Welcome back, friends, to the Line of Fire broadcast in a happy 2025. I'm recording this still in 2024.
Wishing you a happy and blessed 2025. This is a season where I pulled back from public preaching and teaching and just spending extra time with the Lord, time in renewal, in my own heart and life. I started preaching in 1973 at the age of 18, so that was over 51 years ago. I started full-time vocational ministry in late 1983, so that is 41 years ago and never taken a sabbatical in my life.
Maybe the longest vacation was like two weeks. So the opportunity now to pull back, get extra time with the Lord is wonderful. Even in the midst of storms and trials, it's wonderful to pull back and really be with the Lord. So it's a great opportunity to do this.
These are broadcasts we pre-recorded with the goal of really ending the New Year, ending the old year well, starting the new year well. And instead of my normal teaching, we're taking you back into messages that I preached previously and now yesterday and today to a Q&A session from 2017 where I talk about breaking the stronghold of food. And these are questions one of the pastors is now asking questions that congregants have submitted. Again, I'm not a nutritionist, I'm not a medical doctor. My PhD is in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University, so I can tell you about ancient healing practices in the Bible or ancient Mesopotamia or Egypt or things like that, but I can't tell you about nutrition today. I'm not a medical doctor or a nutritionist or anything. So the questions are more on practical levels and hopefully they'll be a blessing to you as well.
So we finish off the Q&A session from 2017. And then she made these things instead of chocolate like brownies made from black beans, dates and cocoa that are totally healthy and they taste delicious. Once I got used to them, they taste delicious. I have like a little square one of those in a day or something like that. So I try not to snack in between because I was always a bad snacker and it's just a bad habit to have. So that's kind of the routine. But every day, again, I'm the kind of person that enjoys the same stuff every day. So every day having the salad, I look forward to it. Every day, if it's a smoothie or fruit, I look forward to it. And then if you have meat or something else, that's the small thing on the side. Instead of meat being a giant portion, that's the small thing on the side.
No flour, no dairy, no sugar, no salt. It's wonderful. Liberating.
But again, don't let me be the guy. The giant salad is the center point of every day. So a big, big salad should be your main meal every day. And you'll learn to love it over a period of time if you don't now. But everything else, there's a million recipes.
There's tons of different things, depending on how creative you want to be or if you don't want to cook or if you do want to cook. So with people that you've heard, because I know you've heard lots of testimonies and people writing in. So this question is about, is going cold turkey the only way to break a food addiction? And I'd love your input on that, but also maybe other stories that you've heard where you were able to just a cold turkey and shift. And have you heard any others that are, and then what would that plan be of kind of easing into?
What would you recommend if they couldn't do a cold turkey? Yeah. And again, I can make the error of thinking, Hey, God helped me do it. God can help everybody, but he helps everybody differently.
We have different personalities. So I just read an article the other day on how to break a sugar addiction. And basically it said that most people are not going to go cold turkey and the withdrawal symptoms and all the negative junk they're not going to want to go through. I still think it's best if you can, if you can just be in an environment where people help you, because if you can make it through, it may take two days.
It may take five or six days, but you will get through. And the whole time you're feeling miserable, just remind yourself that's bad stuff leaving my body. This is all poison leaving my body.
That's why I feel bad. But what, what this article recommended was just a gradual systematic cutting back. So let's say you have four cans of Coke a day that you, the first week you go to three cans, the second week, two cans, third week, one can, fourth week, half can, fifth week, nothing. Now I don't know if you go through withdrawal, not the way they described it. It seemed if you don't, you wouldn't, but to me, that's another kind of discipline that may even be harder for some, but if you can gradually wean yourself off of something great, the key thing is the more that you replace the bad with the good.
That's the key to getting free. If, if you will simply keep the bad there and try to bring more good in, it almost counteracts things. Like for example, you know, antibiotics and probiotics. I didn't realize that biotics were a good thing that, you know, that, that healthy biotics that, that this is a positive thing. I just thought antibiotics, that's biotics is some bad thing in your body.
That's why it's anti. Well, no, when you take an antibiotic, I had to take it for some ear infection last year. And you start to feel changes in your system because your whole system just works massively better. And that's because you have a healthy nutrition. So when you take antibiotics, you need to take probiotics to build the thing back up. In other words, you're doing some negative, you got to balance it with something positive and you don't get the full results.
Okay. So to the extent you totally get rid of the negative and replace it with positive, you'll get freer much quickly, but that's another way to do it. Gradually wean yourself, wean yourself, add in, add in, but then you've got to get to that point where there's 100% getting rid of the bad. Otherwise you'll constantly fall back and you won't experience the full benefits.
You know, that, that last five or 10% of the bad that you're hanging onto will stop you from experiencing the 100% benefits of eating health. It's amazing how deeply the change has come. If you have a close friend that's showing pre-diabetic symptoms, doesn't acknowledge any concerns, how do you approach them in a godly manner? And even over the years, did you, you know, and somebody did that, I don't know, you had your wife over these last several years, but kind of talk, walk us through that of how to do that effectively. Uh, yeah, well, it's like anything else where you know, a person is struggling.
This is, this is no different. Uh, you see they're having a problem with drinking or you see they're having a problem with their, their temper flaring up, or you, you see their, you know, something, other behavior that's destructive or negative. Basically what you do in that context is depends on how close the relationship is, how much ability you have to speak to them. For some it's just, Hey, I got to talk to you honestly, man, you're killing yourself. For others, you just really need to pray that they'll come to you. Pray that they'll get to that crisis point. Pray that, that they'll feel uncomfortable. Uh, and then when they come to you, you say, Hey, this will help.
For others, do you think it's life and death? I'm just going to risk it saying, Hey, would you read this book? Uh, you know, but look, I had, I got a call, uh, in January, I was at the publishers in Orlando doing a live Facebook event on multiple sites, a live Facebook video. And I did my radio show for two hours and we did interviews with folks about the book. And a guy called in from Virginia and, and he said, listen, I don't listen to this, this station.
I just happened upon it. He said, I know this is the Lord. And he said, I'm six foot four. I'm 310 pounds.
Everyone says I'm just big. He says, no, I'm killing myself. He said, I am tired.
My knees ache, my back aches, no motive. He just goes through. He's, he's crying on the phone saying I need help, man. And people said, no, you're fine.
You're this. He goes, no, I need help. So, you know, of course we sent him the book and he was at that breaking point. So I'm sure that Nancy crying out to God on my behalf was a big part. I know I was crying out, but certainly her praying made a big difference. So if you have the ability to approach them, you do it.
Uh, if, if not, then you pray that God will open a door that they'll come to you or that something will just happen. Years ago, uh, God had me quit drinking Diet Coke in late 1982, early 83, when I was doing more fasting that I had done. I realized that after I broke the fast, I still was headachy and weak until I had chocolate. So I realized, well, you're, you're, you're a chocoholic. You're addicted to sweets.
So I determined I would, I would quit having chocolate and sweets, which I did for certain periods of my life. So I was, I was sitting at a restaurant with a friend and he said, if you're off sugar, why are you having Coke? Why are you drinking Coke? I said, I'm not drinking Coke for sugar. He says, well, why are you drinking it then?
It's I said, okay, I guess I should get rid of it. So I thought, just switch to Diet Coke to get rid of the sugar contact. And I was, I got addicted to Diet Coke and just addictive kind of personality, but I would drink it a lot. I'd find myself craving for it.
If I couldn't get it on an overseas flight or something and physically craving it. And, and people, people would say to me, Mike, you really shouldn't drink that. And I say, why? And they said, well, you know, it affects your memory, your brain.
And they'd look at me and thought, well, you know, maybe not. So anyway, three different things happen, three different things all within two weeks, someone told me, oh, you got to watch this video. It's this health doctor. He's talking about this stuff. And he makes this big fuss about Diet Coke and what's in it.
Like, that's interesting. And then I go speak at a church. I'd been there many times.
And every church, when you go, they want to cater to you. They want to know, you know, do you like water in your room? Is there a certain snack? Did you have any needs?
And, you know, they want to be hospitable. So we had the same list as always, you know, pretzels and chocolate and Diet Coke in the room, right? And I get there and there's pretzels and there's chocolate, but there's Arizona green tea.
What in the world? So I saw the lady, Pauline, the hospitality lady. I said, hey, what's with the green tea in my room? She goes, Dr. Brown, I just couldn't get you Diet Coke. It's just so bad for you. I couldn't get it. It's like, you got to be kidding me.
Arizona green tea in my room. And then a third thing happened. I forget what it was.
And I thought, okay, God, you're getting my attention. So I'm done with this. And it was fine.
No withdrawal, zero. It just was good. So God helped me, but I'm sure people were praying. Yeah. All right.
We've got a quick break and then we will be right back to finish off the Q&A session. May it be a blessing to you. Are you tired of feeling rundown, constantly battling colds, flu and infections? Trivita's Elderberry with Zinc and Vitamin C is here to give your immune system the boost it needs. Trivita's Elderberry Zinc and Vitamin C supplement is a three-in-one capsule scientifically formulated to support your immune system naturally. Elderberries have been cherished for centuries for their wellness benefits. And now Trivita has harnessed the immune system supporting power in every bottle of Trivita's Elderberry enhanced with Zinc and Vitamin C to help you fight off colds, flu and infections. Now is the time to boost your immune system and the immune systems of those you love with Trivita's three-in-one Elderberry Zinc and Vitamin C supplement today. To order Elderberry with Zinc and Vitamin C for yourself, order today and use promo code BROWN25 to receive 25% off your order.
As a new customer, 100% of the proceeds from your first order will go to support the Line of Fire radio broadcasts. So call now 1-800-771-5584. 1-800-771-5584. 1-800-771-5584.
Or online at T-R-I-V-I-T-A. Trivita.com. Shout out of appreciation as always to our co-sponsor Trivita and to each of you who stand with us.
Let us finish off the Q&A session now. Are you at your ideal weight now? Actually, I'm about maybe five pounds over. I got down to my ideal weight. I put a little muscle on. But then Nancy and I were talking that I should take off a few pounds. I just feel not out of some vain thing. But one thing happens though, just get used to it. If you've been overweight all your life and you lose weight, you're going to have a little excess skin. That's life. So I'm sure if I didn't have that, I'd be at the ideal weight. But yeah, I think probably just having a few extra nuts here and there over the course of the day or a little snack here and there over the course of weeks builds up a little. But I'm real, real close.
I basically stayed within five pounds or so for my ideal weight since I hit it. And it's easy to stay here. That's good. Do you find it easier to, we just got a couple more here. Yeah. Do you find it easier to fast as you've been living a healthier lifestyle? Yeah.
Actually, it's interesting. It's easy for me to go without certain foods or just without food if the need arises. But because my whole lifestyle is one of this constant discipline, it feels, not in a deprived way, but like a constant fast. You know when people say I'm having no meats, no sweets. You know, I'm doing a Daniel fast. It's pretty much how I live 24-7. So there's the 100% discipline every day in my diet. And then if for whatever reason I have to skip foods or a meal or can't have something, it's much, much easier. I'm sure most of the struggles I had in fasting before were because of my addictions. Well, how do you carry your food around with you?
Ah, all right. What's the secret? The secret is an extra piece of luggage. So this trip, I just packed everything in one.
But normally, let's say I'm going overseas. So what I do is I take, for each day I'm going to be there, I take one box of beans, which is a cup and a half of beans, and I have this little strainer I travel with. It's a plastic thing.
You push it open, strain, and then you close it up. So it's like a little portable strainer. Someone just got me portable plates to travel with.
Yeah, just because they're in Israel with me. And just like renewable silverware kind of thing, just the plastic to take. But anyway, so I take a box of beans for each day. Then I measure out what I'm going to have for nuts and seeds. Just throw those in some bags and seal those.
And then whatever the stuff I have instead of chocolate, if it's some, you know, whatever the things are, these healthy things, have those for each day. And then the key part is the frozen stuff. So I have just a thermal container.
It's like this. It just fits in a piece of luggage. And I'll put an ice thing in there to keep it cold. And then some of the soups, the super healthy soups or the super healthy veggie burgers, I'll put them in there.
And then that can last 30 hours. So most places I'm going overseas, I get there within 30 hours, or at least I get to a hotel where I can put them in a refrigerator. So wherever we go, people know I need a refrigerator to refrigerate the stuff. And then we just ask the folks once we get there to please have fruits and vegetables and things like that, and to know that that's what I'm going to ask to eat. And they can take me wherever I want. I'll get a salad virtually anywhere. And then I'll take certain salad dressings with me, store-bought, because that's the only way we can travel with them.
Store-bought, I'll put those in. And interestingly, going to Singapore, my first trip about two weeks into this, it was like a 10-day trip. And we were packing everything. We didn't have the process down then. So the only way to do it was I had to carry one extra piece of luggage with me, and I had to pay $250 to do it.
I know many don't have that to do, but I thought, for healthy living, for life transformation, it's worth it. That's the only time I ever had to pay, otherwise we work it in within our allotted luggage. And because I fly so much, that's not a problem. But you've got to plan it out.
Plan it out. And then I always thank God for the healthy stuff, because the soups, that kind of soup, every cauliflower in it, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, stuff you gag on. Now it's like, oh, this is good.
It's amazing. Nancy came up with this one soup called Kitchen Sink, and it's literally, the menu is literally a page this long. Every imaginable healthy thing, you could put all the mushrooms and this and that. When she makes it, the whole kitchen is filled as she's making it. And then she'll make enough for like 30 servings, and then I have to cook again for a couple of months. And again, I would have gladly fasted it.
I would have gladly eaten dry stale bread rather than touch that. Now I eat it. It's like, this is amazing. And I'm thinking, I'm investing in life.
I'm investing in health and thanking God for it. It's crazy. It's awesome.
It's like April Fool's crazy. So the last one right here, and then we want you just to pray for us. Yeah. You mentioned your workout regime and pretty intense.
Yeah. They want to know how long it'll take for you to get Pastor Ron and you guys to do like a dual video workout regime. We want to see it. We want to see, actually the drummer back there, Evan, you know, he's into this CrossFit.
Insanity, I think is what he was saying. And he was given a little challenge back there earlier. Is he still here? I told him you'd take him on like tonight before we went back to the hotel. Deal. Deal. All right. We'll have a little friendly contest. Yeah, yeah. No, I got just the exercise to do. We'll do it before we leave.
But pray for us. Yeah. So the one thing exercise is important, but diet is much more important.
Okay. So don't say I'll exercise more because I worked out heavily before and I was heavy in high blood pressure and all of that. Yeah. So I worked out like this before.
I know they say it's like 80% diet, 20% as far as the real impact of health. Yeah. You know, if my trainer always used to say abs are made in the kitchen and I just think, okay, I can exercise more and that's going to make up for the chocolate or the pizza or this or that. It's like, no, it doesn't.
So if, you know, eat healthy first and then you'll have more energy to exercise. All right. Well, let's, let's pray.
Yeah. Lord, we love you. And Lord, this is the most unlikely scenario that I'm the one talking about healthy living and healthy, healthy lifestyle and weight loss. It's, it's absolutely your grace. And if you did it for me, you could do it for anybody here. So I'm just asking you for an infusion of supernatural grace and for everyone that takes the time to read the book, may they never be the same. And for those who cry out to you and go back home tonight and say, God, I'm an addict.
I need help. Help them the same way you helped us when you saved us and delivered us from sin and bondage. May Jesus be glorified through lifestyle transformation.
We ask it in his name. Amen. Amen.
Let's give Dr. Brandt a big hand. Thank you. God bless you. All right. Well, we ended the year, started the new year talking about Breaking the Stronghold of the Food.
The book that Nancy and I wrote on that subject by that title, Breaking the Stronghold of the Food, Michael Brown with Nancy Brown, I believe will be a blessing to you. The publisher told me, the head of the publishing company said, Mike, I have to admit, I kept skipping ahead to Nancy's part because hers was an italic because that was the best part. I said, yeah, her words are always the best. Her words are always the number one contribution for sure.
Absolutely for sure. But we pray that book will be a blessing to you. And I want to take you back to probably Nancy's favorite part of the book, which was my weakest moment. It was about three weeks into changing my lifestyle. So I got rid of all the unhealthy things I had eaten pretty much my whole life, you know, the sweets, chocolates, the breads.
And then at a certain point in life, the pizza, the pasta, and the fried foods. And I went through three miserable days of withdrawal and set free physically. Now I had to emotionally change.
I had to change my mindset. I realized that food was my reward. Wherever I'd minister, where I'd preach all day and I'd go back to my hotel, I can eat what I want.
Writing all night, I can snack. Food was my reward. So I had to change my lifestyle. No, no, food is the fuel for a healthy life.
Healthy life is a reward. Yeah, yeah, I got it. I got it. So now I'm living differently. Everything's feeling different. Good, good. I'm three weeks in and I got home from doing radio, took a short nap, and then had to go teach at a night class with our school of ministry that was still in operation.
And now it's just, it's online, fireschoolofministry.com for those interested. But it was, you know, class I was on my way to teach. I woke up from the nap and I really had a desire for sweets. I wanted something sweet. And I thought, okay, sweets, that's, there's a healthy sweets, like fruits. Okay, just have some fruit.
Good, good. It's a healthy sweet tooth. But somehow we had no fruit in the house. I mean, now we're always properly stocked, but I was just getting used to the new lifestyle with Nancy and I didn't have any fruit.
So I thought, okay, I can stop. Now I don't have time to stop at the grocery store because I got to get to the class. I thought maybe a gas station convenience store. Maybe they've got, well, who goes to a convenience store at a gas station looking for fruit? I finally find this juice. Nancy said, don't have these juices. There's all these sugars. I thought, well, this is naked juice.
Maybe it doesn't have so much bad stuff in it. So I get, I'm drinking the juice and I'm about to go to the class. Literally, I'm sitting in my car outside the class. And I thought, I can't, I can't take the rest of my life. I'm never gonna have a slice of pizza. The rest of my life I'm never gonna have a scoop of chocolate ice cream.
This is my life. I'm never gonna have a burger and fries. I can't take this. It's too much.
I'm gonna have to find fruit somewhere. And I literally start crying in my car like a baby. Say, Lord, I can't.
I can't. Some of you relate. It's like, yeah, I've been there. And I, in my mind's eye, I saw myself looking down, laughing at me as I'm crying, thinking this is just what you need. You need to come to the end of yourself.
And that's what was happening. You come to the end of yourself. I can't. I can't. And when you do, you come to the beginning of God's grace. His grace is sufficient.
His power is made perfect in weakness. Maybe that's where you start. I can't. I can't. I can't. I need my food.
I want my food. And maybe you begin to recognize God's power can be made perfect in your weakness. He's carried me and I'm thriving and it's beautiful and it's easy and it's ten plus years.
But it wasn't always so. Blessings to you. This is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks so much for tuning in. Just a reminder that we are listener support.
