These days I have been thinking about nutrition. I have been reading, watching videos, conferences, and speaking to my wife, who is a doctor, about this fascinating topic.  Health and wellness start with good nutrition, first, in the spirit, then the soul, and lastly, the body. We have a divine responsibility to care for our whole being. The whole chapter of Leviticus 11 was dedicated to the meats that we were allowed to eat and not eat, but look at the language God used as He finished speaking to Moses about these matters,

Do not defile yourselves by any of these creatures. Do not make yourselves unclean by means of them or be made unclean by them. ⁴⁴ I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves along the ground. ⁴⁵ I am the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy. ⁴⁶ “‘These are the regulations concerning animals, birds, every living thing that moves about in the water and every creature that moves along the ground. ⁴⁷ You must distinguish between the unclean and the clean, between living creatures that may be eaten and those that may not be eaten.’”

 Leviticus 11:43-47 (NIV)

In this portion of Scripture, we see the connection between nutrition and holiness. In First Thessalonians 5:23 the Apostle Paul tells us, “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (ESV) The word blameless here is the Greek word amémptōs; meaning, “faultlessly.”^[1] This means flawlessly, perfectly, etc. As you can see God’s standards are very high.

Spiritual Nutrition

To accomplish good spiritual nutrition, we need to embrace a lifestyle where spending time with God in prayer, the study of His Word, thanksgiving, praise, and worship is our daily priority.  Jesus points this out when He states, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4 (NIV) When Jesus taught the disciples how to pray, he established that we need his heavenly nutrition every day by stating “Give us today our daily bread.” Matthew 6:11 (NIV) The Apostle Paul also makes the connection with divine food when he tells the Corinthian Church, “I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.” First Corinthians 3:2 (NIV) Our health and wellness starts right here… with our spirit. 

If the spirit is not right it will show up in our soul (our mindset, our decision-making, and emotions) and, ultimately it will show up in our bodies. Obesity, at any level, has its roots in our innermost (Our spirit). As we saw in Leviticus 11; it is the connection between nutrition and holiness. The spirit is at the root of our being. 

Nutrition for Our Soul

On the other hand, when we don’t read, don’t study, but just bathe ourselves in social media and entertainment, we also malnourish our souls. The devil is doing a great job keeping us distracted, allowing others to tell us what to think, taking away debates, and logic, and taking away our freedom to question things; to push back, etc. 

Some folks blindly believe whatever the government, Hollywood, the media, or famous figures say. We are giving away original thoughts; we have become followers of everything popular. As I always say, if something is popular and accepted in the world there is a 99% possibility that it is against God. We forget that Satan is the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4) The intellectual energy of the world is satanic, it will always make its conclusions against God.

Physical Nutrition

Lastly, I want to speak about our physical nutrition a little longer because, in the Body of Christ, we seem to ignore this one. When it comes down to our physical nutrition, we must start by stating that we live in a great country. Some say that the USA is the best country in the world, however, the American Diet is a great contradiction to our greatness as a nation. We are suffering from an overload of processed food, an overload of sugar, and an overload of carbs. Let’s look at some statistics together,

• The U.S. spends more on health care as a share of the economy — nearly twice as much as the average OECDcountry — yet has the lowest life expectancy and highest suicide rates among the 11 nations.
• The U.S. has the highest chronic disease burden and an obesity rate that is two times higher than the OECD average.
• Americans had fewer physician visits than peers in most countries, which may be related to a low supply of physicians in the U.S.
• Americans use some expensive technologies, such as MRIs, and specialized procedures, such as hip replacements, more often than their peers.
• The U.S. outperforms its peers in terms of preventive measures — it has one of the highest rates of breast cancer screening among women ages 50 to 69 and the second-highest rate (after the U.K.) of flu vaccinations among people age 65 and older.
• Compared to peer nations, the U.S. has among the highest number of hospitalizations from preventable causes and the highest rate of avoidable deaths.^[2]

As you can see, these numbers are not so great; they surely injure our pride as Americans. We have a nutrition crisis, yet doctors have little to no nutritional training. They are programmed to diagnose and give medications, but to fix our lives we must allow God to fix our diet and give us his way of nutrition for the spirit, the soul, and the body. That’s the definition of wellness. Jesus healed 10 lepers, but only one experience wholeness.

And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, ¹⁶ And fell on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.¹⁷ And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? ¹⁸ There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.¹⁹ And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.

 Luke 17:15-19 (KJV)

The word Whole is the Greek Word sṓzō; meaning “Safe, delivered. To save, deliver, make whole, preserve safe from danger, loss, destruction.”^[3] Ten lepers experience physical healing from leprosy; however, only one was blessed with wholeness. Why was he blessed with wholeness? Because he connected his spirit with Jesus as He worship Him. Remember that worship flows out of our spirit (John 4) He also involved his soul as he decided to come to Jesus. Beloved, that is wholeness: God-given nutrition for our spirits, our souls, and our bodies! 

^[1] Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2000).

^[2] https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2020/jan/us-health-care-global-perspective-2019

^[3] Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2000).