This is the Truth Network.
The thief comes to kill and destroy. I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly. Bodies in Christ. It is time for Kingdom Health Transformation with Mike James. Good afternoon.
Good afternoon out there in the light land. This is Mike James with Bodies in Christ, a Kingdom Health Transformation. Lately, we have been talking about the Healthy Church Challenge, and this is good because I'm getting a lot of feedback.
People are chiming in. So we're looking to set up these churches. We want to try to start, you know, the first 10 at the same time. So if you're interested in participating or your church or you know someone, you have a contact at your church that you can let them know that, hey, look, you know, I think we should take this challenge to move towards Kingdom Health.
Just text me at 336-638-1007. That's 336-638-1007 and just put in Healthy Church Challenge or your name information, what church, and we will get back in touch with you. So today we're continuing what we started in our previous episode. Last week, we talked about temperance was one of the fruit of the Spirit that we kind of paused on last week. And I want to go back into that some because it's a big part of your health journey, which we call food discipline, right? That's one of the main keys to moving forward in health, Kingdom Health, any of those areas of wellness that you are seeking, it is going to take some food discipline. And I know sometimes when you hear food discipline and even the word discipline itself, sometimes there's a connotation that, you know, something punitive is about to happen.
But that's not what we're talking about here. Food discipline will actually free you up to just be at peace with food. And I remember from one of my classes, one of the classes a few months back, as a matter of fact, two students said this after class, this was months after class, one of them said it in class, was that at the first time in a long time, or maybe the first time ever, they really felt at peace with food. And that was huge just to hear that because food should be, you know, should be a source of peace. It should be a source of not something that we're battling with or have contention with or where there's any negative emotions associated with food and eating. And to do that, that's why I believe food discipline is so important. Now, we all know the scripture and this is why food discipline is important. And it's not as hard as it may seem, because when you hear the word discipline as well, a lot of times you may think willpower, you know, I have to really lock in.
I have to really focus and use my willpower because I'm trying to do something that's hard for me to do. And that's what people may think when it comes to food discipline. When I even say that, it sounds like you're going to maybe not be able to do something that you want to do, eat something that you want to eat, be restricted in some kind of way. But that's not necessarily what I mean by food discipline.
And this is how it gets easier to exercise food discipline. One of the things we talked about in the earlier episodes was that you have to have a vision for your health, right? You have a vision for almost everything else in your life. A lot of times we don't even know we have a vision for different things. We are constantly imagining things all day long. Everything we do, pretty much we see it in our minds first. We create an image of where we want to eat this evening, what we're going to do after work, what we're going to do at work, who we're going to talk to, different conversations that we're going to have. Almost all of us play those things in our minds before we ever do them.
A conversation that we're going to have with somebody, we rehearse that in our minds, we think about what we're going to say. All the time, we're using imagination to do that. Now, I'm using the word imagination, but also that's what vision is. Vision is imagination.
Vision is imagining an outcome or imagining a destination, right? So when I talk about food discipline and why it may be difficult, or we may think it's difficult, but this is what makes it a little easier. Is that having a vision for your health, a vision for what you'd like for your health to be, a vision for where you're going with your health, and not just letting health or the lack of health happen to you. We have to be intentional.
We have to be intentional. So now, if you're listening in your car, listening at home, listening at work, listening at church, I've done this before, but I want you to, even while we're on the radio broadcast, I want you to think about your perfect health. Think about your health in a way that, okay, no matter what your age is right now, but if you think about, okay, if I was in my best health, what I can believe to be, what would that look like? Just think about it. Just imagine it. What would you feel like? What kind of things would you be doing?
Because some of us, because of where we are health-wise, we may not do some things that we would do if we were in that space that we're imagining. Man, I would be doing something different. I'd be going different places. Hey, I may roller skate again.
I may haven't done that in 30, 40 years. But you know what? If I was in the health that I see for myself now in this vision, yeah, I can imagine myself roller skating, walking, being in a walkathon, maybe even running in a marathon, you know, whatever, whatever, whatever comes to mind, right? It's your vision. It's your imagination. And that's the beautiful thing about what God gave us. The one of the one of the best gifts God gave us was when he said he created man, going back to Genesis, he created man and he created it, created man in his own image. So now, of course, image also, you know, it comes from the same root as imagination. So he created man first in his imagination, now in his own image.
So now he gave man the same, maybe not the exact same capacity, but a very similar capacity to create through his imagination. So now getting back to food discipline and how this all ties into imagination, how it all ties into vision and how food discipline becomes easier. And one of the things about food discipline, it's in line with the scripture from Galatians, when the word talks about the fruit of the spirit. With self-control being one of those fruits or temperance.
So that's what we're going to call on as we're walking into. Food discipline is self-control is temperance. And there's a reason for that. Is because once we exercise some food discipline. We're basically able to eat pretty much whatever we want. Because one, we're in control. Of the food instead of the food being in control of us. So now we're going to take back that control and tell you exactly how to take back that control.
And I'm not saying it's easy, but when you think about it, it really makes sense to take control. And when I talk about food disciplines, there's a few different things, different areas of food discipline that you can exercise. One is what you eat, of course. Another is how much you eat. Another is when you eat.
Right. And then also. Already said how much we eat, when you eat.
And also. Just just being mindful again, I like to talk more about what you what you do versus what you don't do. But a part of food discipline also is what you don't eat.
So, yes, so we're going to get into some of those because. That's going to open up the door and the window to how to exercise. In this food discipline, how to put that into your life. Because that's the key now.
What you eat. Talk about this the other week. And this is what I'm I'm giving I'm giving every listener out there right now. I'm going to give you a challenge for the week.
Right. And some of you can text me or whatever at the number three three six six three eight one zero zero seven. You can text me next week and let me know how you did with your food discipline this particular week. So I'm gonna give you a challenge to exercise some food discipline this week. First, I talk about what you eat.
Right. So now this is what I want everyone listening out there to do for this week only. We're going to start with this.
I want you to be intentional this week. About eating an apple a day. OK. Just make sure you eat an apple a day. I mean, you do that for seven days. Seven days. Right. Seven days. I want you to eat an apple a day.
Yep. Go to the store. Buy you a bag of apples. You know, if you can go somewhere and get some organic apples, that's good. You know, because, again, some of the pesticides and stuff make you know, I don't I don't really like ingesting those.
But even if you don't buy organic because, you know, it may be a cost a little bit more. You know, just get you some baking soda and some water and just soak the apples for a little while. But the point is. An apple a day.
So we all heard this saying years ago we were growing up in school or whatever. Right. They said apple a day will do what?
I heard y'all answer. Keep the doctor away. That's right. An apple a day will keep the doctor away. And there's some truth to that.
There's some truth to that. There's some research around the benefits of eating an apple a day. So, again, food discipline, we're talking about things you are to eat. I'm going to suggest you eat during this week. I want you to add an apple a day.
Right. The other thing I want you to do is make sure you're hydrated for this one week. I want you to get those eight glasses of water. That's what they say you need for your body to be properly hydrated. That's going to help with digestion.
That's going to help with just your whole mental clarity and everything, because a lot of times people feel like they have something going on. And what the deal is, we're just dehydrated. See, because if you're drinking sodas and things like that, sodium has a lot of I mean, sodas have a lot of sodium in them. And so your body's going to retain fluids. And you're not going to be able to pass that fluid through as frequently. So now you end up in a in a place of dehydration. So this week, we want you to be properly hydrated and we want you to eat an apple a day. Right.
For seven days. I got some other challenges coming up to around food discipline, because these is just some small steps. And if we do these small steps, you know, we'll be able to do the bigger steps. So we're going to do this thing step by step.
We're going to come back in a couple of minutes and continue this. If you or your loved one are facing challenges of intellectual development of disabilities or mental health diagnosis, Choice Behavioral Health and Consultive Services understand and they're here for you. Crystal Nickerson, owner and director, has been called by God into the role of pastoral counseling. She believes that the right relationship with God can transform lives, fostering right relationships with one another. Call her today at 336-218-5176, where faith meets compassionate care. If you're in need of relaxation, rejuvenation, we'll look no further than gifted healing, massage and bodywork owned by Angierica Artist, a licensed massage therapist since twenty twenty one.
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Visit them and experience the difference. Call 336-373-8344 and online at CrawfordChiro.com. If you or your loved one are facing challenges of intellectual development of disabilities or mental health diagnosis, Choice Behavioral Health and Consultive Services understand and they're here for you. Crystal Nickerson, owner and director, has been called by God into the role of pastoral counseling. She believes that the right relationship with God can transform lives, fostering right relationships with one another. Call her today at 336-218-5176, where faith meets compassionate care. All right. All right.
We are back. And you're with Mike James with Bodies in Christ, a Kingdom Health Transformation. And we're still talking about the Healthy Church Challenge. So again, if you're out there, you're listening and you want your church to be a part of the Church, of the Healthy Church Challenge, just give me a text at 336-638-1007.
Again, that's 336-638-1007. And just put in the text Healthy Church Challenge or your name, church, you know, any pertinent information that you feel like we would need to know. And we'll get some information out to you. So right now we're talking about food discipline.
And how do you exercise food discipline? And so I was given a challenge to the listening audience out there for this upcoming week. And it's one of those things that we've heard, a saying we've heard all of our lives. And the challenge, the first challenge was for everybody listening that's willing to participate. And just again, next week, text me and let me know, hey, I did the I did the challenge for the week.
I'm just going to give you three things, right? One is I want you to eat an apple a day. An apple a day. Now, everybody out there listening, I don't I don't believe there's anyone out there that cannot eat an apple a day. Now, the question the question is, how many people will actually eat an apple a day? All of us can.
But how many will? And this just this is just an exercise in food discipline. Now, once you eat that apple a day for seven days, I want you to text me and just let me know how you feel about eating an apple a day for seven days. It's just one of those things where it lets you know you can actually control what you eat. You can decide to eat whatever it is.
This is just an example. An apple a day, something as simple as an apple a day, which it is healthy for you. You're going to get some additional fiber and some other flavanoids and things like that in your system that you may not normally get. I'm not saying you're going to feel, you know, different or anything like that. But the main thing you will know that you can control what you eat. Because you can just make a decision that this is what I'm going to eat. So, again, I want you all to eat an apple a day for seven days.
And just a text me, say, hey, my. I ate the seven day I ate an apple a day for seven days. And the other challenge was to be hydrated. Make sure you're getting eight glasses of water.
A day. And so water is important. So I want you to get water. Just get water in your system.
Eight glasses a day. Just be conscious. Be intentional about doing that.
Right. And so then the other thing. I want you to do because I said food discipline is a number of different things. What you eat, when you eat, how much you eat, and then also. What you're not eating, so I'm going to give you one of the not to eat this week. So this week, I want you to, as much as you can, every time you think of it, I want you to not eat super processed foods this week. She said, Mike, what a super processed foods.
The easy way to think about eating whole foods or foods that are not been to have not been through the process is by eating whole foods. Like when you eat chickens, it's chicken. You can see it's chicken, it's fish, it's shrimp. You know, all those things that are, you know, that are whole foods. The thing about process when you put the shrimp, the chicken, the fish in the grease that fries it and the breading that goes on it.
It really takes it through a process when you do that to it. So it is find some other way to eat it. Eat it sauteed, eat it grilled, eat it baked. You know, just eat it some different way other than fried. And then also the super processed foods are going to be most of your packaged foods that you get in the store. The potato chips, the cookies, the ice cream, you know, anything that's packaged that's not in its natural state.
OK, so that's going to include sodas as well, because, of course, that's probably not a natural drink. So that's the challenge for this week. Seven day challenge to the light land out there.
We're going to exercise some food discipline. And see, the reason I'm mentioning this, too, is I went over the whole vision and how important vision is. And also just, you know, where vision comes from, imagination. And see, the scripture says and everybody out there, you probably know this scripture. It says where there is no vision. The people do what they perish. Where there's no vision, the people perish.
But see, there's another translation that's more appropriate for what we're talking about. As it relates to food discipline is where there is no vision. The people will cast off restraint. There will be nothing there to restrain you. There will be no temperance. That fruit of the spirit that we talked about and see temperance is that thing that keeps you solid. Temperance is that thing that helps you to to just. To be self-controlled. To not be.
That's a good. Oh, that's a good word right there. To be self-controlled. Not to be controlled by your environment, not to be controlled by the commercials, not to be controlled by any of the outside forces.
Right. Whatever that vision is, we talked about, you know, getting a vision for where you want to be health wise and what that vision of yourself being the best in the best health you can be in or walking in Kingdom Health. Visualizing that and really, really seeing that. And then once you have that clear vision. That means you're operating temperance. You're operating temperance because you have a clear vision of where you're going or what you want your health to be.
So now food discipline discipline becomes a lot easier. Because you have a reason you have a vision. You have somewhere you're going. You have a destination that you feel like this is where I'm going.
This is where I have to get to. Speaking of destination, I'm a shout out one of our partners before we get out the air to because they have a destination for all the people in the community next week as Crawford Chiropractic Wellness Center. Of course, they've been serving the community for 27 years, helping patients recover from pain brought on by accidents. Their compassionate team is there to support you and your wellness journey.
You're not just a patient. Your family. Remember, Crawford Chiropractic Wellness Center. They have your back.
You can reach them at 336-373-8344. Speaking of destination, they have their. It's trunk or treat.
I have to think about it, right? They have their trunk or treat, right? Event going on next Thursday at their location in Greensboro.
So bring the family out. Have a good time. Thursday will be at the end of our week of eating non-processed foods and doing this food discipline challenge. So you might be able to eat a candy bar or something, right?
By that time. But listen, it's been great. I appreciate you all listening. And hey, again, that temperance, that self-control, that's the key to food discipline. And that will unlock a world of health for you. So until we meet again, I want you to always remember that the best is truly yet to come. God bless. Beloved, I wish above all things that you prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers. Join in every Thursday at 3.30 p.m. and Saturday at 9.30 a.m. for a Kingdom Health Transformation with Mike Jake on the light. This is the Truth Network.
