What you’re eating doesn’t need to be making you weak or sleepy after eating them. They should be restoring your strength and energizing you, so that you can be more productive for the Lord.
The types of food that you are eating has a way of affecting, your level of productivity in the things of God’s Kingdom.
When the Lord tells you to do something, you want to be sure that you are always ready to obey Him. If your body is making you feel weaker in obeying the Lord; then your productivity level is diminished. God wants to do more for you, but you are not really helping yourself in obeying God.
Then you will begin to wonder why you are no more getting the results in your prayer life, that you used to have before. You are fasting and praying with no results, because the craving for those unhealthy foods is still part of your life.
And there is really nothing that God is able to do about, your personal will and desires concerning what you are eating. He wants to help you, but you are not helping yourself.
God does not have the power to change what you are doing to your body. You are the person in charge of your own body. You obviously can say “no”, to certain eating habits so as to prolong your life on the earth.
You don’t have to be a glutton.
King David mentioned something about certain people eating unhealthily in Psalms 107. It’s still unclear if he was referring to the men of war who were with him, or the children of Israel in general at a particular time in history.
There had been some suggestions that he was referring to the Jews during the Babylonian captivity. But David unfortunately could not had been referring to that time when he wrote this Psalm, since he was not even alive to had witnessed the captivity itself.
Whosoever he might had been referring to must had been eating foolishly; to the extent that their desires for those foodstuffs, had started making them sicker and weaker.
We do know however that there were certain things, that the Lord forbade the Israelites from eating (see Leviticus 11).
In a world today where there is so much talk about fats in food which can cause sicknesses; we can see that these people who were referred to below by David, were doing the same foolish things that is so common in our world today.
David said concerning them:
“Fools, because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, were afflicted. Their soul abhorred all manner of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, And He saved them out of their distresses.”
Psalms 107:17-19 NKJV
The Passion Translation says it like this:
“Some of us were such fools, bringing on ourselves sorrow and suffering all because of our sins. Sick and feeble, unable to stand the sight of food, we drew near to the gates of death. Then we cried out, “Lord, help us! Rescue us!” And he did!”
Psalms 107:17-19 TPT
And the New Living Translation says:
“Some were fools; they rebelled and suffered for their sins. They couldn’t stand the thought of food, and they were knocking on death’s door. “Lord, help!” they cried in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress.”
Psalms 107:17-19 NLT
This group of people were fools for not paying attention to the commandments of God. According to these scripture texts the very thought of food or the sight of it, ignited the fire in them for eating, what they were not supposed to be eating.
They could not resist the temptation for certain delicacies. They became sick as a result of their bad eating habits or eating disorder.
But the compassion of the Lord rescued them, as they prayed and cried out to Him for deliverance from their destruction.
The Lord God delivered them by sending His word to them for healing and deliverance. We don’t know if His word came through a Prophet, or through the move of the Holy Spirit reminding them about the commandment of God concerning eating bad foods.
But the scripture says:
“He sent His word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions.”
Psalms 107:20 NKJV
The devil is using the bad eating habits of a lot of Christians these days, to take their lives away before the time allotted to them by the Lord. They are falling sick of their own doing.
The enemy is putting the desire in them for the foodstuffs, that probably tastes good and delicious; with the intention of getting them sicker and weaker for the Lord.
And when you become sicker and weaker like this, it will eventually affect the exercise of your spiritual authority over the devil.
We should not forget that in the Old Testament there were certain animals that were forbidden to be eaten by the Israelites.
This was for a reason. God has chosen and called out the nation of Israel for Himself, as His nation of priests. This has never changed. And it’s because of this calling to serve Him, that they had been prohibited from eating these animals.
Holiness in serving the Lord demands our separation from certain things, that the Holy God does not like, because they will affect our effectiveness to willingly obey God.
As the people of God, we have been called unto holiness (1 Peter 2:9-10).
God wants us to be able to serve Him with a healthy body, and not with a sick or weak body. He does not want you to be sick to the extent that, you are bringing reproach to His name, before those who are sick in the world.
That’s why it’s important to pay attention to what you are eating daily. You have many years ahead of you to serve the Lord. God doesn’t want you to come back home before your time.
Live longer to serve the Lord in a healthy body. You don’t need the food that is always making you weak and sick. It’s going to get you to the grave before your time. Cut off those bad eating habits now before it’s too late!
You may say that it’s the food of your own people’s culture. But if it keeps bringing you to the bed of sickness, I would like to advise you as a Christian brother; that it’s time to let it go away.
You’d better look for something healthier for yourself to be eating. You are now in Christ’s Kingdom. There is nothing cultural to you anymore than being in Christ Jesus. You now have the culture of Jesus to protect and express within you. That’s who you really are!
Jesus during His life on the earth was used to eating bread and fish. He was eating healthy, even though there were a lot of beef eaters in Israel at that time around Him.
Jesus was therefore able to travel long distances without hindering Himself physically. He was able to spend more time with the Father in prayer, because He kept a close eye on what was going through His mouth.
On one occasion there were three disciples with Him who were sleeping, while He was praying at the garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:40-46).
We do know from the scriptures that they had just finished eating the last supper with Him. They had eaten a lot than was necessary for their physical body, to the extent that they could not pray, when Jesus needed them to be praying along with Him. Yes, what you are eating can affect your degree of productivity for the things of God.
The Prophet Elijah ate beef and bread for three and a half years by the brook of Cherith (1 Kings 17:2-6).
Do you know that after he left the brook, he had much more strength to outrun the horses and chariots of King Ahab (1 Kings 18:46).
He was faster in running because he had been feeding on the food, that God fed him with at the brook.
You are not different from either Elijah or Jesus (Who lives in you) on the earth today. And as a friend brother in Christ Jesus, I want to encourage you to keep an eye on your diet.
There are still many exploits ahead of us together for the Lord. Do not allow what you are eating to deprive you of your crown of glory before the Lord.
There are still many nations, tribes and peoples that has not yet heard the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We must take the gospel of Jesus Christ to them all.
Get yourself ready! God has many things in front of you. Put your body in good health by watching your eating habits. You have a race to win in front of you. You must not fail to run it to the end in a healthy body!
That’s why we must be eating healthier, in order to live longer – serving the Lord.
Then as the Lord has promised you:
“With long life I will satisfy him,
And show him My salvation.”
Psalm 91:16 NKJV
There are greater things ahead of you apart from food. Don’t be like Esau who sold his birthright because of food. You are much more valuable to God than the food that you’re eating.
So, start eating healthier today, so as to live longer serving the Lord on the earth.
