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We're Livestream.
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All right.
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Okay, we are recording.
Ahem ahem ahem ahem.
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Today I'm starting my series on the nine pillars of health. The health and wellness arena can be a complex one. With all the access we have to information these days, especially with AI, it's easy to get overwhelmed. On this show, I want to help you navigate natural health. So I've developed a method that breaks things down into the essentials. God exists in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And we're created in that great image. We are spirit.
We have a mind and we live in a body. If we're going to address our health effectively, we've got to consider the whole person, not just our bodies, or worse yet, one body system the way a lot of medical professionals do. So in order to keep things as simple as possible, I identified three aspects within each part of who and what we are. There's three parts to a human being and there's three aspects to each part for a total of nine pillars of health.
Let's talk about it.
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Welcome to the Christian Healthy Lifestyle Podcast, where I help you navigate natural health so you can stay out of the doctor's office, age gracefully, and live a more purpose driven, abundant life. I'm your host, David Sandstrom. Today is the start of my series on the nine pillars of health. Now these nine pillars are the essentials to natural and holistic health. When I was learning to fly 46 years ago,
My instructor told me that in order to fly an airplane safely, there's a lot of things to consider. But if I paid attention to just three aspects of flying, that it'd go a long way toward maintaining my safety margin. Those three things were, aviate, navigate, and communicate. Aviate is, fly the airplane. Keep the shiny side up and the greasy side down. Navigate, know where you are, and know where you're going. Communicate.
Talk with air traffic control and other pilots when necessary. And sometimes in larger airplanes, it's the other crew members on board the airplane. Whether you're flying a two-seat Cessna, communicate. Talk with air traffic control and other pilots when necessary. Whether you're flying a two-seat Cessna on your first mile 50, whether you're flying a two-seat Cessna on your first 50-mile cross-country,
or you're flying a wide-body 300-seat airliner across the ocean, whether you're flying a two-seat Cessna on your first... Okay, I'm going to back up here.
Ahem.
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communicate, talk with air traffic control, and other pilots.
communicate, talk with air traffic control, and other pilots when necessary. Whether you're flying a two-seat Cessna on your first 50-mile cross-country, or you're flying a 300-seat wide-body airliner across the ocean, that principle still applies. In the same fashion, maintaining our health and wellness can be complex. But if we break it down into its essentials, we can go a long way toward building health margin and preventing chronic disease,
aging gracefully and living the abundant life. Genesis chapter 2 verse 7 says this, So there's three parts to a human being and three aspects to each part for a total of nine pillars of health.
For the spirit, it's all about loving relationships. Love for God, love for others, and the love we have for ourselves. For the mind, we want to be our own MVP. stands for mindset or mental toughness, that's the V is for victory or limiting beliefs. And P stands for practice emotional intelligence. For the body, the mnemonic is food, move, and snooze.
nutrition, movement, and sleep. So those are the areas we'll be covering over the next several episodes. But...
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So those are the areas we'll be covering over the next several episodes. So don't go anywhere, stay tuned. There's a lot of great content coming your way. I'm also lining up some great guests to share some of their wisdom with us as well. Since this is the start of the series, we're going to tackle pillar number one, love for God.
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Since this is the start of the series, in this episode we're going to tackle pillar number one, our love for God. Now, there's a lot of avenues we could go down here, but today I want to focus on the health benefits that are attached to being in a love relationship with God. And then I want to talk about what I believe is the biggest obstacle to people availing themselves to those benefits. The core of our being is spiritual, and it's the foundation of health and wholeness.
And if we ignore this part, it's like building our house on sinking sand. The end of Matthew chapter 7 is the wrap-up to Jesus teaching the Sermon on the Mount. It's the crescendo. It's the climax to the greatest sermon ever preached. In that sermon, Jesus isn't laying out more rules to follow. He's explaining the way things are. He's explaining how life works. And he wraps it up with an admonition to put his words into practice.
Let's pick it up in Matthew chapter 7, starting in verse 24 on down to the end of the chapter.
Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and slammed against that house. And yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them
will be like a foolish man who built this house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and slammed against that house, and it fell, and great was its fall." When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one having authority and not as their scribes. Of course, in this parable,
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Of course, in this passage, Jesus is the rock. He's the firm foundation. It's my contention that when we embrace a natural and holistic healthy lifestyle built on biblical principles, we build a firm foundation for health. In fact, the Bible teaches exactly that. In Proverbs chapter 4, verses 20 through 22, we see this.
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Do not let them depart from your sight. Keep them in the midst of your heart, for they are life to those who find them and health to all their body." So when we study the Word of God and keep those truths so close to our hearts that doing what God says becomes second nature, there is health benefits attached to that.
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Ahem.
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The health benefits are not what God owes us for being good little rulekeepers. They're the natural outcome to adjusting our lifestyles to be more in harmony with God's created order. We've all heard of the fruit of the Spirit.
We've all heard of the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians chapter 5, verses 22 and 23. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And just in case you never connected the dots, all of the fruit of the Spirit are health promoting. Let me say that again. All of the fruit of the Spirit promote health and wholeness. Let me give you a couple examples as to how this works.
I'm going to address the first three fruits, love, joy, and peace. Jesus taught in John chapter 15 verse 12, this is my commandment, that you love one another just as I have loved you. Love is not only an emotion, but it's also a product of our will. In the verse that I just quoted, Jesus is talking about agape love, which is love in action.
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In the verse that I just quoted, Jesus is talking about agape love, which is a selfless, serving style of love, which is love in action. The most famous definition of agape love is found in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verses 4 through 7. Notice that the Bible defines this love not by how it feels, but how it behaves. Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. In Greek, almost all of these descriptions are verbs, action words, and not adjectives or descriptive words. Agape love is in action.
Agape love is an action. Agape love is born out of our love relationship with God.
Acape love is an action. Acape love.
Agape love is an action, and that love is born out of our love relationship with God. Why does Jesus command us to love? Because it has massive implications for our physiology and the quality of our lives. When we experience love, our bodies produce oxytocin. Oxytocin is both a hormone and a neurotransmitter. It's the love hormone, or the cuddle chemical, if you will.
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Oxytocin is the ultimate biological multitasker. It manages our physical bodies and our emotional and social life all at once. It acts on the amygdala, which is the emotional center of the brain. It reduces stress and simultaneously promotes social bonding and trust. Now this far reaching implications for all our relationships, but not
So there's far-reaching implications for all our relationships, not just our love for God. Anyone that suffers with chronic anxiety or worry, and let's be honest, that's most of us, right? We can all use a little more love and the oxytocin it produces to help regulate our amygdala, the emotional center of our brains. Wouldn't that be nice? 1 John 4, 8 says, there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.
I'm going to have more to say on love and trust versus fear and selfishness in a little bit. But here I want to emphasize that more love leads to more oxytocin, and oxytocin produces physical, mental, emotional, and relational benefits. Let's take the next fruit of the spirit, joy. Now this is huge. Joy is a deep abiding happiness based on God, not our circumstances.
John chapter 15 verses 9 through 11 says this, as the father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
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I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. Why does Jesus want our joy to be complete? Because it's really good for our health and well-being. Joy helps regulate our autonomic nervous systems. As I've said many times in this show, we aren't designed to live with chronic stress. Stress activates our sympathetic nervous system or our fight-or-flight reflex. When our bodies are preparing for fight-or-flight,
heart rate increases, blood pressure rises, and non-urgent tasks like digestion, cellular repair, and detoxification all get reduced or postponed.
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The other side of the autonomic nervous system is the parasympathetic, which stimulates our body's rest and digest response. The parasympathetic system stimulates non-urgent tasks like detoxification and cellular pair renewal. When we're stressed or anxious, our adrenal glands flood our systems with cortisol and adrenaline.
When we're stressed or anxious, our adrenal glands flood our systems with cortisol and adrenaline, which are pro-inflammatory. Chronic stress raises blood pressure, disrupts and causes inflammation. Joy acts as the ultimate brake system on all that. It suppresses cortisol. It suppresses cortisol. It suppresses cortisol production and floods our nervous system with
feel-good neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins. Dopamine drives motivation and pleasure. Serotonin regulates mood, sleep, and digestion. And endorphins act as the body's natural painkillers. Joy provides cardiovascular protections as well. It promotes better sleep, and it boosts immune system function. yeah.
Experiencing joy on a regular basis is a crucial part of a healthy lifestyle. Now let's talk about the next fruit of the Spirit, peace. Peace is tranquility in the mind in the absence of mental conflict, and it has a profound impact on our mental and physical condition. Philippians chapter 4 verses 6 and 7 says this,
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Let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. More peace will reduce our risk of many chronic degenerative diseases.
When we experience internal peace through prayer, meditation, deep breathing, or simply mental stillness, the vagus nerve is stimulated in our bodies to release a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine. Acetylcholine promotes heart rate variability, or HRV. HRV is the variation in time between consecutive heartbeats. Now, it's counterintuitive here. It kind of sounds like we would want our heartbeat
on a regular rhythm, but it's actually the opposite is true. The more variation we have on that time in between heartbeats, the healthier we are. A high HRV is the premier marker of a resilient cardiovascular system and robust physical health.
Peace also reduces blood pressure. Blood vessels relax, reducing the workload on the heart, and drastically lowering the risk of stroke and arterial damage. Chronic low-grade inflammation is the root cause of many modern diseases, including arthritis, diabetes, heart disease, dementia, and a whole lot more.
Studies on mindfulness.
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Studies on mindfulness and states of deep peace show a down regulation of inflammatory genes. Essentially, mental peace acts as a natural anti-inflammatory calming the immune system so it stops attacking healthy tissue which has massive implications for autoimmune diseases. Peace also slows the aging process. At the ends of our chromosomes are protective caps called telomeres.
Telomeres act a lot like the plastic tips on shoelaces. Every time a cell divides, these telomeres get shorter. When they get too short, the cell dies or malfunctions, leading to aging and disease. Chronic anxiety and psychological unrest accelerate the shortening of telomeres. Conversely, psychological well-being and a peaceful mindset have been shown to maintain
and in some studies even increase the activity of telomerase. Conversely, physiological well-being and a peaceful mindset have been shown to maintain and in some studies even increase the activity of telomerase. Telomerase is an enzyme that repairs and lengthens the chromosomal caps. Mental peace quite literally slows down aging at a cellular level.
Peace is not a passive luxury. It is an active biological necessity. When we protect our peace, we're directly investing in lower blood pressure, a stronger immune system, less pain, and a longer life. And that's only the first three of the Fruit of the Spirit. And I can assure you, the rest of the fruit are powerfully held from...
And that's only the first three of the fruit of the spirit.
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And that's only the first three fruits of the fruit of the Spirit. I can assure you that the rest of the fruit are powerfully health promoting as well. The point I'm making here is a love relationship with God will by default promote more wholeness and more spiritual strength, mental emotional fortitude, and more physical vitality. We're not earning it by being good little boys and girls and following all the rules. We're simply aligning our lives with the way
Life is designed to operate. We're aligning our lives and putting it more.
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point I'm making here.
The point I'm making here is all the fruit are born out of our love relationship with God. And that love relationship will, by default, promote more wholeness, more spiritual strength.
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point I'm making here is a love relationship with God will by default promote more wholeness.
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point I'm making here is our love relationship with God will by default promote more wholeness and more wholeness means more spiritual strength, more mental-emotional fortitude, and more physical vitality. So the fruit of the Spirit are health promoting and we've got to understand we don't have to white-knuckle
So the fruit of this-
So the fruit of the Spirit are all health promoting. But we've got to understand, we don't have to white-knuckle our way into producing the fruit. We don't have to just simply target the fruit. We should be targeting our love relationship with God, and the fruit will naturally follow. The fruit of the Spirit are the natural outcome to a love relationship with God. They're the inevitable byproduct of that foundational love relationship with God. If something is healthy, it grows.
Our connectedness with God should be an ever-increasing one. It should be growing more more intimate as we learn more about God and strengthen our connectedness with Him. We tend to emulate our idols and we become like the object of our worship. That's why God tells us in the first two of the Ten Commandments to worship Him and Him alone, to have no other gods before Him, and to not worship idols. That means our connectedness with God
should be transforming us more and more into His likeness, more Christ-likeness. 2 Corinthians 3, 18, And we all, who with unfailed faces contemplate the Lord's glory, and being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. So, transformation is the goal, but this process doesn't happen without some effort on our parts.
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When our spirit is connected to God, the Holy Spirit, it's healthier. A healthy spirit will animate our minds in healthy ways, and a healthy mind will animate our brains in healthy ways, and the brain runs the body. Do you see how interconnected this all is? If you care about your health, we... If we care about our health, we can't afford to ignore our spiritual condition. If we care about our health,
we can't afford to ignore our spiritual condition, starting with our love for God. Now, here's an important point I need to make here. We don't enjoy any benefits by simply collecting knowledge. We've got to put that knowledge into action. At the top of the episode, I mentioned Matthew chapter 7, Jesus' wrap up to the Sermon on the Mount. He says,
And then he goes on to explain what happens if we fail to act on them. Our house crashes. And then he goes on to explain what happens if we fail to act on them. Our house crashes and falls. It's my contention that we maximize our health potential by aligning our lives more fully with God's natural design for spirit, mind, and body. That's building the foundation of health on the rock. When we do, our lives are more in harmony with God's created order
and that alignment or harmony produces benefits. The benefits are byproducts or side effects of our obedience. We see the same concept being taught in John chapter 8 verses 31 and 32. So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed in him, if you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free. The truth has power. Knowledge is power.
But notice Jesus prefaces the truth setting us free by continuing in His Word and becoming true disciples. A disciple is one who practices discipline and puts the Master's teaching into action. Knowledge alone is not enough. If we want to see any transformation, if we want to see any change, we've got to act on that knowledge because no knowledge and failure to act on that knowledge have the same result.
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Nothing. Let me repeat that. No knowledge and failure to act on knowledge have the same result. Nothing. The point I'm making here is being in a love relationship with God has far-reaching benefits attached, but that love relationship needs to be nurtured. It needs to grow. I believe that many Christians see praying the sinner's prayer and
getting saved as the final destination of their faith. They couldn't be further from the truth. Repenting from our sins and inviting Jesus into our hearts and choosing to follow Him is not the end of our faith journey. It's the beginning. I believe that lot of people get this wrong because the churches they attend are almost entirely focused on evangelism. For them, it's about adding numbers, not making disciples. Remember, the Great Commission says,
go and make disciples of all nations. The text doesn't say go and make converts and stop there. The admonition is to make disciples or true followers of Jesus. And there's a big difference. So let's talk about what actually happens to us when we're born again, when we enter into that love relationship with God and what the implications are for our spiritual maturity.
Ahem.
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you
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Ahem.
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God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the of Eden and gave them some pretty simple concise instructions. Rule over the earth, be fruitful and multiply, and stay away from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. That means for a period of time, they hadn't sinned. Now, know what we know about human nature. It probably wasn't a long period of time.
That means there was a period of time, probably a brief period of time, when they hadn't sinned. They walked with God in the cool of the day, which I interpret to mean in the morning, and their spirits were connected to God in a perfect harmony.
and their spirits were connected to God in perfect harmony with his Spirit.
and their spirits were connected to God in perfect harmony with His Spirit, and God's Spirit is based in truth, love, and trust. And then the enemy came along and convinced them that God actually wasn't trustworthy and they should take matters into their own hands. When they acted on Satan's deception, their spirits became corrupted and a shift took place. Their spirit morphed from one of truth, love, and trust into one based in lies,
fear, and selfishness. They became aware of their nakedness and engaged in self-protection or selfishness and sewed themselves loin coverings made of fig leaves and they hid in the bushes. Have you ever touched a fig leaf? It's pretty rough to the touch. like sandpaper almost. It's not the most comfortable thing I'd like to wear on my private parts. Nevertheless, this is the foolish behavior they engaged in and that motivated them
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Nevertheless, this is the foolish behavior they chose and
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And nevertheless, this is the foolish behavior they engaged in.
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And nevertheless, this is the foolish behavior they chose when their motivation shifted from love and trust to fear and selfishness or self-protection. Instead of trusting in God for all their needs, they took matters into their own hands and made a mess of things. Anyway, when God showed up for their first... Anyway, when God showed up for their morning walk in the garden, Adam wasn't there.
God of course knew what had happened, but for Adam's God said, Adam, where are you? Adam's reply, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked so I hid myself. So right then and there we see Adam acting not out of love and trust anymore, but out of fear and selfishness. All because he believed and acted on the lie. That lie was God isn't trustworthy. That act
corrupted his spirit and we've all inherited that corrupted spirit or our sin nature from him. Now this explains what we see going on in our world today. I don't have to tell you that we're not living in Eden anymore. When we take a look around, we see people acting out of fear and selfishness everywhere and it ain't pretty. We see broken relationships, divorce, we see abused children, we see murder, corruption, greed, theft. The list goes on and on and
But when we understand what happened back there in Eden, when that great shift took place with our spirits, it all starts to make sense. God breathed into Adam the breath of life. That breath of life is his spirit or animating energy.
God breathed into Adam the breath of life. That breath of life was Adam's spirit or his animating energy he received from God. It was based in truth and produced love and trust in Adam. There was only one breath of life.
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Now here's an important point. There was only one breath of life. Eve didn't get her own breath of life. She inherited Adam's. They would join together. God didn't form Eve from the dust of the ground like he did Adam. Eve was made from Adam's rib. There was only one breath of life, one spirit or one animating energy that got passed down to all mankind. And that spirit became corrupted with sin. So when Adam and Eve...
So when Adam and Eve had children, when they started being fruitful and multiplying, their children inherited their corrupted spirit. That's our sin nature. Psalm 51, 5.
That's what we see in some.
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That's what we see being described in Psalm chapter 51, verse 5.
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This passage is talking about that process of inheriting the corrupted spirit or the animating energy that we all got from Adam. When Jesus was born, he was fully God and fully man. He inherited Mary's sin nature, but he wasn't a slave to that nature because his father was the Holy Spirit. And through the power of the Holy Spirit, he resisted temptation and who the power...
And through the power of the Holy Spirit, he resisted temptation and never sinned. He was the one and only person to emerge victorious over sin. 1 Corinthians 15, verses 54 and 55 says this, This is how Jesus overcame sin and death. Yes, Jesus died on the cross, but
Death couldn't hold him. It was impossible for Jesus to remain dead becauseā€”
This is how Jesus overcame sin and death. Yes, Jesus died on the cross, but death couldn't hold him. It was impossible for Jesus to remain dead because he's the source of life. John chapter 1 verse 4, In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. John 14, Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me. John chapter 11 verse 25. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life, the one who believes in me will live even though they die. So through Adam, death reign through all mankind. But through Jesus' life, but through Jesus, life now reigns. Eternal life is now, but through Jesus,
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Now life reigns. Eternal life is possible now with the life, work, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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So through life...
So through Adam, death reigned through all mankind, but through Jesus, life, work, and resurrection.
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So through Adam, death reigned through all mankind. But through Jesus, his life, work, and resurrection, now life reigns.
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So through Adam, death reigned through all mankind. But through Jesus, through his life, work, death and resurrection...
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So through Adam, death reigned through all mankind. But through Jesus, his life, his work, his death and his resurrection, now life reigns through all mankind. Eternal life has been made possible. So Jesus, the source of life, was our trailblazer. Fully God and fully man, he overcame sin and death. Fully God and fully man, he overcame sin and death.
He conquered it so that we could follow him and follow in his footsteps and do the same. This is what it means that Jesus is the second Adam. Through Adam, reigned in the human race. Through Jesus Christ, life now reigns. Eternal life is now available to all who choose to believe.
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for if by the transgressions, Romans 5.17 says, for if by the transgressions.
Romans 5 17 says, For if by the transgression of the one death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness.
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Romans 5 17 says, for if by the transgression of the one death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15 45. The scripture tells us the first man, Adam, became a living... 1 Corinthians 15 45. The scripture tells us the...
In 1 Corinthians 15, verse 45, we see this, the scripture tells us the first man, Adam, became a living person, but the last Adam, that is Christ, is a life-giving spirit. So, Jesus told Nicodemus in John chapter 3 that in order to inherit
So Jesus told Nicodemus in John chapter 3 that in order to inherit eternal life, he must be born again, born once in the flesh and born again in the Spirit. And at that new birth, God gives us new hearts and a new spirit. Ezekiel's
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Now here's a really important point, don't miss this. At that new birth, God gives us new hearts and a new spirit. Ezekiel 36 26 says, Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, and I will remove your heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. We get a heart transplant. We get a new spirit, and that spirit is our God-given animating energy.
God replaces the old spirit, the animating energy that's been corrupted with fear and selfishness, and replaces it with a new, holy animating energy, a new heart, a new spirit of love and trust. That's why salvation is called a gift. It's like going to the car dealership and trading in our worthless, rusted out, worn out 20-year-old beater for a brand new shiny car off the showroom floor, and that car will never wear out.
That's what happens in the born-again experience. We have a new animating energy. Our spirit is no longer one based in lies, fear, and selfishness, but the new spirit, God's spirit, is based in truth, love, and trust. And our lives should start to reflect that new animating energy. To have a new spirit is to have a new and different... To have a new spirit is to have a new and different animating energy.
That's the real gospel message, and it's just breathtaking in its beauty. Many people can tell you the date and time that they receive salvation. They may not have understood all the implications, but they know a great shift is taking place inside of them. They can feel it. Sadly, for many people, and again, this is because some really weak teaching in lot of churches, they see the salvation experience as the end of their faith journey instead of the beginning.
And as a result, they never experience the transformation and the growth God desires to have for them. So when we're born again, we get a new spirit. And that animating energy should produce change. We should be transformed by it. But here's the trouble. Old habits don't go down without a fight. Many people are still living from habit patterns that were formed before they came to Christ. They're still living from the spirit of fear and selfishness.
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2 Timothy 1-7 says, for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. If we're living out of a spirit of fear, God didn't give it to us. We inherited it from Adam and Eve. And depending on our own individual life experiences, the actions we take to mitigate our fear and the choices we make to engage in self-protection will vary in intensity.
Now here's the point I want to make with this episode. Even though we've been born again, we still have old beliefs and old ways of thinking, speaking, and acting that were hardwired into our brains before we were saved. Those thinking patterns are born out of a spirit of fear and selfishness. The point here is we're all born with it, and it doesn't just disappear at salvation.
we all have a propensity towards sinful behavior. If we want to experience transformation and all the health benefits attached to that, our love for God needs to grow and we should be growing in our desire and our pursuit of righteousness. We've got to understand that God is in the transformation business. Yes, He demonstrated His incredible love for us on the cross, but He also loves us enough to not want to see us continue in our old behavior patterns
that are based in fear and selfishness.
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He doesn't want to see us creating more more elaborate fig leaves. In other words, he doesn't want to see us continue to engage in self-destructive behavior. He wants to set us free from all that.
In other words, He doesn't want to see us continue to engage in self-destructive behavior. He wants to set us free from all that. The transformation God wants for us takes place through our loving relationship with Him. We've got His Spirit living in our hearts. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Now, I know I sound like a broken record here, but that new heart and new spirit is one of love and trust.
if we've had a genuine salvation experience at a spiritual level that's already taken place.
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But we can have a genuine salvation experience and still be living out of thought patterns that were established before we came to Christ. Our love relationship with God needs to be nurtured. It needs to be watered and cultivated like a garden, and that takes the sensitivity to the Holy Spirit.
If not, most Christians have never been taught that they need to develop a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. We can hear from God as individuals. It is possible. Jesus said in John chapter 10, my sheep hear my voice. Now, I believe God can give us words and he often does. He can speak to our hearts, but the primary way we hear God's voice is through his written word.
I mean, but the primary way we hear God's voice is through His written Word. And remember, Jesus is the Word. Jesus said in John 6 56, He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. And the people within earshot of His voice said that He started grumbling and said, this guy is teaching cannibalism. Who can bear this teaching? Then in response to their grumbling,
Jesus says in verse 63 in the same chapter, Jesus is saying, you guys have got this all wrong. You're stuck in the physical. I'm using metaphor to illustrate a spiritual truth here. Jesus is the Word. In John chapter 1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was God.
We've got to read and study the Word of God and chew on it, swallow it, and let it become a part of us. That's where true spiritual growth takes
David Sandstrom (46:55.436)
Ahem.
David Sandstrom (46:59.85)
We've got to read and study the Word of God, chew on it, conjugate on it, and swallow it and let it become a part of us. We've got to move that from head knowledge down about 18 inches into heart knowledge. That's where true spiritual growth takes place, and that's where transformation takes place. Admonitions toward spiritual growth are all over the Bible.
David Sandstrom (47:27.948)
God's will is that we grow spiritually in our loving relationship with Him. Colossians chapter 3 verses 9 and 10 says,
David Sandstrom (47:55.213)
Colossians 3, verses 9 and 10 says, You have taken off your old self with its practices, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 2 Corinthians 3, 18, And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His image with ever increasing glory which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
this transformation starts in our minds. Romans 12.2 says, and do not be conformed to this world, be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. We've got to exercise our agency, our free will, and choose to be transformed.
The motivation for transportation starts with our new spirit of love and trust, but the software, if you will, for that transfer...
David Sandstrom (49:08.106)
The motivation for transformation starts with our new spirit of love and trust. But the software, if you will, for that transfer... Wow.
The motivation for transformation starts with our new spirit of love and trust, but the software for that transformation...
David Sandstrom (49:48.62)
The motivation for transformation starts with a new spirit of love and trust. But the software for that transformation, the way the machinery actually
David Sandstrom (50:04.842)
Motivation for transfer fee. Man, this is hard.
The motivation for transformation starts with our sp-
David Sandstrom (50:24.576)
Motormation, wow.
David Sandstrom (50:29.932)
The motivation for transformation starts with our new spirit of love and trust, but the software for that transformation resides in our minds. That's where the work takes place, is in our minds. I'll have more to say about our brains and our minds when we talk about pillar number four, mindset or mental toughness, later on in this series. For now, understand that we've got to underā€”for now, simply understand that we've got to expose ourselves to the Word of God.
and allow ourselves to be transformed by it.
David Sandstrom (51:32.013)
2 Timothy 3, 16, 17 says this, all scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man or woman of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. Some translations say thoroughly equipped for every good work. We've got to get off the spiritual milk and move on to the spiritual meat. The apostle Paul
The apostle Paul tells the Jewish people in Hebrews chapter 5, verses 12 and 14, he says this, Though by this time you ought to be teachers. You need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's Word all over again. You need milk, not solid food. Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food or meat is for the mature, who by constant use have the
who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. It's my contention that as we all embark in this series on the nine pillars of health, that we consider where we are in our faith journey. We should all, and this includes me, do some reflection on
David Sandstrom (52:56.256)
We should allā€”and this includes meā€”we should all do some reflection on, my love for God growing? What part of my life can I more completely surrender to God? That's what a love relationship with God looks like.
David Sandstrom (53:17.91)
Do I need to put on a little more humility and surrender something else to God that I've been holding on to? That takes a little self-introspection. It takes a little self-awareness to do. Now, that's what a love relationship with God looks like from my perspective. Now, I know that was a mouthful. Thank you for hanging in there to the end of this episode. I encourage you to contemplate and chew on these words.
Make these truths your own and put them into practice. The truth needs to be acted upon because no knowledge and failure to act on knowledge have the same result. Nothing. That's it for now. Thank you for listening. I appreciate you. I'll talk with you next time. Go out there and live abundantly. Be blessed.
David Sandstrom (54:08.928)
The truth needs to be acted upon because no knowledge and failure to act on knowledge have the same result, nothing. Okay, so next time we're going to be talking about love for one another. So in the next episode we're going to be talking about love for one another. It's going to be another great discussion. I can't wait to share it with you. So that's it for now.
Thank you for listening. I'll appreciate it.
So that's it for now. Thank you for listening. I appreciate you. I'll talk with you next time. So that's it for now. Thank you for listening. I appreciate you. I'll talk with you next time. Go out there and live abundantly and be blessed.
