divineinsight:BY HUMPHREY MTANDWA
The challenge with our spiritual state or shape, unlike the human body, is that we cannot see clearly if we are overweight or out of shape. Exercise helps maintain the ideal weight or lose excess fat because when one engages in physical activity they burn calories. The Bible encourages us to exercise in 1 Timothy 4:8, when it says: “For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”
Apostle Paul encourages believers to be involved in exercise and says it has little profit but speaks of an exercise that has greater fruit — that is exercising your spirit. Do you know how someone can be out of shape physically and restricted to do physical activities? So a person who is overweight spiritually also becomes subject to restrictions. Most people are not healthy spiritually so they do not have the capacity to resist the enemy. Because of this, they are forced to endure lives they do not want and at times go through struggles they should not go through. Paul said when one exercises themselves in godly principles, this will help them to live the kind of life God has promised them. He also said they will have rewards in this life and in the next life.
So when you pray or fast it does not help God, but helps you as an individual. The more capacity your spirit has, the greater potential it has to influence your outside world. Fasting alone without revelation of what you are doing is as good as a hunger strike. Why do you fast or even practice spiritual disciplines?
We practice spiritual disciplines because they build up our spirit and break through anything that can stop our spirit from fully expressing itself. One can be spiritually obese and spiritual obesity unlike physical obesity is more dangerous because our life is controlled or lived from the spirit. Your spiritual walk is personal and has nothing to do with how powerful your man of God is. You have to build yourself up and develop yourself personally.
The best way to burn out the fat or be healthy spiritually is to always practice spiritual disciplines. Fasting, reading the Word, worship, quiet times and prayer are some of the spiritual disciplines that allow a believer to have a healthy Christian walk.
In the natural an obese person is prone to have health challenges and a Christian who does not practice spiritual disciplines is unfit to claim a miracle. Because even if the miracle is released, they do not have the capacity to carry it until it is birthed.
Pastor Paul Adogamhe of Omega Fire Ministries Zimbabwe once said believers in our time can sleep on a line just for a chance to see a man of God but that same person cannot even tarry in prayer for an hour. It seems the church of our time has neglected the principles that develop strong healthy Christians. Believers are no longer able to pray or practice spiritual disciplines. Yes, waiting in the line is a sign of sacrifice, but that alone without a healthy spirit man will just push one in a position where they can receive the miracle or prophecy and not have the capacity to carry the miracle until it is birthed. Yes, one’s miracle or healing can be lost if one does not have the capacity. No matter how tall your father is, you have to do your own growing up, you have a responsibility to yourself as a believer.
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God bless you.
l Humphrey Mtandwa is an anointed minister of the gospel and teacher of the Word based in South Africa. He has written several books including The Enoch Generation, Truthfulness and Theophany. He blogs at mtandwa.blogspot.com and can be contacted via e-mail or WhatsApp on +27 610286350.
